THE FIRST SATIRE OF THE SECOND BOOK OF HORACE IMITATED. TO MR. FORTESCUE. P. THERE are, (I scarce can think it, but am told,) There are, to whom my satire seems too bold: Scarce to wise Peter complaisant enough, And something said of Chartres much too rough. Lord Fanny spins a thousand such a day. I come to council learned in the law: You'll give me, like a friend both sage and free, F. I'd write no more. And for P. Not write? but then I think, my soul I cannot sleep a wink. I nod in company, I wake at night, Fools rush into my head, and so I write. 5 10 14 F. You F. You could not do a worse thing for your life. Lettuce and cowslip-wine; Probatum est. 19 P. What? like Sir Richard, rumbling, rough, and fierce, With ARMS, and GEORGE, and BRUNSWICK crowd the verse, 25 Rend with tremendous sound your ears asunder, P. Alas! few verses touch their nicer ear; It is to history he trusts for praise. F. Better be Cibber, I'll maintain it still, 30 35 Than ridicule all taste, blaspheme quadrille, Abuse VER. 28. falling borse?] The horse on which His Majesty charged at the battle of Oudenard; when the Pretender, and the Princes of the blood of France, fled before him Abuse the city's best good men in metre, And laugh at peers that put their trust in Peter. 40 Ev'n those you touch not hate you. P. What should ail 'em? F. A hundred smart in Timon and in Balaam : The fewer still you name, you wound the more; Bond is but one, but Harpax is a score. P. Each mortal has his pleasure: none deny Scarsdale his bottle, Darty his ham-pye; Ridotta sips and dances, till she see 45 The doubling lustres dance as fast as she; F--- lov's the senate, Hockley-hole his brother, 50 I love to pour out all myself, as plain As downright SHIPPEN, or as old Montagne : The soul stood forth, nor kept a thought within; 5.5 60 My VER.46. Darty] Lyttelton, in his Dialogues of the Dead, has introduced Darteneuf, in a pleasant discourse betwixt him and Apicius, bitterly lamenting his ill-fortune in having lived before turtlefeasts were known in England. The story of the ham-pye was confirmed by Mr. Dodsley, who knew Darteneuf, and, as he candidly owned, had waited on him at dinner. VER. 52. Downright SHIPPEN,] M. P. for Newton, Lancashire, a Jacobite. My foes shall wish my life a longer date, And ev'ry friend the less lament my fate. My head and heart thus flowing through my quill, Like good Erasmus in an honest mean, While Tories call me Whig, and Whigs a Tory. 65 70 Peace is my dear delight-not FLEURY's more : 75 But touch me, and no minister so sore. Slander or poison dread from Delia's rage, 80 From VER. 70. To run a muck,] Alludes to a practice among the Malayans, who are great gamesters; which is, that when a man has lost all his property, he intoxicates himself with opium, works himself up to a fit of phrenzy, rushes into the streets, and attacks and murders all he meets. VER. 81. Delia's rage.] A Miss Mackenzie died about this time, and was supposed to have been poisoned from jealousy. A hint of this kind was sufficient for Pope. The person alluded to was Lady D -ne. |