ABSTRACT
Fr. Not twice a twelvemonth you appear in Print, And when it comes, the Court see nothing in't. You grow correct that once with Rapture writ, And are, besides, too Moral for a Wit. Decay of Parts, alas! we all must feel-5 Why now, this moment, don't I see you steal? 'Tis all from Horace: Horace long before ye Said, 'Tories call'd him Whig, and Whigs a Tory.' And taught his Romans, in much better metre, 'To laugh at Fools who put their trust in Peter.' 10
But Horace, Sir, was delicate, was nice; Bubo observes, he lash'd no sort of Vice: Horace would say, Sir Billy serv'd the Crown, Blunt could do Bus'ness, H-ggins knew the Town, In Sappho touch the Failings of the Sex, 15 In rev'rend Bishops note some small Neglects, And own, the Spaniard did a waggish thing, Who cropt our Ears, and sent them to the King. His sly, polite, insinuating stile Could please at Court, and make AUGUSTUS smile: 20
I ff. These two lines are from Horace <Sat. II iii 1-4); and the only lines that are so in the whole Poem; being meant to give a handle to that which follows in the character of an impertinent Censurer,
[P] Bubb Dodington; see 1. 68 and Ep. to Arbuthnot, 280 (p. 607). 13. Sir Billy] Yonge. See Ep. to Arbuthnot, 2800. 14. Blunt] Director of the South Sea Company. See Moral Es. iii 13sn. H-ggins] Formerly Jaylor of the Fleet prison, enriched himself by
many exactions, for which he was tried and expelled [P]. During his trial Huggins called several gentry to testify to his character, thus showing that he 'knew the town'.
