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Let B*rr*t*n arrest him in mock fury,

130

And M**d hang the knave without a jury.
But hark, the voice of battle shouts from far,
The Jews and Maccaronies are at war:
The Jews prevail, and, thund'ring from the stocks,
They seize, they bind, and circumcise C*s F*.
Fair Schw**n smiles the sport to see,

And all the Maids of Honour cry Te! He!

135

Be these the rural pastimes that attend Great B*nswk's leisure: these shall best unbend His royal mind, whene'er, from state withdrawn, He treads the velvet of his Richmond lawn; These shall prolong his Asiatic dream, Tho' Europe's balance trembles on its beam. 140

Verse 128. And M**d, &c.] He is conveyed before the judge, and sometimes severely bastinadoed." Ibid. Verse 129. But hark, &c.] "Quarrels happen-battles ensue." Ibid.

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Verse 132. Circumcise Cs F*.] Every liberty is permitted; there is no distinction of persons." Ibid. Verse 134. And all the Maids of Honour, &c.] "This is done to divert his Imperial Majesty, and the ladies of

And thou, Sir William! while thy plastic hand
Creates each wonder, which thy bard has plann'd ;
While, as thy art commands, obsequious rise
Whate'er can please, or frighten, or surprise,
O! let the bard his Knight's protection claim, 145
And share, like faithful Sancho, Quixote's fame!

AN

HEROIC POSTSCRIPT

ΤΟ

THE PUBLIC,

Occasioned by their favourable reception of a late Heroic Epistle to Sir William Chambers, Knt. &c.

BY THE AUTHOR OF THAT EPISTLE.

Sicelides Musa, paulo majora canamus.

VIRG.

I THAT of late, Sir William's Bard, and Squire, March'd with his helm and buckler on my lyre,

(What time the Knight prick'd forth in ill-starr'd

haste,

Comptroller General of the works of taste),

Now to the public tune my grateful lays,

5

Warm'd with the sun-shine of the public praise:

Verse 1. I that of late.]

Ille ego qui quondam, &c.

VIRGIL, or somebody for him.

Verse 4.

Works of taste.] Put synonimously for his

Warm'd too with mem❜ry of that golden time,
When Almon gave me reason for my rhyme;
-glittering orbs, and, what endear'd them more,
Each glittering orb the sacred features bore 10
Of George the good, the gracious, and the great,
Unfill'd, unsweated, all of sterling weight;
Or, were they not, they pass'd with current ease,
Good seemings then were good realities :
No Senate had convey'd, by smuggling art, 15
Pow'r to the mob to play Cadogan's part;
Now, thro' the land, that impious pow'r prevails,
All weigh their Sov'reign in their private scales,
And find him wanting, all save me alone;
For, sad to say! my glittering orbs are gone. 20
But ill beseems a poet to repent;

Lightly they came, and full as lightly went.
Peace to their manes! may they never feel

Some keen Scotch banker's unrelenting steel;

Thou art weighed

Verse 16. Cadogan's part.] Master of the Mint. Verse 19. And find him wanting.] in the balances, and art found wanting. verse 27..

Daniel, chap. viii.

While I again the Muse's sickle bring

25

To cut down dunces, wheresoe'er they spring,

Bind in poetic sheaves the plenteous crop,
And stack my full-ear'd load in Almon's shop.
For now, my Muse, thy fame is fix'd as fate;
Tremble, ye Fools I scorn, ye Knaves I hate : 30
I know the vigour of thy eagle wings,

I know thy strains can pierce the ear of Kings.
Did China's monarch here in Britain doze,

And was, like western Kings, a King of Prose,
Thy song could cure his Asiatic spleen,

And make him wish to see and to be seen;
That solemn vein of irony so fine,
Which, e'en Reviewers own, adorns thy line,

35

Verse 34. A King of Prose.] Kien-Long, the present Emperor of China, is a poet. M. de Voltaire did him the honour to treat him as a brother above two years ago; and my late patron, Sir William Chambers, has given a fine and most intelligible prose version of an ode of his Majesty upon tea, in his postscript to his Dissertation. I am, however, vain enough to think, that the Emperor's composition would have appeared still better in my heroic verse: but Sir William forestalled it; on which account I have entirely broke with him.

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