Around the ring loud peals of thunder rise, Dragging its limbs, they hear the body forth, And shouts exultant echo to the skies. Mashi'd teeth and clotted blood came issuing Uplifted now inanimate he seems, from his mouth. Forth from his nostrils gush the purple streams; Thus then the victor-" O celestial pow'r ! Gasping for breath, and impotent of hand, 51 Who gave this arm to boast one triumph more ; The youth beheld his rival stagg'ring stand : Now grey in glory, let my labours cease, But he, alas ! had felt th' unnerving blow, My blood-stain'd laurel wed the branch of peace ; And gaz'd, unable to assault the foe. Lur'd by the lustre of the golden prize, As when two monarchs of the brindled breed No more in combat this proud crest shall rise; Dispute the proud dominion of the mead, To future heroes future deeds belong, They fight, they foam, then weary'd in the fray, Be mine the theme of some immortal song. 90 Aloof retreat, and low'ring stand at bay; This said he seiz'd the prize, while round So stood the beroes, and indignant glar’d, the ring, While grim with blood their rueful fronts were High soar'd applause on acclamation's wing, smeard ; 60 Till with returning strength new rage returns, V. 88. No more in combat, &c.] Virgil. Again their arms are steel'd, again each bosom -hic victor cæstus, artem que repono. burns. Incessant now their hollow sides they pound, Loud on each breast the bounding bangs resound; HONOUR: A SATIRE, 1747. HOR, With feeble arm still vindicates the fight, 70 Till on the part where heav'd the panting breath, Load, load the pallet, boy !” hark ! Hogarth A fatal blow impress'd the seal of death. cries, Down dropt the hero, weltring in his gore, “ Fast as I paint, fresh swarms of fools arise ! And his stretch'd limbs lay quiv'ring on the floor. Groups rise on groups, and mock the pencil's So, when a falcon skims the airy way, pow'r, Stoops from the clouds, and pounces on his prey ; | To catch each new-blown folly of the hour." Dash'd on the earth the feather'd victim lies, While hum'rous Hogarth paints each fully Expands its feeble wings, and, flutt'ring, dies. dead, His faithful friends their dying hero rear'd, Shall vice triumphant rear its hydra head? D'er his broad shoulders dangling hung his At satire's sov'reign nod disdain to shrink ? head; 80 New reams of paper, and fresh floods of ink! his arm over his head, and by that means received On then, my Muse! Herculean labours dare, the fall he intended the enemy. I thought it and wage with virtue's foes eternal war; incumbent on me as a commentator to say thus Range through the town in search of ev'ry ill, much, to illustrate the meaning of our author, And cleanse th’ Augean stable with thy quill. which might seem a little obscure to those who “ But what avails the poignance of the song, are unacquainted with conflicts of this kind, Since all," you cry, “ still persevere in wrong. V. 48. echo to the skies, &c.] Virgil. Would courtly crimes to Mulgrave's' muse sube mit? It clamor cælo Or blush'd the monarch though a Wilmot: writ? The learned reader will perceive our author's still pandar peers disgrac'd the rooms of state, frequent allusions to Virgil; and whether he in- Still Cæsar's bed sustain'd a foreign weight; tended them as translations or imitations of the Slaves worshipp'd still the golden calf of pow'r, Roman poet, must give us pause : but as, in our And bishops, bowing, bless'd the scarlet whore. modern productions, we find imitations are gene- Shall then thy verse the guilty great reclaim, rally nothing more than bad translations, and Though fraught with Dryden's hear'n-descended translations nothing more than bad imitations ; flame? it would equally, I suppose, satisfy the gall of Will harpy Heathcote, from his mould'ring store, the critic, should these unluckily fall within Drag forth one cheering drachma to the poor? either description. Or Harrington, unfaithful to the seal, V. 63. Incessant now, &c.] Virgil. Throw in one suffrage for the public weal? Multa viri nequicquam inter se vulnera jactant: Pointless all satire, and misplac'd its aim, Multa cavo lateri ingeminant, & pectore vastos To wound the bosom, that'sobdur'd to shame: Dant sonitus, erratquc aures & tempora circum The callous heart ne'er feels the goad within ; Crebra manus: duro crepitant