20

If then plain bread and milk will do the feat, 15
The pleasure lies in you, and not the meat.

k Preach as I please, I doubt our curious men
Will chuse a pheasant still before a hen;
Yet hens of Guinea full as good I hold,
Except you eat the feathers green and gold.
? Of carps and mullets why prefer the great,
(Tho'cut in pieces 'ere my Lord can eat)
Yet for small Turbots such esteem profess?
Because God made these large, the other less.
m Oldfield with more than Harpy throat endu'd, 25
Cries “ Send me, Gods! a whole Hog barbecu'd !"

Notes.

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

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

Porrettum magno magnum spectare catino, which, by the flownels of the Syllables, where four spondees follow one another, well expresses the enormous bulk of the fish which the Glutton pray'd for.

Ibid. Hog barbecu’d, etc.] A West Indian term of gluttony, a hog roasted whole, stuffed with spice, and batted with Madera wine. P.

Praefentes Auftri, coquite horum opsonia: quam

quam
Putet aper rhombusque recens, mala copia quando
Aegrum sollicitat ftomachum ; cum rapula plenus
Atque acidas mavult inulas. necdum omnis abacta
Pauperies epulis regum : nam vilibus ovis
Nigrisque est oleis hodie locus. Haud ita pridem
Galloni praeconis erat acipensere mensa
Infamis. quid ? tum rhombos minus aequora alebant?
P Tutus erat rhombus, tutoque ciconia nido,
Donec vos auctor docuit praetorius. ergo
9 Si quis nunc mergos suaves edixerit assos,
Parebit pravi docilis Romana juventus.

Sordidus a tenui victus diftabit, Ofello
Judice: nam fruftra vitium vitaveris istud,
Si te alio pravus de torseris. Avidienus,
? Cui Canis ex vero ductum cognomen adhaeret,

S

Notes. VER. 27. Ob blast it, South-winds!) This has not the force, nor gives us the pleasant allusion in the original, coquite.

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

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

1

30

Oh blast it, South-winds! till a ftench 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 something bitter, something four,
And the rich feast concludes extremely poor :
• Cheap eggs, and herbs, and olives still we fee; 35
Thus much is left of old Simplicity!
p The Robin-red-breast till of late had reft,
And children facred held a Martin's nest,
Till Becca-ficos fold so dev'lish dear
To one that was, or would have been a Peer.

40
4 Let me extol a Cat, on oysters 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.

r '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 sordid ; tho’not splendid, clean.

s Avidien, or his Wife (no matter which, For him you'll call a' dog, and her a bitch)

Notes. 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.

50

Quinquennes oleas eft, et sylvestria corna ;
v Ac, nifi mutatum, parcit defundere vinum ; et
Cujus odorem olei nequeas perferre (licebit
Ille repotia, natales, aliosque dierum

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

Quali igitur victu sapiens utetur, et horum Utrum imitabitur ? hac urget lupus, hac canis, aiunt. y Mundus erit, qua non offendat fordibus, atque In neutram partem cultus miser. . Hic neque servis Albuti senis exemplo, dum munia didit, Saevus erit; nec fic ut fimplex b Naevius, unetam

Convivis praebebit aquam: vitium hoc quoque ma

gnúm.

¢ Accipe nunc, victus tenuis quae quantaque fecum Afferat. In primis valeas bene; nam variae res Ut noceant homini, credas, memor illius efcae, Quae fimplex Colim tibi sederit. at simul affis Miscueris elixa, fimul conchylia turdis ; Dulcia se in bilem vertent, ftomachoque tumultum Lenta feret pituita. Vides, ut pallidus omnis

Sell their presented partridges, and fruits,
And humbly live on rabbits and on roots :

One half pint bottle serves them both to dine,
And is at once their vinegar and wine.
But on some " lucky day (as when they found 55
A loft Bank-bill, or heard their Son was drown'd)
At such a feast, * old vinegar to spare,
Is what two souls so gen'rous cannot bear :
Oyl, tho’ it stink, they drop by drop impart,

60 But fowse the cabbage with a bounteous heart.

y He knows to live, who keeps the middle state, And neither leans on this side, nor on that ; Nor a stops, for one bad cork, his butler's pay, Swears, like Albutius, a good cook away; Nor lets, like o Navius, ev'ry error pass, The musty wine, foul cloth, or greasy glass.

Now hear what blessings Temperance can bring: (Thus said our Friend, and what he said I fing) First Health : The stomach (cramm'd from ev'ry dish,

70 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 ofte the School-boy's fimple fare, The temp’rate sleeps, and spirits light as air. 75

* How pale, each Worthipful and Rey'rend guest Rise from a Clergy, or a City feast !

Vol. IV.

65

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* F