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, 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, Tho' more delighted with the dead : And when that fail'd, to fhew them clear, It chanc'd as on a day he stray'd, Beneath an Academic shade, He lik'd, amidst a thousand throats, And fearch'd, and fpy'd, and feiz'd his And took him home, and made him tame; 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, And now employ'd him with the Great. 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! 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 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, 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 |