Imagens da página
PDF
ePub

"Ah Doctor, how you love to jest? Tis now no fecret---I protest

Tis one to me--" Then tell us, pray,

"When are the Troops to have their pay? 120And, tho' I folemnly declare

I know no more than my Lord Mayor,

They stand amaz'd, and think me grown
The closest mortal ever known.

THUS in a fea of folly tofs'd,
My choicest Hours of life are loft;
Yet always wishing to retreat,

Oh, could I fee my Country Seat!
There leaning near a gentle Brook,
Sleep, or perufe fome ancient Book,

And there in sweet oblivion drown

Thofe Cares that haunt the Court and Town.

O charming Noons! and Nights divine!
Or when I fup, or when I dine,

NOTES.

125,

130

VER. 125. Thus in a fea, etc.] Our Poet excells his friend in his own way of modernizing Horace. But this way is infi itely inferior to his own. For tho' Horace be eafy, e is not famíliar; or, if he be, it is the familiarityf Courts, which is never without its dignity. Thefe things butlefque verfe cannot reconcile, nor indeed any other, that I know of, but that in the foregoing imitations.

Legibus infanis feu quis capit acria fortis
Pocula; feu modicis uvefcit laetius. ergo
Sermo oritur, non de villis domibufve alienis,

Nec male necne Lepos faltet: fed quod magis ad

nos

Pertinet, et nefcire malum eft, agitamus; utrumne
Divitiis homines, an fint virtute beati :

Quidve ad amicitias, ufus rectumne, trahat nos:
Et quae fit natura boni, fummumque quid ejus.
Cervius haec inter vicinus garrit aniles '
Ex re fabellas. fi quis nam laudat Arelli
Solicitas ignarus opes; fic incipit: Olim
Rufticus urbanum murem mus paupere fertur

Accepiffe cavo, veterem vetus hofpes amicum;

135

My Friends above, my Folks below,

Chatting and laughing all-a-row,

The Beans and Bacon fet before 'em,
The Grace-cup ferv'd with all decorum:
Each willing to be pleas'd, and please,

[blocks in formation]

Which is the happier, or the wifer,

A man of Merit, or a Miser?

Whether we ought to chufe our Friends,
For their own Worth, or our own Ends?

150

What good, or better, we may call,

And what, the very beft of all?

Our Friend Dan Prior, told (you know)

A Tale extremely à propos :

Name a Town Life, and in a trice,
He had a Story of two Mice.
Once on a time (fo runs the Fable)
A Country Mouse, right hofpitable,

355

Afper, et attentus quaefitis; ut tamen arctum Solveret hofpitiis animum. quid multa ? neque

ille

Sepofiti ciceris, nec-longae invidit avenae :
Aridum et orc ferens acinum, femefaque lardi
Frufta dedit, cupiens varia faftidia coena
Vincere tangentis male fingula dente fuperbo;
Cum pater ipfe domus palea porrectus in horna
Effet ador loliumque, dapis meliora relinquens.
Tandem urbanus ad hunc, Quid te juvat, inquit,
amice,

Praerupti nemoris patientem vivere dorfo ?
Vin' tu homines urbemque feris praeponere fylvis?
Carpe viam (mihi crede) comes: terreftria quando
Mortales animas vivunt fortita, neque ulla cft,
Aut magno aut parvo, leti fuga. quo, bone, circa,

Receiv'd a Town Moufe at his Board,

Juft as a Farmer might a Lord.

A frugal Mouse

upon the whole,

Yet lov'd his Friend, and had a Soul,

Knew what was handsome, and would do't,

On juft occafion, coute qui coute.

He brought him Bacon (nothing lean)

Pudding, that might have pleas'd a Dean;
Cheefe, fuch as men in Suffolk make,
But wifh'd it Stilton for his fake;

Yet, to his Guest tho' no way sparing,

He eat himself the rind and paring.

160

165

170

Our Courtier scarce could touch a bit,
But. fhow'd his Breeding and his Wit;
He did his beft to feem to eat,

And cry'd,

"I vow you're mighty neat.

"But Lord, my Friend, this favage Scene! 175 "For God's fake, come, and live with Men: "Confider, Mice, like Men, must die,

"Both small and great, both you and I: "Then spend your life in Joy and Sport, "(This doctrine, Friend, I learnt at Court.) 180 The verieft Hermit in the Nation

May yield, God knows, to ftrong temptation.

« AnteriorContinuar »