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True, confcious Honour is to feel no fin,

He's arm'd without that's innocent within

q

Be this thy Screen, and this thy Wall of Brafs; 95 Compar'd to this, a Minifter's an Afs.

* And say, to which fhall our applause belong, This new Court jargon, or the good old fong? The modern language of corrupted Peers,

S

102

Or what was spoke at CRESSY and POITIERS? t Who counsels beft? who whifpers, "Be but great, "With Praise or Infamy leave that to fate; "Get Place and Wealth, if poffible, with grace; "If not, by any means get Wealth and Place. For what? to have a Box where Eunuchs fing, And foremost in the Circle eye a King.

t

106

Or " he, who bids thee face with steddy view Proud Fortune, and look fhallow Greatnefs thro':

W

And, while he bids thee, fets th' Example too?

NOTES.

"à fa mode, & demande des remarques proportionnées à fon "goût:" he then fets himself in good earneft about this important inquiry; and, by a paffage in Vegetius, luckily difcovers, that it fignified an old veteran armed cap-a-pie in brass, and PLACED TO COVER HIS FELLOW. Our Poet has happily ferved himself of this impertinence to convey a very fine ftroke of fatire.

VER. 97. And fay, etc.] Thefe four lines greatly fuperior to any thing in the Original.

" Quod fi me Populus Romanus forte roget, cur

Non, ut porticibus, fic judiciis fruar iifdem,

Nec fequar aut fugiam, quae diligit ipfe vel odit;

a

Olim quod vulpes aegroto cauta leoni

Refpondit, referam: Quia me veftigia terrent

Omnia te adverfum fpectantia, nulla retrorfum.

b Bellua multorum es capitum. nam quid fequar, aut quem?

Pars hominum geftit conducere publica: funt qui

NOTES.

VER. 117. Full many a Beast goes in,] This expreffion is ufed for the joke's fake; but it hurts his moral; which is, that they come out beafts. He fhould here have ftuck to the terms of his Original, veftigia omnia te adverfum fpectantia.

VER. 118. Adieu to Virtue, etc.] Thefe two lines are intend ́ed for the application or moral of a fable, which needs no explaining; and, confequently, they impair the grace of it, which at beft is inferior to his Original. For Horace speaks of the common people, Populus Romanus, to whom one of fop's Fables was properly addreffed: too fimple a method of conveying truth to the well-dreft Rabble of St. James's.

ΓΙΟ

If fuch a Doctrine, in St. James's air,

Shou'd chance to make the well-dreft Rabble ftare;

If honeft S*z take scandal at a Spark,

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a

Faith I fhall give the answer Reynard gave:

"I cannot like, dread Sir, your Royal Cave: 115. "Because I see, by all the tracks about,

"Full many a Beast goes in, but none come out." Adieu to Virtue, if you're once a Slave :

Send her to Court, you fend her to her grave.
Well, if a King's a Lion, at the least

b

The People are a many-headed Beast:

Can they direct what measures to pursue,

Who know themselves fo little what to do?
Alike in nothing but one Luft of Gold,

120

Just half the land would buy, and half be sold: 125

C

Their Country's wealth our mightier Misers drain, Or cross, to plunder Provinces, the Main ;

NOTES.

VER. 124. Alike in nothing but one Luft of Gold, Juft half the land would buy, and half be fold:] Here the argument fuffers. a little for the fake of the fatire. The reafon why the People fhould not be followed is because

Bellua multorum eft capitum. nam quid fequar, aut quem? they are fo divers in their purfuits (fays Horace) that one cannot follow this man without being condemned by that. The imitator fays, they all go on one common principle, the lust of gold. This inaccuracy, tho' Horace has a little of it, yet he has however artfully disguised it, by speaking of the various ob

Cruftis et pomis viduas venentur avaras,

Excipiantque fenes, quos in vivaria mittant :

* Multis occulto crefcit res fenore. fverum

Efto, aliis alios rebus ftudiifque teneri:

Iidem eadem poffunt horam durare probantes?

* Nullus in orbe finus Baiis praelucet amoenis,

Si dixit dives; h lacus et mare fentit amorem

i

Feftinantis heri: cui fi vitiofa libido

Fecerit aufpicium; cras ferramenta Tearum

NOTES.

jects of this one Paffion, avarice, as of fo many various paffions, Pars hominum geftit conducere publica: funt qui, etc.

Cruftis et pomis

Multis occulto, etc.

but his imitator has unwarily drawn them to a point, by the introductory addition of the two lines above,

Alike in nothing, etc.

VER.126. Their Country's wealth our mightier Mifers drain,] The undertakers for advancing Loans to the Public on the Funds

The reft, fome farm the Poor-box, fome the Pews; Some keep Affemblies, and would keep the Stews;

d

Some with fat Bucks on childlefs Dotards fawn;

e

Some win rich Widows by their Chine and Brawn;
While with the filent growth of ten per cent,
In dirt and darkness, hundreds ftink content.
Of all these ways, if each pursues his own,
Satire be kind, and let the wretch alone:
But fhow me one who has it in his pow'r
To act confiftent with himself an hour.

135

140

Sir Job & fail'd forth, the ev'ning bright and still, "No place on earth (he cry'd) like Greenwich hill!'' h Up starts a Palace, lo, th' obedient base Slopes at its foot, the woods its fides embrace, The filver Thames reflects its marble face. Now let some whimfy, or that Dev'l within Which guides all those who know not what they

mean,

But give the Knight (or give his Lady) fpleen;

NOTES.

They have been commonly accused of making it a job. But in fe corrupt times, the fault is not always to be imputed to a Miniftry it having been found, on trial, that the wifeft and most virtuous citizen of this or any other age, with every requifite knowledge in fuch matters, and fupported by all the weight an honest Administration could afford him, was, they fay, unable to abolish this inveterate mystery of iniquity.

VER. 143. Now let fome whimfy, etc.] This is very fpirited,

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