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Title: The Art of Politicks

Author: James Bramston

Commentator: William Kinsley

Release date: September 29, 2012 [eBook #40895]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Chris Curnow, Paul Marshall, Joseph Cooper and
        the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
        http://www.pgdp.net


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ART OF POLITICKS ***




Produced by Chris Curnow, Paul Marshall, Joseph Cooper and
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net





  [** Transcriber's Notes:
  -[oe] ligatures have been replaced with straight oe,
  -Greek transliterations have an "=" sign before and after
  -each stanza has a number footnote, e.g. [1], to a corresponding
       excerpt from Horace's The Art of Poetry. **]


          THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY

                [JAMES BRAMSTON]

                     THE

               ART _of_ POLITICKS

                   (_1729_)

               _Introduction by_

                 WILLIAM KINSLEY



              PUBLICATION NUMBER 177
      WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY
       UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES

                      _1976_



     GENERAL EDITORS
  William E. Conway, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
  George Robert Guffey, University of California, Los Angeles
  Maximillian E. Novak, University of California, Los Angeles
  David S. Rodes, University of California, Los Angeles


     ADVISORY EDITORS
  James L. Clifford, Columbia University
  Ralph Cohen, University of Virginia
  Vinton A. Dearing, University of California, Los Angeles
  Arthur Friedman, University of Chicago
  Louis A. Landa, Princeton University
  Earl Miner, Princeton University
  Samuel H. Monk, University of Minnesota
  Everett T. Moore, University of California, Los Angeles
  Lawrence Clark Powell, William Andrews Clark Memorial Libr
  James Sutherland, University College, London
  H. T. Swedenberg, Jr., University of California, Los Angeles
  Robert Vosper, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library


     CORRESPONDING SECRETARY
  Beverly J. Onley, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library




INTRODUCTION


The meagre information known about James Bramston's life has been ably
summarized by F. P. Lock in his introduction to _The Man of Taste_ (ARS
171). For our present purposes, we need only add that Bramston seems to
have been acquainted with Pope, who saw _The Art of Politicks_ before
it was printed and thought it "pretty".[A] Bramston quite likely met
Pope through John Caryll, whose Sussex estate, Lady-Holt, was in the
neighborhood of Bramston's parishes.

_The Art of Politicks_, Bramston's first English poem, was published
anonymously in 1729 and advertised in the Monthly Chronicle of 8
December. Several reimpressions followed, as did another London
edition, one from Edinburgh, and two from Dublin, all dated 1729, and a
London edition of 1731.[B] It was reprinted in Robert Dodsley's
_Collection of Poems, by Several Hands_ (1748), where it was attributed
to Bramston, and in John Bell's _Classical Arrangement of Fugitive
Poetry_, Volume 5 (1789), with a few notes.[C] Horace Walpole's copy of
Dodsley's _Collection_, with a few rather uninformative manuscript
notes, is now in the British Library (C.117.aa.16).

It seems likely that the poem was completed in the summer of 1729. The
most recent events that Bramston alludes to are Thomas Woolston's trial
for blasphemy of 4 March (p. 27) and Sir Paul Methuen's resignation as
Treasurer of the King's Household, which was reported in May (p.
13).[D]

      *       *       *       *       *

Horace's _Ars Poetica_ was one of the most fertile sources for
eighteenth-century imitations and adaptations. Some were completely
serious attempts to marry one art to another or to show that all arts
share the same fundamental principles; an example of this type is John
Gwynn's _Art of Architecture_ (1742; ARS 144). Others, like William
King's _Art of Cookery_ (1708) are downright burlesques.

Bramston's usual method falls somewhere between these extremes. He
often uses the dignity of poetry to show up the indignity of politics
or political writing, as on pp. 5-6 where Horace's advice on choice of
subject is transformed into advice to "_Weekly Writers_ of seditious
_News_," or on page 7, where the rise and fall of South Sea stock fills
the place of Horace's famous comparison of archaic and new-coined words
to the leaves of the forest. But Bramston's poem more often aspires to
the same level as its model; in this respect it resembles _Absalom and
Achitophel_ more than _Mac Flecknoe_.

Several factors help to bring _Ars Poetica_ and _The Art of Politicks_
together. Perhaps most important, Bramston conceives of politics
primarily as a verbal art, the use of speech to persuade others to a
course of action. Bribes and other crasser incentives appear in the
poem, of course, but they are clearly the result of declining
standards. For Bramston, rhetoric should govern politics; the House of
Commons is a reincarnation of a Roman senate or courtroom. Bramston's
inclusion of political writing as well as politics itself in his poem
also helps to keep him in Horace's orbit. On Horace's side, his
conception of poetry is basically rhetorical and persuasive; it should
instruct and delight, move to laughter or tears. Horace's readiness to
digress into literary history gives Bramston many opportunities to
bring in political history. The _Ars Poetica_ is very much concerned
with the world of men; poets are seen in their social roles, and
Horace's standards of literary decorum are usually based on social
norms: young men in plays should behave the way young men are observed
to behave in real life. The _Ars Poetica_ also contains several sharp
satiric darts; Horace's contrast between the eloquence of ancient
Greece and the commercial arithmetic of modern Rome slides easily into
a contrast between Elizabethan learning and Hanoverian place-hunting
(pp.32-33). Finally, Horace's urbane and chatty style is as suitable
for other subjects as it is for poetry. To appreciate Horace's
adaptability, one need only imagine the difficulty of writing an art of
politics in imitation of Archibald MacLeish's "Ars Poetica" or
Aristotle's _Poetics_.

Though he does not pretend to Pope's image of himself as a new Horace
bringing the whole weight of Roman tradition to bear on contemporary
society, Bramston is very clever on the local level at transposing
Horace for his own purposes. Horace recounts the increasing complexity
and sophistication of theatrical music, Bramston the increasingly
elaborated musical celebrations of victorious candidates (pp. 22-23),
and Horace's implication that the sophistication of taste is really a
decline--"an impetuous style brought in an unwonted diction"
(217)--constitutes an unspoken comment on Bramston's subject.[E]
Bramston's page 27 corresponds to Horace's brief history of the
theatre, from Thespis's tragedies that he staged on wagons to the
silencing of the excessively outspoken chorus of Old Comedy (275-84).
Bramston replaces Thespis with Defoe, and the wagon-mounted stage with
the cart and pillory. Instead of deploring the silencing of the chorus,
Bramston applauds the silencing of Woolston. The contrast between
Thespis and Defoe is clearly mock-heroic, but Bramston implies that
Woolston's similarity to an ancient satyr is a decline from the
character expected of a modern clergyman.

Sometimes the mere fact of changing from a poetic to a political
context produces the satire or humour. What is praiseworthy in a
poet--the ability to mingle fact and fiction skillfully (151)--becomes
highly ironic when applied to a politician who

   In Falsehood Probability imploys,
   Nor his old Lies with newer Lies destroys. (p. 16)

Horace's "ut pictura poesis" (361) produces this bland but destructive
couplet:

   Not unlike Paintings, Principles appear,
   Some best at distance, some when we are near. (p. 36)

More humourous than satirical is the relation between Horace's
declaration that there's no place for a mediocre poet (372-73) and
Bramston's

   The Middle way the best we sometimes call.
   But 'tis in Politicks no way at all.

      *       *       *       *       *

   There is no Medium: for the term in vogue
   On either side is, Honest Man, or Rogue. (pp. 37-38)

The conclusion of the poem involves a somewhat more complex
transformation. Horace closes with a humourously self-deprecating
description of the "poetic itch": the afflicted poet stumbles into
ditches as he babbles his verses aloud; people flee from him, and with
good reason; if he catches anyone, he hangs on like a leech and reads
his victim to death. Bramston describes another "sort of itch,"
parliamenteering. Sir Harry Clodpole knows better than to make speeches
to the electors; he solicits their votes by feasting them, and they run
_towards_ him (or his table), not away. They, not he, are the leeches;
"they never leave him while he's worth a groat" (p. 45).

      *       *       *       *       *

Bramston--it seems an excessive refinement to speak of a persona or
narrator--presents himself as a rather simple, naive political observer
who yearns for clear-cut distinctions between parties; he wants to know
where politicians stand on issues. The confusion, the blurring of old
party lines, in present-day England is like the monster in the
frontispiece. Though simple, he is also well informed. He seems to have
a good knowledge of British history since the Restoration, referring
casually to the Exclusion Crisis of 1680-81 (p. 15), the Kentish
Petition of 1701 (p. 10), and the South Sea Bubble of 1720 (p. 7). All
these past events are used to reinforce present lessons. He is
up-to-date, as shown by his reference to the recent events in the
careers of Methuen and Woolston. He professes familiarity with the
characters of the leading politicians and also knows something about
what is going on in the constituencies. He knows, or claims to know,
how different kinds of listeners will react to different kinds of
speeches.

For a son of Christ Church, one of the most Tory Colleges of Tory
Oxford, he seems remarkably non-partisan, though his Opposition biases
do show through. When he says that "Addison's immortal Page" shows us
how "to screen good Ministers from Publick rage" (p. 9), he is clearly
aiming at Walpole, known as the "Screenmaster General" since his
success in shielding many of the perpetrators of the South Sea Bubble
in 1720. (I have not been able to discover the passage of Addison that
Bramston had in mind.) When the aspiring orator is urged not to "join
with silver Tongue a brazen Face" (p. 24), Walpole is again present by
innuendo, for "brazen-face" was another of his nicknames. On the other
hand, Bramston also makes fun of the "everlasting Fame" that results
from quibbling on Sir Robert's name (p. 6). Bramston perhaps has it
both ways here; while ridiculing commonplace puns, he also invites us
to remember that "Robin" does indeed sound very much like "robbing."

