EPILOGUE TO THE SATIRES. DIALOGUE II. F. 'Tis all a libel-Paxton,* sir, will say. And for that very cause I print to-day. Feign what I will, and paint it e'er so strong, 11 F. Yet none but you by name the guilty lash; E'en Guthrie saves half Newgate by a dash :‡ Spare then the person, and expose the vice. P. How, sir! not damn the sharper, but the dice? Come on then, Satire! general, unconfined, 20 P. Why that's the thing you bid me not to do. Who starved a sister, who forswore a debt, I never named; the town's inquiring yet. * Michael Paxton, solicitor to the Treasury. A.D. 1739; this Dialogue being written in 1738. "The ordinary of Newgate, who publishes the 'Memoirs of the Malefactors,' and is often prevailed on to be so tender of their reputation, as to set down no more than the initials of their names." The poisoning dame-F. You mean-P. I don't. F. You do. P. See, now I keep the secret, and not you! The bribing statesman-F. Hold, too high you go. P. The bribed elector-F. There you stoop too low. P. I fain would please you, if I knew with what : Tell me, which knave is lawful game, which not? F. A dean, sir? No: his fortune is not made; You hurt a man that's rising in the trade. 40 P. If not the tradesman who set up to-day, Scarce hurts the lawyer, but undoes the scribe. To tax directors, who (thank God!) have plums; May pinch e'en there,-why, lay it on a king. 50 P. Must satire, then, nor rise nor fall? Speak out, and bid me blame no rogues at all. * Jonathan Wild, a notorious thief. F. Yes, strike that Wild; I'll justify the blow. P. Strike! why, the man was hang’d ten years ago: Who now that obsolete example fears? E'en Peter trembles only for his ears. F. What, always Peter? Peter thinks you mad; You make men desperate if they once are bad: Else might he take to virtue some years henceP. As Selkirk, if he lives, will love the Prince. 61 F. Strange spleen to Selkirk ! P. Do I wrong the man? God knows, I praise a courtier where I can. When I confess, there is who feels for fame, And melts to goodness, need I Scarborough name? * Pleased let me own, in Esher's peaceful grove,+ ** 70 E'en in a bishop I can spy desert: Secker § is decent, Rundell || has a heart; Manners with candour are to Benson ¶ given; To Berkeley, every virtue under heaven. But does the court a worthy man remove? That instant, I declare, he has my love; I shun his zenith, court his mild decline: Thus Somers ++ once, and Halifax, ‡‡ were mine. Oft, in the clear, still mirror of retreat, I studied Shrewsbury, §§ the wise and great. * Richard Lumley, second Earl of Scarborough. The Honourable Mr. Pelham, brother of the Duke of Newcastle; he lived at Esher. William Kent, an architect, and the founder of landscape gardening. Dr. Thomas Secker, Archbishop of Canterbury. Dr. George Benson, a Nonconformist divine. ** Dr. George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne. tt John, Lord Somers, deprived of the seals, 1700. tt Lord Halifax, disgraced, 1710. $"Charles Talbot, Duke of Shrewsbury, had been 80 Carleton's calm sense and Stanhope's + noble How shined the soul, unconquer'd in the Tower! vain; 90 Rank'd with their friends, not number'd with their train; And if yet higher the proud list should end, Dined with the Man of Ross, or my Lord Mayor. Some, in their choice of friends (nay, look not grave), Have still a secret bias to a knave: To find an honest man I beat about, 100 And love him, court him, praise him, in or out. F. Then why so few commended? P. Not so fierce : Find you the virtue, and I'll find the verse. He Secretary of State, ambassador in France, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Chamberlain, and Lord Treasurer. several times quitted his employments, and was often recalled." * Henry Boyle, Lord Carleton. ↑ James, Earl Stanhope. John, the great Duke of Argyll. Sir William Wyndham, Chancellor of the Exchequer. wrote this Epilogue. But random praise-the work can ne'er be done ; Each widow asks it for 'the best of men,' What Richelieu wanted, Louis scarce could gain, And what young Ammon wish'd, but wish'd in vain. 120 No power the Muse's friendship can command; I think your friends are out, and would be in. 130 But pray, when others praise him, do I blame? Call Verres, Wolsey, any odious name? Why rail they then, if but a wreath of mine, O all-accomplish'd St. John! deck thy shrine? *William Arnall, an attorney, and one of the writers for the Walpole ministry. † Hon. Hugh Hume, grandson of Patrick, Earl of Marchmont. |