* Since worth, he cries, in these degenerate days Wants ev'n the cheap reward of empty praise ; In those curs'd walls, devote to vice and gain, Since unrewarded science toils in vain ; Since hope but sooths to double my distress, And every moment leaves my little less; While yet my steady steps no s staff sustains, And life still vig’rous revels in my

veins; Grant

me, kind Heaven, to find some happier place, Where honesty and sense are no disgrace; Some pleasing bank where verdant osiers play, Some peaceful vale with Nature's paintings gay; Where once the harass'd Briton found repose, And, safe in poverty, defy'd his foes; Some secret cell, ye Pow’rs, indulgent give,

live here, for has learn’d to live. Here let those reign, whom pensions can incite To vote a patriot black, a courtier white; Explain their country's dear-bought rights away, And plead for * pirates in the face of day; With slavish tenets taint our poison'd youth, And lend a lie the confidence of truth.

6 Let

With warbling eunuchs fill our * silenc'd stage,
And lull to servitude a thoughtless age.

Herocs, proceed! what bounds your pride shall hold?
What check restrain your thirst of pow'r and gold?
Behold rebellious virtue quite o’erthrown,
Behold our fame, our wealth our lives, your own.

To such, the plunder of a land is giv'n,
When publick crimes inflame the wrath of Heaven :

But what, my friend, what hope remains for me,
Who start at theft, and blush at perjury?
Who scarce forbear, tho' BRITAIN's court he sing,
To pluck a titled poet's borrow'd wing;
A statesman's logick unconvinc'd can hear,
And dare to slumber o'er the + Gazetteer;
Despise a fool in half his pension dress’d,
And strive in vain to laugh at Clodio's jest.

9 Others with softer smiles, and subtler art,
Can
sap
the principles,

taint the heart;
With more address a lover's note convey,
Or bribe a virgin's innocence away.
Well may they rise, while I, whose rustic tongue
Ne'er knew to puzzle right, or varnish wrong,
Spurn'd as a beggar, dreaded as a spy,
Live unregarded, unlamented die.

10 For what but social guilt the friend endears? Who shares Orgilio's crimes, his fortune shares,

9

& Qulid Romæ faciam? mentiri nescio : librum, Si malas est, nequeo laudare & poscere.

Ferre ad nuptam quæ mittit adulter, Quæ mandat norint alii; me nemo ministro Fur erit, atque ideo nulli comes exeo.

* But thou, should tempting villainy present
All Marlb'rough hoarded, or all Villiers spent,
Turn from the glitt’ring bribe thy scornful eye,
Nor sell for gold, what gold could never buy,
The peaceful slumber, self-approving day,
Unsullied fame, and conscience ever gay.

12 The cheated nation's happy fav’rites, see!
Mark whom the great caress, who frown on me!
LONDON ! the needy villain's gen’ral home,
The common-sewer of Paris and of Rome!
With eager thirst, by folly or by fate,
Sucks in the dregs of each corrupted state.
Forgive my transports on a theme like this,
13 I cannot bear a French metropolis.

14 Illustrious EDWARD! from the realms of day,
The land of heroes and of saints survey ;
Nor hope the British lineaments to trace,
The rustick grandeur, or the surly grace;
But, lost in thoughtless ease and einpty show,
Behold the warrior dwindled to a beau ;
Sense, freedom, piety, retin'd away,
Of France the mimick, and of Spain the prey.

All that at home no more can beg or steal, Or like a gibbet better than a wheel ; Hiss’d from the stage, or hooted from the court, Their air, their dress, their politicks, import;

Obsequious, artful, voluble, and gay,
On Britain's fond credulity they prey.

Tanti tibi non sit opaci
Omnis arena Tagi, quodque in mare volvitur aurum,
Ut somno careas.

1? Quæ nunc divitibus gens acceptissima nostris, Et quos piæcipue fugiam properabo fateri.

- Non possum ferre, Quirites, Græcam urbem.

14 Rusticus ille tuus sumit trechedipna, Quirine, Et ceromatico fert nicetaria collo.

15 Ingenium velox, audacia perdita, fermo

35

11

19

Promptus

No gainfui trade their industry can 'scape,
16 They sing, they dance, clean shoes, or cure a clap:
All sciences a fasting Monsieur knows,
And, bid him go to hell, to hell he goes.

17 Ah! what avails it, that, from slavry far,
I drew the breath of life in English air;
Was early taught a Briton's right to prize,
And lisp the tale of HENRY's victories;
If the gulld conqueror receives the chain,
And flattery prevails when arms are vain ?

18 Studious to please, and ready to submit,
The supple Gaul was born a parasite •
Still to his intrest true, where'er he goes,
Wit, brav'ry, worth, his lavish tongue bestows ;
In ev'ry face a thousand graces shine,
From ev'ry tongue flows harmony divine,
19 These arts in vain our rugged natives try,
Strain out with fault'ring diffidence a lie,
And get a kick for aukward flattery.

Besides, with justice, this discerning age
Admires their wond'rous talents for the stage:

20 Well may they venture on the mimick's art,
Who play from morn to night a borrow'd part;
Practis'd their master's notions to embrace,
Repeat his maxims, and reflect his face;
With ev'ry wild absurdity comply,
And view each object with another's eye;

21

To shake with laughter ere the jest they hear,
To pour at will the counterfeited tear;
And, as their patron hints the cold or heat,
To shake in dog-days, in December sweat.

How, when competitors like these contend,
Can surly virtue hope to fix a friend ?
Slaves that with serious impudence beguile,
And lie without a blush, without a smile;
Exalt each trifle, ev'ry vice adore,
Your taste in snuff, your judgement in a whore ;
Can Balbo's eloquence applaud, and swear
He
gropes

his breeches with a Monarch's air.
For arts like these preferr’d, admir’d, caress’d,
They first invade your table, then your breast;
22 Explore your secrets with insidious art,
Watch the weak hour, and ransack all the heart;
Then soon your ill-plac'd confidence repay,
Commence your lords, and govern or betray.

3 By numbers here from shame or censure free,
All crimes are safe but hated poverty.
This, only this, the rigid law pursues,
This, only this, provokes the snarling Muse,
The sober trader at a tatter'd cloak
Wakes from his dream, and labours for a joke ;
With brisker air the silken courtiers gaze,
And turn the varied tąunt a thousand ways.
24 Of all the griefs that harass the distress'd,
Sure a most bitter is a scornful jest ;

23

21 Non sumus ergo pares; melior, qui semper & omni Nocte dieque potest alienum sumere vultum, A facie jactare manus : laudare paratus, Si bene ructavit, si rectum minxit amicus. women 22 Scire volunt secreta domus, atque inde timeri.

Materiam præbet causasque jocorum Omnibus hic idem? si fæda & scissa lacerna, &co.

23