Scrutiny by Signor Delpini, for reasons which must have been suggested by the malevo lence of some rival. The reasons were, 1st, That the Ode was nothing but prose, write ten in an odd manner; and, 2dly, That the Metre, if there be any, as well as many of the thoughts, are stolen from a little Poem, in a Collection called the UNION. To a man blest with an ear so delicate as yours, Sir John, I think it unnecessary to say any thing on the first charge; and as to the second, (would you believe it?) the Poem from which I am accused of stealing is my own! Surely an Author has a right to make free with his own ideas, especially when, if they were ever known, they have long since been forgotten by his readers. You are not to learn, Sir John, that de non apparentibus & non existentibus eadem est ratio: and nothing but the active spirit of literary jealousy could have dragged forth my former Ode from the obscurity in which it has long slept, to the disgrace of all good taste in the present age. However, that you and the public may see, how little I have really taken, and how much I have opened the thoughts, and improved

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the language of that little, I send you my imitations of myself, as well as some few explanatory notes, necessary to elucidate my classical and historical allusions.

I am,

SIR JOHN,

With every wish for your success,
Your most obedient humble servant,

WILLIAM YORK,

PINDARIC ODE,

By DR. W. MARKHAM,

Lord Archbishop of York, Primate of England, and Lord High Almoner to His Majesty; formerly Preceptor to the Princes, Head Master of Westminster School, &c. &c. &c.

STROPHE I.

THE priestly mind what virtue so approves,
And testifies the pure prelatic spirit,

As loyal gratitude?

IMITATIONS OF MYSELF.

Strophe 1.

This goodly frame what virtue so approves,
And testifies the pure ethereal spirit,
As mild benevolence?

My Ode to Arthur Onslow, Esq;

More to my King, than to my God, I owe;
God and my father made me man,

Yet not without my mother's added aid;
But GEORGE, without or God or man,
With grace endow'd, and hallow'd me Archbishop.

ANTISTROPHE I.

In Trojan PRIAM's court a laurel grew;

So VIRGIL Sings. But I will sing the laurel,
Which at ST. JAMES's blooms.

O may I bend my brows from that blest tree,
Not flourishing in native green,

Refresh'd with dews from AGANIPPE's spring;
But, like the precious plant of Dis*,
Glitt'ring with gold, with royal sack irriguous.

EPODE I.

So shall my awkward gratitude,
With fond presumption, to the Laureat's duty
Attune my rugged numbers blank.

Little I reck the meed of such a song;
Yet will I stretch aloof,
And tell of Tory principles,
The right divine of Kings;

* See Virgil's Æneid, b. vi.

IMITATIONS OF MYSELF.

Epade I.

How shall my awkward gratitude,
And the presumption of untutor❜d duty,
Attune my numbers all too rude?
Little he recks the meed of such a song;
Yet will I stretch aloof, &c.

Hid.

And Power Supreme that brooks not bold contention: Till all the zeal monarchal

That fir'd the Preacher, in the Bard shall blaze,

And what my Sermons were, my Odes once more shall

be.

STROPHE II.

Good PRICE*, to Kings and me a foe no more,

By LANSDOWN won, shall pay with friendly censure
His past hostility.

Nor shall not He assist, my pupil once,

Of stature small, but doughty tongue, Bold ABINGDON, whose rhetoric unrestrain❜d,

ANTISTROPHE II.

With him, too, EFFINGHAM his aid shall join,
Who, erst by GORDON led, with bonfires usher'd
His Sov'reign's natal month.

Secure in such allies, to princely themes,

TO HENRYS and to EDWARDS young,

Rushes, more lyrically wild,

Than GREENE'S † mad lays, when he out-pindar'd

PINDAR.

Antistrophe II.

During the Administration of Lord SHELBURNE, I was told by a friend of mine, that Dr. PRICE took occasion, in his presence, to declare the most lively abhorrence of the damnable heresies which he had formerly advanced against the Jure divino doctrines contained in some of my Sermonis.

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+ See a translation of PINDAR, by EDWARD BURNABY GREENE.

This alludes wholly to a private anecdote, and in no degree to certain malicious reports of the noble Earl's conduct during the riots of June 1780.

IMITATIONS OF MYSELF.

TO HENRYS and to EDWARDS old,

Dread names, I'll meditate the faithful song, &c.

Ibid.

Dear names, I'll meditate the faithful song;
How oft beneath my birch severe,
Like EFFINGHAM and ABINGDON, they tingled:

EPODE II.

Or to the YOUTH IMMACULATE

Ascending thence, I'll sing the strain celestial,
By PITT, to bless our isle restor❜d,
Trim Plenty, not luxuriant as of old,
Peace, laurel-crown'd no more ;

Justice, that smites by scores, unmov'd;

And her of verdant locks,

Commerce, like Harlequin, in motley vesture,

+ Whose magic sword, with sudden sleight, Wav'd o'er the HIBERNIAN treaty, turns to bonds The dreams of airy wealth that play'd round PATRICK's‡

eyes.

* The present Ministry have twice gratified the public with the awfully sublime spectacle of twenty hanged at one time.

These three lines, I must confess, have been interpolated since the introduction of the fourth Proposition in the new Irish Resolutions. They arose, however, quite naturally out of my preceding personification of

commerce.

I have taken the liberty of employing Patrick in the same sense as Paddy, to personify the people of Ireland. The latter name was too colloquial for the dignity of my blank versē.

IMITATIONS OF MYSELF.

Epode II.

Justice with steady brow,

Trim Plenty, Laureat Peace, and green-hair'd Commerce,
In flowing robe of thousand hues, &c.

On this imitation of myself, I cannot help remarking, how happily I have now applied some of these epithets, which, it must be confessed, had not half the propriety before.