Praedia Caefar, an eft Itala tellure daturus ?

Jurantem me fcire nihil miratur, ut unum
Scilicet egregii mortalem altique filenti.

Perditur haec inter mifero lux; non fine votis, Orus, quando ego te afpiciam? quandoque licebit, Nunc veterum libris, nunc fomno et inertibus horis,

Ducere folicitae jucunda oblivia vitae ?

O quando faba Pythagorae cognata, fimulque
Uncta fatis pingui ponentur olufcula lardo?
O noctes coenaeque Deûm ! quibus ipfe meique,
Ante Larem proprium vefcor, vernafque procaces
Pafco libatis dapibus: cum, ut cuique libido eft,
Siccat inaequales calices conviva, folutus

"Ah Doctor, how you love to jest?
""Tis now no fecret"-I protest

'Tis one to me-" Then tell us, pray,

"When are the Troops to have their pay?" 120
And, tho' I folemnly declare

I know no more than my Lord Mayor,
They stand amaz'd, and think me grown
The closest Mortal ever known.

THUS in a fea of folly tofs'd,

My choicest Hours of Life are loft;
Yet always wishing to retreat,

125

Oh, could I see my Country Seat!
There leaning near a gentle Brook,
Sleep, or peruse some ancient Book,

130

And there in sweet oblivion drown

Those Cares that haunt the Court and Town.

O charming Noons! and Nights divine!
Or when I fup, or when I dine,

NOTES.

VER. 125. Thus in a fea, &c.] Our Poet excels his friend in his own way of modernizing Horace: But this way is infinitely inferior to his own: For though Horace be eafy, he is not familiar; or, if he be, it is the familiarity of Courts, which is never without its dignity. These things burlesque verfe cannot reconcile, nor indeed any other way, that I now of, but that of the foregoing Imitations.

Legibus infanis feu quis capit acria fortis
Pocula; feu modicis uvefcit laetius. ergo
Sermo oritur, non de villis domibufve alienis,
Nec male necne Lepos faltet: fed quod magis ad

nos

Pertinet, et nefcire malum eft, agitamus; utrumne
Divitiis homines, an fint virtute beati :

Quidve ad amicitias, ufus rectumne, trahat nos:
Et quae fit natura boni, fummumque quid ejus.
Cervius haec inter vicinus garrit aniles
Ex re fabellas. fi quis nam laudat Arellî
Solicitas ignarus opes; fic incipit: Olim
Rufticus urbanum murem mus paupere fertur

Accepiffe cavo, veterem vetus hofpes amicum;

My Friends above, my Folks below,
Chatting and laughing all-a-row,
The Beans and Bacon fet before 'em,
The Grace-cup ferv'd with all decorum:
Each willing to be pleas'd, and please,
And ev❜n the very Dogs at ease!
Here no man prates of idle things,
How this or that Italian fings,

135

140

A Neighbour's Madness, or his Spouse's,
Òr what's in either of the Houses:

But fomething much more our concern,

145

And quite a scandal not to learn:

Which is the happier, or the wiser,

A Man of Merit, or a Mifer?

Whether we ought to chufe our Friends,

For their own Worth, or our own Ends? 150 What good, or better, we may call,

And what, the very best of all?

Our Friend Dan Prior told (you know)

A Tale extremely à propos :

Name a Town Life, and in a trice,
He had a Story of two Mice.
Once on a time (fo runs the Fable)
A Country Moufe, right hospitable,

155

Afper, et attentus quaefitis; ut tamen arctum
Solveret hofpitiis animum. quid multa? neque ille
Sepofiti ciceris, nec longae invidit avenae :
Aridum et ore ferens acinum, femefaque lardi
Frufta dedit, cupiens varia faftidia coena
Vincere tangentis male fingula dente fuperbo:
Cum pater ipfe domus palea porrectus în horna
Effet ador loliumque, dapis meliora relinquens.
Tandem urbanus ad hunc, Quid te juvat, inquit,
amice,

Praerupti nemoris patientem vivere dorfo ?

Vin' tu homines urbemque feris praeponere fylvis?

Carpe viam (mihi crede) comes:

quando

terreftria

Mortales animas vivunt fortita, neque ulla eft,

Aut magno aut parvo, leti fuga. quo, bone, circa,