Sometimes he is more subtle and ironic. This subtlety caused difficulty
for at least one contemporary reader, and may do the same for us.
Consider the following passage, which parallels Horace's advice always
to show Achilles wrathful, Orestes mourning, and the like:

     To _Likelihood_ your _Characters_ confine;
   Don't turn _Sir Paul_ out, let _Sir Paul_ resign.
   In _Walpole_'s Voice (if Factions Ill intend)
   Give the two _Universities_ a Friend;
   Give _Maidston_ Wit, and Elegance refin'd;
   To both the _Pelhams_ give the _Scipios_ Mind;
   To _Cart'ret_, Learning, Eloquence, and Parts;
   To _George_ the _Second_, give all _English_ Hearts. (p. 13)

One of Bramston's early readers found his poem very faulty, and many of
his complaints were directed against the passage just quoted.

   Such artless art did ever mortal see,
   Or politicks so void of policy?

      *       *       *       *       *

   What bard but this could Pelham's train compare
   To Roman Scipio's thunder-bolts of war?
   Did e'er their wars enrich their native isle,
   With foreign treasures and with Spanish spoil?
   But hark! and stare with all your ears and eyes!
   Walpole is friend to Universities!

      *       *       *       *       *

   Hail politician bard! we ask not whether
   A whig or tory; thou art both and neither.
   Poultney and Walpole each adorn thy lays,
   Which one for love, and one for money praise.
   Alike are mention'd, equally are sung
   Will. Shippen staunch, and slight Sir Wm. Young.
   Bromley and Wyndham share the motley strain,
   With Cart'ret, Maidstone, and the Pelhams twain.[F]

This critic finds two main faults in the poem: misinformation and
confusion about particular individuals and, more generally, an
inability to distinguish Whigs from Tories and give each their due.
This last complaint of course mocks Bramston's lament at the beginning
of the poem about the current lack of distinction between parties.

To what extent is this critique justified? What is Bramston trying to
do in this passage? There is no problem with the second line: Sir Paul
Methuen did indeed resign his office, and one gets the impression from
Hervey (pp. 101-2, 250) that he never let anyone forget that he
resigned. Thus we have here the most conventional of truisms. Walpole
is more difficult. He was certainly no friend of the universities,
which were Tory hotbeds. On the other hand, he was reluctant to try to
reduce their privileges or bring them more closely under government
control, for fear of rousing them to keener opposition. Nowhere else
did he follow so faithfully his policy of letting sleeping dogs lie.[G]
In a certain sense, then, he might be called a friend of the
universities. I have been unable to determine whom Bramston means by
"Maidston"--perhaps one of the Finches, the most prominent family in
the area of Maidstone, Kent. Bramston's critic is certainly right about
the Pelhams: they have nothing whatever in common with the Scipios.
Scipio Africanus Major (236-184/3) was one of the most illustrious
Roman heroes, consul during the Second Punic War and an outstanding
military tactician. Scipio Africanus Minor (c. 185-129) was not only a
consul and a military hero but a great patron of letters whom Cicero
considered the greatest Roman of them all.[H] Thomas Pelham-Holles,
Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1693-1768), Walpole's chief election
manager, was notoriously muddle-headed, nervous, embarrassed, swamped
in petty detail, suspicious, fretful, pompous, and indecisive.[I] His
brother, Henry Pelham (1695?-1754), was much less well known; reserved
and withdrawn, he preferred to work in the background, and his tactical
and organizational abilities were not recognized until considerably
later.[J] As far as their public image was concerned, then, no two men
could be less like the Scipios. Most contemporaries agreed with
Bramston's praise of John Carteret, Earl Granville (1690-1763), though
many of them also mention other, less admirable traits.[K] As for
George II, it depends on whose hearts you consult. An anonymous
journalist:

    What an Assurance has the Kingdom already given of an
    unfeigned Affection to their Majesties Persons and
    Government? How do the People shew that none are acceptable
    to them, but those that are so to their Majesties? How can
    Subjects give stronger Proofs of the high Esteem they have
    their Sovereign in, for Penetration and Wisdom, than those
    who entirely rely upon the Royal Discerning, and regulate
    their Conduct by the King's Direction?[L]

William Pultney:

    The Queen is hated, the King despised, their son both the
    one and the other, and such a spirit of disaffection to the
    family and general discontent with the present Government is
    spread all over the Kingdom, that it is absolutely
    impossible for things to go on in the track they are now
    in.[M]

By now Bramston's method should be clear: he is praising everyone, but
the praise fits the Opposition (such as Carteret) much better than it
does the Government (the Pelhams). There is perhaps room for doubt
about Walpole and George II, but Bramston's critic's failure to see the
irony in the comparison of Pelhams to Scipios must be the result of
sheer obtuseness. The rationale for Bramston's technique becomes
clearer if we look again at Horace and recall that the basis of his
advice is to follow conventional opinion. The conventional opinions
that Bramston is by implication urging his pupil to follow are those of
the politician's supporters and dependents. It just happens that
Bramston has chosen his examples so that the Opposition conventions are
closer to reality than the Government conventions.[N]

      *       *       *       *       *

All this is fun, but it is quite inoffensive. There's no animus, no
vehemence, no bite. Politics do not really engage any of Bramston's
strong convictions. The self-portrait he offers us on pages 29-30 would
be for many political satirists of the period a transparent facade of
mock-innocence, but it seems to fit Bramston very accurately:

   Alas Poor Me, you may my fortune guess:
   I write, and yet Humanity profess:

      *       *       *       *       *

   I love the King, the Queen, and Royal Race:
   I like the Government, but want no Place:

      *       *       *       *       *

   Was never in a Plot, my Brain's not hurt;
   I Politicks to Poetry convert.

By contrast to the increasing acrimony of most political satire of the
late 1720's, this attitude is at least refreshing.




NOTES TO _THE ART OF POLITICKS_


Given the topical nature of _The Art of Politicks_, the best use of my
remaining space is probably to annotate the poem. From what I have
learned about its background--and many mysteries remain--I have tried
to choose what seems most relevant. In the interests of saving space,
and since full annotation is not possible anyway, I have kept
documentation to a minimum, especially where the information comes from
easily available sources like the DNB or, conversely, has been pieced
together from several sources. Some works are occasionally referred to
by abbreviation or author's name; the ones not mentioned in the Notes
to the Introduction are the following:[O]

Cobbett: William Cobbett, _The Parliamentary History of England from
the Earliest Period to the Year 1803_ (London: T. C. Hansard, 1806-20).

Ellis: Jonathan Swift, _A Discourse of the Contests and Dissentions
between the Nobles and Commons in Athens and Rome_, ed. Frank H. Ellis
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967).

Grey: Anchitel Grey, _Debates of the House of Commons from the Year
1667 to the Year 1694_ (London, 1763).

Thomas: Peter D. G. Thomas, _The House of Commons in the Eighteenth
Century_ (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971).

Realey: Charles B. Realey, _The Early Opposition to Sir Robert Walpole
1720-1727_ (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1931).


P. 1, line 1. Sir James: Sir James Thornhill (c. 1675-1734). As MP for
Weymouth and Melcombe Regis (1722-34) and Serjeant Painter to the King
(1720-32), he embodies the parallel between art and politics that
underlies Bramston's poem. His best-known works were the dome of St.
Paul's and the paintings in Greenwich Hospital. Hogarth married his
daughter in 1729.

P. 2, line 4. Cf. Hervey's comment on Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London,
who "affected to conciliate in himself both characters of Whig and
Tory, declaring himself always a Whig in the State and a Tory in the
Church" (pp. 90-91). Gibson's attitude can be traced back at least as
far as Swift's _Sentiments of a Church of England Man_ (1711).

      line 11. Patriots: the self-awarded designation of the major
 group of Walpole's opponents.

P. 3, line 6. Parliament devoted considerable time to fixing turnpike
tolls.

Fleury: André Hercule de (1653-1743). Created a cardinal in 1726, he
was chief adviser to Louis XV of France from that date till his death,
and therefore a person of great interest to England. His guiding
principle was to keep France at peace with the rest of Europe.

P. 4, lines 2-3. "Tory" originally meant an Irish outlaw, and "Whig" a
Scottish rebel. For other theories of the origin of "Whig" that were
current in 1729, see OED.

      line 12. Repetition Day: a day on which schoolboys recite
 memorized lessons.

P. 5, line 7. The human face in Bramston's frontispiece has been said
to resemble Heidegger, but it does not seem to match his reputation for
extreme ugliness. See _TE_, 5, 92, 290, 443-44.

P. 6, lines 3-4. Ridpath: George Ridpath (d. 1726), Whig journalist.
Abel Roper (1665-1726), publisher of the _Tory Post Boy_.

P. 7, line 10. Pinkethman: William Pinkethman (or Penkethman) (d.
1725), a comic actor said to have once eaten three chickens in two
seconds. See TE, 4, 220, 377.

      line 12. Maypole: This remarkable barometer of intellectual
history was razed by the Puritan parliament in 1644. A new one, 134
feet tall, was set up at the Restoration; it, or a successor, had
decayed to a height of twenty feet in 1717 when Sir Isaac Newton
acquired it and presented it to James Pound to use as a telescope
mount.

P. 8, line 2. Newer Square: Cavendish Square, according to Horace
Walpole's annotation.

      line 6. The bridge at Putney Ferry was completed in 1729.

P. 9, lines 4-5. Thomas Tickell's poetical _Epistle from a Lady in
England to a Gentleman at Avignon_ went through five editions in 1717.

      lines 6-7. "Caleb D'Anvers" was the pseudonym under which
appeared _The Craftsman_, the opposition journal directed by
Bolingbroke and Pultney. Bramston's expression of ignorance must
be ironic.

