guarded by soldiers. The two following poems relate to this controversy, which was, for the time it lasted, nearly as warm as that about Wood's halfpence. The first is said to be the paraphrase of a conversation which actually passed between Swift and the archbishop. The latter charged the Dean with inflaming the mob, " I inflame them?" retorted Swift, "Were I to lift but a finger, they would tear you to pieces."] AT Dublin's high feast sat primate and dean, Both dress'd like divines, with band and face clean: Quoth Hugh of Armagh, The mob is grown 66 bold." Ay, ay," quoth the dean, "the cause is old gold." No, no," quoth the primate, " if causes we sift, This mischief arises from witty dean Swift." The smart one replied, "There's no wit in the case; And nothing of that ever troubled your grace. Though with your state sieve your own notions you split, A Boulter by name is no bolter of wit. It's matter of weight, and a mere money job; A BALLAD. [Written by Dean Swift, on the bringing down of the gold coin, and which produced, it is said, a powerful effect upon the public mind. It has never been printed in his works, and was taken down from recitation by my friend Mr Hartstonge.] I. PATRICK astore*, what news upon the town? By my soul there's bad news, for the gold she was pulled down, The gold she was pull'd down, of that I'm very sure, For I saw'd them reading upon the towlsel † doore. Sing, och, och, hoh, hoh.‡ II. Arrah! who was him reading? 'twas a jauntleman in ruffles, And Patrick's bell she was ringing all in muffles; * Astore, means my dear, my heart. + The Tholsel, where criminals for the city were tried, and where proclamations, &c were posted. It was invariably called the Touls'el by the lower class. It would appear that the chorus here introduced, was intend. ed to chime with the howl, the ululatus, or funeral cry of the Irish. She was ringing very sorry, her tongue tied up with rag Lorsha! and out of her shteeple there was hung a black flag *. III. Sing och, &c. Patrick astore, who was him made this law? IV. Musha! Why Parliament wouldn't you maul, Sing och, &c. *Swift, it is said, caused a muffled peal to be rung from the steeple of St Patrick's, on the day of the proclamation, and a black flag to be displayed from its battlements. +The big man of straw, means the Duke of Dorset, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland; he had only the name of authority, the essential power being vested in the Primate. Jug-Joulter means Primate Boulter, whose name is played upon in the succeeding line. In consequence of the public dissatisfaction expressed at the lowering the gold coin, the primate be came very unpopular. § "Footmen" alludes to a supporter of the measure, said to have been the son or grandson of a servant. Means " of swine." VOL. X. my hundred thousand hearty curses on the feeders A WICKED TREASONABLE LIBEL. [So the following very remarkable verses are entitled, in a copy which exists in the Dean's hand-writing, and is now before the Editor, It bears the following characteristic memorandum on the back." A traiterous libel, writ several years ago. It is inconsistent with itself. Copied September 9th, 1735. I wish I knew the author, that I might hang him." And at the bottom of the paper is subjoined this postscript. "I copied out this wicked paper many years ago, in hopes to discover the traitor of an author, that I might inform against him." For the foundation of the scandals current during the reign of George I. to which the lines allude, see Walpole's Reminiscences, chapter II. and Vol. I. of this work, p. 361.] WHILE the King and his ministers keep such a pother, And all about changing one whore for another, To unite these two protestant parallel lines, But alas! poor old England, how wilt thou be master'd; For, take which you please, it must needs be a bastard. EPIGRAMS AGAINST CARTHY, BY SWIFT AND OTHERS. [Charles Carthy, a schoolmaster in the city of Dublin, was publisher of a translation of Horace, in which the Latin was print. ed on the one side, and the English on the other, whence he acquired the name of Mezentius, alluding to the practice of that tyrant, who chained the dead to the living. Carthy was almost continually involved in satirical skirmishes with Dunkin, for whom Swift had a particular friendship, and there is no doubt that the Dean himself engaged in the warfare. The following epigrams were selected by Dr Barret from two scarce pamphlets in the Trinity College Library. One is entitled, Mezentius. 1734." (Marked R. R. 19. 60.) The other, "Florilegium Carthianum," in the same year. They are probably the productions of Swift, Dunkin, Sican, &c. Two epigrams on the same subject occur Vol. XIV. p. 372. and have been printed in all editions of Swift's works, into which those which follow are now received for the first time. They reached the editor too late to be printed together.] ON CARTHY'S TRANSLATION OF HORACE, Containing, on one side, the original Latin, on the other, his own version. THIS I may boast, which few e'er could, ON CARTHY MINOTAURUS. How monstrous Carthy looks with Flaccus braced, For here we see the man and there the beast. |