Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

Sir Balaam now, he lives like other folks,

He takes his chirping pint, and cracks his jokes:
"Live like yourself," was foon my Lady's word;
And lo! two puddings fmoak'd upon the board. 360
Asleep and naked as an Indian lay,

An honest factor ftole a Gem away;

He pledg'd it to the knight; the knight had wit,
So kept the Di'mond, and the rogue was bit.
Some scruple rofe, but thus he eas'd his thought,
"I'll now give fix-pence where I gave a groat; 366

NOTES.

Parliament of England been
yet able wholly to fupprefs
thefe barbarities. P.

VER. 360. And lo! &c.]
The poet had obferv'd a-
bove, that when the luxu-
riously-felfish had got more
than they knew how to ufe,

they would try to do more than live; inftead of imparting the leaft pittance of it to thofe whom fortune had reduced to do less than live: The VANITY of which chimerical project he well exposed in these lines;

What Riches give us let us then enquire.

Meat, Fire, and Cloaths. What more? Meat, Cloaths,

and Fire.

But here, in one who had
not yet learnt the art of
difguifing the Poverty of
Wealth by the Refinements

of Luxury, he fhews, with admirable humour, the ri dicule of that project:

And le! two Puddings smoak'd upon the board.

M

"Where once I went to church, I'll now go twice

"And am fo clear too of all other vice."

370

The Tempter faw his time; the work he ply'd; Stocks and Subfcriptions pour on ev'ry fide, 'Till all the Dæmon makes his full defcent In one abundant fhow'r of Cent per Cent, Sinks deep within him, and poffeffes whole, Then dubs Director, and fecures his foul.

375

Behold Sir Balaam, now a man of spirit, Afcribes his gettings to his parts and merit; What late he call'd a Bleffing, now was Wit, And God's good Providence, a lucky Hit. Things change their titles, as our manners turn: His Compting-house employ'd the Sunday-morn; Seldom at Church ('twas such a bufy life)

But duly fent his family and wife.

There (fo the Dev'l ordain'd) one Christmas-tide
My good old Lady catch'd a cold, and dy’d.

381

A Nymph of Quality admires our Knight; 385
He marries, bows at Court, and grows polite:
Leaves the dull Cits, and joins (to please the fair)
The well-bred cuckolds in St James's air:
First, for his Son a gay Commiffion buys,

Who drinks, whores, fights, and in a duel dies: 390
His daughter flaunts a Viscount's tawdry wife ;
She bears a Coronet and P-x for life.

In Britain's Senate he a feat obtains,

And one more Penfioner St Stephen gains.

My Lady falls to play; fo bad her chance,

395

He must repair it; takes a bribe from France;
The House impeach him; Coningsby harangues;
The Court forfake him, and Sir Balaam hangs :
Wife, fon, and daughter, Satan! are thy own,
His wealth, yet dearer, forfeit to the Crown:
The Devil and the King divide the prize,
And fad Sir Balaam curfes God and dies.

IMITATIONS.

400

VER. 394. And one more Penfioner St Stephen gains.] -atque unum civem donare Sibylla.

NOTES.

VER. 401. The Devil and the King divide the prize,] This is to be understood in a very fober and decent sense; as a fatire only on fuch minifters of ftate, which history informs us have been found, who aided the devil in his temptations, in order to foment, if not to make, plots, for the fake of confiscations;

Juv.

and by no means on the
laws of forfeitures them-
felves: Whofe neceffity, e-
quity, and even lenity, have
been perfectly well vindi-
cated, in that very learned
and elegant discourse, inti-
tuled, Some Confiderations
on the Law of Forfeitures
for High-Treafon.
Edition, Lond. 1748.

MORAL ESSAYS.

EPISTLE IV.

то

Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington.

ARGUMENT.

Of the Ufe of RICHES.

The Vanity of Expence in People of Wealth and Quality. The abufe of the word Tafte, 13. That the firft principle and foundation, in this as in every thing elfe, is Good Senfe, 40. The chief proof of it is to follow Nature, even in works of mere Luxury and Elegance. Inftanced in Architecture and Gardening, where all must be adapted to the Genius and Ufe of the Place, and the Beauties not forced into it, but refulting from it, 50. How men are disappointed in their most expensive undertakings, for want of this true Foundation, without which nothing can please long, if at all; and the best Examples

[ocr errors]

and Rules will but be perverted into fomething burdenfome or ridiculous, 65, &c. to 92. A def cription of the falfe Tafte of Magnificence; the firft grand Error of which is to imagine that Greatness confifts in the Size and Dimenfion, inftead of the Proportion and Harmony of the whole, 97. and the fecond, either in joining together Parts incoherent, or too minutely resembling, or in the Repetition of the fame too frequently, 105, &c. A word or two of falfe Tafte in Books, in Mufic, in Painting, even in Preaching and Prayer, and lastly in Entertainments, 133, &c. Yet PROVIDENCE is juftified in giving Wealth to be Squandered in this manner, fince it is difperfed to the Poor and Laborious part of mankind, 169 [recurring to what is laid down in the first book, Ep. ii. and in the Epiftle preceding this, 159, &c.] What are the proper Objects of Magnificence, and a proper field for the Expence of Great Men, 177, &c. and finally, the Great and Public Works which become a Prince, 191, to the end.

M 3

« PreviousContinue »