P. 10, lines 1-2. Arthur Onslow, who became Speaker in 1728, insisted
that all members bow to the Speaker's Chair when entering or leaving
the House (Thomas, p. 356).

      line 12. The "Kentish Petition" was presented to the
Tory-controlled Parliament on 8 May 1701 by five gentlemen of Kent.
It urged Parliament to grant speedily to King William the subsidies
that would enable him to pursue his European wars against Louis XIV.
Parliament did not consider its words soft; it voted the petition
seditious, scandalous, and insolent, and arrested the five gentlemen,
who thereupon became popular heroes, at least among the Whigs. See
Defoe's _History of the Kentish Petition_ (1701) and Ellis,
pp. 53-56, 65-66.

P. 11, lines 3-8. Pultney: William Pultney (1684-1764), later Earl of
Bath. The leader of the "Patriot" opposition to Walpole in the House of
Commons. Hervey reluctantly concedes that his abilities were
outstanding (pp. 790-91).

P. 12, line 4. the Rod: that is, the rod of the Serjeant-at-Arms, the
officer responsible for keeping order in the House of Commons.

      line 6. the Bar: The Bar marked the outer limit of the House,
and, as the lines imply, was where offenders stood to be reprimanded.

      lines 11-12. The "one cause" is presumably Walpole's patronage.
The Cornish constituencies were notoriously corrupt even by
eighteenth-century standards, and Walpole cultivated the Scots
assiduously. A Scottish "laird" is a landowner, not a "lord" in the
English sense.

P. 13, line 12. Flying-Squadron: apparently a group which claimed to
vote by principle rather than from attachment to any party. Sir Joseph
Jekyll was considered its leader. See Sedgwick, _House of Commons_, 2,
175; Realey, p. 54; and OED, "Squadron 7," "Squadrone b.," and
"Squadronist."

P. 15, lines 2ff. The famous speech of Colonel Silius Titus (7 Jan.
1681) was widely reported in two slightly different versions; see Grey,
8, 279 and Cobbett, 4, 1291. In both these versions the question is
whether to keep the lion out or to let him in and chain him. Bramston
may have been following an independent tradition or merely exercising
poetic license. The lion is, of course, James, Duke of York, the Roman
Catholic heir to the throne.

Lane: Sir Richard Lane (c. 1667-1756), MP for Worcester 1727-34. He was
a merchant, sugar baker, and salt trader, and a consistent supporter of
the administration. For examples of his indecorous use of biblical
allusions see Sedgwick, 2, 197-98 (the "bantering speech" mentioned
there used the Book of Revelation to prove that merchants were the best
people on earth); and Knatchbull, p. 137.

P. 16, line 5. Rufus: King William II, son of William the Conqueror,
known as William Rufus, was often evoked as an example of tyranny, as
in Pope's _Windsor-Forest_.

P. 17, lines 9-10. Prince William: younger son of George II, eight
years old in 1729; Louisa: youngest daughter of King George, then five.

P. 18, line 4. William Shippen (1673-1743) was an extreme Tory, noted
for his outspoken attacks on the Walpole ministry, one of which landed
him in the Tower. Sir William Yonge (c. 1693-1755) was notorious, at
least among the opposition, for voluble but empty speeches in support
of Walpole, "melodious nothings" as one satirist put it. See also
Hervey, p. 36, and TE, 4, 394. The attack on _The Art of Politicks_
quoted above complains that Shippen and Yonge should be mentioned in
the same breath, but Bramston's point obviously is that the young MP
cares nothing for either side.

P. 20, line 8. Polly Peachum is of course the heroine of Gay's
_Beggar's Opera_. The role was played by Lavinia Fenton, who
immediately became the toast of London. "Old Sir John" may be Sir John
Hobart (1693-1756), although he was only fifteen years older than Miss
Fenton (see Sedgwick, 2, 142). His name was sometimes spelled
"Hubbard," and the following stanza appears in "A New Ballad Inscrib'd
to Polly Peachum" (British Library C-116.i.4 #38), the cavalier
typography of which perhaps indicates hasty composition:

       Then came Sir J---- H----
       Thundring at thy Cubboard:
   But you cast them like a Lubboard
   And did soon dispatch him.

Whoever he was, Sir John lost out to Charles Paulet, third Duke of
Bolton, who kept Miss Fenton faithfully as his mistress, had three
children by her, and married her on the death of his wife in 1751.

P. 21, line 10. The House of Commons had used St. Stephen's Chapel as
its meeting place since the mid-sixteenth century. Dover-Court is "a
proverbial term for a company, in which all are speakers and none
hearers" (Bell).

P. 23, line 2. Waits: "a small body of wind instrumentalists maintained
by a city or town at the public charge" (OED).

       line 10. To sell bargains is to return indecent answers to
civil questions.

P. 24, line 6. Mother Needham was a prominent bawd, notorious for her
foul language. See TE, 4, 374-75, and 5, 293-94.

       lines 7-8. "Oldfieldismus" and "Kibberismus" refer respectively
to the styles of Anne Oldfield, a well-known actress, and Colley Cibber,
playwright, stage manager, and hero of the _Dunciad_. Mrs. Oldfield was
generally respected, but Pope, like Bramston, seems to have disliked
her (TE, 4, 375).

       line 11. Tallboy was a booby young lover in Richard Brome's
comedy _The Jovial Crew_ (1641), popular throughout the eighteenth
century.

P. 26, line 12. Mist: Nathaniel Mist, Tory journalist. See TE, 5, 448.
Eusden: Laurence Eusden, Poet Laureate 1718-30, often ridiculed by
Pope.

       line 14. Cibber's opera is _Love in a Riddle_ (1729), designed
to capitalize on the craze for ballad opera created by _The Beggar's
Opera_.

P. 27, line 5. Censor: Sir Richard Steele as Isaac Bickerstaffe, the
nominal author of _The Tatler_.

P. 29, line 6. Where Edmund Curll stood was in the pillory.

P. 31, line 3. Hugo Grotius's classic of political science, _De jure
belli ac pacis_, was published in 1625 and translated in 1654.

P. 32, line 1. Wickfort: Abraham de Wicquefort, _l'Ambassadeur et ses
fonctions_ (La Haye, 1680). It was summarized in _The Craftsman_ of 23
Sept. 1727.

       line 4. John Banks was the author of _The Unhappy Favourite; or
the Earl of Essex_ (1681) and of _The Island Queens, or the Death of
Mary, Queen of Scotland_ (prohibited in 1684; a revision was produced
in 1704). Bell says that although "written in the most contemptible
language, yet they never fail to melt the audience into tears, merely
by the force of judicious and well-arranged plots and incidents."

P. 33, line 1. Arch-Bishop: William Wake, Archbishop of Canterbury
since 1716. He was 72 in 1729. Master of the Rolls: Sir Joseph Jekyll,
who had held the office since 1717, was about 66 in 1729.

       line 12. Spence: Thomas Spence (d. 1737), Serjeant-at-Arms.

P. 34, line 3. Toft: In 1726 one Mary Toft claimed to have given birth
to seventeen live rabbits, and some who should have known better
believed her. See Pope's poem on her, _TE_, 6, 259, and Hogarth's
engraving.

throws: i.e., throes, labor pains.

       line 8: Bromley and Hanmer: William Bromley (?1663-1732),
MP for Oxford 1701-32, Speaker 1710-13; Sir Thomas Hanmer (1677-1746),
who represented several constituencies from 1701-27 and was Speaker
1714-15. They were Tory heroes, at least to Atterbury, for having
refused the places offered them by George I in 1715 (Foord, p. 51).

P. 35, line 1. Tonson: Jacob Tonson, prominent bookseller.

       line 9. Cler. Dom. Com.: "Clerk of the House of Commons."

P. 36, line 2. Die Martis is Tuesday; Thursday is Die Jovis.

line 6. Wyndham: Sir William Wyndham, MP for Somerset 1710-40,
prominent opposition leader from the 1720s. See Sedgwick, 2, 562-64,
for his reputation. Hervey believed that his high reputation was partly
due to Walpole's henchmen, who inflated it in order to deflate
Pultney's (p. 21).

P. 44, line 4. Sir Robert Fagg was better known for horse-racing and
wenching than for politics; he appears in Hogarth's painting of _The
Beggar's Opera_ admiring Lavinia Fenton and in the ballad cited in my
note to p. 20, line 8. Running for Parliament in the borough of
Steyning, Sussex, in 1722, he came in third in a five-man race with
nineteen votes. He also ran third in 1727; the vote is not recorded,
unless Bramston's "two Voices" is to be taken literally.



Université de Montréal




NOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION


[A] Letter to John Caryll, 6 Feb. 1731. _Correspondence_, ed. George
Sherburn (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956), 3, 173. See also Antony
Coleman's introduction to James Miller's _Harlequin-Horace_ (1731; ARS
178).

[B] D. F. Foxon, _English Verse 1701-1750_ (Cambridge: The University
Press, 1975), 1, 77. I should also like to thank Mr. Foxon for generous
personal help.

[C] I owe my knowledge of Bell's edition to Kent Mullikin of the
University of North Carolina.

[D] Woolston was convicted on four counts of blasphemy on 4 March 1729.
His offending works were six _Discourses on the Miracles of our
Saviour_ (1727-29). He never succeeded in paying his fine of £100
(Pope, _Poems_ (Twickenham Edition, genl. ed. John Butt; London:
Methuen, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1939-69), 5, 459). Hereafter
referred to as _TE_.

Methuen's resignation is erroneously dated in 1730 in _DNB_ and in
Romney Sedgwick, _The House of Commons 1715-1754_ (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1970), 2, 254. See Abel Boyer, _The Political State
of Great Britain, 37_ (May 1729), 523, and John, Lord Hervey. _Some
Materials towards Memoirs of the Reign of King George II_, ed. Romney
Sedgwick (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1931), pp. 101-02. According
to Hervey, Methuen's ostensible reason for resigning was his dislike of
the general conduct of the court, his real reason his failure to be
appointed Secretary of State.

