Now (who 'd have thought it once?) with pain
She ftrings her harp, whilft freezing age
But feebly runs through evry vein,
And chills my brisk poetic rage.
I properly have ceas'd to live,
To wine and women, dead in law;
And foon from fate I fhall receive
A fummons to the fhades to go.
The warrior ghosts will round me come
To hear of fam'd Ramillia's fight,
Whilft the vext Bourbons through the gloom
Retire to th' utmost realms of night.
Then I, my lord, will tell how you
With penfions every muse inspire;
Who Marlborough's conquefts did pursue,
And to his trumpets tun'd the lyre.
But should fome drolling fprite demand,
Well, Sir, what place had you, I pray?
How like a coxcomb fhould I ftand!
What would your Lordfhip have me say?
In this Satire, the poet proves that nobility does not confift in ftatues and pedigrees, but in honourable and good actions: He lafhes Rubellius Plancus, for being infolent, by reafon of his high birth; and lays down an inftance that we ought to make the like judgment of men, as we do of horses, who are valued rather according to their personal qualities, than by the race of whence they come. He advifes his noble friend Ponticus (to whom he dedicates the fatire) to lead a virtuous life, diffuading him from debauchery, luxury, oppreffion, cruelty, and other vices, by his fevere cenfures on Lateranus, Damafippus, Gracchus, Nero, Catiline; and in oppofition to these, difplays the worth of perfons meanly born, fuch as Cicero, Marius, Servius Tullius, and the Decii.
The tranflator of this fatire industriously avoided impofing upon the reader, and perplexing the printer with tedious common-place notes; but finding towards the latter end many examples of noblemen who difgraced their ancestors by vicious practices, and of men meanly born, who ennobled their families by virtuous and brave actions, he thought fome hiftorical relations were necessary towards rendering those inftances more intelligible; which is all he pretends
to by his remarks. He would gladly have left out the heavy paffage of the Mirmillo and Retiarius, which he honeftly confeffes he either does not rightly understand, or cannot fufficiently explain. If he has not confined himself to the ftrict rules of tranflation, but has frequently taken the liberty of imitating, paraphrafing, or reconciling the Roman customs to our modern ufage; he hopes this freedom is pardonable, fince he has not ufed it but when he found the original flat, obfcure, or defective; and where the humour and connection of the author might naturally allow of fuch a change.
WHAT's the advantage, or the real good,
In tracing from the fource our antient blood? To have our ancestors in paint or ftone,
Preferv'd as relicks, or like monsters fhewn?
The brave Æmilii, as in triumph plac'd,
The virtuous Curii, half by time defac'd;
Corvinus, with a mouldering nofe, that bears
Injurious fcars, the fad effects of years;
And Galba grinning without nose or ears?
Vain are their hopes, who fancy to inherit
By trees of pedigrees, or fame, or merit :
Though plodding heralds through each branch may trace
Old Captains and Dictators of their race,
While their ill lives that family bely,
And grieve the brass which stands dishonour'd by.
'Tis mere burlesque, that to our Generals praise
Their progeny immortal statues raife,
Yet (far from that old gallantry) delight
Το game before their images all night,
And steal to bed at the approach of day,
The hour when these their enfigns did display.
Why should foft Fabius impudently bear
Names gain'd by conquefts in the Gallic war?
Why lays he claim to Hercules's strain,
Yet dares be base, effeminate and vain ?
The glorious altar to that hero built
Adds but a greater luftre to his guilt,
Whofe tender limbs and polish'd skin disgrace
The grifly beauty of his manly race;
And who, by practising the difmal skill
Of poisoning, and fuch treacherous ways to kill,
Makes his unhappy kindred marble fweat,
When his degenerate head by theirs is fet.
Long galleries of ancestors, and all
The follies which ill-grace a country hall,
Challenge no wonder or esteem from me;
"Virtue alone is true nobility."
Live therefore well: to men and gods appear,
Such as good Paulus, Coffus, Drufus, were;
And in thy confular triumphal show,
Let these before thy father's statues go;
Place them before the enfigns of the state,
As choofing rather to be good than great.
Convince the world that you 're devout and true,
Be juft in all you say, and all you do ;
Whatever be your birth, you 're fure to be
peer of the first magnitude to me:
Rome for your fake fhall push her conquefts on,
And bring new titles home from nations won,
To dignify fo eminent a fon.
With your bleft name fhall every region found,
Loud as mad Egypt, when her priefts have found
A new Ofiris for the ox they drown'd.
But who will call thofe noble, who deface,
By meaner acts, the glories of their race;
Whofe only title to our fathers' fame
Is couch'd in the dead letters of their name?
A dwarf as well may for a giant pafs;
A negro for a fwan; a crook-back'd lafs
Be call'd Europa; and a cur may bear
The name of tiger, lion, or whate'er
Denotes the noblet or the fiercest beaft:
Be therefore careful, left the world in jeft
Should thee juft fo with the mock titles greet,
Of Camerinus, or of conquer'd Crete.
To whom is this advice and cenfure due?
Rubellius Plancus, 'tis applied to you;
Who think your perfon fecond to divine,
Because defcended from the Drufian line;
Though yet you no illustrious act have done,
To make the world diftinguish Julia's fon
From the vile offspring of a trull, who fits
By the town wall, and for a living knits.
"You are poor rogues (you cry) the bafer fcum
"And inconfiderable dregs of Rome;
"Who know not from what corner of the earth
"The obfcure wretch, who got you, ftole his birth:
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