THE

DISPENSARY.

SOON

CANTO II.

OON as the evening veil'd the mountains heads,
And winds lay hufh'd in fubterranean beds;
Whilft fickening flowers drink up the filver dew,
And beaux for fome affembly drefs anew;
The city faints to prayers and play-house hafte;
The rich to dinner, and the poor to rest:
Th' officious phantom then prepar'd with care
To flide on tender pinions through the air.
Oft' he attempts the fummit of a rock,
And oft' the hollow of fome blasted oak;
At length approaching where bleak Envy lay;
The hiffing of her fnakes proclaim'd the way.
Beneath the gloomy covert of an yew,

That taints the grass with fickly fweats of dew ;
No verdant beauty entertains the fight,

But baneful hemlock, and cold aconite ;

In a dark grot the baleful haggard lay,

Breathing black vengeance, and infecting day.

But

But how deform'd, and worn with spiteful woes,
When Accius has applause, Dorfennus fhews.
The cheerful blood her meagre cheeks forfook,
And bafilisks fate brooding in her look;
A bald and bloated toad-ftool rais'd her head;
The plumes of boding ravens were her bed :
From her chapp'd noftrils fcalding torrents fall,
And her funk eyes boil o'er in floods of gall.
Volcanos labour thus with inward pains,
Whilst feas of melted ore lay waste the plains.
Around the fiend in hideous order fate
Foul bawling Infamy, and bold Debate;
Gruff Discontent, through ignorance mif-led,
And clamorous Faction at her party's head;
Reftlefs Sedition ftill diffembling fear,
And fly Hypocrify with pious leer.

Glouting with fullen fpite the fury fhook
Her clotted locks, and blafted with each look;
Then tore with canker'd teeth the pregnant fcrolls,
Where Fame the acts of demi-gods enrolls;

And, as the rent-records in pieces feil,

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Each scrap did fome immortal action tell.

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This fhow'd, how fix'd as fate Torquatus ftood,

That, the fam'd paffage of the Granic flood;
The Julian eagles, here, their wings display,

And there, like fetting stars, the Decii lay;
This does Camillus as a God extol,

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That points at Manlius in the capitol;

How Cocles did the Tiber's furges brave,

How Curtius plung'd into the gaping grave.

Great

Great Cyrus, here, the Medes and Perfians join,
And, there, th' immortal battle of the Boyne.

As the light meffenger the fury fpy'd,
Awhile his curdling blood forgot to glide :
Confufion on his fainting vitals hung,
And faltering accents flutter'd on his tongue :
At length, affuming courage, he convey'd
His errand, then he fhrunk into a fhade.

The Hag lay long revolving what might be
The bleft event of fuch an embally :

Then blazons in dread fmiles her hideous form;
So lightning gilds the unrelenting storm.

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 60.

Then the alas how long in vain have I
Aim'd at thefe noble ills the fates deny?
Within this ifle for ever must I find
Difafters to diftract my reftlefs mind?
Good Tenifon's celeftial piety

At laft has rais'd him to the facred fee.
Somers does fickening equity restore,

And helpless orphans are opprefs'd no more.

Pembroke to Britain endless bleffings brings;

He fpoke; and Peace clapp'd her triumphant wings. Great Ormond fhines illuftrioufly bright

With blazes of hereditary right.

The noble ardour of a royal fire

Infpires the generous breaft of Devonshire.
And Macclesfield is active to defend

His country with the zeal he loves his friend.
Like Leda's radiant fons divinely clear,
Portland and Jerfey deck'd in rays appear,
To gild by turns the Gallic hemifphere.

Worth

Thus fhe-Mankind are bleft, they riot ftill
Unbounded in exorbitance of ill.

By devaftation the rough warrior gains,
And farmers fatten moft when famine reigns;
For fickly feafons the phyficians wait,
And politicians thrive in broils of state;
The Lover's eafy when the fair-one fighs,
And Gods fubfift not but by facrifice.

Each other being fome indulgence knows :
Few are my joys, but infinite my woes.
My prefent pain Britannia's genius wills,
And thus the fates record my future ills.

A heroine fhall Albion's fceptre bear,
With arms shall vanquish earth, and heaven with
She on the world her clemency shall shower,
And only to preferve exert her power.

Tyrants fhall then their impious aims forbear,
And Blenheim's thunder more than Etna's fear.
Since by no arts I therefore can defeat

The happy enterprizes of the great,
I'll calmly ftoop to more inferior things,

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prayer.

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And try if my lov'd fnakes have teeth or ftings.
She faid; and ftraight fhrill * Colon's perfon took,
In morals loose, but most precife in look.

VARIATIONS.

Worth in diftrefs is rais'd by Montague;
Auguftus liftens if Maecenas fue;

And Vernon's vigilance no fluinber takes,

Whilft faction peeps abroad, and anarchy awakes.

* Lee, an apothecary.

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Black

Black-friars annals lately pleas'd to call
Him warden of Apothecaries-hall;
And, when fo dignify'd, did not forbear
That operation which the learn'd declare
Gives colics ease, and makes the ladies fair.
In trifling fhow his tinfel talent lies;
And form the want of intellects fupplies.
In afpect grand and goodly he appears,
Rever'd as patriarchs in primæv al years.
Hourly his learn'd impertinence affords
A barren fuperfluity of words;

The patient's ears remorseless he affails,
Murders with jargon where his medicine fails.
The Fury thus affuming Colon's grace,
So flung her arms, fo fhuffl'd in her pace.
Onwards fhe haftens to the fam'd abodes,
Where Horoscope invokes th' infernal gods;
And reach'd the manfion where the vulgar run,
For ruin throng, and pay to be undone.

This vifionary various projects tries,
And knows, that to be rich is to be wife.
By useful observations he can tell

The facred charms that in true sterling dwell;

How gold makes a patrician of a flave,

A dwarf an Atlas, a Therfites brave.

Ver. 95.

VARIATIONS.

In hafte he ftrides along, to recompenfe
The want of business with its vain pretence.

Dr. Barnard.