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If then plain bread and milk will do the feat,
The pleasure lies in you, and not the meat.

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20

* Preach as I please, I doubt our curious men Will chufe a pheasant ftill before a hen; Yet hens of Guinea full as good I hold, Except you eat the feathers green and gold. 1 Of carps and mullets why prefer the great, (Tho' cut in pieces 'ere my Lord can eat) Yet for fmall Turbots fuch efteem profefs? Because God made these large, the other lefs. Oldfield with more than Harpy throat endu'd, Cries "Send me, Gods! a whole Hog barbecu'd!"

NOTES.

25

fortune of fifteen hundred pounds a year in the fimple luxury of good eating.

VER. 26. a whole Hog barbecu'd!] The Poet has here given a beauty equivalent to that in the Original,

Porrectum magno magnum fpectare catino,

which, by the flownels of the Syllables, where four fpondees follow one another, well expresses the enormous bulk of the fifh which the Glutton pray'd for.

Ibid. Hog barbecu'd, etc.] A Weft Indian term of gluttony, a hog roasted whole, stuffed with fpice, and baited with Madera wine. P.

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• Praefentes Auftri, coquite horum opfonia: quam

quam

Putet aper rhombufque recens, mala copia quando
Aegrum follicitat ftomachum ; cum rapula plenus
Atque acidas mavult inulas. necdum omnis abacta
Pauperies epulis regum: nam vilibus ovis
Nigrifque eft oleis hodie locus. Haud ita pridem
Galloni praeconis erat acipensere menfa

Infamis. quid? tum rhombos minus aequora alebant ?
P Tutus erat rhombus, tutoque ciconia nido,
Donec vos auctor docuit praetorius. ergo

4 Si quis nunc mergos fuaves edixerit affos,
Parebit pravi docilis Romana juventus.

r

* Sordidus a tenui victus diftabit, Ofello

Judice: nam fruftra vitium vitaveris iftud,

Si te alio pravus de torferis.

S
s Avidienus,

* Cui Canis ex vero ductum cognomen adhaeret,

NOTES.

VER. 27. Oh blaft it, South-winds!] This has not the force, nor gives us the pleasant aliufion in the original, coquite.

VER. 42. Bedford-head;] A famous Eating-house.

P.

VER. 43. Or ev'n to crack live Crawfish] There is force and humour in dixerit and parebit, which the imitation does not reach.

Oh blaft it," South-winds! till a french exhale
Rank as the ripeness of a rabbit's tail.
By what Criterion do ye eat, d'ye think,
If this is priz'd for sweetness, that for stink?
When the tir'd glutton labours thro' a treat,
He finds no relish in the sweetest meat,
He calls for fomething bitter, fomething four,
And the rich feast concludes extremely poor:

о

30

Cheap eggs, and herbs, and olives ftill we fee; 35 Thus much is left of old Simplicity!

P The Robin-red-breaft till of late had reft,

And children facred held a Martin's neft,

Till Becca-ficos fold fo dev'lish dear

To one that was, or would have been a Peer.
9 Let me extol a Cat, on oyfters fed,
I'll have a party at the Bedford-head;
Or ev❜n to crack live Crawfish recommend,
I'd never doubt at Court to make a friend.

40

'Tis yet in vain, I own, to keep a pother

45

About one vice, and fall into the other:
Between Excess and Famine lies a mean;

Plain, but not fordid; tho' not splendid, clean.

S

Avidien, or his Wife (no matter which,

t

For him you'll call a dog, and her a bitch)

NOTES.

50

VER. 50. For him you'll call a dog, and her a bitch] One cannot but admire the lively turn here given to the Original.

Quinquennes oleas eft, et fylveftria corna ;

Ac, nifi mutatum, parcit defundere vinum; et
Cujus odorem olei nequeas perferre (licebit
Ille repotia, natales, aliofque dierum

W

Feftos albatus celebret) cornu ipfe bilibri Caulibus inftillat, * veteris non parcus aceti.

Quali igitur victu fapiens utetur, et horum Utrum imitabitur? hac urget lupus, hac canis, aiunt. y Mundus erit, qua non offendat fordibus, atque In neutram partem cultus mifer. Hic neque fervis Albuti fenis exemplo, dum munia didit,

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Saevus erit; nec fic ut fimplex Naevius, untam

Convivis praebebit aquam: vitium hoc quoque ma

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d

Afferat. In primis valeas bene; nam variae res

Ut noceant homini, credas, memor illius efcae,

с

Quae fimplex olim tibi federit. at fimul affis

Mifcueris elixa, fimul conchylia turdis ;

Dulcia fe in bilem vertent, ftomachoque tumultum

Lenta feret pituita. f Vides, ut pallidus omnis

Sell their presented partridges, and fruits,
And humbly live on rabbits and on roots:
One half pint bottle ferves them both to dine,
And is at once their vinegar and wine.

A

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But on fome lucky day (as when they found

A loft Bank-bill, or heard their Son was drown'd)
At fuch a feast, * old vinegar to spare,

Is what two fouls fo gen'rous cannot bear :

55

Oyl, tho' it ftink, they drop by drop impart,
But fowse the cabbage with a bounteous heart.

60

y He knows to live, who keeps the middle state, And neither leans on this fide, nor on that ; Nor 2 ftops, for one bad cork, his butler's pay, Swears, like Albutius, a good cook away ;

b

Nor lets, like Nævius, ev'ry error pafs,

The mufty wine, foul cloth, or greasy glass.

65

• Now hear what blefings Temperance can bring: (Thus faid our Friend, and what he faid I fing)

First Health: The ftomach (cramm'd from ev'ry

dish,

A tomb of boil'd and roast, and flesh and fish,
Where bile, and wind, and phlegm, and acid jar,,
And all the man is one intestine war)

Remembers oft the School-boy's fimple fare,
The temp'rate fleeps, and fpirits light as air.

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75

f How pale, each Worthipful and Rev'rend guest Rife from a Clergy, or a City feaft!

VOL. IV.

*F

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