Be this thy screen, and this thy wall of brass: 95 Compared to this, a minister's an ass. And say, to which shall our applause belong? This new court jargon, or the good old song? The modern language of corrupted peers, Or what was spoke at Cressy and Poitiers? Who counsels best? who whispers ;-Be but great; 100 With praise or infamy, leave that to fate; Or he, who bids thee face with steady view 110 Should chance to make the well-dress'd rabble stare; If honest S**z take scandal at a spark, That less admires the palace than the park: Send her to court, you send her to her grave. 115 Well, if a king's a lion, at the least, 120 The people are a many-headed beast. Can they direct what measures to pursue, Who know themselves so little what to do? Alike in nothing but one lust of gold, 124 Just half the land would buy, and half be sold: Their country's wealth our mightier misers drain; Or cross, to plunder provinces, the main; The rest, some farm the poor-box, some the pews; Some keep assemblies, and would keep the stews ; Of all these ways, if each pursues his own, 6 135 Sir Job sail'd forth, the evening bright and still; No place on earth,' he cried, like Greenwich hill!' Up starts a palace: lo, the obedient base 140 Slopes at its foot; the woods its sides embrace; mean, But give the knight, or give his lady, spleen; 145 'Away, away! take all your scaffolds down; For snug's the word: my dear! we'll live in town.' At amorous Flavio is the stocking thrown? That very night he longs to lie alone. The fool, whose wife elopes some thrice a quarter, For matrimonial solace dies a martyr. 151 126 Some farm the poor-box. Perhaps referring to the Charitable Corporation ;' a swindling scheme, by which multitudes were duped, and many beggared. Did ever Proteus, Merlin, any witch, 156 Discharge their garrets, move their beds, and run, When (each opinion with the next at strife, I plant, root up; I build, and then confound; 171 Turn round to square, and square again to round; 175 164 Linen worthy lady Mary. Pope could never forgive lady Mary's at once laughing at his passion, and libelling his poetry. This celebrated woman, though a beauty, and vain of her charms, was supposed to be singularly negligent of her person. Walpole says, that when she left Florence, after a three weeks' stay in one of the archduke's palaces, they were obliged to fumigate the rooms.' And this in Italy! Who ought to make me (what he can, or none) press'd; 181 Loved without youth, and follow'd without power; At home, though exiled; free, though in the Tower; 184 In short, that reasoning, high, immortal thing, |