"Ah Doctor, how you love to jest?
""Tis now no fecret I proteft
'Tis one to me-"Then tell us, pray,
"When are the Troops to have their pay?
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 sea of folly tofs'd,
My choicest Hours of life are loft
Yet always wishing to retreat,
Oh, could I fee my Country Seat!
There leaning near a gentle Brook,
Sleep, or perufe fome ancient Book,
And there in fweet oblivion drown

Thofe Cares that haunt the Court and Town.

O charming Noons! and Nights divine!

Or when I fup, or when I dine,

NOTES.

120

125

130

VER. 125. Thus in a fea, etc.] Our Poet excells his friend in his own way of modernizing Horace. But this way is infinitely inferior to his own. For tho' 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 verse cannot reconcile, nor indeed any other, that I know of, but the foregoing imitations of our Poet.

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 nescire malum est, 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 Arellf Solleitas ignarus opes; fic incipit: Olim, Rufticus urbanem 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 set 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!

135

140

Here no man prates of idle things,
How this or that Italian fings,

A man of Merit, or a Mifer?

Whether we ought to chuse our Friends,
For their own Worth, or our own Ends?

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 hofpitable,

150

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, femesaque lardi
Frutta dedit, cupiens varia faftidia coena
Vincere tangentis male fingula dente superbo:
Cum pater ipfe domus palea porrectus in horna
Filet 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) comès: terreftria quando
Mortales animas vivunt fortita, neque ulla eft,
Aut magno aut parvo, leti fuga. quo, bone, circa,

Receiv'd a Town Mouse at his Board,
Juft as a Farmer might a Lord.

A frugal Moufe upon the whole,

Yet lov'd his Friend, and had a Soul,

Knew what was handfome, and would do't,

On juft occafion, coute qui coute.

He brought him Bacon (nothing lean)

Pudding, that might have pleas'd a Dean;
Cheese, such as men in Suffolk make,
But wish'd it Stilton for his fake;
Yet, to his Gueft tho' no way sparing,
He eat himself the rind and paring.
Our Courtier scarce could touch a bit,
But show'd his Breeding and his Wit;
He did his best to seem to eat,

And cry'd,

"I vow you're mighty neat.

160

165.

170

"But Lord, my Friend, this favage Scene! 175 "For God's fake, come, and live with Men: "Confider, Mice, like Men, muft die, "Both fmall and great, both you and I:

"Then spend your life in Joy and Sport, (This doctrine, Friend, I learnt at Court) 180 The verieft Hermit in the Nation

May yield, God knows, to strong temptation.