sub vulnere Few dread the censure, who can dare the sin. mala. Though on the culprit's cheek no blush should glow, V. 79. His failhful friends] Virgil. Still let me mark him to mankind a foe: At illum fidi æquales, genua ægra trahentem, Jactantemque utroque caput, crassumque cruo- " Translator of Horace's Art of Poetry, and afterwards duke of Buckingham, Ore rejectantem, mistosque in sanguine dentes, • Earl of Rochester. Ducunt ad naves. rem Strike but the deer, however slight the wound, " Why will you urge,” Eugenio cries, “your ft serves at least to drive him from the sound. fate? Shall reptile sinners frowning justice fear, Affords the town no sins but sins of state ? And pageant titles privilege the peer? Perches vice only on the court's high hill ? : So falls the humbler game in common fields, Or yields life's vale no quarry for the quill?" While the branch'd beast the royal forest shields. Manners, like fashions,still from courts descend, On, Satire, then ! pursue thy gen'rous plan, And what the great begin, the vulgar end. And wind the vice, regardless of the man. If v.cious then the mode, correct it here; Rouse, 'rouse! th' ennobled herd for public sport, He sares the peasant, who reforms the peer. And hunt them through the covert of a court. What Hounslow knight would stray from hom Just as the play'r the mimic portrait draws, nour's path, All claim a right of censure or applause: If guided by a brother of the Bath? What guards the place-man from an equal fate, Honour's a mistress all mankind pursue ; Who mounts but actor on the stage of state? Yet most mistake the false one for the true: Subject alike to each man's praise and blame, Lurd by the trappings, dazzled by the paint, Each critic voice the fiat of his fame ; We worship oft the idol for the saint. Though to the private soine respect we pay, Courted by all, by few the fair is won ; All public characters are public prey : Those lose who seek her, and those gain who shun; Pelham and Garrick, let the verse forbear Naked she flies to merit in distress, What sanctifies the treasurer or play'r. And leaves to courts the garnish of her dress. Great in her laureld sages Athens see, The million'd merchant seeks her in his gold; Free flow'd her satire while her sons were free: In schools the pedant, and in camps the bold : Then purpled guilt was dragg’d to public shame, The courtier views her, with admiring eyes, And each offence stood fragrant with a name; Flutter in ribbons, or in titles rise: Polluted ermine no respect could win, Sir Epicene enjoys her in his plume; No hallow'd lawn could sanctify a sia; Mead, in the learned wainscot of a room : 'Till tyrant pow'r usurp'd a lawless rule: By various ways all woo the modest maid; Then sacred grew the titled knave and fool ; Yet lose the substance, grasping at the shade. Then penal statutes aw'd the poignant song, Who, smiling, sees not with what various And slaves were taught, that kings could do no strife wrong Man blindly runs the giddy maze of life? Guilt still is guilt, to me, in slave or king, To the same end still diff'rent means employs ; Fetter'd in cells, or garter'd in the ring: This builds a church, a temple that destroys; And yet behold how various the reward, Both anxious to obtain a deathless name, Wild falls a felon, Walpole3 mounts a lord ! Yet, erring, both mistake report for fame. The little knave the law's last tribute pays, Report, though vulture-like the name it bear, While crowns around the great one's chariot Drags but the carrion carcass through the air ; blaze. While fare, Jove's nobler bird, superior flies, Blaze meteors, blaze! to me is still the same And, soaring, mounts the mortal to the skies. The cart of justice, or the coach of shame. So Richard's name to distant ages borne, Say, what's nobility, ye gilded train! Uvhappy Richard still is Britain's scorn : Does nature give it, or can guilt sustain ? Be Edward's wafted on fame's eagle wing, Blooms the form fairer, if the birth be high? Each patriot mourns the long-departed king; Or takes the vital stream a richer dye; Yet thine, O Edward ! shall to George'ss yield, What ! though a long patrician line ye claim, And Dettingen eclipse a Cressy's field. Are noble souls entail'd upon a name? Through life's wild ocean, who, would safely Anstis may ermine out the lordly earth, roam, Virtue's the herald that proclaims its worth. And bring the golden fleece of glory home, Hence mark the radiance of a Stanhope's star, Must, heedful, shun the barking Scylla's ruar, And glow-worm glitter of thine, D***r: And fell Charybdis' all-devouring shore ; Ignoble splendour! that but shines to all, With steady helm an equal course support, The humble badge of a court hospital. 