Eat opium, mingle arfenic in thy drink,
Still thou mayst live, avoiding pen and ink.
I fee, I fee, 'tis counsel given in vain,

For treafon botcht in rhime will be thy bane,
Rhime is the rock on which thou art to wreck,
'Tis fatal to thy fame and to thy neck :
Why should thy metre good king David blast?
A pfalm of his will furely be thy last.
Dar'st thou presume in verse to meet thy foes,
Thou whom the penny pamphlet foil'd in profe?
Doeg, whom God for mankind's mirth has made,
O'er-tops thy talent in thy very trade;
Doeg to thee, thy paintings are fo coarse,
A poet is, tho he's the poet's horse.

A double noose thou on thy neck dost pull
For writing treason, and for writing dull;
To die for faction is a common evil,

But to be hang'd for nonfenfe is the devil:
Hadft thou the glories of thy king exprest,
Thy praises had been fatyr at the best ;
But thou in clumsy verfe, unlickt, unpointed,
Haft shamfully defy'd the Lord's anointed :
I will not rake the dunghill of thy crimes,
For who would read thy life that reads thy rhymes?
But of king David's foes, be this the doom,
May all be like the young man Abfalom;

And for

my foes this their bleffing be,

may

To talk like Doeg, and to write like thee."

Achitophel each rank, degree, and age, For various ends neglects not to engage; The wife and rich for purse and counsel brought, The fools and beggars for their number fought : Who yet not only on the town depends, For even in court the faction had its friends; These thought the places they poffeft too small, And in their hearts wisht court and king to fall : Whose names the muse disdaining, holds i'th' dark, Thruft in the villain herd without a mark ; With parafites and libel-spawning imps, Intriguing fops, dull jesters, and worse pimps. Difdain the rafcal rabble to pursue,

Their fet cabals are yet a viler crew;

See where involv'd in common fmoak they fit;
Some for our mirth, fome for our fatyr fit:
These gloomy, thoughtful, and on mischief bent,
While thofe for mere good fellowship frequent
Th' appointed club, can let fedition pass,
Sense, nonsense, any thing to employ the glass;
And who believe in their dull honeft hearts,
The reft talk treafon but to fhew their parts;
Who ne'er had wit or will for mischief yet,
But pleas'd to be reputed of a set.

But in the facred annals of our plot, Industrious AROD never be forgot: The labours of this midnight-magiftrate, May vie with Corah's to preferve the state. In search of arms he fail'd not to lay hold On war's most powerful dang'rous weapon, gold. And laft, to take from Jebufites all odds, Their altars pillag'd, ftole their very gods; Oft would he cry, when treasure he surpriz'd, "Tis Baalish gold in David's coin difguis'd. Which to his houfe with richer reliques came, While lumber idols only fed the flame : For our wife rabble ne'er took pains t' enquire, What 'twas he burnt, fo't made a roufing fire. With which our elder was enricht no more Than false Gehazi with the Syrian's ftore;

So

poor, that when our chufing-tribes were met, Ev'n for his stinking votes he ran in debt; For meat the wicked, and as authors think, The faints he chous'd for his electing drink; Thus ev'ry shift and fubtle method past, And all to be no Zaken at the last.

Now, rais'd on Tyre's said ruins, Pharaoh's pride Soar'd high, his legions threatning far and wide; As when a batt'ring ftorm ingendred high, By winds upheld, hangs hov'ring in the sky,

Is gaz'd upon by ev'ry trembling fwain,
This for his vineyard fears, and that his grain;
For blooming plants, and flow'rs new opening, these
For lambs yean'd lately, and far-lab'ring bees:
To guard his stock each to the gods does call,
Uncertain where the fire-charg'd clouds will fall :
Ev'n fo the doubtful nations watch his arms,
With terror each expecting his alarms.
Where, Judah, where was now thy lyon's roar?
Thou only couldft the captive lands restore ;
Buf thou, with inbred broils and faction prest,
From Egypt need'ft a guardian with the rest.
Thy prince from fanhedrims no trust allow'd,
Too much the reprefenters of the crowd,
Who for their own defence give no supply,
But what the crown's prerogatives must buy :
As if their monarch's rights to violate
More needful were, than to preserve the state!
From prefent dangers they divert their care,
And all their fears are of the royal heir;
Whom now the reigning malice of his fces,
Unjudg'd would fentence, and e'er crown'd depose.
Religion the pretence, but their decree

To bar his reign, whate'er his faith shall be!
By fanhedrims and clam'rous crowds thus preft,
What paffions rent the righteous David's breast?

Who knows not how t' oppofe or to comply,
Unjust to grant and dangerous to deny !
How near in this dark juncture Ifrael's fate,
Whose peace one fole expedient could create,
Which yet the extreameft virtue did require,
Even of that prince whose downfal they conspire!
His abfence David does with tears advise
To appease their rage. Undaunted he complies;
Thus he who prodigal of blood and ease,
A royal life expos'd to winds and feas,
At once contending with the waves and fire,
And heading danger in the wars of Tyre,
Inglorious now forfakes his native fand,
And like an exile quits the promis'd land!
Our monarch scarce from preffing tears refrains,
And painfully his royal state maintains,

Who now embracing on the extreamest shore
Almost revokes what he injoin'd before:
Concludes at last more trust to be allow'd
To storms and feas than to the raging crowd!
Forbear, rash muse, the parting scene to draw,
With filence charm'd as deep as their's that saw!
Not only our attending nobles weep,

But hardy failors fwell with tears the deep!
The tide reftrain'd her course, and more amaz'd,
The twin-stars on the royal brothers gaz'd: