ON NOISY TOM.

HORACE, PART OF BOOK I, SAT. VI.

1733.

*

PARAPHRASED.

IF noisy Tom † should in the senate prate, "That he would answer both for church and state; "And, further to demonstrate his affection, "Would take the kingdom into his protection:" All mortals must be curious to inquire,

Who could this coxcomb be, and who his sire? "What! thou, the spawn of him who sham'd our isle,

Traitor, assassin, and informer vile!

Though by the female side § you proudly bring
To mend your breed, the murderer of a king:
What was thy grandsire, || but a mountaineer,
Who held a cabin for ten groats a year:

Qui promittit, cives, urbem sibi curæ,
Imperium fore, et Italiam, et delubra Deorum;
Quo patre sit natus, num ignota matre inhonestus,
Omnes mortales curare, et quærere cogit.
Tune Syri, Damæ, aut Dionysi filius, aude
Dejicere è saxo cives, aut tradere Cadmo?

+ Sir Thomas Prendergast.-F.

HOR. i. Sat. vi. 34-39.

The father of Sir Thomas Prendergast, who engaged in a plot to murder King William III.; but, to avoid being hanged, turned informer against his associates, for which he was rewarded with a good estate, and made a baronet.-F.

§ Cadogan's family.-F.

A poor thieving cottager under Mr Moore, condemned at Clonmell assizes to be hanged for stealing cows.-F.

*

Whose master Moore preserv'd him from the halter !

For stealing cows; nor could he read the Psalter! Durst thou, ungrateful, from the senate chace Thy founder's grandson, † and usurp his place? Just heaven! to see the dunghill bastard brood Survive in thee, and make the proverb good? ‡ Then vote a worthy citizen to jail §

In spite of justice, and refuse his bail !"

ON DR RUNDLE, BISHOP OF DERRY. 1734-5.

[See Swift's correspondence, Vol. XVIII. p. 328 and 403.]

MAKE Rundle bishop; fie for shame! An Arian to usurp the name!

*The grandfather of Guy Moore, Esq. who procured him a pardon.-F.

+ Guy Moore was fairly elected member of Parliament for Clonmell; but Sir Thomas, depending upon his interest with a certain party then prevailing, and since known by the title of parson-hunters, petitioned the house against him; out of which he was turned upon pretence of bribery, which the paying of

his lawful debts was then voted to be.-F.

"Save a thief from the gallows, and he will cut your throat." -F.

§ Mr George Faulkner. Mr Sergeant Bettesworth, a member of the Irish parliament, having made a complaint to the house of commons against the " Satire on Quadrille," they voted Faulk ner the printer into custody (who was confined closely in prison three days, when he was in a very bad state of health, and his life in much danger) for not discovering the author.-F.

A bishop in the isle of saints!

How will his brethren make complaints!
Dare any of the mitred host
Confer on him the Holy Ghost:

In mother church to breed a variance,
By coupling orthodox with Arians?

Yet, were he Heathen, Turk, or Jew,
What is there in it strange or new?
For, let us hear the weak pretence,
His brethren find to take offence;
Of whom there are but four at most,
Who know there is a holy Ghost;
The rest, who boast they have conferr'd it,
Like Paul's Ephesians, never heard it;
And, when they gave it, well 'tis known,
They gave what never was their own.
Rundle a bishop! well he may;
He's still a Christian more than they.
We know the subject of their quarrels;
The man has learning, sense, and morals.
There is a reason still more weighty;
'Tis granted he believes a Deity.
Has every circumstance to please us,
Though fools may doubt his faith in Jesus.
But why should he with that be loaded,
Now twenty years from court exploded,
And is not this objection odd

From rogues who ne'er believ'd a God?
For liberty a champion stout,
Though not so Gospel-ward devout.
While others, hither sent to save us,
Come but to plunder and enslave us;
Nor ever own'd a power divine,
But Mammon, and the German line.

Say, how did Rundle undermine 'em? Who show'd a better jus divinum?

From ancient canons would not vary,
But thrice refus'd episcopari.

Our bishop's predecessor, Magus,
Would offer all the sands of Tagus ;
Or sell his children, house, and lands,
For that one gift, to lay on hands:
But all his gold could not avail
To have the spirit set to sale.
Said surly Peter, "Magus, prithee,
Be gone thy money perish with thee."
Were Peter now alive, perhaps,

He might have found a score of chaps,
Could he but make his gift appear
In rents three thousand pounds a year.
Some fancy this promotion odd,

As not the handiwork of God;
Though e'en the bishops disappointed
Must own it made by God's anointed,
And well we know, the congé regal
Is more secure as well as legal;
Because our lawyers all agree,
That bishoprics are held in fee.

*

Dear Baldwen chaste, and witty Crosse, † How sorely I lament your loss!

That such a pair of wealthy ninnies

Should slip your time of dropping guineas;
For, had you made the king your debtor,
Your title had been so much better.

* Richard Baldwin, Provost of Trinity College in 1717. He left behind him many natural children.

+ Rector of St Mary's, Dublin, in 1722; before which time he had been chaplain to the Smyrna Company. See the Epistolary Cosrespondence, May 26, 1720.

EPIGRAM.

FRIEND Rundle fell, with grievous bump,
Upon his reverential rump.

Poor rump! thou hadst been better sped,
Hadst thou been join'd to Boulter's head;
A head, so weighty and profound,

Would needs have kept thee from the ground.

A CHARACTER, PANEGYRIC, and DESCRIPTION OF THE LEGION CLUB. 1736.

[This poem was the last of any importance that the Dean ever composed. While engaged in retouching it, one of his fits of giddiness and deafness returned with such intense violence, that he never recovered from the consequences. The occasion of the satire is thus stated by my learned friend Mr Berwick: "In the year 1733, a petition was presented to the House of Commons by Dr Swift, Dr Archibald Stewart, John Grattan, Daniel Jackson, &c. in behalf of the clergy of Ireland, to be heard by counsel, on a clause in the heads of a bill to encourage the linen manufacture, &c. See some reasons against the bill for settling the tithe of hemp, &c. by a modus, Vol. IX. p. 13. In the following year, 1734, an almost general resistance was made to the payment of the tithe of pasturage, called the tithe of agistment; at which period a most violent spirit prevailed, not among the peasantry, but the protestant landlords, to attack the income of the church. Unfortunately, however, for the clergy at that time, the persons principally, if not solely affected by this species of tithe, were the best able to bear it, namely, the great graziers and protestant proprietors of land, who, as they possessed considerable influence, directly or indirectly, in the House of Commons,