[E] Translations of Horace are taken from the Loeb Library edition,
trans. H. Rushton Fairclough (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University
Press, 1961). Line numbers of the Latin verse are in the text.

[F] "Verses on the Art of Politicks," _Additions to the Works of
Alexander Pope, Esq. Together with Many Original Poems and Letters, of
Contemporary Writers, Never Before Published_ (London, 1776). 1.
158-59. I have been unable to discover where the poem was first
printed.

[G] J. H. Plumb. _Sir Robert Walpole_ (London: Cresset). Vol. I (1956).
pp. 249-50; Sir Edward Knatchbull, _Parliamentary Diary, 1722-30_, ed.
A. N. Newman (London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1963),
p. 42.

[H] Most of my information about the Scipios comes from the _Oxford
Companion to Classical Literature_.

[I] _DNB_; Ray A. Kelch, _Newcastle: A Duke without Money_ (Berkeley
and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1974), pp. 9-11; Reed
Browning, _The Duke of Newcastle_ (New Haven and London: Yale
University Press, 1975), pp. xi-xiii, 80-88.

[J] _DNB_; Browning, p. 18.

[K] Plumb, _Walpole, 2_ (1960), 52-53; Hervey, pp. 411-12; Browning, p.
113; Archibald S. Foord, _His Majesty's Opposition_, 1714-1830 (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1964), pp. 142-45.

[L] _The British Journal_, 258 (2 Sept. 1727), p. 1.

[M] Reported by Hervey toward the end of 1729 (p. 105).

[N] For illuminating discussions of Opposition ideology and literary
strategies, see Maynard Mack, _The Garden and the City: Retirement and
Politics in the Later Poetry of Pope, 1731-1743_ (Toronto and Buffalo:
University of Toronto Press, 1969); Isaac Kramnick, _Bolingbroke and
his Circle: The Politicks of Nostalgia in the Age of Walpole_
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968); and J.V. Guerinot and
Rodney D. Jilg, eds., _The Beggar's Opera: Contexts_ (Hamden, Conn.:
Archon Books, 1976), esp. pp. 69-95.

[O] Part of the research for this introduction was done while I held a
Leave Fellowship from the Canada Council, whom I should like to thank
for their support.

[P] _All_ Mr. Heydegger's _Letters come directed to him from abroad_, A
Monsieur, Monsieur _Heydegger_, Surintendant des Plaisirs d'
Angleterre.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

The facsimile of _The Art of Politicks_ (1729) is reproduced by
permission from a copy of the first edition (Shelf Mark:
*PR3326/B287A8; Foxon B383) in the William Andrews Clark Memorial
Library. The total type-page (p. 19) measures 152 x 93 mm.


[Illustration]

                          THE

                   ART of POLITICKS,

                    In IMITATION of

                       _HORACE_'s

                     ART of POETRY.

[Illustration]

                       _LONDON_:

          Printed for LAWTON GILLIVER, at _Homer_'s
   _Head_ against St. _Dunstan_'s Church in _Fleet-Street_.

                       MDCCXXIX.




                          THE

                   ART of POLITICKS,

                    In IMITATION of

                       _HORACE_'s

                     ART of POETRY.




    [1]
    [Illustration]
    If to a Human Face Sir _James_ should draw
    A Gelding's Mane, and Feathers of Maccaw,
    A Lady's Bosom, and a Tail of Cod,
    Who could help laughing at a Sight so odd?
    Just such a Monster, Sirs, pray think before ye,
    When you behold one Man both _Whig_ and _Tory_.
    Not more extravagant are Drunkard's Dreams,
    Than _Low-Church_ Politicks with _High-Church_ Schemes.
      Painters, you'll say, may their own Fancies use,
    And Freeborn _Britons_ may their _Party_ chuse;
    That's true, I own: but can one Piece be drawn
    For Dove and Dragon, Elephant and Fawn?

    [2] Speakers profess'd, who Gravity pretend,)
    With motley Sentiments their Speeches blend:)
    Begin like Patriots, and like Courtiers end.)
    Some love to roar, _the Constitution's broke_,
    And others on the _Nation's Debts_ to joke;
    Some rail, (they hate a Commonwealth so much,)
    What e'er the Subject be, against the _Dutch_;
    While others, with more fashionable Fury,
    Begin with _Turnpikes_, and conclude with _Fleury_;
    Some, when th' Affair was _Blenheim_'s glorious Battle,
    Declaim'd against importing _Irish Cattle_.
    But you, from what e'er Side you take your Name,
    Like _Anna_'s _Motto_, always be the same.

    [3] Outsides deceive, 'tis hard the Truth to know;)
    _Parties_ from quaint Denominations flow,)
    As _Scotch_ and _Irish_ Antiquaries show.)
    The _Low_ are said to take Fanaticks Parts,
    The _High_ are bloody _Papists_ in their Hearts.
    Caution and Fear to highest Faults have run;
    In pleasing both the Parties, you please none.
    Who in the _House_ affects declaiming Airs,
    _Whales_ in _Change-Alley_ paints: in _Fish-Street, Bears_.
    Some Metaphors, some Handkerchiefs display;)
    These peep in Hats, while those with Buttons play,)
    And make me think it _Repetition-Day_;)
    There Knights haranguing hug a neighb'ring Post,
    And are but _Quorum_ Orators at most.
    Sooner than thus my want of Sense expose,)
    I'd deck out Bandy-Legs with Gold-Clock't Hose,)
    Or wear a Toupet-Wig without a Nose.)
    Nay, I would sooner have thy Phyz, I swear,
    _Surintendant des Plaisirs d' Angleterre_[P].

    [4] Ye _Weekly Writers_ of seditious _News_,
    Take Care your _Subjects_ artfully to chuse,
    Write _Panegyrick_ strong, or boldly _rail_,
    You cannot miss _Preferment_, or a _Goal_.
    Wrap up your Poison well, nor fear to say
    What was a Lye last Night is Truth to Day;
    Tell this, sink that, arrive at _Ridpath_'s Praise,
    Let _Abel Roper_ your Ambition raise.
    To Lye fit Opportunity observe,
    Saving some double Meaning in reserve;
    But oh, you'll merit everlasting Fame,
    If you can quibble on Sir _Robert_'s Name.
    In _State-Affairs_ use not the Vulgar Phrase,
    Talk Words scarce known in good Queen _Besse_'s days.
    New Terms let War or Traffick introduce,
    And try to bring _Persuading Ships_ in Use.
    Coin Words: in coining ne'er mind common Sense,
    Provided the Original be _French_.

    [5] Like _South-Sea Stock_, Expressions rise and fall:
    King _Edward_'s Words are now no Words at all.
    Did ought your Predecessors Genius cramp?
    Sure ev'ry Reign may have it's proper Stamp.
    All Sublunary things of Death partake;
    What Alteration does a Cent'ry make?
    Kings and Comedians all are mortal found,
    _Cæsar_ and _Pinkethman_ are under Ground.
    What's not destroy'd by Times devouring Hand?
    Where's _Troy_, and where's the _May-Pole_ in the _Strand_?
    Pease, Cabbages, and Turnips once grew, where
    Now stands new _Bond-street_, and a newer Square;
    Such Piles of Buildings now rise up and down;
    London itself seems going out of _Town_.
    Our Fathers cross'd from _Fulham_ in a Wherry,
    Their Sons enjoy a Bridge at _Putney-Ferry_.
    Think we that modern Words eternal are?
    _Toupet_, and _Tompion_, _Cosins_, and _Colmar_
    Hereafter will be call'd by some plain Man
    A _Wig_, a _Watch_, a _Pair of Stays_, a _Fan_.
    To Things themselves if Time such change affords,
    Can there be any trusting to our Words.

    [6] To screen good Ministers from Publick rage,)
    And how with Party Madness to engage,)
    We learn from _Addison_'s immortal Page.)
    The _Jacobite_'s ridiculous Opinion
    Is seen from _Tickel_'s Letter to _Avignon_.
    But who puts _Caleb_'s _Country-Craftsman_ out,
    Is still a secret, and the World's in doubt.

    [7] Not long since _Parish-Clerks_, with saucy airs,
    Apply'd _King David_'s _Psalms_ to _State-Affairs_.
    Some certain _Tunes_ to Politicks belong,
    On both Sides Drunkards love a Party-Song.

    [8] If full a-cross the Speaker's Chair I go,
    Can I be said the _Rules_ o'th' _House_ to know?
    I'll ask, nor give offence without intent,
    Nor through meer Sheepishness be impudent.

    [9] In _Acts of Parliament_ avoid Sublime,
    Nor e'er Address his Majesty in Rhime;
    An _Act of Parliament_'s a serious thing,
    Begins with Year of Lord and Year of King;
    Keeps close to Form, in every word is strict,
    When it would _Pains_ and _Penalties_ inflict.
    Soft Words suit best _Petitioners_ intent;
    Soft Words, O ye _Petitioners_ of Kent!

    [10] Who e'er harangues before he gives his Vote,
    Should send sweet Language from a tuneful Throat.
    _Pultney_ the coldest Breast with Zeal can fire,
    And _Roman Thoughts_ by _Attick Stile_ inspire;
    He knows from tedious Wranglings to beguile
    The serious _House_ into a chearful Smile;
    When the great Patriot paints his anxious Fears
    For _England_'s Safety, I am lost in Tears.
    But when dull Speakers strive to move compassion,
    I pity their poor Hearers, not the Nation:
    Unless young _Members_ to the purpose speak,
    I fall a laughing, or I fall asleep.

