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In

SICKNESS.

Written foon after the author's coming to live in Ireland, upon the Queen's death, October 1714.

IS true,

TIS

then why fhould I repine

To fee my life fo faft decline?
But why obfcurely here alone,

Where I am neither lov'd nor known?
My state of health none care to learn;
My life is here no foul's concern:
And those with whom I now converse,
Without a tear will tend my herfe.
Remov'd from kind Arbuthnot's aid,
Who knows his art, but not his trade,
Preferring his regard for me

Before his credit, or his fee.

Some formal vifits, looks, and words,
What mere humanity affords,

I meet perhaps from three or four,
From whom I once expected more ;
Which thofe who tend the fick for pay,
Can act as decently as they :

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And fpare my abfent friends the grief

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To hear, yet give me no relief;

Expir'd to-day, intomb'd to-morrow,
When known, will fave a double forrow.

Το

To the Earl of OXFORD, late Lord Treasurer. Sent to him when he was in the Tower, before his trial.

Out of HORACE.

Written in the year 1716.

HOW blefs'd is he who for his country dies,

Since death purfues the coward as he flies!
The youth in vain would fly from fate's attack,
With trembling knees, and terror at his back;
Tho' fear fhould lend him pinions like the wind,
Yet fwifter fate will feize him from behind.

VIRTUE repuls'd, yet knows not to repine:
But fhall with unattainted honour shine;
Nor ftoops to take the staff*, nor lays it down,
Just as the rabble please to smile or frown.

VIRTUE, to crown her fav'rites, loves to try
Some new unbeaten paffage to the sky;
Where Jove a feat among the gods will give
To those who die for meriting to live.

NEXT, faithful filence hath a fure reward;
Within our breaft be ev'ry secret barr'd :
He who betrays his friend, fhall never be
Under one roof, or in one fhip, with me.
For who with traitors would his fafety truft,
Left with the wicked heav'n involve the juft?
And tho' the villain 'fcape a while, he feels
Slow vengeance, like a blood-hound, at his heels.

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A white staff is the enfign of the Lord Treasurer's office.

Ad amicum eruditum THOMAM SHE

D

RIDAN.

Scripfit O. ann. Dom. 1717.

10

ELICIA Sheridan mufarum, dulcis amice, Sic tibi propitius Permeffi ad flumen Apollo Occurrat, feu te mimum convivia rident, Equivocofque fales fpargis, feu ludere versu Malles; dic, Sheridan, quifnam fuit ille deorum, 5 Quae melior natura orto tibi tradidit artem Rimandi genium puerorum, atqueima cerebri Scrutandi? Tibi nafcenti ad cunabula Pallas Aftitit; et dixit, mentis præfaga futuræ, Heu, puer infelix! nostro sub sidere natus; Nam tu pectus eris fine corpore, corporis umbra; Sed levitate umbram fuperabis, voce cicadam: Mufca femur, palmas tibi mus dedit, ardea crura. Corpore fed tenui tibi quod natura negavit, Hoc animi dotes fupplebunt; teque docente, Nec longum tempus, furget tibi docta juventus, Artibus egregiis animas inftructa novellas. Grex hinc Poonius venit, ecce, falutifer orbi. Aft illi caufas orant; his infula visa est Divinam capiti nodo conftringere mitram.

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NATALIS te horæ non fallunt figna, fed ufque Confcius, expedias puero feu lætus Apolio Nafcenti arrifit; five illum frigidus horror Saturni premit, aut feptem inflavere triones. QUIN tu alte penitufque latentia femina cernis, 25 Quæque diu obtundendo olim fub luminis, auras Erumpent, promis; quo ritu fæpe puella Sub cinere hefterno fopitos fufcitat ignes.

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Te dominum agnofcit quocunque fub aëre natus ; Quos indulgentis nimium cuftodia matris Peffundat: nam fæpe vides in ftipite matrem.

Aureus at ramus, venerandæ dona Sibyllæ, Eneæ fedes tantùm patefecit Avernus ;

Sæpe puer, tua quem tetigit femel aurea virga, Columque terrafque videt, noctemque profundam. 35

APOLLO

TO THE

DEAN.

Written in the year 1720.

RIGHT trufty, and fo forth,—we let you to know
We are very ill us'd by you mortals below.
For, firft, I have often by chymills been told,
Tho' I know nothing on't, it is I that make gold,
Which when you have got, you fo carefully hide it, 5
That, fince I was born, I hardly have spy'd it.
Then it must be allow'd, that whenever I fhine,
I forward the grafs, and I ripen the vine ;
To me the good fellows apply for relief,

Without whom they could get neither claret nor beef: Yet their wine and their victuals thefe curmudgeon * lubbards

Lock up from my fight, in cellars and cupboards.

That I have an ill eye they wickedly think,

And taint all their meat and four all their drink.
But, thirdly and laftly, it must be allow'd,

I alone can infpire the poetical croud:

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This is gratefully own'd by each boy in the college,
Whom if I infpire, it is not to my knowledge..
This ev'ry pretender to rhyme will admit,
Without troubling his head about judgment or wit. 20
Thefe gentlemen use me with kindness and freedom ;
And as for their works, when I please I may read 'em:

:

Curmudgeon, a word here ufed as an adjective, now fignifies a fordid niggardly fellow but was perhaps in its original fenfe of more extenfive import, being probably a corruption of cœur me→ chant, a wicked heart. Hawkef.

They lie open on purpose on counters and stalls,
And the titles I view, when I fhine on the walls.
But a comrade of yours, that traitor Delany,
Whom I, for your fake, love better than any,
And of my mere motion, and special good grace,
Intended in time to fucceed in your place,
On Tuefday the tenth feditiously came

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With a certain falfe traitress, one Stella by name, 30
To the deanery-houfe, and on the north glafs,
Where, for fear of the cold, I never can pass,
Then and there, vi et armis, with a certain utenfil,
Of value five fhillings, in English a pencil,
Did maliciously, falfely, and trait'roufly write,
Whilft Stella aforefaid ftood by with a light *.
My fifter has lately depos'd upon oath,

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That the ftopt in her courfe to look at them both:
That Stella was helping, abetting, and aiding;
And fill as he writ, flood fimiling and reading: 40
That her eyes were as bright as myself at noonday,
But her gracef I black locks were mingled with grey;
And by the defcription I certainly know,
"Tis the nymph that I courted fome ten years ago;
Whom when i with the best of my talents endu'd 45
On her promife of yielding, the acted the prude:
That fome verfes were writ with felonious intent,
Direct to the north, where I never went:
That the letters appear'd reverse thro' the pane,
But in Stella's bright eyes they were plac'd right again;
Wherein the diftinctly could read ev'ry line,
And presently guefs'd the fancy was mine +.

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*See verfes faid to be cut by two of the Dean's friends upon pane of glass in one of his parlors, among the pofthumous pieces, in vol. vii.

The mechanism of this poem is formed upon a mistake, which a very flight confideration of the laws of vifion would have prevented. The whole depends upon Cynthia's reading in Stella's eyes the writing, which appeared inverted thro' the pane: but as

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