* A peer's pert heir has to the commons spoke A vile reflection, or a bawdy joke:

Call'd to the house of lords, of this beware,

'Tis what the bishops' bench will never bear.
Among the commons is fuch freedom fhown,
They lash each other, and attack the throne;
Yet fo unskilful or fo fearful fome,
For nine that speak there's nine-and-forty dumb.
'When James the first, at great Britannia's helm,
Rul'd this word-clipping and word-coining realm,
No word to royal favour made pretence,
But what agreed in found, and clafh'd in fenfe.
Thrice happy he! how great that speaker's praife,
Whose every period look'd an hundred ways!
What then? we now with just abhorrence shun
The trifling quibble, and the school-boy's pun;
Though no great connoiffeur, I make a fhift
Juft to find out a Durfey from a Swift;

& res,

* Ne nimium teneris juvenentur verfibus unquam,
Aut immunda crepent ignominiofaque dicta :
Offenduntur enim quibus eft equus, & pater
Nec fi quid fricti ciceris probat, & nucis emptor,
Equis accipiunt animis, donantve corona.
At noftri proavi Plautinos & numeros &
Laudavêre fales; nimium patienter utrumque,
Ne dicam ftulte, mirati; fi modo ego & vos
Scimus inurbanum lepido feponere dicto,
Legitimumque fonum digitis callemus & aure.

U 4

I can

I can difcern with half an eye, I hope,
Mift from Jo Addison; from Eusden, Pope:
I know a farce from one of Congreve's plays,
And Cibber's opera from Johnny Gay's.

m When pert Defoe his faucy papers writ,
He from a cart was pillor'd for his wit:
By mob was pelted half a morning's space,
And rotten eggs befmear'd his yellow face;
The Cenfor then improv'd the lift'ning ifle,
And held both parties in an artful smile.
A fcribbling crew now pinching winter brings,
That spare no earthly nor no heav'nly things,
Nor church, nor ftate, nor treasurers, nor kings.
But blafphemy displeases all the town;

And for defying fcripture, law, and crown,
Woolfton fhould pay his fine, and lose his gown.

m Ignotum Tragicæ genus inveniffe Camœnæ
Dicitur, & plauftris vexiffe poëmata Thefpis,
Quæ canerent agerentque perun&ti fæcibus ora.
Poft hunc perfonæ pallæque repertor honestæ
Æfchylus, & modicis inftravit pulpita tignis,
Et docuit magnumque loqui, nitique cothurno.
Succeffit vetus his Comœdia, non fine multa
Laude: fed in vitium libertas excidit, & vim
Dignam lege regi: lex eft accepta, chorufque
Turpiter obticuit fublato jure nocendi.

It

"It must be own'd the journals try all ways
To merit their respective party's praise :
They jar in every article from Spain;

A war these threaten, those a peace maintain :
Though lie they will, to give them all their due,
In foreign matters, and domestic too.

Whoe'er thou art that would'ft a Poftman write,
Enquire all day, and hearken all the night.
Sure, Gazetteers and writers of Courants
Might foon exceed th' intelligence of France:
To be out-done old England should refuse,
As in her arms, fo in her public news:
But truth is scarce, the scene of action large,
And correspondence an exceffive charge.

There are who fay, no man can be a wit
Unless for Newgate, or for Bedlam fit;
Let pamphleteers abufive fatire write,
To fhew a genius is to fhew a fpite:

n Nil intentatum noftri liquêre Poëtæ ;
Nec minimum meruêre decus, veftigia Græca
Aufi deferere, & celebrare domeftica facta:
Nec virtute foret clarifve potentius armis,

Quàm linguâ, Latium, fi non offenderet unum-
quemque Poëtarum limæ labor & mora.

Ingenium miferâ quia fortunatius arte

Credit, & excludit fanos Helicone Poëtas

Democritus, bona pars non ungues ponere curat,
Non barbam-

Nancifcetur enim pretium nomenque Poëtæ,

That

That author's work will ne'er be reckon'd good,
Who has not been where Curll the printer stood.

Alas poor me! you may my Fortune guess :

I write, and yet humanity profess:

(Though nothing can delight a modern judge,
Without ill-nature and a private grudge)
I love the king, the queen, and royal race:
I like the government, but want no place:
Too low in life to be a juftice I,

And for a conftable, thank God, too high:
Was never in a plot, my brain's not hurt;
I politics to poetry convert.

"A politician muft (as I have read)

Be furnish'd, in the first place, with a head:
A head well fill'd with Machiavelian brains,
And stuff'd with precedents of former reigns:

Si tribus Anticyris caput infanabile nunquam
Tonfori Licino commiferit.

O ego lævus,
Qui purgor bilem fub verni temporis horam :
Non alius faceret meliora poëmata, verum
Nil tanti eft ergo fungar vice cotis, acutum
Reddere quæ ferrum valet, exfors ipfa fecandi;
Munus & officium, nil fcribens ipfe, docebo;
Unde parentur opes, quid alat formetque Poëtam:
Quid deceat, quid non: quò virtus, quò ferat error.
4 Scribendi recte, fapere eft & principium & fons :
Rem tibi Socraticæ poterunt oftendere chartæ,
Verbaque provifam rem non invita fequentur.
Qui didicit, patriæ quid debeat, & quid amicis,

Muft

Muft journals read, and magna charta quote;
But acts still wifer, if he speaks by note:
Learn well his leffon, and ne'er fear mistakes;
For ready-money ready-speakers makes.
He must instructions and credentials draw,
Pay well the army, and protect the law:
Give to his country what's his country's due,
But firft help brothers, fons, and coufins too.
He must read Grotius upon war and peace,
And the twelve judges' falary increase.

He muft oblige old friends and new allies,
And find out ways and means for fresh fupplies.
He muft the weavers grievances redress,

Ánd merchants wants in merchants words exprefs.

* Dramatic poets that expect the bays,

Should cull our hiftories for party plays;
Wickford's Embaffador fhould fill their head,
And the State-trials carefully be read:

Quo fit amore parens, quo frater amandus, et hofpes,
Quod fit confcripti, quod judicis officium, quæ
Partes in bellum miffi ducis; ille profectò
Reddere perfonæ fcit convenientia cuique.
Refpicere exemplar vitæ morumque jubebo
Doctum imitatorem, & veras hinc ducere voces.
Fabula, nullius veneris, fine pondere & arte,

Valdius oblectat populum, meliufque moratur,
Quam verfus inopes rerum, nugæque canora.

For