-What are you thinking? F. Faith, the thought's no sin; I think your friends are out, and would be in. P. If merely to come in, sir, they go out, The way they take is strangely round about. F. They too may be corrupted, you'll allow ? P. I only call those knaves who are so now. Is that too little? come, then, I'll comply— Spirit of Arnall!7 aid me while I lie: Cobham's a coward, Polwarth is a slave, And Lyttelton a dark designing knave, St. John has ever been a wealthy foolBut let me add, Sir Robert's mighty dull, Has never made a friend in private life, And was, besides, a tyrant to his wife. But pray, when others praise him, do I blame? Call Verres, Wolsey, any odious name? Why rail they then if but a wreath of mine, Oh, all-accomplish'd St. John! deck thy shrine? What! shall each spur-gall'd hackney of the day, When Paxton gives him double pots and pay, Or each new-pension'd sycophant, pretend To break my windows 9 if I treat a friend; Then wisely plead to me they meant no hurt, But 'twas my guest at whom they threw the dirt? Sure if I spare the minister, no rules 9 They were broken one day while Lords Bathurst and Bolingbroke were dining with him at Twickenham. Of honour bind me not to maul his tools; And begg'd he'd take the pains to kick the rest; F. Hold, sir! for God's sake; where's th' affront to you? Against your worship when had S**k1 writ? The priest whose flattery bedropp'd the crown, How hurt he you? he only stain'd the gown. And how did, pray, the florid youth offend, Whose speech you took, and gave it to a friend? P. Faith, it imports not much from whom it came; Whoever borrow'd could not be to blame, 1 Sherlock. 2 Judge Page: see note 9 p. 23. 3 A line in an Epistle to Sir Robert Walpole by Lord Melcombe. • Walpole. 5 Dr. Alured Clarke, who wrote a panegyric on Queen Caroline. 9 • Lord Hervey, who used to paint himself: see note p. 13. Since the whole house did afterwards the same. Let courtly wits to wits afford supply, As hog to hog in huts of Westphaly : If one, through nature's bounty or his lord's, Drops to the third, who nuzzles close behind; F. This filthy simile, this beastly line, Quite turns my stomach-P. So does flattery mine; And all your courtly civet-cats can vent, Perfume to you, to me is excrement. But hear me further-Japhet,7 'tis agreed, Writ not, and Chartres scarce could write or read; In all the courts of Pindus, guiltless quite; But pens can forge, my friend, that cannot write; And must no egg in Japhet's face be thrown, Because the deed he forg'd was not my own? Must never patriot then declaim at gin Unless, good man! he has been fairly in; No zealous pastor blame a failing spouse Without a staring reason on his brows? And each blasphemer quite escape the rod, Because the insult's not on man but God? Ask you what provocation I have had? The strong antipathy of good to bad. yours. When truth or virtue an affront endures, P. So proud, I am no slave; So impudent, I own myself no knave; When black ambition stains a public cause, A monarch's sword when mad vainglory draws, Not Waller's wreath can hide the nation's scar, Nor Boileau turn the feather to a star. Not so when diadem'd with rays divine, Touch'd with the flame that breaks from virtue's shrine, Her priestess muse forbids the good to die, There other trophies deck the truly brave Yes, the last pen for freedom let me draw, When truth stands trembling on the edge of law. Here, last of Britons; let your names be read; Are none, none living? let me praise the dead; And for that cause which made your fathers shine, Fall by the votes of their degenerate line. F. Alas! alas! pray end what you began, And write next winter more Essays on Man. 4 p. 50. 8 See note 9 Kent and Grafton. |