21

25

"To grant me this and t' other Acre:
"Or, if it be thy Will and Pleasure,
"Direct my Plough to find a Treasure:"
But only what my Station fits,
And to be kept in my right wits1.
Preserve, Almighty Providence,
Just what you gave me, Competence:
And let me in these shades compose
Something in Verse as true as Prose;
Remov'd from all th' Ambitious Scene,
Nor puff'd by Pride, nor sunk by Spleen.
In short, I'm perfectly content,
Let me but live on this side Trent;
Nor cross the Channel twice a year,
To spend six months with Statesmen
here 2.

30

35

I must by all means come to town, "Tis for the service of the Crown. "Lewis, the Dean will be of use, "Send for him up, take no excuse." The toil, the danger of the Seas; Great Ministers ne'er think of these; Or let it cost five hundred pound, No matter where the money's found, It is but so much more in debt, And that they ne'er consider'd yet. "Good Mr Dean, go change your gown, Let my. town."

66

40

Lord know you're come to

"You may for certain, if you please; 80 "I doubt not, if his Lordship knewAnd, Mr Dean, one word from 'Tis (let me see) three years and more, (October next it will be four)* Since HARLEY bid me first attend, And chose me for an humble friend; Would take me in his Coach to chat, And question me of this and that; As, "What's o'clock?" And, "How's the Wind?"

85

91

"Whose Chariot's that we left behind?" Or gravely try to read the lines Writ underneath the Country Signs; Or, "Have you nothing new to-day "From Pope, from Parnell, or from Gay?"

Such tattle often entertains

95

3 [The orders of the Garter and Shamrock. The Bath was not revived till 1725 (by Sir R. Walpole). At Lilliput, Gulliver observed the nobles leaping over a stick, in order to be decorated with blue, red and green threads.]

* [Swift commenced his literary labours for the Tories in 1710.]

5 [Thomas Parnell (born in 1679), author of the Hermit, and a lyrical poet of real merit, went

My Lord and me as far as Staines,
As once a week we travel down
To Windsor, and again to Town,
Where all that passes, inter nos,
Might be proclaim'd at Charing-Cross.
Yet some I know with envy swell,
Because they see me us'd so well:

99

Dean?

"I wonder what some people mean;

66

66

66

My Lord and he are grown so great, Always together, tête à tête;

106 What, they admire him for his jokes"See but the fortune of some Folks!" There flies about a strange report Of some Express arriv'd at Court; I'm stopp'd by all the Fools I meet, And catechis'd in ev'ry street. "You, Mr Dean, frequent the Great; "Inform us, will the Emp'ror treat? "Or do the Prints and Papers lie?" Faith, Sir, you know as much as I.' "Ah Doctor, how you love to jest? 66 "Tis now no secret "- -'I protest 'Tis one to me " "Then tell us, pray, "When are the Troops to have their pay?"

And, tho' I solemnly declare

115

120

over, like Swift, from the Whigs to the Tories, and was one of the members of the Scriblerus Club. He died in 1717; and Pope published his poems in 1722, with a dedication to the Earl of Oxford (v. infra, p. 441). Parnell wrote the Life of Homer for Pope's Iliad, and translated the Batrachomyomachia. His biography was afterwards written by Goldsmith.]

[Charles Fox, on a summer's day at St Ann's, declared it the right time for lying in the shade with a book. 'Why with a book?' asked Sheridan.]

2 [(For one whole day) we have had nothing

Here no man prates of idle things, How this or that Italian sings,

140

146

A Neighbour's Madness, or his Spouse's,
Or what's in either of the Houses:
But something much more our concern,
And quite a scandal not to learn:
Which is the happier, or the wiser,
A man of Merit, or a Miser?
Whether we ought to choose our Friends,
For their own Worth, or our own Ends?
What good, or better, we may call, 151
And what, the very best of all?

Our Friend Dan Prior3, told, (you
know)

A Tale extremely à propos:

160

Name a Town Life, and in a trice, 155
He had a Story of two Mice.
Once on a time (so runs the Fable)
A Country Mouse, right hospitable,
Receiv'd a Town Mouse at his Board,
Just as a Farmer might a Lord.
A frugal Mouse upon the whole,
Yet lov'd his Friend, and had a Soul,
Knew what was handsome, and would
do 't,
On just occasion, coute qui coute.
He brought him Bacon (nothing lean),
Pudding, that might have pleas'd a Dean;
Cheese, such as men in Suffolk make,
But wish'd it Stilton for his sake;
Yet, to his Guest tho' no way sparing,
He ate himself the rind and paring. 170
Our Courtier scarce could touch a bit,

164

for dinner but mutton-broth, beans and bacon, and a barn-door fowl.' Pope to Swift (from Dawley), June 28, 1728.]

3 [The City Mouse and Country Mouse was written by Prior and Charles Montagu (afterwards Earl of Halifax) in 1688, in ridicule of Dryden's Hind and Panther. The reason why Pope was so sparing in his praise of Prior, is found by Warton in the satirical epigrams written by Prior on Atterbury. 'Dan' is the old familiar abbreviation for dominus; Douglas speaks of 'Dan Chaucer;' and Prior himself, in his Alma, facetiously mentions 'Dan Pope.']

But show'd his Breeding and his Wit; He did his best to seem to eat, And cry'd, "I vow you're mighty neat. "But Lord, my Friend, this savage Scene! 175 "For God's sake, come, and live with Men:

"Consider, Mice, like Men, must die, "Both small and great, both you and I: "Then spend your life in Joy and Sport, "(This doctrine, Friend, I learnt at Court)." 180

The veriest Hermit in the Nation May yield, God knows, to strong tempta

tion.

185

Away they come, thro' thick and thin,
To a tall house near Lincoln's-Inn;
('Twas on the night of a Debate,
When all their Lordships had sat late.)
Behold the place, where if a Poet
Shin'd in Description, he might show it;
Tell how the Moon-beam trembling falls,
And tips with Silver all the walls; 190
Palladian walls, Venetian doors,
Grotesco roofs, and Stucco floors:
But let it (in a word) be said,
The Moon was up, and Men a bed,
The Napkins white, the Carpet red:

201

204

210

Was ever such a happy Swain? He stuffs and swills, and stuffs again. "I'm quite asham'd-'tis mighty rude "To eat so much-but all 's so good. “I have a thousand thanks to give— 'My Lord alone knows how to live." No sooner said, but from the Hall Rush Chaplain, Butler, Dogs and all: "A Rat, a Rat! clap to the door"The Cat comes bouncing on the floor. O for the heart of Homer's Mice, Or Gods to save them in a trice! (It was by Providence they think, For your damn'd Stucco has no chink.) "An't please your Honour, quoth the Peasant,

215

AGA

5

1 It may be worth observing, that the measure Pope has here chosen is precisely the same that Ben Jonson used in a translation of this very Ode, Warton.

2 The number of Murray's lodgings in King's Bench Walks. Bowles. [See Imitations of Horace, Bk. 1. Ep. VI. 49, note.]