III.

Alas! fuch foul dishonour stains

That, once, more gallant race: Deaf to fair Sifley's heavenly strains, Blind to her lovely face.

IV.

But Britons to fuch powers united,
More juft, more generous prove:
To rapture by her notes excited,
And by her charms to love.

21ft Nov. 1791.

ΤΟ

DAVID H*****Y, Esq.

ON

HIS INGENIOUS DISCOVERY

FOR THE

TEMPERING STEEL.

DAVID! who boasts, with true Vulcanian skill,
To make e'en steel obedient to thy will;
To every tool its trueft temper lend,
The foft to harden, or the brittle bend:-
See Chloe! when but fancied woe appears,
With infant foftness melting into tears.
But when her lover for compaffion fues,
Unmov'd the fuppliant fwain the fair one views:
E'en for her lap-dog tenderly she sighs,
And pities Pompey-while her lover dies.

Exert then, David, thy Promethean art, And give confiftent feelings to her heart; Compaffionate the torments that we feel, And temper Chloe-as you temper steel.

TASTE A-LA-MODE,

1791.

ΤΟ

THE HON. MR. N****.

WITH genius, wit, and learning blest,

Young N**th the tragick mufe addrefs'd.
He chose his fubject; sketch'd his plan;
And now triumphantly began.

"Ah! cries a friend, (who knew the Town)

"A tragedy will ne'er go down;

"These merry times like nothing serious,

"Ev'n Otway now begins to weary us.

"We talk of feelings; but you'll find
"They're feelings of a different kind:
"Even Shakespeare's felf, in this blest age,
"Difgufted, must desert the stage."

Well then, if folks don't love to cry, We now a comick scene will try—

Follies abound, and fure with ease
This merry town a bard may please.

"Alas! ev'n here, perhaps, my friend,
“You're not so sure to gain your end:
“You'll learn, I fear, fir, to your cost,
"Our tafte for comick humour's loft.
"We want fome sweet romantick tale,
"Or Congreve's fterling wit must fail.
If that's the cafe, quoth N****, by chance,
My tale would make a good romance.

"But, fir, without fome fprightly fong,
"You'll yet fee every thing go wrong:
"Duets and trios we must have,
"For nothing else your play will save,

Quoth N**** (perplex'd with all his wit,
The town's fantastick taste to hit)

'Zounds! here then, take a threefold piece,
Though quite unknown to Rome or Greece:
And, blame not me, ye criticks fage,
But mend the manners of the age:
Were they content with wholsome food,
I'd give them what is fresh and good;
But if with trash they will be cramm'd-
Let them and all their plays-be *d-mn'd!

In a theatrical sense. X. capplied in a commer seniz, can strictly mean no mon than lebb rwritin of condemning & is more, :properly pronouned espect Ladies, who are chaste inorthgraphy in

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