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So-Satire is no more-I feel it die-
No Gazetteer more innocent than I-

85

And let, a God's-name, ev'ry Fool and Knave
Be grac'd thro' Life, and flatter'd in his Grave.
F. Why fo? if Satire knows its Time and Place,
You still may lash the greatest-in Disgrace:
For Merit will by turns forfake them all;
Would you know when? exactly when they fall. 90
But let all Satire in all Changes spare
Immortal S-k, and grave De-re !
Silent and foft, as Saints remove to Heav'n,
All Tyes diffolv'd, and ev'ry Sin forgiv'n,
These may fome gentle minifterial Wing
Receive, and place for ever near a King!
There, where no Paffion, Pride, or Shame transport,
Lull'd with the fweet Nepenthe of a Court;

95

VER. 92. Immortal S―k, and grave De-re!] A title given that Lord by King James II. He was of the Bedchamber to King William; he was fo to King George I. he was so to King George II. This Lord was very fkilful in all the forms of the Houfe, in which he discharged himself with great gravity.

VER. 97. There, where no Paffion, etc.] The excellent writer De l'Esprit des Loix gives the following character of the Spirit of Courts, and the Principle of Monarchies: “ Qu'on "life ce que les Hiftoriens de tous les tems ont dit fur la Cour "des Monarques; qu'on fe rapelle les conversations des hommes "de tous les Païs fur le miferable caractère des COURTISANS; 66 ce ne font point des chofes de fpeculation, mais d'une trifte "expérience. L'ambition dans l'oifiveté, la baffeffe dans "l'orgueil, le defir de s'enrichir fans travail, l'averfion pour la "verité; la flaterie, la trahison, la perfidie, l'abandon de tous ❝fes engagemens, le mepris des devoirs du Citoyen, la crainte

There, where no Father's, Brother's, Friend's disgrace Once break their reft, or ftir them from their Place: But paft the Sense of human Miseries,

All Tears are wip'd for ever from all eyes;

No cheek is known to blush, no heart to throb,
Save when they lofe a Question, or a Job.

ΤΟΙ

P. Good Heav'n forbid, that I should blaft their glory,

105

Who know how like Whig Minifters to Tory,
And when three Sov'reigns dy'd, could fcarce be vext,
Confid'ring what a gracious Prince was next.
Have I in filent wonder, feen fuch things
As Pride in Slaves, and Avarice in Kings;
And at a Peer, or Peerefs, fhall I fret,
Who ftarves a Sifter, or forfwears a Debt?

66

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 112. in fome editions,

Who ftarves a Mother,

110

de la vertu du Prince, l'efperance de fes foibleffes, et plus, que tout cela, LE RIDICULE PERPETUEL JETTE SUR LA VERTU, font, je crois, le Caractére de la plupart des *Courtifans marqué dans tous les lieux et dans tous les tems. "Or il est très mal-aisé que les Principaux d'un Etat foient "malhonnêtes-gens, & que les inferieurs foient gens-de-bien, que ceux-la foyent trompeurs, & que ceux-ci confentent à n'être que dupes. Que fi dans le Peuple il fe trouve quelque malheureux honnête-homme, le Cardinal de Richelieu dans fon "Teftament politique infinue, qu'un Monarque doit fe garder de "s'en fervir. Tant-il eft vrai que la Vertu n'eft pas le reffort de ce Gouvernment."

VER. 108. gracious Prince] The ftyle of Addresses on an asceffion,

Virtue, I grant you, is an empty boaft;

7 But fhall the Dignity of Vice be lost?

Ye Gods! fhall Cibber's Son, without rebuke, 115 Swear like a Lord, or Rich out-whore a Duke?

A Fav'rite's Porter with his Mafter vie,

Be brib'd as often, and as often lie?

Shall Ward draw Contracts with a Statesman's skill ?
Or Japhet pocket, like his Grace, a Will?
Is it for Bond, or Peter, (paltry things)

120

To pay their Debts, or keep their Faith, like Kings? If Blount dispatch'd himself, he play'd the man, And fo may'ft thou, illuftrious Pafferan!

