Or, if you needs must write, write Caesar's praise, You'll gain at least a knighthood, or the bays.
P. What? like Sir Richard, rumbling, rough, and fierce, With arms, and George, and Brunswick crowd the verse, Rend with tremendous sound your ears asunder, With gun, drum, trumpet, blunderbuss, and thunder?
Or nobly wild, with Budgel's fire and force, Paint angels trembling round his falling horse?
F. Then all your muse's softer art display, Let Carolina smooth the tuneful lay, Lull with Amelia's liquid name the nine, And sweetly flow through all the royal line.
P. Alas! few verses touch their nicer ear;They scarce can bear their laureate twice a year;And justly Caesar scorns the poet's lays:
It is to history he trusts for praise.
F. Better be Cibber, I'll maintain it still, Than ridicule all taste, blaspheme quadrille, Abuse the city's best good men in metre, And laugh at peers that put their trust in Peter.
Even those you touch not, hate you. P. What should ail 'em?
F. A hundred smart in Timon and in Balaam:
The fewer still you name, you wound the more;Bond is but one, but Harpax is a score.
P. Each mortal has his pleasure: none deny Scarsdale his bottle, Darty his ham-pie;Ridotta sips and dances, till she see The doubling lustres dance as fast as she;F---- loves the senate, Hockley-hole his brother, Like in all else, as one egg to another.
I love to pour out all myself, as plain As downright Shippen, or as old Montaigne:
In them, as certain to be loved as seen, The soul stood forth, nor kept a thought within;In me what spots (for spots I have) appear, Will prove at least the medium must be clear.
In this impartial glass, my muse intends Fair to expose myself, my foes, my friends;Publish the present age; but where my text Is vice too high, reserve it for the next:
My foes shall wish my life a longer date, And every friend the less lament my fate.
My head and heart thus flowing through my quill, Verse-man or prose-man, term me which you will, Papist or Protestant, or both between, Like good Erasmus in an honest mean, In moderation placing all my glory, While Tories call me Whig, and Whigs a Tory.
Satire's my weapon, but I'm too discreet To run a muck, and tilt at all I meet;I only wear it in a land of Hectors, Thieves, supercargoes, sharpers, and directors.
Save but our army! and let Jove encrust Swords, pikes, and guns, with everlasting rust!
Peace is my dear delight--not Fleury's more:
But touch me, and no minister so sore.
Whoe'er offends, at some unlucky time Slides into verse, and hitches in a rhyme, Sacred to ridicule his whole life long, And the sad burthen of some merry song.
Slander or poison dread from Delia's rage Hard words or hanging, if your judge be Page.
From furious Sappho scarce a milder fate, Plagued by her love, or libelled by her hate.
Its proper power to hurt, each creature feels;Bulls aim their horns, and asses lift their heels;'Tis a bear's talent not to kick, but hug;And no man wonders he's not stung by pug.
So drink with Walters, or with Chartres eat, They'll never poison you, they'll only cheat.
Then, learned sir! (to cut the matter short)Whate'er my fate, or well or ill at Court, Whether old age, with faint but cheerful ray, Attends to gild the evening of my day, Or death's black wing already be displayed, To wrap me in the universal shade;Whether the darkened room to muse invite, Or whitened wall provoke the skewer to write:
In durance, exile, Bedlam or the Mint--
Like Lee or Budgel, I will rhyme and print.
F. Alas, young man! your days can ne'er be long, In flower of age you perish for a song!
Plums and directors, Shylock and his wife, Will club their testers, now, to take your life!
P. What? armed for virtue when I point the pen, Brand the bold front of shameless guilty men;Dash the proud gamester in his gilded car;Bare the mean heart that lurks beneath a star;Can there be wanting, to defend her cause, Lights of the Church, or guardians of the laws?
Could pensioned Boileau lash in honest strain Flatterers and bigots even in Louis' reign?
Could Laureate Dryden pimp and friar engage, Yet neither Charles nor James be in a rage?
And I not strip the gilding off a knave, Unplaced, unpensioned, no man's heir, or slave?
I will, or perish in the generous cause:
Hear this, and tremble! you, who 'scape the laws.
Yes, while I live, no rich or noble knave Shall walk the world, in credit, to his grave.
To Virtue only and her friends a friend, The world beside may murmur, or commend.
Know, all the distant din that world can keep Rolls o'er my grotto, and but soothes my sleep.
There, my retreat the best companions grace, Chiefs out of war, and statesmen out of place.
There St. John mingles with my friendly bowl The feast of reason and the flow of soul:
And he, whose lightning pierced the Iberian lines, Now forms my quincunx, and now ranks my vines Or tames the genius of the stubborn plain, Almost as quickly as he conquered Spain.
Envy must own, I live among the great, No pimp of pleasure, and no spy of state.
With eyes that pry not, tongue that ne'er repeats, Fond to spread friendships, but to cover heats;To help who want, to forward who excel;
This, all who know me, know; who love me, tell;And who unknown defame me, let them be Scribblers or peers, alike are mob to me.
This is my plea, on this I rest my cause--What saith my counsel, learned in the laws?
F. Your plea is good; but still I say, beware!
Laws are explained by men--so have a care.
It stands on record, that in Richard's times A man was hanged for very honest rhymes.
Consult the Statute: quart. I think it is, Edwardi ***t. or prim. et quint. Eliz.
See libels, satires--here you have it--read.
P. Libels and satires! lawless things indeed!
But grave epistles, bringing vice to light, Such as a king might read, a bishop write;Such as Sir Robert would approve-- F. Indeed?
The case is altered--you may then proceed;In such a cause the plaintiff would be hissed;My lords the judges laugh, and you're dismissed.
THE SECOND SATIRE OF THE SECOND BOOK OF HORACE.
SATIRE II.
TO MR. BETHEL.
