THE

PHEASANT and the LARK.

A FAB L E.

By Dr. DELANY.

Quis inique

Tam patiens urbis, tam ferreus, ut teneat fe?

JUVENAL.

'N antient times, as bards indite,

IN

(If clerks have con'd the records right) A Peacock reign'd, whofe glorious fway His fubjects with delight obey;

His tail was beauteous to behold,
Replete with goodly eyes and gold,
(Fair emblem of that Monarch's guife,
Whose train at once is rich and wife)
And princely rul'd he many regions,
And statesmen wife, and valiant legions.

A Pheasant Lord *, above the rest, With ev'ry grace and talent bleft, Was fent to fway, with all his skill, The scepter of a neighb'ring Hill †;

* Lord Carteret, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. + Ireland.

No science was to him unknown,
For all the Arts were all his own:
In all the living learned read,

Tho' more delighted with the dead :
For birds, if antient Tales fay true,
Had then their Popes and Homers too,
Cou'd read and write in prose and verse,
And speak like ***, and build like † Pearce.
He knew their voices, and their wings,
Who fmootheft foars, who fweetest fings;
Who toils with ill-fledg'd pens to climb,
And who attain'd the true fublime:
Their merits he could well defcry.
He had fo exquifite an eye;

And when that fail'd, to fhew them clear,
He had as exquisite an ear.

It chanc'd as on a day he stray'd,

Beneath an Academic shade,

He lik'd, amidst a thousand throats,
The wildness of a ‡ Woodlark's notes,

And fearch'd, and fpy'd, and feiz'd his
game,

And took him home, and made him tame;
Found him on trial true and able,

So chear'd and fed him at his table.

Here some shrewd critic finds I'm caught, And cries out, Better fed than taught ·

+ A famous modern architect.

+ Dr. Dy.

Then

Then jests on Game and Tame, and reads And jefts, and fo my Tale proceeds.

Long had he ftudy'd in the Wood,
Converfing with the wife and good;
His foul with harmony inspir'd,
With love of truth and virtue fir'd:
His Brethren's good and Maker's praise,
Were all the study of his lays;
Were all his study in retreat,

And now employ'd him with the Great.
His friendship was the fure resort
Of all the wretched at the Court;
But chiefly merit in distress

His greatest bleffing was to blefs.

This fix'd him in his Patron's breaft, But fir'd with Envy all the rest: I mean that noify craving crew, Who round the Court inceffant flew, And prey'd like rooks, by pairs and dozens, To fill the maws of fons and coufins : "Unmov'd their heart, and chill'd their

"To ev'ry thought of common good, Confining ev'ry hope and care"

66

To their own low contracted sphere. These ran him down with ceaseless cry, But found it hard to tell you why,

334

'Till his own worth and wit fupply'd, Sufficient matter to deride:

""Tis Envy's fafeft, fureft rule,

"To hide her rage in ridicule :

"The vulgar eye fhe beft beguiles,

"When all her fnakes are deck'd with "fmiles:"

Sardonic fmiles, by Rancour rais'd!
"Tormented most when seeming pleas'd!"
Their fpight had more than half expir'd,
Had he not wrote what all admir'd;
What morfels had their malice wanted,
But that he built, and plann'd, and planted!
How had his fense and learning griev'd
'em,

But that his charity reliev'd 'em!

"At highest Worth dull Malice reaches, "As flugs pollute the fairest peaches : "Envy defames, as Harpies vile "Devour the food they first defile."

Now afk the fruit of all his favour "He was not hitherto a faver"

What then could make their rage run mad? Why what he hop'd, not what he had.

"What tyrant e'er invented ropes, "Or racks, or rods, to punish hopes?

"Th' in

"Th' inheritance of Hope and Fame
"Is feldom earthly Wifdom's aim;
"Or, if it were, is not fo small,
"But there is room enough for all."

If he but chance to breathe a fong. (He feldom fang, and never long) The noisy, rude, malignant croud, Where it was high, pronounc'd it loud: Plain Truth was Pride, and what was fillier, Eafy and Friendly was Familiar.

Or if he tun'd his lofty lays, With folemn air to Virtue's praise, Alike abusive and erroneous,

They call'd' it Hoarse and Unharmonious:

Yet fo it was to fouls like theirs,
Tunelefs as Abel to the Bears!

A* Rook with harth malignant caw Began, was follow'd by a ↑ Daw; (Tho' fome, who would be thought to know,

Are pofitive it was a Crow)

Jack Daw was feconded by Tit,

Tom Tit could write, and fo he writ,

Doctor T-r.

+ Right Honourable RT-gh, Efq;

Doctor Sh-d-n.

A tribe