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VERSES IN REPLY TO AN INVITATION

TO DINNER AT DR. BAKER'S.1

[c. 1769.]

"This is a poem! This is a copy of verses!"

OUR mandate I got,

You may all go to pot;

Had your senses been right,
You'd have sent before night;

As I hope to be saved,

I put off being shaved;

For I could not make bold,
While the matter was cold,
To meddle in suds,

Or to put on my duds;

So tell Horneck and Nesbitt,

And Baker and his bit,

And Kauffman beside,
And the Jessamy bride,2
With the rest of the crew,

The Reynoldses two,

3

Little Comedy's face,

10

And the Captain in lace.1

(By the bye you may tell him,

I have something to sell him;

20

'The above verses were first published in 1837, by the

late Sir Henry Bunbury, Bart.

2 Miss Mary Horneck, afterwards Mrs. Gwyn.

3 Miss Catherine Horneck, afterwards Mrs. Bunbury

4

Ensign (afterwards General) Horneck.

Of use I insist,

When he comes to enlist.

Your worships must know
That a few days ago,
An order went out,

For the foot guards so stout
To wear tails in high taste,
Twelve inches at least;
Now I've got him a scale
To measure each tail,
To lengthen a short tail,
And a long one to curtail.)

Yet how can I when vext,
Thus stray from my text?
Tell each other to rue
Your Devonshire crew,
For sending so late

To one of my state.
But 'tis Reynolds's way
From wisdom to stray,
And Angelica's whim
To be frolick like him,

30

40

But alas! your good worships, how could they be

wiser,

When both have been spoiled in to-day's Advertiser?

OLIVER GOLDSMITH.

A MADRIGAL.1

EEPING, murmuring, complaining,
Lost to every gay delight;
Myra, too sincere for feigning,

Fears the approaching bridal night.

Yet why impair thy bright perfection?
Or dim thy beauty with a tear?
Had Myra followed my direction,
She long had wanted cause of fear.

SONG.

HE wretch, condemned with life to part,
Still, still on hope relies;

And every pang that rends the heart,
Bids expectation rise.

Hope, like the gleaming taper's light,
Adorns and cheers the way;
And still, as darker grows the night,
Emits a brighter ray.

1 First printed in The Bee, p. 94.

SONG.1

MEMORY! thou fond deceiver,
Still importunate and vain,
To former joys, recurring ever,
And turning all the past to pain;

Thou, like the world, opprest oppressing,
Thy smiles increase the wretch's woe!
And he who wants each other blessing,
In thee must ever find a foe.

This and the preceding are variations of songs in the Oratorio of The Captivity.

[graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small]

A ROMAN KNIGHT, WHOM CÆSAR FORCED UPON THE PRESERVED BY MACROBIUS.1

STAGE.

HAT! no way left to shun th' inglorious

stage,

And save from infamy my sinking age!
Scarce half alive, oppressed with many

a year,

What in the name of dotage drives me here?
A time there was, when glory was my guide,
Nor force nor fraud could turn my steps aside;
Unawed by power, and unappalled by fear,
With honest thrift I held my honour dear:
But this vile hour disperses all my store,

1 This translation was first printed in the first edition of one of our Author's earliest works, The Present State of Learning in Europe, 12mo. 1759. It was omitted in the second edition, 1774.

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