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When he who pilled his province 'scapes the laws,
And keeps his money, though he lost his cause;
His fine begged off, contemns his infamy,
Can rise at twelve, and get him drunk ere three;
Enjoys his exile, and, condemned in vain,
Leaves thee, prevailing province, to complain.
Such villanies roused Horace into wrath;
And 'tis more noble to pursue his path, †
Than an old tale of Diomede to repeat,
Or labouring after Hercules to sweat,
Or wandering in the winding maze of Crete;
Or with the winged smith aloft to fly,
Or fluttering perish with his foolish boy.

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With what impatience must the muse behold The wife, by her procuring husband sold? For though the law makes null the adulterer's deed Of lands to her, the cuckold may succeed, Who his taught eyes up to the cieling throws, And sleeps all over but his wakeful nose. When he dares hope a colonel's command, Whose coursers kept, ran out his father's land; Who yet a stripling, Nero's chariot drove, Whirled o'er the streets, while his vain master

strove

With boasted art to please his eunuch love

Would it not make a modest author dare To draw his tabie-book within the square,

* Here the poet complains, that the governors of provinces being accused for their unjust exactions, though they were condemned at their trials, yet got off by bribery.

+ Horace, who wrote satires; it is more noble, says our author, to imitate him in that way, than to write the labours of Hercules, the sufferings of Diomedes and his followers, or the flight of Dædalus, who made the Labyrinth, and the death of his son Ica

rus.

Nero married Sporus, an eunuch; though it may be, the poet meant Nero's mistress in man's apparel.

*

And fill with notes, when, lolling at his ease,
Mecanas-like, the happy rogue he sees
Borne by six wearied slaves in open view,
Who cancelled an old will, and forged a new;
Made wealthy at the small expence of signing
With a wet seal, and a fresh interlining?
The lady, next, requires a lashing line,
Who squeezed a toad into her husband's wine:
So well the fashionable medicine thrives,
That now 'tis practised even by country wives;
Poisoning, without regard of fame or fear,
And spotted corpse are frequent on the bier.
Wouldst thou to honours and preferments climb?
Be bold in mischief, dare some mighty crime,
Which dungeons, death, or banishment deserves;
For virtue is but dryly praised, and starves.
Great men to great crimes owe their plate embost,
Fair palaces, and furniture of cost,

And high commands; a sneaking sin is lost.
Who can behold that rank old letcher keep
His son's corrupted wife, and hope to sleep? †
Or that male-harlot, or that unfledged boy,
Eager to sin, before he can enjoy?

If nature could not, anger would indite
Such woful stuff as I or Sh-11 write.

Count from the time, since old 'Deucalion's boat, Raised by the flood, did on Parnassus float, §

* Mecenas is often taxed by Seneca and others for his effeminacy.

The meaning is that the very consideration of such a crime will hinder a virtuous man from taking his repose.

Shadwell, our author's old enemy.-E.

Deucalion and Pyrrha, when the world was drowned, escaped to the top of Mount Parnassus, and were commanded to restore mankind, by throwing stones over their heads; the stones he threw became men, and those she threw became women,

And, scarcely mooring on the cliff, implored
An oracle how man might be restored;
When softened stones and vital breath ensued,
And virgins naked were by lovers viewed;
What ever since that golden age was done,
What human kind desires, and what they shun;
Rage, passions, pleasures, impotence of will,
Shall this satirical collection fill.

What age so large a crop of vices bore,
Or when was avarice extended more?

When were the dice with more profusion thrown?
The well-filled fob not emptied now alone,
But gamesters for whole patrimonies play;
The steward brings the deeds which must convey
The lost estate: what more than madness reigns,
When one short sitting many hundreds drains,
And not enough is left him to supply
Board-wages, or a footman's livery?

What age so many summer-seats did see?
Or which of our forefathers fared so well,
As on seven dishes at a private meal?
Clients of old were feasted; now, a poor
Divided dole is dealt at the outward door;
Which by the hungry rout is soon dispatched:
The paltry largess, too, severely watched,
Ere given; and every face observed with care,
That no intruding guest usurp a share.
Known, you receive; the crier calls aloud
Our old nobility of Trojan blood,

Who gape among the crowd for their precarious

food.

The prætor's and the tribune's voice is heard; The freedman jostles, and will be preferred; First come, first served, he cries; and I, in spite Of your great lordships, will maintain my right;

Though born a slave, though my torn ears are bored,*
"Tis not the birth, 'tis money makes the lord.
The rents of five fair houses I receive;
What greater honours can the purple give?
The poor patrician is reduced to keep,
In melancholy walks, a grazier's sheep:
Not Pallus nor Licinius † had my treasure;
Then let the sacred tribunes wait my leisure.
Once a poor rogue, 'tis true, I trod the street,
And trudged to Rome upon my naked feet:
Gold is the greatest God; though yet we see
No temples raised to money's majesty;
No altars fuming to her power divine,
Such as to valour, peace, and virtue shine,
And faith, and concord; where the stork on high‡
Seems to salute her infant progeny,

Presaging pious love with her auspicious cry.

But since our knights and senators account, To what their sordid begging vails amount, Judge what a wretched share the poor attends, Whose whole subsistence on those alms depends! Their household fire, their raiment, and their food, Prevented by those harpies; § when a wood

* The ears of all slaves were bored, as a mark of their servitude; which custom is still usual in the East Indies, and in other parts, even for whole nations, who bore prodigious holes in their ears, and wear vast weights at them.

+ Pallus, a slave freed by Claudius Cæsar, and raised by his favour to great riches. Licinius was another wealthy freedman belonging to Augustus.

Perhaps the storks were used to build on the top of the temple dedicated to Concord.

§ He calls the Roman knights, &c. harpies, or devourers. In those days, the rich made doles intended for the poor; but the great were either so covetous, or so needy, that they came in their litters to demand their shares of the largess; and thereby prevented, and consequently starved, the poor.

Of litters thick besiege the donor's gate,
And begging lords and teeming ladies wait
The promised dole; nay, some have learned the trick
To beg for absent persons; feign them sick,
Close mewed in their sedans, for fear of air;
And for their wives produce an empty chair.
This is my spouse; dispatch her with her share;
'Tis Galla.-Let her ladyship but peep.-
No, sir, 'tis pity to disturb her sleep.

*

Such fine employments our whole days divide: The salutations of the morning tide Call up the sun; those ended, to the hall We wait the patron, hear the lawyers bawl; Then to the statues; where amidst the race Of conquering Rome, some Arab shows his face, Inscribed with titles, and profanes the place; † Fit to be pissed against, and somewhat more. The great man, home conducted, shuts his door. Old clients, wearied out with fruitless care, Dismiss their hopes of eating, and despair; Though much against the grain, forced to retire, Buy roots for supper, and provide a fire.

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* The meaning is, that noblemen would cause empty litters to be carried to the giver's door, pretending their wives were within them. ""Tis Galla," that is, my wife; the next words, "Let her ladyship but peep," are of the servant who distributes the dole; "Let me see her, that I may be sure she is within the litter." The husband answers, "She is asleep, and to open the litter would disturb her rest."

The poet here tells you how the idle passed their time; in going first to the levees of the great; then to the hall, that is, to the temple of Apollo, to hear the lawyers plead; then to the market-place of Augustus, where the statues of the famous Romans were set in ranks on pedestals; amongst which statues were seen those of foreigners, such as Arabs, &c. who, for no desert, but only on account of their wealth or favour, were placed amongst the noblest.

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