'Twixt faction's rocks, and quicksands of a court ; Let lofty L**r wave his nodding plume, By virtue's beacon still direct his aim, Boast all the blushing honours of the loom, Through hozvur's channel, to the port of fame. Resplendent bondage no regard can bring, Yet, on this sea, how all mankind are tost ! 'Tis Methuen's heart must dignify the string. For one that's sav'd, what multitudes are lost ! Vice levels all, however high or low; Misguided by ambition's treach'rous light, And all the diff'rence but consists in show. Through want of skill, few make the harbour Who asks an alms, or supplicates a place, right. Alike is beggar, though in rags or lace: Hence mark what wrecks of virtue, friendship, Alike his country's scandal and its curse, fame, Who vends a vote, or who purloins a purse; For four dead letters added to a name ! Though crownets, Pult'ney, blazon on the plate, • Though the person here meant has indeed adds the base mark one scruple to its weight? paid the debt of nature, yet, as he has left that Though sounds patrician swell thy name, O of justice unsatisfied, the author apprehends that Stretches one aere thy plebeian lands? (Sandys ! the public are indisputably entitled to the assets 4 Richard the Second. 6 George the Second. of his reputation. Say, the proud title meant to plume the son, While fading laurels shade her drooping head Why gain by guilt, what virtue might have won ? And mark her Burleighs, Blakes, and Marlbro's Vain shall the son his herald honours trace, dead! Whose parent peer 's but patriot in disgrace. Such were thy sons, O happy isle ! of old, Vain, on the solemn head of hoary age, In counsel prudent, and in action bold: Totter's the mitre, if ambition's rage Now view a Pelbam puzzling o'er thy fate, To mammon pow'r the hallow'd heart incline, Lost in the maze of a perplex'd debate; And titles only mark the priest divive. And sage Newcastle, with fraternal skill, Blest race! to whom the golden age remains, Guard the nice conduct of a nation's quill: Ease without care, and plenty without pains : See truncheons trembling in the coward hand, For you the earth unlabourd treasure yields, Though bold rebellion half subdue the land; And the rich sheaves spontaneous crown the While ocean's god, indignant, wrests again fields; The long-deputed trident of the main7. No toilsome dews pollute the rev'rend brow, Sleep our last heroes in the silent tomb ? Each holy hand unharden'd by the plough; Why springs no future worthies from the womb! Still burst the sacred garners with their store, Not nature sure, since nature's still the same, And fails, unceasing, thunder on the floor. But education bars the road to fame. O bounteous Heav'n! yet Heav'n how seldom Who hopes for wisdom's crop, must till the soul, shares And virtue's early lesson should control: The titheful tribute of the preiate's pray’rs ! To the young breast who valour would impart, Lost to the stall, in senates still tbey nod, Must plant it by example in the heart. And all the monarch steals them from the God: Ere Britain fell to mimic modes a prey, Thy praises, Brunswick, every breast inspire, And took the foreign polish of our day, The throne their altar, and the court their choir; Train'd to the martial labours of the field, Here earliest incense they devoutly bring, Our youth were taught the massy spear to wield; Here everlasting hallelujah's sing: In halcyon peace, beneath whose downy wings Thou ! only thou! almighty to-translate, The merchant smiles, and lab'ring peasant sirgs, Thou their great golden deity of state. With civil arts to guard their country's cause, Who seeks on merit's stock to graft success, Direct her counsels, and defend her laws : In vain invokes the ray of pow'r to bless; Hcuce a long race of ancient wurthies rose, The stem, too stubborn for the courtly soil, Adorn’d the laud, and triumph'd o'er our foes. With barren branches mocks the virtuous