Befides, with juftice, this difcerning age
Admires their wond'rous talents for the stage:
20 Well may they venture on the mimick's art,
Who play from morn to night a borrow'd part;
Practis'd their mafter's notions to embrace,
Repeat his maxims, and reflect his face;
With ev'ry wild abfurdity comply,
And view each object with another's eye;
To shake with laughter ere the jest they hear,
To pour at will the counterfeited tear;
And, as their patron hints the cold or heat,
To shake in dog days, in December sweat.
21 How, when competitors like these contend, Can furly virtue hope to fix a friend?
Slaves that with ferious impudence beguile,
And lie without a blush, without a smile;
Exalt each trifle, ev'ry vice adore,
Your tafle in fnuff, your judgement in a whore ;
Can Balbo's eloquence applaud, and swear
He gropes his breeches with a monarch's air.
For arts like thefe preferr'd, admir'd, carefs'd,
They first invade your table, then your breaft;
22 Explore your fecrets with infidious art,
Watch the weak hour, and ranfack all the heart;
Then foon your ill-plac'd confidence repay,
Commence your lords, and govern or betray.
20 Natio comoda eft. Rides? majore cachinno
21 Non fumus ergo pares: melior, qui femper & omni Nocte dieque poteft alienum fumere vultum,
A facie jactare manus: laudare paratus,
Si bene ructavit, fi rectum minxit amicus.
32 Scire volunt fecreta domus, atque inde timeri.
Tam patiens urbis, tam ferreus ut teneat fe? Juv.
HO' grief and fondness in my breast rebel,
When injur'd THALES bids the town farewell, Yet ftill my calmer thoughts his choice cominend, I praise the hermit, but regret the friend, Refolv'd at length, from vice and LONDON far, To breathe in diftant fields a purer air, And, fix'd on Cambria's folitary fhore, Give to St. David one true Briton more.
2 For who would leave, unbrib'd, Hibernia's land, Or change the rocks of Scotland for the Strand?
1 Quamvis digreffu veteris confufus amici; Laudo, tamen, vacuis quod fedem figere Cumis Deftinet, atque unum civem donare Sibyllæ.
Ego vel Prochytam præpono Suburræ,
Nam quid tam miferum, tam folum vidimus, ut non
Deterius credas horrere incendia, lapfus
Tectorum affiduos, & mille pericula fævæ
Urbis, & Augufto recitantes menfe poetas?
There none are swept by fudden fate away,
But all, whom hunger fpares, with age decay:
Here malice, rapine, accident, confpire,
And now a rabble rages, now a fire;
Their ambush here relentless ruffians lay,
And here the fell attorney prowls for
prey;
Here falling houses thunder on your head,
And here a female Atheist talks you dead.
3 While THALES waits the wherry that contains
Of diffipated wealth the fmall remains,
On Thames's banks, in filent thought we stood
Where Greenwich fmiles upon the filver flood;
Struck with the feat that gave ELIZA birth,
We kneel and kifs the confecrated earth;
In pleafing dreams the blissful age renew,
And call Britannia's glories back to view;
Behold her cross triumphant on the main,
The guard of commerce, and the dread of Spain,
Ere mafquerades debauch'd, excise oppress'd,
Or English honour grew a standing jeft.
A tranfient calm the happy fcenes beftow,
And for a moment lull the fenfe of woe.
At length awaking, with contemptuous frown,
Indignant THALES eyes the neighb'ring town.
4 Since worth, he cries, in these degenerate days Wants ev'n the cheap reward of empty praise;
3 Sed, dum tota domus rhedâ componitur unâ,
Subftitit ad veteres arcus.
4 Hic tunc Umbritius: Quando artibus, inquit, honeftis Nullus in urbe locus, nulla emolumenta laborum,
Res hodie minor eft, heri quam fuit, atque eadem cras
Deteret exiguis aliquid: proponimus illuc
Ire, fatigatas ubi Dædalus exuit alas }
* Queen Elizabeth, born at Greenwich.
In those curs'd walls, devote to vice and gain,
Since unrewarded fcience toils in vain;
Since hope but fooths to double my distress,
And ev'ry moment leaves my little less;
While yet my steady steps no staff sustains,
my veins;
Grant me, kind Heaven, to find fome happier place,
Where honefty and fenfe are no disgrace;
And life ftill vig'rous revels in
Some pleafing bank where verdant ofiers play,
Some peacefui vale with Nature's paintings gay;
Where once the harass'd Briton found repose,
And safe in poverty defy'd his foes;
Some fecret cell, ye Pow'rs, indulgent give,
has learn'd to live.
Here let those reign, whom penfions can incite
To vote a patriot black, a courtier white;
Explain their country's dear-bought rights away,
And plead for pirates in the face of day;
With flavish tenets taint our poifon'd youth,
And lend a lie the confidence of truth.
7 Let fuch raise palaces, and manors buy, Collect a tax, or farm a lottery;
With warbling eunuchs fill our filenc'd ftage,
And lull to fervitude a thoughtlefs age.
5 - et pedibus me
Porto meis, nullo dextram fubeunte bacillo.
Cedamus patriâ: vivant Arturius iftic
Et Catullus maneant qui nigrum in candida vertunt.
7 Queis facile eft ædem conducere, flumina, portus,
Siccandam eluviem, portandum ad bufta cadaver.--
Munera nunc edunt.
The invafions of the Spaniards were defended in the houses of parliament.
The licensing act was then lately made.
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