    [11] Can Men their inward Faculties controul?
    Is not the Tongue an Index to the Soul?
    Laugh not in time of _Service_ to your God,
    Nor bully, when in _Custody_ o'th' _Rod_;
    Look Grave, and be from Jokes and Grinning far,
    When brought to sue for Pardon at the _Bar_.
    If then you let your ill-tim'd Wit appear,
    Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses will sneer.

    [12] For Land, or Trade, not the same Notions sire
    The _City-Merchant_, and the _Country-Squire_;
    Their Climes are distant, tho' one Cause unites
    The _Lairds_ of _Scotland_, and the _Cornish Knights_.

    [13] To _Likelihood_ your _Characters_ confine;
    Don't turn _Sir Paul_ out, let _Sir Paul_ resign.
    In _Walpole_'s Voice (if Factions Ill intend)
    Give the Two _Universities_ a Friend;
    Give _Maidston_ Wit, and Elegance refin'd;
    To both the _Pelhams_ give the _Scipios_ Mind;
    To _Cart'ret_, Learning, Eloquence, and Parts;
    To _George_ the _Second_, give all _English_ Hearts.

    [14] Sometimes fresh Names in Politicks produce,
    And Factions yet unheard of introduce;
    And if you dare attempt a thing so new,
    Make to itself the _Flying-Squadron_ true.

    [15] To speak is free, no _Member_ is debarr'd:
    But _Funds_ and _National Accounts_ are hard:
    Safer on common Topicks to discourse,
    The _Malt-Tax_, and a _Military Force_.
    On these each Coffee-House will lend a hint,
    Besides a thousand things that are in Print.
    But steal not Word for Word, nor Thought for Thought:
    For you'll be teaz'd to death, if you are caught.
    When Factious Leaders boast increasing strength,
    Go not too far, nor follow ev'ry Length:
    Leave room for Change, turn with a grace about,
    And swear you left 'em, when you found 'em out,

    [16] With Art and Modesty your Part maintain:
    And talk like _Col'nel Titus_, not like _Lane_;
    The Trading-Knight with Rants his Speech begins,
    Sun, Moon, and Stars, and Dragons, Saints, and Kings:
    But _Titus_ said, with his uncommon Sense,
    When the _Exclusion-Bill_ was in suspense,
    I hear a Lyon in the Lobby roar;
    Say, Mr. Speaker, shall we shut the door
    And keep him there, or shall we let him in
    To try if we can turn him out again?

    [17] Some mighty Blusterers _Impeach_ with noise,
    And call their Private Cry, the Nation's Voice;

    [18] From Folio's of Accounts they take their handles,
    And the whole Ballance proves a pound of Candles;
    As if _Paul_'s Cupola were brought to bed,
    After hard Labour, of a small Pin's Head.

    [19] Some _Rufus_, some the _Conqueror_ bring in,
    And some from _Julius Cæsar_'s days begin.
    A cunning Speaker can command his chaps,
    And when the _House_ is not in humour, stops;
    In Falsehood Probability imploys,
    Nor his old Lies with newer Lies destroys.

    [20] If when you speak, you'd hear a Needle fall,
    And make the frequent _hear-hims_ rend the wall,
    In matters suited to your Taste engage,
    Remembring still your Quality and Age.
    Thy task be this, young Knight, and hear my Song
    What Politicks to ev'ry Age belong.

    [21] When _Babes_ can speak, _Babes_ should be taught to say,
    _King George the Second_'s Health, Huzza, Huzza!
    _Boys_ should learn _Latin_ for _Prince William_'s sake,
    And Girls _Louisa_ their Example make.

    [22] More loves the _Youth_, just come to his Estate,
    To range the fields, than in the _House_ debate;
    More he delights in fav'rite Jowler's Tongue,
    Than in _Will Shippen_, or _Sir William Yong_:
    If in one Chase he can two Horses kill,
    He cares not twopence for the Land-Tax Bill:
    Loud in his Wine, in Women not o'er nice,
    He damns his Uncles if they give advice;
    Votes as his Father did, when there's a _Call_,
    But had much rather, never Vote at all.

    [23] We take a diff'rent Turn at _Twenty-six_,
    And lofty thoughts on some Lord's Daughter fix;
    With Men in Pow'r strict Friendship we persue,
    With some considerable Post in view.
     A Man of _Forty_ fears to change his Note,
    One way to Speak, and t'other way to Vote;
    Careful his Tongue in Passion to command,
    Avoids the Bar, and Speaker's Reprimand.

    [24] In Bags the _Old Man_ lets his Treasure rust,
    Afraid to use it, or the Funds to trust;
    When Stocks are low, he wants the heart to buy,
    And through much caution sees 'em rise too high;
    Thinks nothing rightly done since _Seventy-eight_,
    Swears present _Members_ do not talk, but prate:
    In _Charles the Second_'s days, says he, ye Prigs,
    _Torys_ were _Torys_ then, and _Whigs_ were _Whigs_.
    Alas! this is a lamentable Truth,
    We lose in age, as we advance in youth:
    I laugh, when twenty will like eighty talk,
    And old _Sir John_ with _Polly Peachum_ walk.

    [25] Now as to _Double_, or to _False Returns_,
    When pockets suffer, and when anger burns,
    O Thing surpassing faith! Knight strives with Knight,
    When both have brib'd, and neither's in the right.
    The Bayliff's self is sent for in that case,
    And all the Witnesses had face to face.
    Selected _Members_ soon the fraud unfold,
    In full Committee of the _House_ 'tis told;
    Th' incredible Corruption is destroy'd,
    The Chairman's angry, and th' Election void.

    [26] Those who would captivate the well-bred throng,
    Should not too often speak, nor speak too long:
    Church, nor Church Matters ever turn to Sport,
    Nor make _St. Stephen's Chappel_, _Dover-Court_.

    [27] The _Speaker_, when the Commons are assembl'd,
    May to the _Græcian Chorus_ be resembl'd;
    'Tis his the Young and Modest to espouse,
    And see none draw, or challenge in the _House_:
    'Tis his Old Hospitality to use,
    And three good Printers for the _House_ to chuse;
    To let each Representative be heard,
    And take due care the _Chaplain_ be preferr'd,
    To hear no _Motion_ made that's out of joint,
    And where he spies his _Member_, make his point.

    [28] To Knights new chosen in old time would come
    The _County Trumpet_, and perhaps a _Drum_;
    Now when a Burgess new Elect appears,
    Come Trainbands, Horseguards, Footguards, Grenadeers;
    When the majority the Town-clerk tells,
    His Honour pays the Fiddles, Waits, and Bells:
    Harangues the _Mob_, and is as wise and great,
    As the most Mystic Oracle of State.

    [29] When the Duke's Grandson for the County stood,
    His Beef was fat, and his October good;
    His Lordship took each Ploughman by the fist,
    Drunk to their Sons, their Wives and Daughters kiss'd;
    But when strong Beer their Freeborn Hearts inflames,
    They sell him Bargains, and they call him Names.
    Thus is it deem'd in _English_ Nobles wise
    To stoop for no one reason but to rise.

    [30] Election matters shun with cautious awe,
    O all ye Judges Learned in the Law;
    A Judge by Bribes as much himself degrades,
    As Dutchess Dowager by Masquerades.

    [31] Try not with Jests obscene to force a Smile,
    Nor lard your Speech with Mother _Needham_'s Stile:
    Let not your tongue to =Ôldphieldismus= run,
    And =Kibberismus= with abhorrence shun;
    Let not your looks affected words disgrace,
    Nor join with silver Tongue a brazen Face;
    Let not your hands, like Tallboys, be employ'd,
    And the mad rant of Tragedy avoid.
    Just in your Thoughts, in your Expression clear,
    Neither too modest, nor too bold appear.

    [32] Others in vain a like Success will boast,
    He speaks most easy, who has study'd most.

    [33] A Peer's pert Heir has to the Commons spoke
    A vile Reflection, or a Bawdy Joke;
    Call'd to the House of Lords, of this beware,
    'Tis what the _Bishops Bench_ will never bear.
    Amongst the _Commons_ is such freedom shown,
    They lash each other, and attack the Throne:
    Yet so unskilful or so fearful some,
    For nine that speak there's nine-and-forty dumb.

    [34] When _James_ the _first_, at great _Britannia_'s helm,
    Rul'd this word-clipping and word-coining Realm,
    No words to Royal favour made pretence,
    But what agreed in sound and clash'd in sense.
    Thrice happy he! how great that Speaker's praise,
    Whose ev'ry Period look'd an hundred ways.
    What then? we now with just abhorrence shun
    The trifling Quibble, and the School-boys Pun;
    Tho' no great Connoisseur, I make a shift
    Just to find out a _Durfey_ from a _Swift_;
    I can discern with half an eye, I hope,
    _Mist_ from _Jo Addison_, from _Eusden Pope_:
    I know a Farce from one of _Congreve_'s Plays,
    And _Cibber_'s Opera from _Johnny Gay_'s.

    [35] When pert _Defoe_ his sawcy Papers writ,
    He from a Cart was Pillor'd for his Wit:
    By Mob was pelted half a Morning's space,
    And rotten Eggs besmear'd his yellow face;
    The _Censor_ then improv'd the list'ning Isle,
    And held both Parties in an artful Smile.
    A Scribbling Crew now pinching Winter brings,)
    That spare no earthly nor no heav'nly things,)
    Nor Church, nor State, nor Treasurers, nor Kings.)
    But Blasphemy displeases all the Town;)
    And for defying Scripture, Law, and Crown,)
    _Woolston_ should pay his Fine, and lose his Gown,)

    [36] It must be own'd the _Journals_ try all ways
    To merit their respective Party's praise:
    They jar in every Article from _Spain_;
    A War these threaten, those a Peace maintain:
    Tho' Lye they will, to give 'em all their due,
    In Foreign matters, and Domestick too.
    Whoe'er thou art that would'st a _Postman_ write,
    Enquire all day, and hearken all the night.
    Sure, _Gazetteers_ and Writers of _Courants_
    Might soon exceed th' Intelligence of _France_:
    To be out-done old _England_ should refuse,
    As in her Arms, so in her Publick News;
    But Truth is scarce, the Scene of Action large,
    And Correspondence an excessive Charge.

