Imitations and Translations from the Ancient and Modern Classics

ΤΟ

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

LORD *******

'WHEN you, my lord! the splendid feast prepare

For all the nobles of St. James's air,

Who but admires the liberal, just expense,

By wealth supported, and allow'd by sense ?
"When purse-proud Powell, in a generous vein,
Will treat the bloods and drabs of Drury Lane;
The hungry guests themselves the fool deride,
And eat his pudding, and despise his pride.
3 Who ere frequents, or Opera, Park, or Play,
Must hear how Mara drinks her crowns away.
Proceed, fair syren! you may sip as long

As crowds admire, and courts endure your song:

4 Multos porro vides, quos sæpe elusus ad ipsum Creditor introïtum solet expectare macelli,

Et quibus in solo vivendi causa palato est.
Egregius cœnat meliusque miserrimus horum,
5 Et cito casurus jam perlucente ruinâ.
Interea gustus elementa per omnia quærunt,
Nunquam animo pretiis obstantibus: interius si
Attendas, magis illa juvant quæ pluris emuntur.
❝ Ergo haud difficile perituram arcessere summam
Lancibus oppositis, vel matris imagine fracta,

Et quadringentis nummis condire gulosum

Proceed and riot, you may sing and swill

If Bath and Wells admit and listen still*.

4 Watch'd at each corner, by the race unpaid Of every artizan, of every trade,

Dennis still thinks the world's sole good a treat,

Nor eats to live, but lives alone to eat †;
Without a meal his creditors may pine,

He still must nobly drink and nobly dine:

3 And as the meteor glares more broad and bright, Just as it bursts and melts away in night.

Thus, in the jaws of famine and a jail,

Hesse sends him still her hog, and France her quail ; Still must he seek what swells his debts the most,

Despise the value and esteem the cost.

The Jews are soon his friends, and soon they fly;