то

GEORGE NIM-DAN-DEAN, Efq;

Upon his incomparable VERSES, &c. of AUGUST 2d, M DCC XXI.

Written by Dr. DELANY, in the Name of THOMAS SHERIDA N. *

HAIL, human compound quadrifarious!

Invincible as Wight Briareus! Hail! doubly doubled mighty merry one, Stronger than triple-body'd Geryon ! O may your Vaftnefs deign t'excufe The praises of a puny Mufe, Unable, in her utmost flight, To reach thy huge Coloffian height. T'attempt to write like thee were frantic, Whofe lines are, like thyfelf, gigantic.

Yet let me blefs, in humbler ftrain,
Thy vaft, thy bold Cambyfian vein,
Pour'd out t'inrich thy native ifle,
As Egypt wont to be with Nile.

*These verfes were all written in circles, one within another, as appears from the obfervations in the following poem by Dr. Swift.

Oh how I joy to see thee wander,

In many a winding loofe meander,

In circling mazes, fmooth and fupple,
And ending in a clink quadruple;
Loud, yet agreeable withal,

Like rivers rattling in their fall.
Thine, fure is poetry divine,
Where wit and majefty combine;
Where ev'ry line, as huge as seven,
If ftretch'd in length, would reach to
Heav'n:

Here all comparing wou'd be fland'ring,
The leaft is more than Alexandrine.

Against thy verfe Time fees with pain, He whets his envious fcithe in vain ; For, tho' from thee he much may pare, Yet much thou ftill wilt have to spare.

Thou haft alone the skill to feaft
With Roman elegance of tafte,
Who haft of rhymes as vast resources
As Pompey's caterer of courses.

Oh thou, of all the Nine infpir'd!
My languid foul, with teaching tir'd,
How is it raptur'd, when it thinks
On thy harmonious fett of clinks;

Each

1

Each anfw'ring each in various rhymes,
Like Echo to St. Patrick's chimes?

Thy Mufe, majestic in her rage,
Moves like Statira on the ftage,
And scarcely can one page fuftain
The length of fuch a flowing train:
Her train, of variegated dye,
Shews like Thaumantia's in the fky;
Alike they glow, alike they please,
Alike impreft by Phœbus' rays.

Thy verfe (Ye Gods! I cannot bear it)
To what, to what fhall I compare it?
'Tis like, what I have oft heard spoke on,
The famous ftatue of Laocoon.

"Tis like -O yes, 'tis very

like it,

The long long ftring with which you fly
kite.

"Tis like what you, and one or two more,
Roar to your Echo* in good-humour ;
And ev'ry couplet thou haft writ
Concludes like Rattah-whittah-whit‍†.

* At Gallftown there is fo famous an Echo, that, if you repeat two lines of Virgil out of a fpeaking-trumpet, you may hear the nymph return them to your ear with great propriety and clearness.

Thefe words allude to their amufements with the Echo, having no other fignification but to exprefs the found of ftones returned by the Echo, when beaten one against the

other.

то

то

MR. THOMAS SHERIDAN,

Upon his VERSES written in Circles.

IT

By DOCTOR SWIFT.

T never was known that circular letters, By humble companions were fent to their betters:

And, as to the fubject, our judgment mehercle

primis,

Is this, that you argue like fools in a circle. But now for your verses; we tell you, im[and rhyme is, The segment fo large 'twixt your reason That we walk all about, like a horse in a [turn round. And, before we find either, our noddles Sufficient it were, one would think, in your [quadrant.

pound,

mad rant,

To give us your measures of lines by a But we took our dividers, and found your d--n'd metre,

In each fingle verfe, took up a diameter. But how, Mr. Sheridan, came you to ven[the center *? George, Dan, Dean, and Nim to place in

ture

* There were four human figures in the center of the cir

cular verfes.

VOL. XVI.

B b

'Twill

"Twill appear, to your coft, you are fairly

trepann'd,

[hand; For the cord of your circle is now in their The cord, or the radius, it matters not whether,

By which your jade Pegafus fixt in a tether, As his betters are us'd, fhall be lafh'd round the ring,

Three fellows with whips, and the Dean holds the ftring.

Will Hancock declares you are out of your

compass,

[bas'; To encroach on his art by writing of bomAnd has taken juft now a firm refolution To answer your ftyle without circumlocution.

Lady Betty* prefents you her fervice moft humble,

[ble, And is not afraid your Worfhip will grumThat the makes of your verfes a hoop for Mif's Tam †,

Which is all at prefent; and fo I remain

* Daughter of the Earl of Drogheda, and married to George Rochford, Efq.

+ Mifs Tam, [a fhort name for Thomafon] Lady Betty's daughter, then perhaps about a year old. She is now married to Guftavus Lambert, Efq; of Payntown, in the county of Meath.