Or, in a mortgage, prove a Lawyer's fhare;
Or, in a jointure, vanish from the heir;

Or in pure f equity (the cafe not clear)

The Chanc'ry takes your rents for twenty year :
At beft, it falls to fome & ungracious fon,

179

Who cries, " My father's damn'd, and all's my own." h Shades, that to Bacon could retreat afford, 175 Become the portion of a booby Lord;

And Hemfley, once proud Buckingham's delight,
Slides to a Scriv'ner or a city Knight.

Let lands and houses have what lords they will,
Let Us be fix'd, and our own masters still.

180

tation, in the concluding part, obliged him to diverfify the fentiment. They are equally noble: but Horace's is expreffed with the greater force.

THE

FIRST EPISTLE

OF THE

FIRST BOOK

OF

HORAC E.

EPISTOLA I.

RIMA dicte mihi, fumma dicende camena,

PRIMA

b Spectatum fatis, et donatum jam rude, quaeris,

Maecenas, iterum antiquo me includere ludo.

Non eadem eft aetas, non mens. c Veianius, armis

d Herculis ad poftem fixis, latet abditus agro;

VER. 16. You limp, like Blackmore on a Lord Mayor's bort.] The fame of this heavy Poet, however problematical elfewhere, was universally received in the City of London. His verfification is here exactly defcribed; stiff, and not

EPISTLE I

To L. BOLINGBROKE.

T. JOHN, whofe love indulg'd my labours past,

Why b will you break the Sabbath of my days?
Now fick alike of Envy and of Praise.
Public too long, ah let me hide my Age!

5

See Modest Cibber now has left the Stage:

Our Gen'rals now, d retired to their Estates, Hang their old Trophies o'er the Garden gates, In Life's cool Ev'ning fatiate of Applause, Nore fond of bleeding, ev'n in BRUNSWICK's caufe. f A voice there is, that whispers in my ear, ('Tis Reason's voice, which sometimes one can hear) "Friend Pope! be prudent, let your & Mufe take "breath,

"And never gallop Pegafus to death;

"Lest stiff, and stately, void of fire or force,

15

"You limp, like Blackmore on a Lord Mayor's

"horfe."

Farewell then h Verse and Love, and ev'ry Toy, The Rhymes and Rattles of the Man or Boy;

strong; stately and yet dull, like the sober and slow-paced Animal generally employed to mount the Lord Mayor; and therefore here humorously opposed to Pegasus.