E PIS T L E II.

DE

II

EAŘ Coľnel, COBĦAM's and your country's

Friend! You love a Verse, take such as I can send. • A Frenchman comes, presents you with his Boy, Bows and begins-" This Lad, Sir, is of Blois : “ Observe his shape how clean! his locks how curld!

My only son, I'd have him see the world: 6 “ His French is pure; his voice too-you shall hear. “ Sir, he's your slave, for twenty pound a year. “ Mere wax as yet, you fashion him with ease, 6 Your Barber, Cook, Upholft'rer, what you pleafe: " A perfect genius at an Opera-song“ To say too much, might do my honour wrong.

. “ Take him with all his virtues, on my word; " His wholė anibition was to serve a Lord; " But, Sir, to you, with what would I not part? 15 « Tho' faith, I fear, 'twill break his Mother's heart. “ Once (and but once) I caught him in a lye, " And then, unwhipp'd, he had the grace to cry: " The fault he has I fairly shall reveal, “ (Cou'd you o'erlook but that) it is, to steal.

Notes. The numbers well express the unwillingness of parting with what one can ill spare.

M

20

* M

Quivis ferret idem : semel hic ceffavit, et (ut fit) “ In fcalis latuit metuens pendentis habenae : “ Des nummos, excepta nihil te fi fuga laedit.

Ille ferat pretium, poenae securus, opinor.
Prudens emifti vitiofum: dicta tibi eft lex.
Insequeris tamen hunc, et lite moraris iniqua.

a Dixi me pigrum proficisenti tibi, dixi
Talibus officiis prope mancum ; ne mea faevus
Jurgares ad te quod epistola nulla veniret.
Quid tum profeci, mecum facientia jura
Si tamen attentas? quereris super hoc etiam, quod
Exfpectata tibi non mittam carmina mendax.

• Luculli miles collecta viatica multis
Aerumnis, lassus dum noctu stertit, ad affem
Perdiderat : poft hoc vehemens lupus, et sibi et hosti
Iratus pariter, jejunis dentibus acer,
Praesidium regale loco dejecit, ut aiunt,

Nores.

VER. 24. I think Sir Godfrey] An eminent Justice of Peace, who decided much in the manner of Sancho Pancha. P. Sir Godfrey Kneller.

Ver. 33. In Anna's Wars, etc.) Many parts of this story are well told ; but, on the whole, it is much infe. sior to the original.

:

If, after this, you took the graceless lad,
Cou'd you complain, my Friend, he prov'd so bad?
Faith, in such case, if you should prosecute,
I think Sir Godfrey should decide the suit;
Who sent the Thief that stole the Cash, away, 25
And punish'd him that put it in his way.

• Consider then, and judge me in this light;
I told you when I went, I could not write;
You said the same; and are you discontent
With Laws, to which you gave your own affent? 30
Nay worse, to ask for Verse at such a time!
D'ye think me good for nothing but to rhime?

e In Anna's Wars, a Soldier poor and old
Had dearly earn'd a little purse of golde:
Tir'd with a tedious march, one luckless night, 35
He slept, poor dog! and lost it, to a doit.
This put the man in such a desp’rate mind,
Between revenge, and grief, and hunger join'd
Against the foe, himself, and all mankind,
He leap'd the trenches, scald a Caftle-wall,

40 Tore down a Standard, took the Fort and all

}

:

Notes.

VER. 37. This put the man, etc.) Greatly below the Oxiginal,

Poft hoc vehemens lupus, et fibi et bofti

Iratus pariter, jejunis dentibus acer.
The ball words are particularly elegant and humourous,

Summe munito, et multarum divite rerum.
Clarus ob id factum, donis ornatur honestis,
Accipit et bis dena super sestertia nummûm.
Forte fub hoc tempus caftellum evertere praetor
Nescio quod cupiens, hortari coepit eundem
Verbis, quae timido quoque poffent addere mentem:
I, bone, quo virtus tua te vocat: i pede fausto,
Grandia laturus meritorum praemia: quid stas?
Poft haec ille catus, quantumvis rusticus,
“ Ibit eo, quo vis, qui zonam perdidit, inquit.

f Romae nutriri mihi contigit, atque doceri,
Iratus Graiis quantum rocuisset Achilles.
Adjecere bonae paulo plus artis Athenae:
Scilicet ut poffem curvo dignoscere rectum,
Atque inter filvas Academi quaerere verum.

« Ibit,

Nores.

VER. 43. Gave him much praise, and some reward befide.] For the sake of a stroke of satire, he has here weakened that circumitance, on which the turn of the story depends. Horace avoided it, tho' the avaricious character of Lucullus was a tempting occasion to indulge his raillery.

Ver. 51. Let him take castles who has ne'er a groat.] This has neither the force nor the juftness of the original. Horace makes his Soldier say,

Ibit, Ibit eo, quo vis, qui zonam perdidit. for it was not his poverty, but his lofs, that pushed him upon danger ; many being cqual to the first, who cannot

50

Prodigious well ;” his great Commander cry'd,
Gave him much praise, and some reward beside.
Next pleas’d his Excellence a town to batter;
(Its name I know not, and it's no great matter) 45
“ Go on, my Friend (he cry’d) see yonder walls !
« Advance and conquer ! go where glory calls !
“ More honours, more rewards, attend the brave."
Don't you remember what reply he gave?
“D'ye think me, noble Gen'ral, such a Sot?
" Let him take castles who has ne'er a groat."

* Bred up at home, full early I begun
To read in Greek the wrath of Peleus' fon.
Besides, my Father taught me from a lad,
The better art to know the good from bad: 55
(And little sure imported to remove,
To hunt for Truth in Maudlin's learned grove.)
But knottier points we knew not half so well,
Depriv'd us foon of our paternal Cell;

Notes.
bear the other. What betray'd our poet into this inac-
curacy of expression was it's suiting better with the appli.
cation. But in a great writer we pardon nothing. And
such an one should never forget, that the expression is not
perfect, but when the ideas it conveys fit both the tale
and the application : for fo, they reflect a mutual light
upon one another.

VER. 53. To read in Greek the wrath of Peleus' fon.] This circumftance has a happier application in the imitasion than in the original ; and properly introduces the 6876 verse.