    [37] There are who say, no Man can be a Wit
    Unless for _Newgate_ or for _Bedlam_ fit;
    Let Pamphleteers abusive Satyr write,
    To shew a Genius is to shew a Spite:
    That Author's Works will ne'er be reckon'd good
    Who has not been where _Curl_ the Printer stood.

    [38] Alass Poor Me, you may my fortune guess:
    I write, and yet Humanity profess;
    (Tho' nothing can delight a modern Judge,
    Without ill-nature and a private Grudge)
    I love the King, the Queen, and Royal Race:
    I like the Government, but want no Place:
    Too low in Life to be a _Justice_ I,
    And for a Constable, thank God, too high;
    Was never in a Plot, my Brain's not hurt;
    I Politicks to Poetry convert.

    [39] A Politician must (as I have read)
    Be furnish'd, in the first place, with a _Head_:
    A _Head_ well fill'd with _Machiavelian_ Brains,
    And stuff'd with Precedents of former Reigns:
    Must Journals read, and _Magna Charta_ quote;
    But acts still wiser, if he speaks by _Note_:
    Learns well his Lesson, and ne'er fears mistakes:
    For Ready Money Ready Speakers makes;
    He must Instructions and Credentials draw,
    Pay well the Army, and protect the Law:
    Give to his Country what's his Country's due,
    But first help _Brothers_, _Sons_, and _Cousins_ too.
    He must read _Grotius_ upon War and Peace,
    And the twelve Judges Salary encrease.
    He must oblige old Friends and new Allies,
    And find out _Ways and Means_ for fresh _Supplies_.
    He must the Weavers Grievances redress,
    And Merchants wants in Merchants words express.

    [40] Dramatick Poets that expect the Bays,
    Should cull our Histories for Party Plays;
    _Wickfort's Embassador_ should fill their head,
    And the _State-Tryals_ carefully be read:
    For what is _Dryden_'s Muse and _Otway_'s Plots
    To th' _Earl of Essex_ or the _Queen of Scots_?

    [41] 'Tis said that _Queen Elizabeth_ could speak,
    At twelve years old, right _Attick_ full-mouth'd _Greek_;
    Hence was the Student forc'd at _Greek_ to drudge,
    If he would be a Bishop, or a Judge.
    Divines and Lawyers now don't think they thrive,
    'Till promis'd places of men still alive:
    How old is such an one in such a Post?
    The answer is, he's seventy-five almost:
    Th' Arch-Bishop, and the Master of the Rolls?
    Neither is young, and one's as old as _Paul_'s.
    Will Men, that ask such Questions, publish books
    Like learned _Hooker_'s or _Chief Justice Cook_'s?

    [42] On Tender Subjects with discretion touch,
    And never say too little, or too much.
    On Trivial Matters Flourishes are wrong,
    Motions for Candles never should be long:
    Or if you move, in case of sudden Rain,
    To shut the Windows, speak distinct and plain.
    Unless you talk good _English_ downright Sense,
    Can you be understood by Serjeant _Spence_?

    [43] New Stories always should with Truth agree
    Or Truth's half-Sister, Probability:
    Scarce could _Toft_'s Rabbits and pretended throws
    On half the Honourable _House_ impose.

    [44] When _Cato_ speaks, young _Shallow_ runs away,
    And swears it is so dull he cannot stay:
    When Rakes begin on Blasphemy to border,
    _Bromley_ and _Hanmer_ cry aloud---- _To Order_.
    The point is this, with manly Sense and ease
    T' inform the Judgment, and the Fancy please.
    Praise it deserves, nor difficult the thing,
    At once to serve one's Countrey and one's King.
    Such Speeches bring the wealthy _Tonson_'s gain,)
    From Age to Age they minuted remain,)
    As Precedents for George the twentieth's Reign.)

    [45] Is there a Man on earth so perfect found,
    Who ne'er mistook a word in Sense or Sound?
    Not Blund'ring, but persisting is the fault;
    No mortal Sin is _Lapsus Linguæ_ thought:
    Clerks may mistake; consid'ring who 'tis from,
    I pardon little Slips in _Cler. Dom. Com._
    But let me tell you I'll not take his part,
    If ev'ry _Thursday_ he date _Die Mart_.
    Of Sputt'ring mortals 'tis the fatal curse,
    By mending Blunders still to make 'em worse.
    Men sneer when---- gets a lucky Thought,
    And stare if _Wyndham_ should be nodding caught.
    But sleeping's what the wisest men may do,
    Should the Committee chance to sit 'till Two.

    [46] Not unlike Paintings, Principles appear,
    Some best at distance, some when we are near.
    The love of Politicks so vulgar's grown,
    My Landlord's Party from his Sign is known:
    Mark of _French_ wine, see _Ormond_'s Head appear,
    While _Marlb'rough_'s Face directs to Beer and Beer:
    Some _Buchanan_'s, the _Pope_'s Head some like best,
    The _Devil Tavern_ is a standing jest.

    [47] Whoe'er you are that have a Seat secure,
    Duly return'd, and from _Petition_ sure,
    Stick to your Friends in whatsoe'er you say;
    With strong aversion shun the Middle way:
    The Middle way the best we sometimes call,
    But 'tis in Politicks no way at all.
    A _Trimmer_'s what both Parties turn to sport,
    By Country hated, and despis'd at Court.
    Who would in earnest to a Party come,
    Must give his Vote, not whimsical, but plumb.
    There is no Medium: for the term in vogue
    On either side is, Honest Man, or Rogue.
    Can it be difficult our Minds to show,
    Where all the Difference is, Yes, or No?

    [48] In all Professions, Time and Pains give Skill,
    Without hard Study, dare Physicians kill?
    Can he that ne'er read Statutes or Reports,
    Give Chamber-Counsel, or urge Law in Courts?
    But ev'ry Whipster knows Affairs of State,
    Nor fears on nicest Subjects to debate.
    A Knight of eighteen hundred pounds a year--
    Who minds his Head, if his Estate be clear?
    Sure he may speak his mind, and tell the _House_,
    He matters not the Government a Louse.
    Lack-learning Knights, these things are safely said
    To Friends in private, at the _Bedford-Head_:
    But in the _House_, before your Tongue runs on,
    Consult _Sir James_, _Lord William_'s dead and gone.
    Words to recall is in no Member's power,
    One single word may send you to the _Tower_.

    [49] The wrong'd to help, the lawless to restrain,
    Thrice ev'ry Year, in ancient _Egbert_'s Reign,
    The _Members_ to the _Mitchelgemot_ went,
    In after Ages call'd the _Parliament_;
    Early the _Mitchelgemot_ did begin
    T' enroll their Statutes, on a Parchment Skin:
    For impious Treason hence no room was left,
    For Murder, for Polygamy, or Theft:
    Since when the Senates power both Sexes know
    From Hops and Claret, Soap and Callico.
    Now wholesom Laws young Senators bring in
    'Gainst _Goats_, _Attornies_, _Bribery_, and _Gin_.
    Since such the nature of the _British_ State,
    The power of _Parliament_ so old and great,
    Ye 'Squires and _Irish_ Lords, 'tis worth your care)
    To be return'd for City, Town, or Shire,)
    By Sheriff, Bailiff, Constable, or Mayor.)

    [50] Some doubt, which to a Seat has best Pretence,
    A man of Substance, or a man of Sense:
    But never any Member feats will do,
    Without a Head-piece and a Pocket too;
    Sense is requir'd the depth of Things to reach,
    And Money gives Authority to Speech.

    [51] A Man of Bus'ness won't 'till ev'ning dine;
    Abstains from Women, Company, and Wine:
    From _Fig_'s new Theatre he'll miss a Night,
    Tho' Cocks, and Bulls, and _Irish_ Women fight:
    Nor sultry Sun, nor storms of soaking Rain,
    The Man of Bus'ness from the _House_ detain:
    Nor speaks he for no reason but to say,
    I am a _Member_, and I spoke to day.
    I speak sometimes, you'll hear his Lordship cry,
    Because Some speak that have less Sense than I.

    [52] The Man that has both Land and Money too
    May wonders in a Trading Borough do:
    They'll praise his Ven'son, and commend his Port,)
    Turn their two former Members into Sport,)
    And, if he likes it, Satyrize the Court.)
    But at a Feast 'tis difficult to know
    From real Friends an undiscover'd Foe;
    The man that swears he will the Poll secure,
    And pawns his Soul that your Election's sure,
    Suspect that man: beware, all is not right,
    He's, ten to one, a Corporation-Bite.

    [53] Alderman _Pond_, a downright honest Man,
    Would say, I cannot help you, or I can:
    To spend your Money, Sir, is all a jest;
    Matters are settled, set your heart at rest:
    We've made a Compromise, and, Sir, you know,
    That sends one Member _High_, and t'other _Low_.
    But if his good Advice you would not take,
    He'd scorn your Supper, and your Punch forsake:
    Leave you of mighty Interest to brag,
    And poll two Voices like _Sir Robert Fag_.

    [54] _Parliamenteering_ is a sort of Itch,
    That will too oft unwary Knights bewitch.
    Two good Estates Sir _Harry Clodpole_ spent;
    Sate thrice, but spoke not once, in Parliament:
    Two good Estates are gone--Who'll take his word?
    Oh! should his Uncle die, he'd spend a third:
    He'd buy a House, his happiness to crown,
    Within a mile of some good _Borough-Town_;
    Tag, Rag, and Bobtail to Sir _Harry_'s run,
    Men that have Votes, and Women that have none:
    Sons, Daughters, Grandsons, with his Honour dine;
    He keeps a Publick-House without a Sign.
    Coolers and Smiths extol th' ensuing Choice,
    And drunken Taylors boast their right of Voice.
    Dearly the free-born neighbourhood is bought,
    They never leave him while he's worth a groat:
    So Leeches stick, nor quit the bleeding wound,
    Till off they drop with Skinfuls to the ground.