toil. Ye sacred shades ! who through th' Elysian More pliant plants the royal regions suit, grove, Where knowledge still is hell forbidden fruit ; With Rome's fam'd chiefs,and Grecian sages rore, 'Tis these alone the kindly nurture share, Blush to behold what arts your offspring grace! And all Hesperia's golden treasures bear, Each fopling heir now marks his sire's disgrace; Let folly still be fortune's fondling heir, An embrio breed ! of such a doubtful frame, And science meet a step-dame in the fair. You scarce could know the sex but by the name : Let courts, like fortune, disinherit sense, Fraught with the native follies of his home, And take the idiot charge from Providence. Torn from the nurse, the babe of mirth must The idiot head the cap and bells may fit, roam ; But how disguise a Lyttelton and Pitt ! Through foreign climes exotic vice explore, O! once-lov'd youths! Britannia's blooming And call each weed, regardless of the flower, hope, Proud of thy spoils, O Italy and France ! Pair freedom's twins, and once the themeof Fope; The soft enervate strain, and cap'ring dance : What wond'ring scnates on your accents hung, From Sequan's streams, and winding banks of Po, Ere fatt’ry's poison chill'd the patriot tongue ! He comes, ye gods' an all-accomplish'd beau ! Rome's sacred thunder awes no more the ear; Unhumaniz'd in dress, with cheeks so wan! But Pelham smiles, who trembled once to hear. He mocks God's image in the mimic man; Say, whence this change? less galling is the Great judge of arts! o'er toilettes now presides, chain, Corrects our fashions, or an opera guides; Though Walpole, Carteret, or a Pelbam reign? From tyrant Ilandel rends th’imperial bay, If senates still the pois'nous bane imbibe, And guards the Magna Charta of-Sol-fa. And every palm grows callous with the bribe; Sick of a land where virtue dwells no more, If sev'n long years mature the venal voice, See Liberty prepar'd to quit our shore ! While freedom mourns her long-defrauded Pruning her pinions, on yon beacon'd height choice; The goddess stands, and meditates her flight; If justice waves o'er fraud a lenient hand, Now spreads her wings, unwilling yet to fly, And the red locust rages through the land. Again o'er Brilain casts a pitying eye; Sunk in these bouds, to Britain what avails, Who wields her sword, or balances her scales? the Mediterranean; as the nation was unluckily Veer round the compass, change to change suc the only victim on that occasion, the lenity of By every son the mother now inust bleed:[ceed, our aquarian judicature has, I think, evidently Vain all her hosts, on foreign shores array'd, proved, that a court-martial and a martial-court Though lost by Wentworth,or preserv'd by Wade. are by no means synonymous terms. Fleets, once which spread through distant worlds 9 The reader will readily conclude these lines her name ! were written before our worthy admirals Anson Now ride inglorious trophies of her shameb; and Warren had so eminently, distinguished themselves in the service of their country, Alluding to the ever-memorable no-fight in : 6 AN Loath to depart, methinks I hear her såy, Smokes not from Lincola meads the stately loin, Why arge me thus, ungrateful isle, away! Or rosy gammon of Hantonian swine? From Darkin's roosts the feather'd victims bleed, Still distant worlds nectareous treasures roll, Again she, sighing, says, or seems to say. And either India sparkles in my bowl; O Stanhope8! skill'd in ev'ry moving art, Or Devon's boughs, or Dorset's bearded fields, That charms the ear, or captirates the heart ! To Britain's arms a British beverage yields. Re your's the task, the goddess to retain, Rich in these gifts, why should I wish for And call her parent virtue back again; more? Improve your pow'r a sinking land to save, Why harter conscience for superfluous store? And vindicate the servant from the slave : Or haunt the levee of a purse-proud peer, 0! teach the vassal courtier how to share To rob poor Fielding of the cur le chair3 ? The royal favour with the public pray'r: Let the lean bard, whose belly, void of bread, Like Latium's genius 9 stem thy country's doom, Puffs ap pierian rapours to his head, And, though a Cæsar smile, remember Rome; In birth-day odes his flimsy fustian vent, With all the patriot dignify the place, And torture truth into a compliment; And prove at least one statesman may have Wear out the knocker of a great man's door, grace. Be pimp and poet, furnish rhyme or whore; Or fetch and carry for some foolish lord, * Earl of Chesterfield. 