But fhall a Printer, weary of his life,

125

Learn, from their Books, to hang himself and Wife?

VER. 113. Virtue, I grant you, is an empty boaft ;] A fatirical ambiguity- either that those starve who have it, or that those who boast of it, have it not: and both together (he infinuates) make up the present state of modern virtue.

VER. 115. Cibber's Son,-Rich] Two Players: look for them in the Dunciad.

VER. 123. If Blount.] Author of an impious and foolish book called the Oracles of Reafon, who being in love with a near kinfwoman of his, and rejected, gave himself a stab in the arm, as pretending to kill himself, of the confequence of which he #really died.

VER. 124. Pafferan!] Author of another book of the fame ftamp, called A philofophical difcourfe on death, being a defence of fuicide. He was a nobleman of Piedmont, banished from his country for his impieties, and lived in the utmost misery, yet feared to practise his own precepts.-This unhappy man at laft died a penitent.

VER. 125. But fhall a Printer, etc.] A Fact that happened in London a few years paft. The unhappy man left behind him

This, this, my friend, I cannot, muft not bear;
Vice thus abus'd, demands a Nation's care:
This calls the Church to deprecate our Sin,

And hurls the Thunder of the Laws on Gin.

130

Let modeft FOSTER, if he will, excell
Ten Metropolitans in preaching well;
A fimple Quaker, or a Quaker's Wife,
Out-do Landaffe in Doctrine,-yea in Life:
Let humble ALLEN, with an aukward Shame,
Do good by stealth, and blush to find it Fame.

135

a paper justifying his action by the reasonings of fome of thefe

authors.

VER. 129. This calls the Church to deprecate our Sin,] Alluding to the forms of prayer, compofed in the times of public calamity; where the fault is generally laid upon the People.

VER. 130. Gin.] A fpirituous liquor, the exorbitant use of which had almost destroyed the lowest rank of the People till it was reftrained by an act of Parliament in 1736.

VER. 134. Landaffe.] A poor Bishoprick in Wales, as poorly fupplied.

VER. 135. Let bumble ALLEN with an aukward Shame,-Do good by fealth, and bluff to find it Fame.] We are fo abfolutely governed by cuftom, that to act contrary to it, creates even in virtuous men, who are ever modeft, a kind of diffidence, which is the parent of Shame. But when, to this, there is joined a confcioufnefs that, in forfaking cuftom, you follow truth and reafon, the indignation arifing from fuch a confcious virtue, mixing with Shame, produces that amiable aukwardness, in going out of the fashion, which the Poet, here, celebrates;

and blush to find it Fame,

i. e. He blushed at the degeneracy of his times, which, at best, gave his goodness its due commendation (the thing he never aimed at) instead of following and imitating his example, which

Virtue may choose the high or low Degree, "Tis juft alike to Virtue, and to me; Dwell in a Monk, or light upon a King,

140

She's ftill the fame, belov'd, contented thing,
Vice is undone, if she forgets her Birth,
And ftoops from Angels to the Dregs of Earth:
But 'tis the Fall degrades her to a Whore;
Let Greatness own her, and fhe's mean no more, 145
Her Birth, her Beauty, Crowds and Courts confefs,
Chafte Matrons praise her, and grave Bishops bless;
In golden Chains the willing World she draws,
And hers the Gofpel is, and hers the Laws,
Mounts the Tribunal, lifts her fcarlet head,
And fees pale Virtue carted in her ftead.
Lo! at the wheels of her triumphal Car,
Old England's Genius, rough with many a Scar,
Dragg'd in the duft! his arms hang idly round,
His Flag inverted trails along the ground!

150

Our Youth, all liv'ry'd o'er with foreign Gold, 155 Before her dance: behind her, crawl the Old!

was the reason why some acts of it were not done by stealth, but more openly.

VER. 138. 'Tis juft alike to Virtue, and to me;] He gives the reafon for it, in the line that prefently follows,

She's ftill the fame, belov'd, contented thing. So that the sense of the text is this, "It is all one to Virtue on "whom her influence falls, whether on high or low, because "it ftill produces the fame effect, their content; and it is all one "to me, because it still produces the fame effect, my love,"

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