To hear this Makaron talk : In vain, for yet,
Either my Humour, or his own to fit,
He like a privileg' & Spic, whóm nothing can
Discredit, libels now gainst each great Man.
He names a Price of every Office paid ;
He faith, our Wars thrive ill, because delay'd;
That Offices are intaild, and that there are
Perpetuities of them, lafting as far
As the last Day; and that great Officers
Do with the Spaniards fbare, and Dunkirkers.
I more amaz'd than Circe's Prisoners, when
They felt themselves turn Beasts, felt myself then
Becoming Traytor, and methought I saw
One of our Giant Statutes ope his faw,
To fuck me in for hearing him: I found
That as burnt venomous Letchers do grow found
By giving others their Sores, I might grow
Guilty, and he free: Therofore I did show
All Signes of Loathing ; but since I am in,
I must pay mine, and my Forefather's Sin
To the laĀ Farthing. Therefore to my
Power
Toughly and Aubbornly I bear this Cross; but the Howere
Of Mercy now was come : He tries to bring
Me to pay a Fine to 'scape his Tort uring,
And sayes, Sir, can you spare me? I said; willingly;
Nay, Sir, can you spare me a Crown? Thankfully I
Gave it as Ransom ; but as Fiddlers, fill,
Though they be paid to be gone, yet needs will
Thruft one more Jigg upon you ; so did he
With his long complemental Thanks vex me:
But he is gone, Thanks to his needy Want,
And the Prerogative of my Crown : Scant
His Thanks were ended, when I (which did see
All the Court fill'd with more ftrange Things than he)
Ran from thence with such, or more Haste than one
Who fears more Aftions doth hafte from Prifen.
When the Queen frown'd, or smiled, he knows; and
A subtle Minister may make of that ; [what
Who fins with whom; who got his Pension Rug,
Or quicken'd a Reversion by a Drug ;
Whose Place is quarter'd out three Parts in four,
And whether to a Bishop or a Whore ;
Who, having lost his Credit, pawn'd his Rent,
Is therefore fit to have a Government;
Who in the Secret, deals in Stocks fecure,
And cheats th' unknowing Widow, and the Poor;
Who makes a Trust, or Charity, a Job,
And gets an Act of Parliament to rob;
Why Turnpikes rose, and now no Cit, nor Clown,
Can gratis see the Country, or the Town :
Shortly no Lad shall chuck, or Lady vole,
But some excising Courtier will have Toil...
He tells what Strumpet Places fells for Life,
What 'Squire his Lands, what Citizen his Wife |
And laft, (which proves him wiser still than all)
What Lady's Face is not a whited Wall.
As one of iVoodward's Patients, sick and fore,
I puke, I nauseate, yet he thrusts in more;
Trims Europe's Ballance, tops the Statesman's Part,
And talks Gazettes and Post-boys o'er by Heart,
Like a big Wife, at Sight of loathsome Meat
Ready to cast, I yawn, I figh, I sweat.
Then as a licens'a Spy, whom nothing can
Silence or hurt, he libels the great Man:
Swears every Place entailď for Years to coine,
In sure Succession to the Day of Doom:
He names the Price for ev'ry Office paid,
And says our Wars thrive ill, because delay'd;
Nay hints, 'tis by Connivance of the Court,
That Spain robs on, and Dunkirk's still a Port.
Not more Amazement seiz'd on Circe's Guests,
To see themselves fall endlong into Beasts,
VOL. II.
Р
Than
At home in lonesome Solitariness
My piteous Soul began the Wretchedness
Of Suiters at Court to mourn, and a Trance
Like his, who dreamt he saw Hell, did advance
It self o'er me : Such Men as he saw there
I saw at Court, and worse and more. Low Fear
Becomes the Guilty, not th' Accuser : Then,
Shall 1, none's Slave, of high-born or rais'd Men
Fear Frowns; and my Mistress Truth, betray thee
For the hufing, braggart, puft Nobility ?
No, no, thou which since Yesterday hast been,
Almost about the whole World, hast thou seen,
Sun, in all thy Journey, Vanity,
Such as swells the Bladder of our Court? I
Think he which made your (*) Waxen-garden, and
Transported it from Italy, to stand
With us at London, flouts our Courtiers ; for
Just such gay painted Things, which no Sap, nor
Taste have in them, ours are; and natural
Some of the Stocks are, their Fruits Bastard all.
(*) A Show of the Italian Gardens in Wax-work, in the Time of King James the First,
Than mine to find a Subject stay'd and wife,
Already half turn'd Traytor by Surprize.
I fear'd th' Infection slid from him to me,
As in the Pox, some give it to get free;
And quick to swallow me, methought I saw
One of our Giant Statutes ope its Jaw!
In that nice Moment, as another Lye
Stood just a-tilt, the Minister came by.
To him he fies, and bows, and bows again
Then close as Umbra, joins the dirty Train.
Not Fannius self more impudently near,
When Half his Nofe is in his Prince's Ear.
I quak'd at Heart; and still afraid to see
All the Court fill'd with stranger Things than he,
Run out as fast, as one that, pays his Bail -
And dreads more Actions, hurries from a Jail. .
Bear me, some God! oh quickly bear me hence
To wholesome Solitude, the Nurse of Sense:
There Contemplation prunes her ruffled Wings,
And the free Soul looks down to pity Kings.
The fober Thought pursu'd th' amusing Theme
Till Fancy colour'd it, and form'd a Dream.
A Vision Hermits can to Hell transport,
*And force ev’n me to see the Damn’d at Courto,
Not Dante dreaming all th' infernal State,
Beheld fuch Scenes of Envy, Sin, and Hate.
Base Fear becomes the Guilty, not the Free;
Suits Tyrants, Plunderers, but suits not me:
Shall I, the Terror of this finful Town,
Care if a livery'd Lord or smile or frown?
Who cannot flatter, and detest who can,
Tremble before a noble Serving-man?
O my fair Mistress, Truth! shall I quit the,
For huffing, braggart, puft Nobility?
Thou, who lince Yesterday hast rollid o'er all
The busy, idle Blockheads of the Ball;
Haft
Haft thou, oh Sun! beheld an emptier Sort,
Than such as swell this Bladder of a Court?
Now Pox on those who shew a (+) Court in Wax !
It ought to bring all Courtiers on their Backs;
Such painted Puppets, such a varnish'd Race
Of hollow Gewgaws, only Dress and Face,
Such waxen Noses, stately staring Things
No Wonder some Folks bow, and think them Kings.
It) A famous. Show of the Court of France in Wax-work.
These were the last Satires Mr. Pope wrote, except the new Dunciad, which was his last poetical Work of all ; but before we enter into Discourse about that, it is proper that we omit not speaking of the Elay on Man, this Poem has a large Party of Admirers, and a large Party against it, it is addrels'd to the Lord Bolingbroke. As this is a very improper Place and Time for Debate, we shall only tell the Matter generally contain'd in it, and the Principles it chiefly builds upon.
He desires his Friend Lælius, that is my Lord, to expatiate freely with him over all this Scene of Man, which is a very generous Way of thinking, Epistle the First, Line 4; by which Means he thinks there will be found Subject for Laughter, but Motive for Candour, and sufficient Argument to vindicate the Ways of God to Man. Line 16, he says, that of God or Man we can only reason from what we know, that is, that there is an Extent of human Knowledge, and then immediately be checks the Searcher after Knowledge in ten Lines together, From Line 34 to Line 44, he says, that there is an infinite Chain of depending Beings, among which there must be such an one as Man, and that the
only
|