9 Brutus. To sneak—a sitting footman at his board. For place or pension prostitute each line ; Make gods of kings, and ministers divine; Swear St. John's self could neither read nor TO DOCTOR THOMSON, 1755. write, Sed quia mente minus validus, quam corpore And Cumberland * out-bravoes Mars in fight; toto, Call Dorset patriot, Willey 5 a legal tool, Nil audire velim, nil discere, quod levet ægrum, Horace 6 a wit, and Dödington a fool. Fidis offendar medicis. Ilor. prince dying, the world was inclined to faroux doctor Thompson's recommendations. He was an intimate friend of Mr. P. Whitehead, and PREFACE. a favourite with bim at the prince's-court. He The reader will perceive, from two or three was a man of a peculiar character; but learned, singular, and ingenious. passages in the following epistle, that it was 2 The Tagus-a principal river of Portugal, written some time since ; nor indeed would the famous for golden sands. whole of it have now been thought interesting enough to the public, to have passed the press, Qua Tagus auriferis pallet turbatus arenis. SiL xvi. 559. had not the physical persecution, carried on against the gentleman' to whom it it is address- 3 It is reported, that during the time Mr. ed, provoked the publication. When a body of Addison was secretary of state, when his old men, too proud to own their errours, and too pru- friend and ally Ambrose Phillips applied to him dent to part with their fees, shall (with their for some preferment, the great man very coolly legions of understrappers) enter into a conspi- answered, that “ he thought he had already racy against a brother practitioner, only for ho- provided for him, by making him justice for nestly endeavouring to moderate the one, and Westminster.” To which the bard, with some rectify the other; such a body, our anthor ap- indignation, replied, “ though poetry was a prehends, becomes a justifiable object of satire ; trade he could not live by, yet he scored to oue and only wishes his pen had, on this occasion, a his subsistence to another, which he ought not like killing efficacy with theirs. to live by.”—Horvever great men, in our days, may practise the secretary's prudence, certain it is, the person here pointed at was very far Why do you ask, “ that in this courtly dance, from making a precedent of his brother poet's Of in and out, it ne'er was yet my chance, principles. To bask beneath a statesman's fost'ring smile, It is apprehended, our modern campaigns And share the plunder of the public spoil ?" cannot fail furnishing the reader with a pro E’er wants my table the health-chearing meal, per supply for this passage, which this excellent chief magistrate is often dis1 Dr. Thompson was one of the physicians to tinguished among our marine, for his spirited Frederick, prince of Wales, in that disorder vindication of the supremacy of the civil Alag, which ended his life. Upun that occasion, the and rectifying the martial mistakes of some late doctor differed from all the physicians that at- naval tribunals. tended his highness, which brought upon him 6 A certain modern of that name, whose sole their most virulent rage and indignation; for the pretension to this character (except a little arch a Such be your venal task; whilst, blest with ease, / Sball Galen's sons with privilege destroy, Or is man's life less precious than his sin ? With palsied hand should justice hold the Still doom'd 'gainst wicked wit my pen to draw, scale, Correct each bard by critic rules of law; And o'er a judge court-complaisance prevail, "Twixt guilt and shame the legal buckler place, Satire's strong dose the malady requires : And guard each courtly culprit from disgrace? I write-when, lo! the bench indignant fires; Hard task ! should future jurymen inberit Each hoary head erects its load of hair ; The city-twelve's self-judging British spirit.7" Their furs all bristle, and their eye-balls glare ; While you, my Thoinpson ! spite of med'cine In rage they roar, “With rev'rend ermine sport! save, Seize! seize him, tipstaff!