ECLOGUE VI. LORD MAYOR'S DAY. -Quod optanti divûm promittere nemo VIRG. EN. SCARCE had Aurora chas'd the shades of night, Whom pleasing thoughts kept wakeful half the night, Rose from her downy pillow, blythe and gay, For Goddess Chance, to make the people stare, Had pitch'd upon her husband for a May'r. In ancient times, when Britain's laurels grew, The rival City had her Poet too; Then Laureat Settle, in harmonious lays, But times are chang'd; and many a tuneful strain The civic bounty courts, but courts in vain— E'en Virgil, who in British cap and gown, Now humbly asks the favour of the town, Shall find, perhaps, no market for his rhymes, That pleas'd Mæcenas, in Augustan times; And, forc'd by Dulness to his native home, Without a patron travel back to Rome. Now walk'd Belinda forth, superbly sheen, "She look'd a goddess, and she mov'd a queen!" To make her blooming, Art its colours lent, And nought she lack'd that Fashion could invent. Rare articles for show, and few for use, Hat à-la-mode, and mantle à-la-russe ; Scarfs, furbelows, for routs and public days, "Let noble dames our pageants hold in sport, And boast the soft refinements of a court, Look down with pity on the sons of earth, Who claim no title to superior birth; Be theirs the joys of fashionable strife, Be mine the pleasures of a City life! What pleasing visions swim before my sight, By day the dinner, and the dance by night! A thousand glitt'ring tapers gild the Hall, And lo! a young Adonis, straight and tall, Perchance just landed from some foreign tour, Asks me to dance a minuet-de-la-cour. Methinks I hear th' admiring gazers cry, 'Some Goddess has descended from on high, To raise our wonder, and to charm our sight, For sure no mortal ever stepp'd so light!'Then how 'twill give my enemies the vapours, To see it mention'd in the public papers : - Last night my Lady danc'd with such an air, Terpsichore had blush'd had she been there; Her eyes discharg'd so many killing darts, That half the common council lost their hearts !'— A crown, or ten-and-sixpence at the most, Will get a puff inserted in the Post. "It was my passion, I remember well, When rival Lovers woo'd me for their bride.- The Country Squire's politeness knew no bounds, "How sweet to hear, when, as the barge we board, The folks exclaim,- My Lady! and my Lord!'They shout!-and gladly welcome our approach! And see! they drag the horses from our coach! For free-born Britons love these low pursuits, To show how well they imitate the brutes. 66 And, should the Regent in his grace (God bless him!) When next the Court of Aldermen address him, Think fit, (the thought transports me with delight!) To dub my Spouse, by making him a Knight; How will the glorious news, the tidings rare, Make all our wond'ring City neighbours stare! What busy scandal will their tongues employ, They'll almost die with envy-I with joy! "But hark! the trumpets and the horns below! The carriage waits!—I'm summon'd to the Show!-O patience! what a flurry I am in!— Here, Betty, put this patch upon my chin!- |