Or bidst thou rather party to embrace?

(A friend to Party thou, and all her race;

'Tis the same rope at diff'rent ends they twist; To Dulness Ridpath is as dear as Mist).

Shall I, like Curtius, desperate in my zeal,

205

O'er head and ears plunge for the commonweal? 210
Or rob Rome's ancient geese of all their glories,
And cackling save the monarchy of Tories?
Hold---to the minister I more incline;

215

To serve his cause, O Queen! is serving thine.
And see! thy very Gazetteers give o'er,
Ev'n Ralph repents, and Henley writes no more.
What then remains? Ourself. Still, still remain
Cibberian forehead, and Cibberian brain.
This brazen brightness, to the 'squire so dear;
This polish'd hardness, that reflects the peer:
This arch absurd, that wit and fool delights,
This mess, toss'd up of Hockley-hole and White's;
Where dukes and butchers join to wreathe my crown,
At once the Bear and Fiddle of the Town.

220

225

O born in sin, and forth in folly brought! Works damn'd, or to be damn'd; (your father's fault)

IMITATIONS.

v. 202. This box my thunder, this right hand my God?] "Dextra mihi Deus, et telum quod missile libro.'

"

Virgil, of the Gods of Mezentius.

VARIATIONS.

v. 213. Hold---to the minister. In the former edition: Yes, to my country I my pen consign,

Yes, from this moment, mighty Mist am thine. v. 225. O born in sin, &c.] in the former edition: Adieu, my Children! better thus expire

Unstall'd, unsold; thus glorious mount in fire,

230

Go, purify'd by flames, ascend the sky,
My better and more Christian progeny !
Unstain'd, untouch'd, and yet in maiden sheets,
While all your smutty sisters walk the streets.
Ye shall not beg, like gratis-given Bland,
Sent with a pass and vagrant through the land;
Nor sail with Ward, to Ape-and-monkey climes,
Where vile Mundungus trucks for viler rhymes:
Not sulphur-tipt, emblaze an ale-house fire ! 235
Not wrap up oranges, to pelt your sire!

REMARKS.

v. 231. ---gratis-given Bland,---Sent with a pass.] It was a practice so to give the Daily Gazetteer, and ministerial pamphlets, (in which this B. was a writer), and to send them post-free to all the towns in the kingdom. v. 233.---with Ward, to Ape-and-monkey climes.] Ed"ward Ward, a very voluminous poet in Hudibrastic verse, but best known by the London Spy, in prose. He has of late years kept a public house in the City, (but in a genteel way) and with his wit, humour, "and good liquor, (ale) afforded his guests a pleasur

VARIATIONS.

Fair without spot, than greas'd by grocers' hands,
Or shipp'd with Ward to Ape-and-monkey lands;
Or wafting ginger, round the streets to run,
And visit alehouse, where ye first begun.
With that he lifted thrice the sparkling brand,
And thrice he dropp'd it, &c.

IMITATIONS.

Var. And visit alebouse.] Waller on the Navy:
Those tow'rs of oak o'er fertile plains may go,
And visit mountains where they once did grow.
v. 229. Unstain'd, untouch'd, &c.]

Felix Priameia virgo!

"Jussa mori: quae sortitus, non pertulit ullos, "Nec victoris heri tetigit captiva cubile!

"Nos, patria insensa, diversa per aequora vectae,"&c. Virg. Æn. II.

O! pass more innocent, in infant state,
To the mild limbo of our father Tate:
Or peaceably forgot, at once be blest
In Shadwell's bosom with eternal rest!
Soon to that mass of nonsense to return,

240

Where things destroy'd are swept to things unborn. With that, a tear (portentous sign of grace!)

Stole from the master of the sev'nfold face;
And thrice he lifted high the birth-day brand,

245

And thrice he dropt it from his quiv'ring hand;

Then lights the structure with averted eyes;
The rolling smoke involves the sacrifice.

Th' op'ning clouds disclose each work by turns,
Now flames the Cid, and now Perolla burns;

250

REMARKS.