--Tis contempt of Mark how the college peoples every grave! court." See Mead transfer estates from sire to son, Led by the meteor of a mitre's ray, And ** bar succession to a throne 8! If Sion's sons through paths unhallow'd stray, See Shaw scarce leave the passing-bell a fee, For courtly rites neglect each rubric rule, And N**'s set the captive husband free! Quit all the saint, and truckle all the tool; Though widow'd Julia giggles in her weed, Their maker only in the monarch see, Yet who arraigns the doctor for the deed ? Nor e'er omit, at Brunswick's name, the knee; O'er life and death all absolute bis will, To cure this loyal lethargy of grace, Right the prescription, whether cure or kill. And rouse to Heav'n again its recreant race, Not so,—whose practice is the mind's dis- Say! should the Muse, with one irrev'rend line, ease; Probe but the mortal part of the divine ; His potion must not only cure, but please : 'Tis blasphemy, by ev'ry priest decreed ! Apply the caustic 10 the callous heart, No benefit of clergy may I plead; Undone's the doctor, if the patient smart ; With every canon pointed at my bead, Superior pow'rs his mental bill control, Alive I'm censur'd, ard I'm damn'd when deada And law corrects the physic of the soul. Lawyer and priest, like Joctors, still agree; 'Tis theirs to give advice; 'tis ours, the fee : buffoonery) consists in a truly poetical negli- To them alone all earthly rule is giv'ı, gence of his person. Dipluma'd from St. James's, and from Heav'n. 7 Alluding to the constitutional verdict given Yet ills there are, nor bench, nor pulpit reach; « The Case of the bonourable Alexander Murray, Lurk in the star, or lord it in a place; on the trial of William Owen, for publishing In vain may Ryder charge, or Sherlock preach; Por law too mighty, and too proud for grace, esq. "ma pamphlet written by P. Whitehead. Š This line furnishes a melancholy memento Brood in the sacred circle of a crown, of the most fatal catastrophe that perhaps ever While fashion wafts their poison through the befel this nation. Among the various tributary town : verses which flowed on that occasion, our author Hence o'er each village the contagion wings, wrote the following; and which he here takes And peasants catch the maladies of kings. the liberty to insert, being willing to seize every When purpled vice shall humble justice awe, opportunity, to perpetuate his sense of our pub- and fashion make it current, spite of law; lic loss, in the death of that truly patriot prince. What, but the poet's panacea—shame! What sovereign med'cine can its course reclaim! Frederick. Thus wit's great Esculapius once prevail'd, When Jove, late revolving the state of mankind And satire triumpli'd, where the fasces faild: 'Mong Britons no traces of virtue could find, No consul's wreath could lurking folly hide, O'er the island, indignant, he stretch'd forth his No vestal looks secure the guilty bride: [guise, Earth trembled, and Ocean acknowledged the Aud made Rome's matrons modest, statesmen The poignant verse pierc'd through each fair disGod.* wise. Still provok'd by our crimes, Heav'n's ven- Search all your statutes, sergeant! where's the geance to show, [blow : balm Ammon, grasping his belts, aim'd at Britain the Can cure the itching of a courtier's palm? But pausing--more dreadful, his wrath to evince, Where thechaste canon, say, thou hallow'd sage, Threw the thunder aside, and sent fate for the The virgin's glowing wishes can assuage ? prince. Let but the star his longing lordship see, What pow'r can set the captive conscience free! · A like correction, with regard to the physic Hang but the sparkling pendant at her ears, of the body, might prove no bad security for what trembling maid the gen'rous lover fears? the life and property of the patient, as the faculty are at present accountable to no other power but that of Heaven, for the rectitude of the province of the physician, and the apotheTheir conduct. And perhaps no civilized nation cary plumes himself in the perriwig and plunder can afford such an instance of physical anarchy of both professions.—In a public spirited endeaas ours, where the surgeon is permitted to usurp discipline in practice, consists a Thumpson's emom vour to cure this anarchy, and restore a proper * Alluding to the preceding earthquakes, in piricism. Hinc illæ lachrymæ.1750. 10 Horatius Flaccus. rod; |
