Bring down Long Shanks Jim too; but, now I think on 't, he 's not yet come from Courtown, I fancy; For I heard, a month ago, that he was down there a-courting fly Nancy.
However, bring down yourself, and you bring down all; for, to say it we may venture,
In thee Delany's spleen, John's mirth, Helsham's jokes, and the foft foul of amorous Jemmy, center.
I had forgot to defire you to bring down what I say you have, and you 'll believe me as fure as a gun, and own it;
I mean, what no other mortal in the universe can boast of, your own spirit of pun, and own wit.
And now I hope you 'll excuse this rhyming, which I must say is (though written somewhat at large) trim and clean;
And fo I conclude, with humble respects as usual, Your most dutiful and obedient
GEORGE-NIM-DAN-DEAN.
a prologue for the occafion) was most unexpectedly and egregioufly laughed at. Both the prologues are printed in the "Supplement to Swift's Works."
TO GEORGE-NIM-DAN-DEAN, Esq. Upon his incomparable VERSES, &c.
By Dr. DELANY, in SHERIDAN'S Name *.
HAIL, human compound quadrifarious,
Invincible as Wight Briareus !
Hail! doubly-doubled mighty merry one,
Stronger than triple-body'd Geryon !
O may your vastness deign t'excuse
The praises of a puny Muse,
Unable, in her utmost flight,
To reach thy huge Coloffian height.
T'attempt to write like thee were frantic,
Whose lines are, like thyself, gigantic.
Yet let me bless, in humbler strain,
Thy vast, thy bold Cambyfian vein,
Pour'd out t' enrich thy native ifle,
As Egypt wont to be with Nile.
Oh, how I joy to fee thee wander,
In many a winding loose meander,
In circling mazes, smooth and supple,
And ending in a clink quadruple;
Loud, yet agreeable withal,
Like rivers rattling in their fall!
Thine, fure, is poetry divine,
Where wit and majesty combine;
* These were all written in circles.
Where every line, as huge as seven,
If stretch'd in length, would reach to Heaven:
Here all comparing would be slandering,
The leaft is more than Alexandrine.
Against thy verse Time fees with pain,
He whets his envious scythe in vain;
For, though from thee he much may pare,,
Yet much thou still wilt have to spare.
Thou haft alone the skill to feaft
With Roman elegance of tafte,
Who haft of rhymes as vast resources
As Pompey's caterer of courses.
Oh thou, of all the Nine infpir'd !
My languid foul, with teaching tir'd,.
How is it raptur'd, when it thinks
On thy harmonious sett of clinks;
Each answering each in various rhymes,
Like Echo to St. Patrick's chimes!
Thy Muse, majestic in her rage,
Moves like Statira on the stage;
And scarcely can one page sustain
The length of fuch a flowing train :-
Her train, of variegated die,
Shews like Thaumantia's in the sky;
Alike they glow, alike they please,
Alike imprest by Phœbus' rays.
Thy verse - (Ye Gods! I cannot bear it)
To what, to what shall I compare it?
Tis like, what I have oft' heard spoke on,
The famous ftatue of Laocoon.
'Tis like, - O yes, 'tis very like it,
The long, long string, with which you fly kite.
Tis like what you, and one or two more,
Roar to your Echo * in good-humour;
And every couplet thou hast writ
Conclude like Rattab-whittab-whitt.
Upon his Verses written in Circles. By Dr.SWIFT.
I
never was known that circular letters,
By humble companions, were sent to their betters:
And, as to the subject, our judgement, mehercle,
Is this, that you argue like fools in a circle.
But now for your verses; we tell you, imprimis,
The fegment so large 'twixt your reason and rhyme is,
That we walk all about, like a horfe in a pound,
And, before we find either, our noddles turn round.
Sufficient it were, one would think, in your mad rant,
To give us your measures of line by a quadrant.
But we took our dividers, and found your d-n'd metre,.
In each fingle verse, took up a diameter.
But how, Mr. Sheridan, came you to venture
George, Dan, Dean, and Nim, to place in the centre ‡
'Twill appear, to your cost, you are fairly trepann'd,
For the chord of your circle is now in their hand.
* At Gaulstown, there is a remarkably famous echo. + An allusion to the found produced by the echo. Their figures were in the centre of the verses.
The chord, or the radius, it matters not whether,
By which your jade Pegafus, fixt in a tether,
As her betters are us'd, shall be lafh'd round the ring,
Three fellows with whips, and the Dean holds the string.
Will Hancock declares, you are out of your compafe,.
To encroach on his art by writing of bombass-;
And has taken just now a firm refolution
To anfwer your style without circumlocution.
Lady Betty * presents you her fervice most humble,
And is not afraid your worship will grumble,
That the makes of your verses a hoop for Miss Tam t
Which is all at present; and so I remain -
On Dr. SHERIDAN'S CIRCULAR VERSES.. By Mr. GEORGE ROCHFORT.
WITH mufick and poetry equally blest,
A bard thus Apollo most humbly addrest: " Great author of harmony, verses, and light! "Affifted by thee, I both fiddle and write. " Yet unheeded I fcrape, or I scribble all day, " My verfe is neglected, my tunes thrown away. "Thy substitute here, Vice-Apollo †, disdains "To vouch for my numbers, or list to my strains;
* The lady of George Rochford, efq.
+ Miss Thomason, lady Betty's daughter.
‡ See "Apollo to the Dean," p. 183.
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