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? Where I am neither lov'd nor known? Before his credit, or his fee. Some formal vifits, looks, and words, I meet perhaps from three or four, 5 10 15 20 And fpare my abfent friends the grief 25 To hear, yet give me no relief; Expir'd to-day, intomb'd to-morrow, 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! VIRTUE repuls'd, yet knows not to repine: VIRTUE, to crown her fav'rites, loves to try NEXT, faithful filence hath a fure reward; 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. 15 20 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. 30 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 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. I alone can infpire the poetical croud: This is gratefully own'd by each boy in the college, : 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, 25 With a certain falfe traitress, one Stella by name, 30 35 That the ftopt in her courfe to look at them both: 51 *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 the |