Iratis precibus; tu pulses omne quod obstat,
Ad Mæcenatem memori si mente recurras.

Hoc juvat, et melli est; ne mentiar: at simul atras
Ventum est Esquilias, aliena negotia centum
Per caput et circa saliunt latus. Ante secundam
Roscius orabat sibi adesses ad Puteal cras.
De re communi scribæ magnâ atque novâ te
Orabant hodie meminisses, Quinte, reverti.
Imprimat his cura Mæcenas signa tabellis.
Dixeris, Experiar: Si vis, potes, addit et instat.

NOTES.

Ver. 82. And, Mr. Dean] Very happily turned from Si vis potes. Warton.

"I thought the Dean had been too proud, To justle here among a crowd."

Another in a surly fit,

Tells me I have more zeal than wit,
"So eager to express your love,
You ne'er consider whom you shove,
But rudely press before a Duke."

55

I own, I'm pleased with this rebuke,
And take it kindly meant to show
What I desire the world should know.

60

I get a whisper, and withdraw: When twenty fools I never saw Come with petitions fairly penn'd, Desiring I would stand their friend.

you,

This, humbly offers me his case-
That, begs my interest for a place-
A hundred other men's affairs,
Like bees, are humming in my ears.
"To-morrow my appeal comes on,
Without your help the cause is gone❞—
"The Duke expects my Lord and
About some great affair, at two"-
Put my Lord Bolingbroke in mind,
To get my Warrant quickly sign'd:
Consider 'tis my first request."
Be satisfied, I'll do my best :-
Then presently he falls to teaze,
"You may be certain, if you please;
I doubt not, if his Lordship knew—
And, Mr. Dean, one word from you❞—

65

70

75

80

Septimus octavo propior jam fugerit annus,
Ex quo Mæcenas me cœpit habere suorum
In numero: duntaxat ad hoc, quem tollere rhedâ
Vellet, iter faciens, et cui concredere nugas
Hoc genus: Hora quota est? Thrax est Gallina
Syro par?

Matutina parum cautos jam frigora mordent:
Et quæ rimosâ benè deponuntur in aure.
Per totum hoc tempus, subjectior in diem et horam
Invidiæ. Noster ludos spectaverit unà,
Luserat in campo, fortunæ filius, omnes.
Frigidus à Rostris manat per compita rumor:
Quicunque obvius est, me consulit: O bone (nam te

NOTES.

Ver. 85, Since HARLEY bid me] The rise and progress of Swift's intimacy with Lord Oxford is minutely detailed in his very interesting Journal to Stella. And the reasons why a man, that served a ministry so effectually, was so tardily, and so difficultly, and so poorly rewarded, are well explained in Sheridan's Life of Swift, and arose principally from the insuperable aversion the Queen had conceived to the author of a Tale of a Tub as a profane book; which aversion was kept alive, and increased by the Duchess of Somerset, against whom Swift had written a severe lampoon. It appears from this life that Lords Oxford and Bolingbroke always kept concealed from Swift their inability to serve him. With whatever secrets Swift might have been trusted, it does not appear he knew any thing of a design to bring in the Pretender. Swift was a true Whig. His political principles are amply unfolded in an excellent letter written to Pope, Jan. 20, 1721; and indeed they had been sufficiently displayed, many years before, in The Sentiments of a Church of England Man; a treatise replete with strong sense, sound principles, and clear reasoning. Warton.

The real cause of Swift's disappointment in his hopes of preferment, is explained in Coxe's Memoirs of Walpole. Both Gay and Swift conceived every thing was to be gained by the interest of

Mrs.

"Tis (let me see) three years and more, (October next it will be four)

Since HARLEY bid me first attend,

And chose me for a humble friend;

85

Would take me in his coach to chat,
And question me of this and that;

As, "What's o'clock?" And "How's the wind?" "Who's chariot's that we left behind?"

Or gravely try to read the lines

Writ underneath the country signs;

90

Or, "Have you nothing new to-day

"From Pope, from Parnelle, or from Gay?" Such tattle often entertains

My Lord and me as far as Staines,

As once a week we travel down

To Windsor, and again to town,
Where all that passes, inter nos,
Might be proclaimed at Charing-cross.
Yet some I know with envy swell,

Because they see me used so well:

"How think you of our friend the Dean? I wonder what some people mean;

95

100

My Lord and he are grown so great,
Always together, tête à téte.

105

What, they admire him for his jokes-
See but the fortune of some folks?"

Mrs. Howard, to whom they paid incessant court. This has been

before explained.

Bowles.

Scire, Deos quoniam propiùs contingis, oportet) Num quid de Dacis audîsti? Nil equidem. Ut tu Semper eris derisor! At omnes Dî exagitent me, Si quicquam. Quid? militibus promissa Triquetrâ Prædia Cæsar, an est Italâ tellure daturus? Jurantem me scire nihil, mirantur, ut unum Scilicet egregii mortalem altique silentî.

Perditur hæc inter misero lux; non sine votis. O rus, quando ego te aspiciam? quandoque licebit,

Nunc veterum libris, nunc somno et inertibus horis,
Ducere solicitæ jucunda oblivia vitæ ?

O quando faba Pythagoræ cognata, simulque
Uncta satis pingui ponentur oluscula lardo ?
O noctes, cœnæque Deûm! quibus ipse meique,
Ante Larem proprium vescor, vernasque procaces
Pasco libatis dapibus. Prout cuique libido est,
Siccat inæquales calices conviva, solutus
Legibus insanis: seu quis capit acria fortis
Pocula; seu modicis uvescit lætiùs. Ergo
Sermo oritur, non de villis domibusve alienis,

NOTES.

Ver. 141. Here no man prates] Alcibiades, in the Symposium of Plato, finely compares Socrates, whose face was disgusting and unpromising, to the little statues of Silenus, which had no external beauty; but if you opened them, you found within the figures of all the gods. Rabelais applied this comparison to the Satires of Horace, which at first sight do not seem to contain so many exquisite moral rules. Dacier borrowed this comparison from Rabelais, without acknowledgment, as he has done many remarks from Cruquius and Lambinus, and from the old commentators, Acron and Porphyrius. Warton.

Ver. 142. that Italian sings,] Happily turned from Horace's Dancer, "Lepos;"--not so, ver. 144, which is political, and not one of the trifling topics here mentioned.

Warton.