                    _FINIS_.


  [1] Humano capiti cervicem Pictor equinam
      Jungere si velit, & varias inducere plumas,
      Undiq; collatis membris, ut turpiter atrum
      Desinat in piscem mulier formosa superne:
      Spectatum admissi, risum teneatis, amici?
      Credite, Pisones, isti tabulæ fore librum
      Persimilem, cujus, velit ægri somnia, vanæ
      Fingentur species. Pictoribus atq; Poetis
      Quidlibet audendi semper fuit æqua potestas;
      Scimus, & hanc veniam petimusq; damusq; vicissim:
      Sed non ut placidis coeant immitia, non ut
      Serpentes avibus geminentur, tigribus agni.

  [2] Incoeptis gravibus plerumq; & magna professis
      Purpureus late qui splendeat unus & alter
      Assuitur pannus, cum lucus & ara Dianæ,
      Aut properantis aquæ per amænos ambitus agros,
      Aut flumen Rhenum, aut pluvius describitur arcus;
      Sed nunc non erar his locus: & fortasse cupressum,
      Scis simulare, quid hoc, si fractis enatat exspes
      Navibus, ære dato qui pingitur? amphora cæpit
      Institui, currente rota cur urceus exit?
      Deniq; sit quidvis simplex duntaxat & unum.


  [3] Decipimur specie recti; brevis esse laboro,
      Obscurus fio: sectantem lævia, nervi
      Deficiunt animique: professus grandia, turget.
      Qui variare cupit rem prodigialiter unam
      Delphinum sylvis appingit, fluctibus aprum.
      In vitium ducit culpæ fuga, si caret arte.
      Æmilium circa ludum faber imus & ungues
      Exprimet, & molles imitabitur ore capillos;
      Infelix operis summa, quia ponere totum
      Nesciet; hunc ego me, si quid componere curem,
      Non magis esse velim, quam pravo vivere naso
      Spectandum nigris oculis nigroq; capillo.

  [4] Sumite materiam vestris, qui scribitis, æquam
      Viribus; & versate diu, quid ferre recusent,
      Quid valeant humeri: cui lecta potenter erit res,
      Nec facundia deseret hunc nec lucidus ordo.
      Ordinis hæc virtus erit & venus, aut ego fallor,
      Ut jam nunc dicat jam nunc debentia dici:
      Pleraq; differat, & præsens in tempus omittat.
      Dixeris egregie, notum si callida verbum
      Reddiderit junctura novum; si forte necesse est
      Indiciis monstrare recentibus abdita rerum
      Fingere cinctutis non exaudita Cethegis
      Continget, dabiturq; licentia sumpta pudenter
      Et nova sictaq; nuper habebunt verba fidem, si
      Græco fonte cadant.

  [5] ---- licuit, semperque licebit
      Signatum præsente nota procudere nomen.
      Ut Sylvæ foliis pronos mutantur in annos:
      Prima cadunt, ita verborum vetus interit ætas,
      Debemur morti nos nostraq; sive receptus
      Terra Neptunus classes aquilonibus arcet,
      Regis opus, sterilisve diu palus aptaque remis
      Vicinas urbes alit & grave sentit aratrum.
      Seu cursum mutavit iniquum frugibus amnis
      Doctus iter melius; mortalia facta peribunt,
      Nedum sermonum stet honos & gratia vivax.
      Multa renascentur quæ jam cecidere, cadentq;
      Quæ nunc sunt in honore vocabula, si volet usus,
      Quem penes arbitrium est & jus norma loquendi.

  [6] Res gestæ regumq; ducumq; & tristia bella
      Quo scribi possent numero, monstravit Homerus.
      Versibus impariter junctis querimonia primum,
      Post etiam voti inclusa est voti sententia compos.
      Quis tamen exiguos elegos emiserit auctor
      Grammatici certant, & adhuc sub judice lis est.

  [7] Musa dedit fidibus Divos puerosq; Deorum,
      Et pugilem victorem, & equum certamine primum,
      Et juvenum curas, & libera vina referre.


  [8] Descriptas servare vices operumq; colores
      Cur ego si nequeo ignoroq;, poeta salutor?
      Cur nescire pudens prave quam discere malo?

  [9] Versibus exponi tragicis res comica nonvult
      Indignatur item privatis ac prope socco
      Dignis carminibus narrari cæna Thyestæ,
      Interdum tamen & vocem Comædia tollit,
      Iratusq; Chremes tumido delitigat ore.
      Telephus & Peleus, cum pauper & exul uterq;,
      Projicit ampullas & sesqui pedalia verba.

 [10] Non fatis est est pulchra esse Poemata, dulcia sunto.
      Ut ridentibus arrident, ita flentibus adflent
      Humani vultus; si vis me flere, dolendum est
      Primum ipsi tibi: tunc tua me infortunia lædent
      Telephe, vel Peleu; male si mandata loqueris,
      Aut dormitabo aut ridebo.

 [11] Format enim Natura prius nos intus ad omnem
      Fortunarum habitum, &c.
      Post effert animi motus interprete Lingua
                              ---- tristia mæstum
      Vultum verba decent, &c.
      Si dicentis erunt fortunis absona dicta,
      Romani tollent equites peditesq; cachinnum.

 [12] Intererit multum Divusne loquetur, an Heros:
      Mercatorne vagus, cultorne virentis agelli:
      Colchus, an Assyrius: Thebis nutritus, an Argis.

 [13] Aut famam sequere, aut sibi convenientia finge
      Scriptor; honoratum si forte reponis Achillem,
      Impiger, iracundus, inexorabilis, acer,
      Jura neget sibi nata, nihil non arroget armis;
      Sit Medea ferox invictaq;, flebilis Ino,
      Perfidus Ixion, Io vaga, tristis Orestes.

 [14] Siquid inexpertum scenæ committis, & audes
      Personam formare novam, servetur ad imum
      Qualis ab incæpto processerit, & sibi constet.

 [15] Difficile est proprie communia dicere: tuq;
      Rectius Iliacum carmen deducis in actus,
      Quam si proferres ignota indictaq; primus;
      Publica materies privati juris erit, si
      Nec circa vilem patulumq; moraberis orbem,
      Nec verbum verbo curabis reddere fidus
      Interpres, nec sic desilies imitator in arctum
      Unde pedem proferre pudor vetet aut operis lex.

 [16] Nec sic incipies ut Scriptor Cyclicus olim.
      Fortunam Priami cantabo & nobile bellum;
      Quanto rectius hic qui nil molitur inepte,
      Dic mihi Musa virum captæ post tempera Trojæ
      Qui mores hominum multorum vidit & urbes.

 [17] Non fumum ex fulgore, sed ex fumo dare lucem
      Cogitat:

 [18] Quid dignum tanto feret hic promissor hiatu?
      Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.

 [19] Nec reditum Diomedis ab interitu Meleagri,
      Nec gemino bellum Trojanum orditur ab ovo;
                                  ---- & quæ
      Desperat tractata nitescere posse, relinquit;
      Atq; ita mentitur, sic veris falsa remiscet
      Primo ne medium, medio ne discrepet imum.

 [20] Tu quid ego & populus mecum desideret, audi;
      Si plausoris eges aulæa manentis, & usq;
      Sessuri donec cantor, Vos plaudite, dicat,
      Ætatis cujusq; notandi sunt tibi mores,
      Mobilibusq; decor naturis dandus & annis.

 [21] Reddere qui voces jam scit puer, & pede certo
      Signat humum, gestit paribus colludere, & iram
      Colligit ac ponit temere, & mutantur in horas.

 [22] Imberbis juvenis, tandem custode remoto,
      Gaudet equis canibusq; & aprici gramine campi:
      Cereus in vitium flecti, monitoribus asper,
      Utilium tardus provisor, prodigus æris,
      Sublimis, cupidusq; & amata relinquere pernix.

 [23] Conversis studiis ætas animusq; virilis
      Quærit opes & amicitias, infervit honori,
      Commisisse cavet quod mox mutare laboret.

 [24] Multa senem circum veniunt incommoda, vel quod
      Quærit & inventis miser abstinet ac timet uti:
      Dilator, spe longus iners, avidusq; futuri,
      Difficilis, querulus, laudator temporis acti
      Se puero, censor castigatorq; minorum.
      Multa ferunt anni venientes commoda secum,
      Multa recedentes adimunt; ne forte viriles
      Mandentur juveni partes, pueroq; viriles,
      Semper in adjunctis ævoq; morabimur aptis.

 [25] Aut agitur res in Scenis, aut acta refertur;
      Segnius irritant aminos demissa per aures,
      Quam quæ sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus, & quæ
      Ipse sibit tradit Spectator.
      Quodcunq; ostendis mihi sic, incredulus odi.

 [26] Neve minor, neu sit quinto productior actu
      Fabula, quæ posci vult & spectata reponi;
      Nec Deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus
      Inciderit, nec quarta loqui persona laboret.

 [27] Actoris partes Chorus officiumq; virile
      Defendat: neu quid medios intercinat actus
      Quod non proposito conducat & hæreat apte;
      Ille bonis faveatq; & concilietur amicis,
      Et regat iratos, & amet peccare timentes:
      Ille dapes laudet mensæ brevis, ille salubrem
      Justitiam, legesq; & apertis otia portis;
      Ille tegat commissa, Deosq; precetur & oret
      Ut redeat miseris, abeat fortuna superbis.

