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Such, such a man extends his life's short space,
And from the goal again renews the race;
For he lives twice, who can at once employ
The present well, and ev'n the past enjoy.

THE TRANSLATOR.

1

ZELL, at Sanger's call, invoked his
Muse-

For who to sing for Sanger could
refuse?

His numbers such as Sanger's self might use. Reviving Perrault, murdering Boileau, he Slandered the ancients first, then Wycherley; Which yet not much that old bard's anger

raised,

Since those were slandered most, whom Ozell praised.

Nor had the gentle satire caused complaining, Had not sage Rowe pronounced it entertaining: How great must be the judgment of that writer Who the Plain-Dealer damns, and prints the Biter!" 2

1 Sanger served his apprenticeship with Jacob Tonson, and succeeded Bernard Lintot in his shop at the Middle Temple Gate, Fleet Street. Lintot printed Ozell's translation of Perrault's Characters, and Sanger his translation of Boileau's Lutrin, which was recommended by Rowe in 1709.-- Warton. See Dunciad, i. 286.

2 The Plain-Dealer " was the most popular of Wycherley's comedies; the “Biter ” an inferior play by Rowe.

THE THREE GENTLE SHEPHERDS.1

F gentle Philips will I ever sing, With gentle Philips shall the valleys ring.

My numbers too for ever will I vary, With gentle Budgell and with gentle Carey. Or if in ranging of the names I judge ill, With gentle Carey and with gentle Budgell : Oh! may all gentle bards together place ye, Men of good hearts, and men of delicacy. May satire ne'er befool ye, or beknave ye, And from all wits that have a knack, God save ye.

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'Twas all the ambition his high soul could feel,
To wear red stockings, and to dine with Steele.
Some ends of verse his betters might afford,
And gave the harmless fellow a good word.
Set up with these he ventured on the town,
And with a borrowed play, out-did poor Crown.3

Two of the shepherds are well enough known. The third would seem to be Henry Carey, the dramatist (author of "Sally in our Alley "); but there was also a John Carey, of New College, Oxford, a contributor to the Tatler and Spectator, and Walter Carey (Umbra).-Carruthers.

2 The person satirised is Ambrose Philips (16711749).

3 The borrowed play refers to Philips' "The Dis

There he stopped short, nor since has writ a tittle, But has the wit to make the most of little : Like stunted hide-bound trees, that just have got Sufficient sap at once to bear and rot.

Now he begs verse, and what he gets commends,

Not of the wits his foes, but fools his friends. So some coarse country wench, almost decayed,

Trudges to town, and first turns chambermaid;
Awkward and supple, each devoir to pay;
She flatters her good lady twice a-day;
Thought wondrous honest, though of mean
degree,

And strangely liked for her simplicity :
In a translated suit, then tries the town,
With borrowed pins, and patches not her own:
But just endured the winter she began,
And in four months a battered harridan.
Now nothing left, but withered, pale, and
shrunk,

To bawd for others, and go shares with Punk.

UMBRA.'

LOSE to the best known author
Umbra sits,

The constant index to all Button's

wits.

"Who's here?" cries Umbra: "only John99 2" Oh!

son,

trest Mother," founded on Racine's Andromaque. John Crowne, a prolific dramatist, died about 1705. 1 Walter Carey, Warden of the Mint, and Clerk of the Privy Council.

2 Charles Johnson, a second-rate dramatist. Bowles.

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Your slave," and exit; but returns with Rowe : "Dear Rowe, let's sit and talk of tragedies: Ere long Pope enters, and to Pope he flies. Then up comes Steele he turns upon his heel,

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And in a moment fastens upon Steele;
But cries as soon, “Dear Dick, I must be gone,
For, if I know his tread, here's Addison.'
Says Addison to Steele, "'Tis time to go:
Pope to the closet steps aside with Rowe.
Poor Umbra, left in this abandoned pickle,
E'en sits him down, and writes to honest

1

Fool! 'tis in vain from wit to wit to roam; Know, sense, like charity begins at home.

SYLVIA, A FRAGMENT.2

YLVIA, my

heart in wondrous wise

alarmed,

Awed without sense, and without
beauty charmed:

But some odd graces and some flights she had,
Was just not ugly, and was just not mad:
Her tongue still ran on credit from her eyes,
More pert than witty, more a wit than wise:
Good-nature, she declared it, was her scorn,
Though 'twas by that alone she could be borne :
Affronting all, yet fond of a good name;
A fool to pleasure, yet a slave to fame :
Now coy, and studious in no point to fall,

1 Tickell.

2 Introduced, with some alterations, into the Second of the Moral Epistles, Of the Characters of Women.

Now all agog for D

1

-y1at a ball:

Now deep in Taylor, and the Book of Martyrs, Now drinking citron with his Grace and Chartres,2

Men, some to business, some to pleasure take; But every woman is at heart a rake.

Frail, feverish sex; their fit now chills, now burns:

Atheism and superstition rule by turns;
And a mere heathen in her carnal part,
Is still a sad good Christian at her heart.

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THE BASSET-TABLE.3

AN ECLOGUE.

CARDELIA, SMILINDA.

CARDELIA.

HE Basset-table spread, the tallier

come;

Why stays Smilinda in the dressing-room?

Rise, pensive nymph, the tallier waits for you:

SMILINDA.

Ah, madam, since my Sharper is untrue, I joyless make my once adored alpeu.

1 Colonel Disney.-Carruthers.

2 For the Duke of Wharton and Chartres, see Moral Essays, i. 179, iii. 20, &c.

3 One of the "Town Eclogues," published anonymously in 1716. They were parodies on the Pastorals of Pope and Philips, and were written, with the exception of the "Basset Table," by Lady M. W. Montagu. Basset was a card game resembling the modern "Faro."

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