Imatges de pàgina
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A hare had long efcap'd pursuing hounds By often shifting into diftant grounds; Till finding all his artifices vain, To fave his life he leap'd into the main. But there, alas! he could no fafety find, A pack of dog-fifb had him in the wind. He fcours away; and to avoid the foe, Defcends for fhelter to the fhades below, There Cerberus lay watching in his den (He had not seen a hare the lord knows when);

Out bounc'd the mastiff of the triple head; Away the hare with double swiftnefs fled; Hunted from earth, and fea, and hell, he Aies

(Fear lent him wings) for fafety to the skies. How was the fearful animal diftreft! Behold a foe more fierce than all the rest: Sirius, the swifteft of the heavenly pack, Fail'd but an inch to seize him by the back. He fled to earth, but first it coft him dear; He left his fcut behind, and half an ear.

Thus was the hare purfu'd, though free from guilt;

Thus, Bob,fhalt thou be maul'd, fly where thou wilt:

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Then, honeft Robin, of thy corpfe beware; Thou art not half fo nimble as a hare: Too pond'rous is thy bulk to mount the fky;

Nor can you go to hell, before you die. So keen thy hunters, and thy fcent so ftrong,

The turns and doublings cannot fave thee long.

The author having been told by an intimate friend,that the duke of Queensberry had employed Mr. Gay to infpect the accounts and management of his grace's receivers and ftewards (which however proved afterwards to be a mistake), writ to Mr. Gay the following poem,

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Fain would I think our female friend † fincere,

Till Bob, the poet's foe, poffeft her ear. Did female virtue e'er fo high afcend, To lofe an inch of favour for a friend? Say, had the court no better place to chufe

For thee, than make a dry-nurse of thy Muse?

How cheaply had thy liberty been fold, To 'fquire a royal girl of two years old; In leading-ftrings her infant fteps to guide, Or with her go-cart amble fide by fide!

But princely Douglas § and his glorious

dame

Advanc'd thy fortune, and preferv'd thy fame,

Nor will your nobler gifts be mifapply'd, When o'er your patron's treasure you pre

fide:

The world fhall own his choice was wifę and juft,

For fons of Phoebus never break their truft.

+ Mrs. Howard, fince countefs of Suffolk.

See Mr. Gay's Letter on

this fubject, in Mr. Pope' Works, Vol. II. Let. 26. The duke of Queensberry,

Not love of beauty lefs the heart inflames Of guardian eunuchs to the Sultan'sdames; Their paffions not more impotent and cold,

Than thofe of poets to the luft of gold. With Paan's pureft fire his fav'rites glow, The dregs will ferve to ripen ore below; His meaneft work: for had he thought it fit,

That wealth should be the appennage of wit,

The God of light could ne'er have been fo blind

To deal it to the worst of human-kind.

But let me now, for I can do it well, Your conduct in this new employ forétel.

And firft: to make my obfervation right, I place a ftatefman full before my fight, A bloated minifter in all his geer, With fhameless vifage, and perfidious leer: Two rows ofteeth arm cach devouring jaw, And, oftrich-like, his all-digefting maw. My fancy drags this monfter to my view To fhew the world his chief reverfe in you. Of loud unmeaning founds a rapid flood Rolls from his mouth in plenteous ftreams of mud: With

With these the court and fenate-house he

plies,

Made up of noife, and impudence, and lies.

Now let me fhew how Bob and you

agree,

*

You ferve a potent prince, as well as he.
The ducal coffers, trufted to your charge,
Your honeft care may fill; perhaps enlarge.
His vaffals eafy, and the owner bleft,
They pay a trifle, and enjoy the rest.
Not fo a nation's revenues are paid:
The fervant's faults are on the mafter laid.
The people with a figh their taxes bring;
And, curfing Bob, forget to bless the king.
Next hearken, GAY, to what thy charge
requires

With fervants, tenants, and the neighb'ring Squires.

Let all domefticks feel your gentle fway : Nor bribe, infult, nor flatter, nor betray. Let due reward to merit be allow'd; Nor with your KINDRED half the palace crowd.

* A title given to dukes by the heralds.

Nor

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