AND now I find my mufe but ill able To hold out longer in triffyllable. I chose these rhymes out, for their difficulty: Will you return as hard ones if I call t'ye ? 30 Written in the year 1713, when the Queen's mini fters were quarrelling among themselves *. BSERVE the dying father speak: OBSERVE Try, lads, can you this bundle break; Then bids the youngest of the fix Take up a well-bound heap of fticks. See, faid the fire, how foon 'tis done : THIS tale may be apply'd in few words While wife men think they ought to fight Should come and make the clatt'ring cease; See more of the author's endeavours to procure a reconcilement among them, in the letters to and from Dr Swift, in vol iv. let. 6. 93. See alfo Free thoughts on the prefent state of affairs, in vol. ii, Which now disturbs the Queen and court, And gives the Whigs and rabble fport. IN hiftory we never found, 25 The Conful's * fafces were unbound ; Those Romans were too wife to think on't, Except to lash some grand delinquent. 30 How would they blush to hear it faid, Come, trimming Harcourt 1, bring your mace; 40% Difpatch or elfe that rafcal Northey . To make the bundle ftrong aird fafe, 45. With both his hands to bend a twig. 50 Tho' with united ftrength they all pull, From Somers down to Craggs and Walpole. The * Fafces, a bundle of rods, or small ticks carried before the confuls at Rome. + Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford. Lord Chancellor. Sir Edward Northey, Attorney-General, brought in by Lord Harcourt, yet very defirous of the great feal, The AUTHOR upon himself. Written in the year 1713. A few of the firft lines were wanting in the copy fent us by a friend of the author's. Y an old BY -purfa'd A crazy prelate, and a royal prude +; SWIFT had the fin of wit, no venial crime; Nay, 'tis affirm'd he fometimes dealt in rhyme: Humour and mirth had place in all he writ; He reconcil'd divinity and wit: 10 He mov'd, and bow'd, and talk'd with too much grace; J Dr Sharp, Archbishop of York. bu Her late Majesty Queen Anne. 20 Archbishop Sharp, according to Swift's account, had reprefented him to the Queen as a perfon that was not a Chriftian ; great lady had fupported the afperfion; and the Queen, upon fuch affurances, had given away the bishoprick contrary to her Maje fty's first intentions, which were in favour of Dr Swift. Orrery. A coffeehouse and tavern near St Paul's, at that time much frequented by the clergy. And deal in vices of the graver fort, Tobacco, cenfure, coffee, pride, and port. But after fage monitions from his friends AND now the public int'reft to fupport, Make room, as if a Duke were paffing by. 25 30 35 Now Finch + alarms the Lords: he hears for certain This dang❜rous priest is got behind the curtain. Finch fam'd for tedious elocution, proves 41 That Swift oils many a spring which Harley moves. Walpole and Aislabie ; to clear the doubt, Inform the Commons, that the fecret's out: "A certain doctor is obferv'd of late "To haunt a certain minister of state: "From hence with half an eye we may discover 45 "The peace is made, and Perkin muft come over." YORK is from Lambeth fent to fhew the Queen A dangerous treatise writ against the spleen ||; Which, by the ftyle, the matter, and the drift, "Tis thought could be the work of none but Swift..50 Then Secretary of State, afterwards Lord Bolingbroke. + The late Earl of Nottingham, who made a speech in the houfe of Lords against the author. They both fpoke against the author in the houfe of Com mons, altho' Aiflabie profeffed much friendship for him. Tale of a Tub. Poor York! the harmless tool of others hate; Now,- -her vengeance vows On Swift's reproaches for her From her red locks her mouth with venom fills; 55 The Queen incens'd, his fervices forgot, 60 Who change opinions with the changing fcene: 65 And in Swift's ear thrusts half his powder'd nose. By faction tir'd, with grief he waits a while 70 * His Grace was forry for what he had faid, and fent a mef fage to the author to defire his pardon. The proclamation was against the author of a pamphlet, called, The public fpirit of the Whigs, against which the Scotch Lords complained. See it in vol. v. Delaware, then Lord Treasurer of the household, always careffed the author at court; but, during the trial of the printers before the house of Lords, and while the proclamation hung over the author, his Lordship would not feem to know him. The Scotch Lords treated and vifited the author more after the proclamation than before, except the Duke of Argyll, who would never be reconciled. * About ten weeks before the Queen's death, I left the town upon occafion of that incurable breach among the great men at court, and went down to Berkshire. See vol. iv. p. 22. |