In artless numbers paint th' ambitious peer
That mounts the box, and shines a charioteer.
In strains familiar sing the midnight toil
Of camps and senates disciplined by Hoyle;
Patriots and Chiefs, whose deep design invades
And carries off the captive king-of Spades!
Let SATIRE here in milder vigour shine,
And gayly graceful sport along the line;
Bid courtly fashion quit her thin pretence,
And smile each affectation into sense.
Not so when Virtue by her guards betray'd, Spurn'd from her throne, implores the Muse's aid; When crimes, which erst in kindred darkness lay, Rise frontless, and insult the eye of day, Indignant Hymen veils his hallow'd fires, And white-robed Chastity with tears retires; When rank Adultery on the genial bed Hot from Cocytus rears her baleful head ; When private faith and public trust are sold, And traitors barter liberty for gold; When fell Corruption, dark and deep, like fate, Saps the foundation of a sinking state; When giant-vice and irreligion rise,
On mountain'd falsehoods to invade the skies:
Then warmer numbers glow thro' SATIRE's page,
And all her smiles are darken'd into rage:
On eagle-wing she gains Parnassus' height,
Not lofty EPIC soars a nobler flight:
Then keener indignation fires her eye;
Then flash her lightnings, and her thunders fly;
Wide and more wide her flaming bolts are hurl'd,
Till all her wrath involves the guilty world.
Yet SATIRE oft assumes a gentler mien,
And beams on virtue's friends a smile serene :
She wounds reluctant, pours her balm with joy,
Glad to commend where worth attracts her eye.
But chief, when virtue, learning, arts decline,
She joys to see unconquer'd merit shine;
Where bursting glorious, with departing ray,
True genius gilds the close of Britain's day.
With joy she sees the stream of Roman art
From MURRAY's tongue flow purer to the heart;
Sees YORKE to fame, ere yet to manhood, known,
And just to every virtue but his own;
326
Hears unstain'd CAM with generous pride proclaim
A SAGE'S, CRITIC's, and a POET'S name;
Beholds, where WIDCOMBE's happy hills ascend,
Each orphan'd art and virtue find a friend;
TO HAGLEY'S honour'd shade directs her view,
And culls each flower, to form a wreath for You.
But tread with cautious step this dangerous
ground,
Beset with faithless precipices round.
Truth be your guide; disdain ambition's call; 335
And if you fall with truth, you greatly fall.
'Tis virtue's native lustre that must shine;
The poet can but set it in his line:
And who unmov'd with laughter can behold
A sordid pebble meanly graced with gold?
Let real merit then adorn your lays,
For shame attends on prostituted praise;
And all your wit, your most distinguish'd art,
But make us grieve you want an honest heart.
Nor think the Muse by SATIRE's law confined:
She yields description of the noblest kind.
Inferior art the landscape may design,
And paint the purple evening in the line:
Her daring thought essays a higher plan;
Her hand delineates passion, pictures man.
And great the toil, the latent soul to trace,
To paint the heart, and catch internal grace;
By turns bid vice or virtue strike our eyes,
Now bid a Wolsey, or a Cromwell rise;
Now with a touch more sacred and refined,
Call forth a CHESTERFIELD's or LONSDALE's mind.
Here sweet or strong may every colour flow;
Here let the pencil warm, the canvas glow;
Of light and shade provoke the noble strife,
And wake each striking feature into life.
THROUGH ages thus has SATIRE keenly shined,
The friend to truth, to virtue, and mankind :
Yet the bright flame from virtue ne'er had sprung,
And man was guilty ere the poet sung.
This Muse in silence joy'd each better age,
Till glowing crimes had wak'd her into rage.
Truth saw her honest spleen with new delight,
And bade her wing her shafts, and urge their flight.
First on the sons of Greece she proved her art,
And Sparta felt the fierce JAMBIC dart.*
TO LATIUM next, avenging SATIRE flew :
The flaming falchion rough LUCILIUS† drew;
With dauntless warmth in virtue's cause engaged,
And conscious villains trembled as he raged.
Then sportive HORACE‡ caught the generous
For SATIRE'S bow resign'd the sounding lyre:
Each arrow polish'd in his hand was seen,
And, as it grew more polish'd, grew more keen.
* Archilocum proprio rabies armavit iambo.
+ Ense velut stricto quoties Lucilius ardens
Infremuit, rubet auditor cui frigida mens est
Criminibus, tacità sudant præcordia culpa.
Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico
Tangit, et admissus circum præcordia ludit,
Callidus excusso populum suspendere naso.
His art, conceal'd in studied negligence,
Politely sly, cajoled the foes of sense:
He seem'd to sport and trifle with the dart,
But while he sported, drove it to the heart.
In graver strains majestic PERSIUS wrote, Big with a ripe exuberance of thought: Greatly sedate, contemn'd a tyrant's reign, And lash'd corruption with a calm disdain. More ardent eloquence, and boundless rage, Inflame bold JUVENAL'S exalted page; His mighty numbers awed corrupted Rome, And swept audacious Greatness to its doom; 390 The headlong torrent thundering from on high, Rent the proud rock that lately braved the sky. But lo! the fatal victor of mankind! Swoln Luxury!-pale Ruin stalks behind! As countless insects from the north-east pour, To blast the spring, and ravage every flower, So barbarous millions spread contagious death; The sickening laurel wither'd at their breath. Deep Superstition's night the skies o'erhung, Beneath whose baleful dews the poppy sprung. 400 No longer Genius woo'd the Nine to love, But Dulness nodded in the Muse's grove : Wit, spirit, freedom, were the sole offence, Nor aught was held so dangerous as sense.
At length, again fair Science shot her ray, 405 Dawn'd in the skies, and spoke returning day. Now, SATIRE, triumph o'er thy flying foe, Now load thy quiver, string thy slacken'd bow!
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