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The house, the name to BILLY will I show,
Long has DUNDAS the secret wish'd to know,
And he shall know: since services like these
Have little pow'r our virtuous youth to please.

Come, BILLY, come. For you each rising day
My maids, tho' tax'd, shall twine a huge bouquet:
That you, next winter, at the birth-night ball
In loyal splendor may out-dazzle all;

160

Dear Mrs. Rose her needle shall employ,

165

To 'broider a fine waistcoat for my boy;

In gay design shall blend with skilful toil,
Gold, silver, spangles, crystals, beads, and foil,
'Till the rich work in bright confusion show
Flow'rs of all hues-and many more than blow.
I too, for something to present-some book
Which BILLY wants, and I can spare-will look :
EDEN'S five letters, with an half-bound set
Of pamphlet schemes to pay the public debt;
And pasted there, too thin to bind alone,

170

175

My SHELBURNE's speech so gracious from the throne.
COCKER'S arithmetic my gift shall swell;

By JOHNSON how esteem'd, let BOSWELL tell
Take too these Treaties by DEBRETT; and here
Take to explain them, SALMON'S Gazetteer.

180

IMITATIONS.

Huc ades, O formose puer. Tibi lilia plenis
Ecce ferunt nymphæ calathis: tibi candida Naïs
Pallentes violas, et summa papavera carpens
Narcissum et florem jungit bene olentis anethi.
Tum casiâ, atque aliis intexens suavibus herbis
Mollia luteolâ pingit vaccinia calthâ.

Ipse ego cana legam tenerà lanugine mala,
Castaneasque nuces, mea quas Amaryllis amabat :

And you, Committee labours of DUNDAS,

And you,
his late dispatches to Madras,
Bound up with BILLY's fav'rite act I'll send;

Together bound-for sweetly thus you blend.

ROSE, you're a blockhead! Let no factious scribe 185 Hear such a thought, that BILLY heeds a bribe: Or grant th' Immaculate, not proof to pelf, Has STEELE a soul less liberal than yourself? -Zounds! what a blunder! worse than when I made A FRENCH arrêt, the guard of BRITISH trade. Ah! foolish boy, whom fly you ?-Once a week The KING from Windsor deigns these scenes to seek.

190

IMITATIONS.

Addam ceroa pruna; honos erit huic quoque pomo

Et vos,

O lauri carpam, et te, proxima myrtus

Sic positæ, quoniam suaves miscetis odores.

Rusticus es, Corydon! nec munera eurat Alexis

Nec, si muneribus certes, concedat Iolas.

Eheu

quid volui misero mihi? Floribus Austrum

Perditus, et liquidis immisi fontibus apros.

Quem fugis, ah! demens? habitârunt Di quoque sylvas,

Dardaniusque Paris. Pallas, quas condidit, arces

Ipse colat: Nobis placeant ante omnia sylvæ.

NOTES.

Ver. 181. The orders of the Board of Controul, relative to the debts of the Nabob of Arcot, certainly appear diametrically opposite to Mr. Dundas's Reports, and to an express clause of Mr. Pitt's bill. Our author, however, like Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dundas, roundly asserts the consistency of the whole.

Ver. 189. This unfortunate slip of the Honourable Secretary's constitutional logic happened in a debate on the Irish Propositions. Among the many wild chimeras of faction on that memorable occasion, one objection was, that the produce of the French West-Indian Islands might be legally smuggled through Ireland into this country. To which Mr. Rose replied, "That we might repeal all our acts in perfect security, because the French King had lately issued an arrêt which would prevent this smuggling."

195

Young GALLOWAY too is here, in waiting still.
Our coasts let RICHMOND visit, if he will;
There let him build, and garrison his forts,
If such his whim :-Be our delight in courts.
What various tastes divide the fickle town!
One likes the fair, and one admires the brown;
The stately, QUEENSB'RY; HINCHINBROOK, the small;
THURLOW loves servant-maids; DUNDAS loves all. 200
O'er MORNINGTON French prattle holds command;
HASTINGS buys German phlegm at second-hand;
The dancer's agile limbs win DORSET's choice;
Whilst BRUDENELL dies enamour'd of a voice:
'Tis PEMBROKE's dearest pleasure to elope,
And BILLY, best of all things, loves--a trope;
My BILLY I: to each his taste allow :
Well said the dame, I ween, who kiss'd her cow.
Lo! in the West the sun's broad orb display'd
O'er the Queen's palace, lengthens every shade:
See the last loiterers now the Mall resign;
E'en Poets go, that they may seem to dine:

Yet, fasting, here I linger to complain.

205

210

Ah! ROSE, GEORGE ROSE! what phrenzy fires your brain!

IMITATIONS.

Torva leæna lupum sequitur lupus ipse capellam,
Florentem cytasum sequitur lasciva capella ;

Te Corydon, O Alexi: trahit sua quemque voluptas.
Me tamen urit amor : quis enim modis adsit amori.
Aspice! aratra jugo referunt suspensa juvenci,

Et sol crescentes discendens duplicat umbras :
Ah! Corydon, Corydon, quæ te dementia cepit ?
Semiputata tibi frondosâ vitis in ulmo est.

Quin tu aliquid saltem, potius quorum indiget usus,
Viminibus, mollique paras detexere junco ?
Invenies alium, si te hic fastidit, Alexin.

With pointless paragraphs the POST runs wild; 215
And Fox, a whole week long, is unrevil'd:

Our vouchers lie half-vamp'd, and without end
Tax-bills on tax-bills rise to mend and mend.
These, or what more we need, some new deceit
Prepare to gull the Commons, when they meet.
Tho' scorn'd by BILLY, you ere long may find
Some other Minister, like LANSDOWNE kind.

He ceas'd, went home, ate, drank his fill, and then
Snor'd in his chair, 'till supper came at ten.

220

224

NOTES.

Ver. 216. We flattered ourselves that this line might have enabled us to ascertain the precise time when this eclogue was written, We were, however, disappointed, as on examining the file of Morning Posts for 1784, we could not find a single week in which Mr. Fox is absolutely without some attack or other. We suppose therefore our author here speaks with the allowed latitude of poetry,

THE LYARS.

ARGUMENT.

This Eclogue is principally an Imitation of the third Bucolic of Virgil, which, as is observed by Dr. Joseph Warton, the Brother of our incomparable Laureat, is of that Species called Amœboa, where the Characters introduced contend in alternate Verse; the second always endeavouring to surpass the first Speaker in an equal number of Lines. As this was in point of Time the first of our Author's Pastoral Attempts, he has taken rather more Latitude than he afterwards allow ed himself in the rest, and has interspersed one or two occa sional Imitations from other Eclogues of the Roman Poet.

IN

Downing-street, the breakfast duly set,

AS BANKS and PRETTYMAN one inorn were met,
A strife arising who could best supply,
In urgent cases, a convenient lie;

His skill superior each essay'd to prove

I. verse alternate-which the Muses love!
While BILLY, listening to their tuneful plea,
In silence sipp'd his Commutation Tea,

And heard them boast, how loudly both had ly'd:
The Priest began, the Layman thus reply'd!

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 6. Amant alterna Camenæ.

Ver. 10. Hos Corydon, illos referebat in ordine Thyrŝis.

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