ODE FOR MUSIC. ON THE LONGITUDE. [The celebrated Mr Whiston, in conjunction with Ditton, read lectures on Experimental Philosophy, and they conceived a visionary plan for discovering the longitude at sea, which is here ridiculed.] RECITATIVO. THE longitude miss'd on RITORNELLO. So Ditton and Whiston Sing Ditton, Besh-t on; Bep-st on. Sing Ditton and Whiston. Bep-st and besh-t on. EPIGRAM. ON THE FEUDS ABOUT HANDEL AND STRANGE! all this difference should be DA CAPO. ON MRS TOFTS, A CELEBRATED OPERA-SINGER. So bright is thy beauty, so charming thy song, along: But such is thy av'rice, and such is thy pride, TWO OR THREE: OR, A RECEIPT TO MAKE A CUCKOLD. Two or three visits, and two or three bows, Can never fail cuckolding two or three spouses. EPIGRAM, IN A MAID OF HONOUR'S PRAYER-BOOK. WHEN Israel's daughters mourn'd their past offences, They dealt in sackcloth, and turn'd cinder wenches: But Richmond's fair ones never spoil their locks; They use white powder, and wear Holland smocks. O comely church! where females find clean linen As decent to repent in, as to sin in. THE BALANCE OF EUROPE. Now Europe balanc'd, neither side prevails; A PANEGYRICAL EPISTLE TO MR THOMAS SNOW, GOLDSMITH, NEAR TEMPLE-BAR; Occasioned by his buying and selling the third South Sea Subscrip tions, taken in by the Directors at One Thousand per cent.* DISDAIN not, SNow, my humble verse to hear, * In the year 1720, the South Sea Company, under pretence of paying the public debt, obtained an act of parliament for enlarging their capital, by taking into it all the debts of the nation, incurred before the year 1716, amounting to L. 31,664,551. Part of this sum was subscribed into their capital at three subscriptions: the first at L. 300 per cent., the second at L. 400, and a third at L. 1000. Such was the infatuation of the time, that these subscriptions were bought and sold at exorbitant premiums; so that L.100 South Sea stock, subscribed at L.1000, was sold for L.1200 in Exchange-alley.-H. Suspend the worldly business of the day, O thou, whose penetrative wisdom found The South Sea rocks and shelves, where thousands drown'd! When credit, sunk, and commerce gasping lay, Thou stood'st: no bill was sent unpaid away. When not a guinea chink'd on Martin's boards, And Atwill's self was drain'd of all his hoards, Thou stood'st; an Indian king in size and hue! Thy unexhausted shop was our Peru. Why did 'Change-alley waste thy precious hours No wonder, they were caught by South Sea schemes, No wonder that their fancies wild can frame Let vulture Hopkins stretch his rusty throat, I know thou scorn'st his mean, his sordid mind; Yet be diverted by this moral tale. * Names of eminent goldsmiths.-H. |