*able entertainment, especially those of the High"church party." Jacob, Lives of Poets, vol. II. p. 225. Great number of his works were yearly sold into the Plantations. Ward, in a book called Apollo's Maggot, declared this account to be a great falsity, protesting that his public-house was not in the City, but in Moorfields. v. 238, 240. --- -Tale---Shadwell.] Two of his predecessors in the Laurel.

VARIATIONS.

v. 250. Now flames the Cid, &c.] In the former edit. Now flames old Memnon, now Rodrigo burns,

IMITATIONS.

v. 245. And thrice he lifted high the birth-day brand.] Ovid, or Althae, on a like occasion, burning her offspring: "Tum conata quater flammis imponere torrem, Coepta quater tenuit."

v. 150. Now flames the Cid, &c.]

"Jam Deiphobi dedit ampla ruinam,
"Vulcano superante domos; jam proximus ardet
"Ucalegon."

Great Cæsar roars, and hisses in the fires;
King John, in silence, modestly expires:

No merit now the dear Nonjuror claims,
Moliere's old stubble in a moment flames.

Tears gush'd again, as from pale Priam's eyes,
When the last blaze sent Ilion to the skies.

255

Rouz'd by the light, Old Dulness heav'd the head, Then snatcht a sheet of Thule from her bed; Sudden she flies, and whelms it o'er the pyre; Down sink the flames, and with a hiss expire. Her ample presence fills up all the place;

A veil of fogs dilates her awful face:

200

[may'rs

265

Great in her charms! as when on shrieves and
She looks, and breathes herself into their airs.
She bids him wait her to her sacred dome:
Well pleas'd he enter'd, and confess'd his home.
So spirits, ending their terrestial race,
Ascend, and recognize their native place.

VARIATIONS.

In one quick flash see Proserpine expire,

And last, his own cold

schylus took fire,

Then gusht the tears, as from the Trojan's eyes

When the last blaze, &c.

After v. 268. In the former editions followed those two lines,

Raptur'd, he gazes round the dear retreat,

And in sweet numbers celebrates the seat.

IMITATIONS.

v. 263. Great in her charms! as when on shrieves and may'rs

She looks, and breathes herself into their airs.]

Alma parens confessa deam; qualisque videri
Coelicolis, et quanta solet."-

"Et lactos oculis afflavit honores."

Virg. Æn. II.

Id. Æn. I.

This the Great Mother dearer held than all
The clubs of Quidnuncs, or her own Guildhall:
Here stood her opium, here she nurs'd her owls,
And here she plann'd th' imperial seat of fools.

Here to her chosen all her works she shows,

Prose swell'd to verse, verse loit'ring into prose:

270

How random thoughts, now meaning chance to find, Now leave all memory of sense behind:

How prologues into prefaces decay,

276

And these to notes are fritter'd quite away:

How index-learning turns no student pale,
Yet holds the eel of science by the tail:

280

How, with less reading than makes felons 'scape,
Less human genius than God gives an ape,

Small thanks to France, and none to Rome or Greece,
A past, vamp'd, future, old, reviv'd, new piece,
'Twixt Plautus, Fletcher, Shakespeare, and Corneille,
Can make a Cibber, Tibbald, or Ozell.

REMARKS.

286

v. 286.---Tibbald.] Lewis Tibbald (as pronounced),or Theobald, (as written), was bred an attorney, and son to an attorney (says Mr. Jacob) of Sittenburn in Kent. He was author of some forgotten plays, translations and other pieces. He was concerned in a paper called The Censor, and a translation of Ovid. "There is a notorious idiot, one hight Whachum, who, from an under "spur-leather to the law, is become an under-strapper

IMITATIONS.

v. 269. This the Great Mother; &c.]

"Urbs antiqua fuit--

"Quam Juno fertur terris magis omnibus unam 66 Post habita coluisse Samo: hic illius arma. "Hic currus fuit: hic regnum Dea gentibus esse "(Si qua fata sinaut) jam tum tenditque fovetque." Virg. Æn. I.