AN IRISH EPIGRAM ON THE SAME.
While with the fustian of thy book,
The witty ancient you enrobe,
You make the graceful Horace look,
As pitiful as Tom M'Lobe.*
Ye Muses, guard your sacred mount,
And Helicon, for if this log
Should stumble once into the fount,
He'll make it muddy as a bog.
ON CARTHY'S TRANSLATION OF LONGINUS.
High as Longinus to the stars ascends,
So deeply Carthy to the centre tends.
RATIO INTER LONGINUM ET CARTHIUM COMPUTATA.
Æthereas quantum Longinus surgit in auras,
Carthius en tantum ad Tartara tendit iter.
What Midas touch'd became true gold, but then, Gold becomes lead touch'd lightly by thy pen.
CARTHY KNOCKED OUT SOME TEETH FROM HIS
NEWS-BOY,
For saying he could not live by the profits of Carthy's works, as they did not sell.
I must confess that I was somewhat warm,
I broke his teeth, but where's the mighty harm ?
A notorious Irish poetaster, whose name had become proverbial.
My work he said could ne'er afford him meat,
And teeth are useless where there's nought to eat!
On his sending about specimens to force people to subscribe to his
Longinus.
Thus vagrant beggars, to extort
By charity a mean support,
Their sores and putrid ulcers shew,
And shock our sense till we bestow.
On his accusing Mr. Dunkin for not Publishing his book of Poems.
How different from thine is Dunkin's lot!
Thou'rt curst for publishing, and he for not.
ON CARTHY'S PUBLISHING SEVERAL LAMPOONS, UNDER
THE NAMES OF INFAMOUS POETASTERS.
So witches bent on bad pursuits,
Assume the shapes of filthy brutes.
Thy labours, Carthy, long conceal'd from light,
Piled in a garret, charm'd the author's sight,
But forced from their retirement into day,
The tender embryos half unknown decay;
Thus lamps which burn'd in tombs with silent glare,
Expire when first exposed to open air.
TO CARTHY, ATTRIBUTING SOME PERFORMANCES TO MR. DUNKIN.
[From the Gentleman's London Magazine for January.] My lines to him you give; to speak your due, 'Tis what no man alive will say of you. Your works are like old Jacob's speckled goats, Known by the verse, yet better by the notes. Pope's essays upon some for Young's may pass, But all distinguish thy dull leaden mass; So green in different lights may pass for blue, But what's dyed black will take no other hue.
UPON CARTHY'S THREATENING TO TRANSLATE PINDAR.
You have undone Horace,-what should hinder
Thy Muse from falling upon Pindar?
But ere you mount his fiery steed,
Beware, O Bard, how you proceed :—
For should you give him once the reins.
High up in air he'll turn your brains;
And if you should his fury check,
'Tis ten to one he breaks your neck.
WROTE THE FOLLOWING EPIGRAM ON ONE DELACOURT'S COM-
PLIMENTING CARTHY ON HIS POETRY.
CARTHY, you say, writes well-his genius true,
You pawn your word for him-he'll vouch for you.
So two poor knaves, who find their credit fail,
To cheat the world, become each other's bail.
DELICIA, Sheridan, Musarum, dulcis amice,
Sic tibi propitius Permessi ad flumen Apollo
Occurrat, seu te mimum convivia rident,
Equivocosque sales spargis, seu ludere versu
Malles; dic, Sheridan, quisnam fuit ille deorum,
Quæ melior natura orto tibi tradidit artem
Rimandi genium puerorum, atque ima cerebri
Scrutandi? Tibi nascenti ad cunabula Pallas
Astitit; et dixit, mentis præsaga futuræ,
Heu, puer infelix! nostro sub sidere natus;
Nam tu pectus eris sine corpore, corporis umbra;
Sed levitate umbram superabis, voce cicadam :
Musca femur, palmas tibi mus dedit, ardea crura.
Corpore sed tenui tibi quod natura negavit,
Hoc animi dotes supplebunt; teque docente,
Nec longum tempus, surget tibi docta juventus,
Artibus egregiis animas instructa novellas.
Grex hinc Pæonius venit, ecce, salutifer orbi;
Ast, illi causas orant: his insula visa est
Divinam capiti nodo constringere mitram.
Natalis te horæ non fallunt signa, sed usque
Conscius, expedias puero seu lætus Apollo
Nascenti arrisit; sive illum frigidus horror
Saturni premit, aut septem inflavere triones.
Quin tu altè penitusque latentia semina cernis,
Quæque diu obtundendo olim sub luminis auras
Erumpent, promis; quo ritu sæpè puella
Sub cinere hesterno sopitos suscitat ignes.
Te dominum agnoscit quocunque sub aëre natus: Quos indulgentis nimium custodia matris
Pessundat nam sæpè vides in stipite matrem.
Aureus at ramus, venerandæ dona Sibyllæ,
Æneæ sedes tantùm patefecit Avernas;
Sæpè puer, tua quem tetigit semel aurea virga,
Et cœlum, terrasque videt, noctemque profundam.
POETICAL EPISTLE TO DR. SHERIDAN.
FROM the original manuscript in possession of Leonard Macnally, Esq., Barrister at Law, Dublin.
SOME ancient authors wisely write,
That he who drinks will wake at night,
Will never fail to lose his rest,
And feel a streightness in his chest ;
A streightness in a double sense,
A streightness both of breath and
Physicians say, it is but reasonable,
He that comes home at hour unseasonable,
(Besides a fall and broken shins,
Those smaller judgments for his sins;)
If, when he goes to bed, he meets
A teazing wife between the sheets,
'Tis six to five he'll never sleep,
But rave and toss till morning peep.
Yet harmless Betty must be blamed
Because you feel your lungs inflamed;
But if you would not get a fever,
You never must one moment leave her.
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