•Romæ dulce diu fuit et folemne, reclufa

Mane domo vigilare, clienti promere jura;
Scriptos nominibus rectis expendere nummos;
Majores audire, minori dicere, per quæ

Crefcere res poffet, minui damnofa libido.

Mutavit mentem populus levis, het calet uno

Scribendi ftudio: puerique patrefque feveri

Fronde comas vincti cœnant, et carmina diâant.

Ipfe ego, qui nullos me affirmo fcribere verfus,

Inveniori Parthis mendacior; et prius orto

Sole vigil, calamum et chartas et fcrinia pofco.

k

* Navem agere ignarus navis timet: abrotonum ægro

Non audet, nifi qui didicit, dare : quod medicorum eft,

1

Promittunt medici: tractant fabrilia fabri:

VER 181. He ferved, etc.] To the fimple elegance of the original, the Poet has here added great spirit and vivacky, without departing from the fidelity of a translation,

* Time was, a fober Englishman would knock
His fervants up, and rife by five o'clock,
Inftruct his Family in ev'ry rule,

And fend his Wife to church, his Son to School.
To worship like his Fathers, was his care;
To teach their frugal Virtues to his Heir;
To prove, that Luxury could never hold;

g

And place, on good Security, his Gold.

165

Now times are chang'd, and one Poetic Itch
Has feiz'd the Court and City, poor and rich: 170
Sons, Sires, and Grandfires, all will wear the bays,
Our Wives read Milton, and our Daughters Plays,
To theatres, and to Rehearsals throng,

And all our Grace at table is a Song.

I, who so oft renounce the Mafes, *lye,
Not―'s felf e'er tells more Fibbs than I ;
When fick of Mufe, our follies we deplore,
And promise our beft Friends to rhyme no more;
We wake next morning in a raging fit,

And call for pen and ink to fhow our Wit.

k

* He serv'd a 'Prenticeship, who fets up fhop; Ward try'd on Puppies, and the Poor, his Drop; Ev'n' Radcliff's Doctors travel first to France, Nor dare to practife till they've learn'd to dance.

175

180

VER. 182. Ward] A famous Empiric, whose Pill and Drop had feveral furprizing Effects, and were one of the principal sub-~

Scribimus indocti doctique poemata paffim.

"Hic error tamen et levis haec infania, quantas

Virtutes habeat, fic collige: vatis avarus

Non temere eft animus: verfus amat, hoc ftudet

unum ;

Detrimenta, fugas fervorum, incendia ridet;

Non' fraudem focio, puerove incogitat ullam

Pupillo; vivit filiquis, et pane fecundo';

Militiæ quanquam piger et malus, utilis urbi;

Si das hoc, parvis quoque rebus magna juvari;
Os tenerum pueri balbumque poeta figurat:

VER. 201. Of little ufe, etc.] There is a poignancy in the following verfes, which the original did not aim at, nor affect.

VER. 204. And (tho' no Soldier)] Horace had not acquitted himself much to his credit in this capacity (non bene reli&ta formula) in the battle of Philippi. It is manifeft he alludes to himself, in this whole account of a Poet's character; but with an intermixture of irony: Vivit filiquis et pane fecundo has a relation to his Epicurifm; Os tenerum pueri, is ridicule: The nobler

Who builds a Bridge that never drove a pile? 185 (Should Ripley venture, all the world would smile) But those who cannot write, and those who can, All rhyme, and fcrawl, and fcribble, to a man.

Yet, Sir," reflect, the mischief is not great; These Madmen never hurt the Church or State: 190 Sometimes the Folly benefits mankind,

And rarely Av'rice taints the tuneful mind.
Allow him but his P plaything of a Pen,

Ne ne'er rebels, or plots, like other men:

9 Flight of Cashiers, or Mobs, he'll never mind; 195 And knows no loffes while the Mufe is kind.

г

S

200

To cheat a Friend, or Ward, he leaves to Peter;
The good man heaps up nothing but mere metre,
Enjoys his Garden and his book in quiet;
And then- -a perfect Hermit in his diet.
Of little ufe the Man you may suppose,
Who says in verse what others say in profe;
Yet let me show, a Poet's of fome weight,
And (t tho' no Soldier) useful to the State.

V

What will a Child learn fooner than a fong? 205 What better teach a Foreigner the tongue ?

office of a Poet follows: Torquet ab obfcoenis-Mox etiam pectus -Recte facta refert, etc. which the Imitator has apply'd where he thinks it more due than to himself. He hopes to be pardoned, if, as he is fincerely inclined to praise what deferves to be praised, he arraigns what deferves to be arraigned, in the 210, 211, and 212th Verses.

VER. R. 213. Unhappy Dryden--In all Charles's days,—Roscommon only boafts unfpotted bays;] The fudden ftop after mentioning the name of Dryden has a great beauty. The Poet's tenderness for his mafter is expreffed in the fecond line by making his cafe general; and his honour for him, in the first line, by making his cafe particular, as the only one that deserved pity.

VER. 226. the Ideot and the Poor.] A foundation for the maintenance of Idiots, and a Fund for affifting the Poor, by lending fmall fums of money on demand.

VER. 229. Not but there are, etc] Nothing can be more truly humourous or witty than all that follows to ver. 240. Yet the noble fobriety of the original, or, at leaft, the appearance of fobriety, which is the fame thing here, is of a taste vaftly fuperior to it.