 [28] Tibia non, ut nunc, Orichalco vincta, tubæq;
      Æmula, sed tenuis simplexq; foramine pauco,
      Aspirare & adesse choris erat utilis, &c.
      Postquam coepit agros extendere victor, & urbem
      Latior amplecti, muros, &c.
      Accessit numerisq; modisq; licentia major;
      Sic etiam fidibus voces crevere severis,
      Et tulit eloquium insolitum facundia præceps:
      Utiliumq; sagax rerum & divina futuri
      Sortilegis non discrepuit sententia Delphis.

 [29] Carmine qui tragico vilem certavit ob hircum
      Incolumi gravitate jocum tentavit, eo quod
      Illecebris erat & grata novitate morandus
      Spectator, functusq; sacris, & potus, & exlex.

 [30] Effutire leves indigna Tragoedia versus,
      Ut festis matrona moveri jussa diebus,
      Intererit Satyris paulum pudibunda protervis.

 [31] Non ego inornata & dominantia nomina solum
      Verbaq; Pisones, Satyrorum scriptor amabo;
      Nec sic enitar Tragico differre colori
      Ut nihil intersit Davusne loquatur, an audax
      Pythias, emuncto lucrata Simone talentum:
      An custos famulusque Dei Silenus alumni,

 [32] Ut sibi quivis
      Speret idem, sudet multum frustraq; laboret.

 [33] Ne nimium teneris juvenentur versibus unquam,
      Aut immunda crepent ignominiosaq; dicta:
      Offenduntur enim, quibus est equus & pater & res,
      Nec si quid fricti ciceris probat & nucis emtor
      Æquis accipiunt animis, donantve coronâ.

 [34] At nostri proavi Plautinos & numeros &
      Laudavere sales, nimium patienter utrumq;
      Ne dicam stultè, mirati; si modo ego & vos
      Scimus inurbanum lepido seponere dictum,
      Legitimumq; sonum digitis callemus & aure.

 [35] Ignotum Tragicæ genus invenisse Camænæ
      Dicitur, & plaustris vexisse poëmata Thespis,
      Quæ canerent agerentq; peruncti fæcibus ora;
      Post hunc personæ pallæq; repertor honestæ
      Æichylus & modicis instravit pulpita tignis,
      Et docuit magnumq; loqui nitiq; cothurno.
        Successit vetus his Comædia non sine multa
      Laude: sed in vitium libertas excidit, & vim
      Dignam lege regi; lex est accepta, chorusq;
      Turpiter obticuit sublato jure nocendi.

 [36] Nil intentatum nostri liquere Poetæ,
      Nec minimum meruere decus vestigia Græca
      Ausi deserere, & celebrare domestica facta:
      Nee virtute foret clarisve potentius armis,
      Quam lingua, Latium, si non offenderet unum
       Quemq; Poetarum limæ labor & mora.

 [37] Ingenium miserâ quia fortunatius arte
      Credit, & excludit sanos Helicone Poetas
      Democritus, bona pars non unguem ponere curat,
      Non barbam----
      Nanciscetur enim pretium nomenq; Poetæ
      Si tribus Anticyris caput insanabile nunquam
      Tonsori Licino commiserit;

 [38] ---- O ego lævus
      Qui purgor bilem sub verni temporis horam:
      Non alius faceret meliora poemata, verum
      Nil tanti est: ergo fungar vice cotis, acutum
      Reddere quæ ferrum valet exors ipse secandi;
      Munus & officium, nil scribens ipse, docebo:
      Unde parentur opes, quid alat formetq; Poetam:
      Quid deceat, quid non: quo virtus, quo ferat error.

 [39] Scribendi recte sapere est & principium & fons:
      Rem tibi Socraticæ poterunt ostendere chartæ,
      Verbaq; provisam rem non invita sequuntur.
      Qui didicit patriæ quid debeat, & quid amicis,
      Quo sit amore parens, quo frater amandus, & hospes,
      Quod sit conscripti, quod judicis officium, quæ
      Partes in bellum missi ducis, ille profecto
      Reddere personæ scit convenientia cuiq;.

 [40] Respicere exemplar vitæ morumq; jubebo
      Doctum imitatorem, & veras hinc ducere voces;
      Fabula nullius veneris, sine pondere & arte,
      Valdius oblectat populum meliusq; moratur,
      Quam versus inopes rerum nugæq; canoræ.

 [41] Graiis ingenium, Graiis dedit ore rotundo
      Musa loqui, &c.
      Romani pueri longis rationibus assem
      Discunt in partes centum diducere; dicat
      Filius urbani, si de quincunce remota est
      Uncia, quid superest? poteris dixisse, triens, eu
      Rem poteris servare tuam.
                ---- redit uncia, quid sit?
      Semis; at hæc animos ærugo & cura peculi
      Cum semel imbuerit, speramus carmina fingi
      Posse linenda cedro & lævi servando cupresso?

 [42] Quicquid præcipies, esto brevis, ut cito dicta
      Percipiant animi dociles, teneantq; fideles;
      Omne supervacuum pleno de pectore manat.

 [43] Ficta voluptatis causa sint proxima veris:
      Nec quodcunq; volet poscat sibi fabula credi,
      Neu pransæ Lamiæ vivum puerum extrabat alvo.

 [44] Centuriæ Seniorum agitant expertia frugis:
      Celsi prætereunt austera poemata Rhamnes.
      Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci,
      Lectorem delectando, pariterq; monendo;
      Hic meret æra liber Sofiis, hic & mare transit,
      Et longum noto Scriptori prorogat ævium.

 [45] Sunt delicta tamen, quibus ignovisse velimus;
      Non semper feriet quodcunq; minabitur arcus:
      Verum ubi plura nitent in carmine, non ego paucis
      Offendar maculis, quas aut incuria sudit,
      Aut humana parum cavit natura: quid ergo?
      Ut scriptor si peccat idem librarius usq;,
      Quamvis est monitus, veniâ caret: ut citharædus
      Ridetur, chordâ qui semper oberrat eidem:
      Sic mihi qui multum cessat fit Chærilus ille,
      Quem bis terq; bonum cum risu mirror, & idem
      Indignor quandoq; bonus dormitat Homerus;
      Verum opere in longo fas est obrepere somnum.

 [46] Ut Pictura Poësis erit, quæ si propius stes
      Te capiet magis & quædam, si longius abstes;
      Hæc amet obscurum, volet hæc sub luce videri;
      Hæc placuit semel, hæc decies repetita placebit.

 [47] O major juvenum ----    hoc tibi dictum
      Tolle memor, certis medium & tolerabile rebus
      Rectè concedi;----
      ---- Mediocribus esse Poëtis
      Non homines, non Dii, non concessere columnæ
      Sic, animis natum inventumq; Poema juvandis,
      Si paulum a summo discessit, vergit ad imum.

 [48] Ludere qui nescit, campestribus abstinet armis:
      Indoctusq; pilæ, discive, trochive, quiescit,
      Ne spissæ risum tollant impune coronæ;
      Qui nescit, versus tamen audet fingere. ----
                      ---- quidni?
      Liber, & ingenuus, præsertim census equestrem
      Summam nummorum, vitioq; remotus ab omni.
      Membranis intus positis, delere licebit
      Quod non edideris: nescit vox missa reverti.

  [49]Sylvestres homines facer interpresq; Deorum
      Cædibus & victu fædo deterruit Orpheus,
              ---- Fuit hæc sapientia quondam
      Publica privatis secernere, sacra profanis:
      Concubitu prohibere vago, dare jura maritis:
      Oppida moliri, leges incidere ligno.
              ---- Dictæ per carmina sortes
      Et vitæ monstrata via est, & gratia regum
      Pieriis tentata modis: ludusq; repertus,
      Et longorum operum finis.
          ---- ne forte pudori
      Sit tibi Musa lyræ solers & cantor Apollo.

 [50] Naturâ fieret laudabile carmen, an arte,
      Quæsitum est; Ego nec studium sine divite venâ,
      Nec rude quid profit video ingenium; alterius sic
      Altera poscit opem res & conjurat amicè.

 [51] Qui studet optatam cursu contingere metam,
      Multa tulit fecitq; puer; sudavit & alsit,
      Abstinuit vener & vino,
      Nunc fatis est dixisse, Ego mira poemata pango:
      Occupet extremum scabies, mihi turpe relinqui est,
      Et quod non didici sane nescire fateri.

 [52] Assentatores jubet ad lucrum ire Poeta
      Dives agris, dives positis in fænore nummis;
      Si vero est unctum qui rectè ponere possit
      Et spondere levi pro paupere, & eripere arctis
      Litribus implicitum, mirabor, si sciet inter
      Noscere mendacem verumq; beatus amicum.
      Tu seu donaris, seu quid donare velis cui,
      Noilto ad versus tibi factos ducere plenum
      Lætitiæ: clamabit enim, pulchre, bene, recte.
                            ---- si carmina condes,
      Nunquam te fallant animi sub vulpe latentes

 [53] Quintilio siquid recitares, corrige sodes
      Hoc aiebat & hoc: melius te posse negares
      Bis terque expertum frustra, delere jubelat.
      Si defendere delictum, quam vertere, malles,
      Nullum ultra verbum aut operam insumebat inanem,
      Quin sine rivali teque & tua solus amares.

 [54] Ut mala quem scabies aut morbus regius urget,
                    ---- dicam Siculiq; poetæ
      Narrabo interium ----
      Nec semel hoc fecit, nec si retractus erit, jam
      Fiet homo, aut ponet famosæ mortis amorem.
      Indoctum doctumque fugat recitator acerbus:
      Quem vero arripuit, tenet occiditq; legendo;
      Non missura cutem, nisi plena cruoris, hirudo.




                  WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK
                    MEMORIAL LIBRARY

           UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES


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