Nafcenti arrifit; five illum frigidus horror Saturni premit, aut feptem inflavere triones.

Quin tu altè penitufque latentia femina cernis,

Quæque diu obtundendo olim fub luminis

auras

Erumpent, promis; quo ritu fæpè puella Sub cinere hefterno fopitos fufcitat ignes.

Te dominum agnofcit quocunque fub

aëre natus;

Quos indulgentis nimium cuftodia matris Peffundat: nam fæpè vides in ftipite matrem.

Aureus atramus, venerandæ dona Sibyllæ, Æneæ fedes tantùm patefecit Avernus ; Sæpè puer tua quem tetigit femel aurea virga Cœlumque terrafque videt, noctemque profundam.

R

APOLLO to the DEA N.

Written in the Year 1720.

IGHT trufty, and fo forth,—we let you to know

We are very ill us'd by you mortals below.

For

For firft, I have often by chemists been told, Tho' I know nothing on't, it is I that make gold,

Which when you have got, you fo careful-
ly hide it,

That, fince I was born, I hardly have fpy'd it.
Then it must be allow'd, that whenever I

fhine,

I forward the grafs, and I ripen the vine;
To me the good fellows apply for relief,
Without whom they could get neither
claret nor beef:

Yet their wine and their victuals thefe cur-
mudgeon* lubbards

Lock up from my fight in cellars and cupboards.

That I have an ill eye they wickedly think,
And taint all their meat, and four all their
drink.

But thirdly and laftly, it must be allow'd,
I alone can infpire the poetical crowd :
This is gratefully own'd by each boy in the
college,

Whom ifI inspire,it is not to myknowledge.

*Curmudgeon, a word here ufed as an adjective, now fignifies a fordid niggardly fellow; but was, perhaps, in its origi

C 4

nal fenfe, of more extenfive import, being probably a corruption of cœur mechant, a wicked heart.

This

This ev'ry pretender to rhime will admit, Without troubling his head about judg

ment or wit.

Thefe gentlemen ufe me with kindness and freedom,

And as for their works, when I please I may read 'em :

They lie open on purpose on counters and ftalls,

And the titles I view, when I fhine on the walls.

But a comrade of yours, that traitor Delany, Whom I for your fake love better than any, And of my mere motion, and special good grace, Intended in time to fucceed in your place, On Tuesday the tenth feditiously came With a certain falfe traitrefs, one Stella by

name,

To the deanery houfe, and on the north glass, Where for fear of the cold I never can pafs, Then and there, vi et armis, with a certain utenfil,

Of value five fhillings, in English a pencil, Didmalicioufly, falfly, and trait'roufly write, Whilft Stella aforefaid ftood by with a light*.

*See Verfes faid to be cut by two of the Dean's friends upon a pane of igafs in one of

his parlours, among the pofthumous pieces at the end of this volume.

My fifter has lately depos'd upon oath, That she stopt in her courfe to look at them both :

That Stella was helping, abetting and aiding;

And ftill, as he writ, ftood fmiling and reading :

That her eyes were as bright as myself at noon-day,

But her graceful black locks were mingled with grey;

And by the description I certainly know, 'Tis the nymph that I courted fome ten

years ago;

Whom when I with the beft of my talents endu'd

On her promife of yielding, she acted the prude:

That fome verfes were writ with felonious intent,

Direct to the north, where I never went : That the letters appear'd reverse thro' the

pane,

But in Stella's bright eyes they were plac'd right again;

Wherein

Wherein she distinctly could read ev'ry line, And presently guefs'd the fancy was mine*. Now you see why his verses fo feldom are shewn ;

The reafon is plain, they're none of his

own;

And obferve while you live, that no man is fhy

To discover the goods he came honestly by.

If I light on a thought, he'll certainly fteal it,

And when he has got it, find ways to conceal it:

Of all the fine things he keeps in the dark, There's scarce one in ten but what has my mark;

And let them be seen by the world if he dare,

I'll make it appear, they are all stolen

ware.

The mechanifm of this poemis formed upona 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 writ

ing, which appeared inverted thro' the pane: but, as the writing was not inverted on that fide of the glass at which Stella looked, it must neceffarily be inverted in her eyes.

But