AN EPIGRAM

ADDRESSED TO THE GENTLEMEN REFLECTED ON IN
THE ROSCIAD, A POEM, BY THE AUTHOR

Worried with debts and past all hopes of bail,
His pen he prostitutes t' avoid a gaol.

ROSCOM.

LET not the hungry Bavius' angry stroke
Awake resentment, or your rage provoke ;
But pitying his distress, let virtue shine,
And giving each your bounty, let him dine;
For thus retain'd, as learned counsel can,
Each case, however bad, he'll new japan;
And by a quick transition, plainly show
'Twas no defeat of yours, but pocket low,
That caused his putrid kennel to o'erflow.

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TO G. C. AND R. L.

'Twas you, or I, or he, or all together,

'Twas one, both, three of them, they know not

whether;

This, I believe, between us great or small,

You, I, he, wrote it not-'twas Churchill's all.

TRANSLATION OF A SOUTH AMERICAN ODE

IN all my Enna's beauties blest,

Amidst profusion still I pine;

For though she gives me up her breast,
Its panting tenant is not mine.

THE DOUBLE TRANSFORMATION

A TALE

SECLUDED from domestic strife,

Jack Book-worm led a college life;
A fellowship at twenty-five

Made him the happiest man alive;

He drank his glass and crack'd his joke,
And freshmen wonder'd as he spoke.

Such pleasures, unalloy'd with care,
Could any accident impair?

Could Cupid's shaft at length transfix
Our swain, arriv'd at thirty-six ?
O had the archer ne'er come down
To ravage in a country town!
Or Flavia been content to stop
At triumphs in a Fleet-street shop.
O had her eyes forgot to blaze!
Or Jack had wanted eyes to gaze.
O! But let exclamation cease,

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ΙΟ

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Her presence banish'd all his peace.

So with decorum all things carried;

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Miss frown'd, and blush'd, and then was-married.

Need we expose to vulgar sight

The raptures of the bridal night?
Need we intrude on hallow'd ground,
Or draw the curtains clos'd around?
Let it suffice, that each had charms;
He clasp'd a goddess in his arms;

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And, though she felt his usage rough,
Yet in a man 'twas well enough.

The honey-moon like lightning flew,
The second brought its transports too.
A third, a fourth, were not amiss,

The fifth was friendship mix'd with bliss:
But, when a twelvemonth pass'd away,
Jack found his goddess made of clay;

Found half the charms that deck'd her face

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Arose from powder, shreds, or lace;
But still the worst remain'd behind,

But when at home, at board or bed,

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Five greasy nightcaps wrapp'd her head.
Could so much beauty condescend

To be a dull domestic friend?

To decency so fine a thing?

Could any curtain-lectures bring

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In short, by night, 'twas fits or fretting;

By day, 'twas gadding or coquetting.

Fond to be seen, she kept a bevy

Of powder'd coxcombs at her levy;

The 'squire and captain took their stations,
And twenty other near relations;

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Jack suck'd his pipe, and often broke
A sigh in suffocating smoke;

While all their hours were pass'd between
Insulting repartee or spleen.

Thus as her faults each day were known,

He thinks her features coarser grown;

He fancies every vice she shows,

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Or thins her lip, or points her nose:

Whenever rage or envy rise,

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How wide her mouth, how wild her eyes!
He knows not how, but so it is,

Her face is grown a knowing phiz;

And, though her fops are wond'rous civil,

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He thinks her ugly as the devil.

Now, to perplex the ravell'd noose,
As each a different way pursues,
While sullen or loquacious strife,
Promis'd to hold them on for life,
That dire disease, whose ruthless power
Withers the beauty's transient flower:
Lo! the small-pox, whose horrid glare
Levell❜d its terrors at the fair ;
And, rifling ev'ry youthful grace,
Left but the remnant of a face.

The glass, grown hateful to her sight,
Reflected now a perfect fright:
Each former art she vainly tries
To bring back lustre to her eyes.

In vain she tries her paste and creams,
To smooth her skin, or hide its seams;

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Her country beaux and city cousins,
Lovers no more, flew off by dozens:
The 'squire himself was seen to yield,
And e'en the captain quit the field.

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Poor Madam, now condemn'd to hack

The rest of life with anxious Jack,

Perceiving others fairly flown,
Attempted pleasing him alone.
Jack soon was dazzl'd to behold
Her present face surpass the old ;
With modesty her cheeks are dy'd,
Humility displaces pride;

For tawdry finery is seen
A person ever neatly clean:
No more presuming on her sway,
She learns good-nature every day;
Serenely gay, and strict in duty,
Jack finds his wife a perfect beauty.

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