Why do we grieve that friends fhould dye? No lofs more easy to supply.

One year is paft; a different scene!

No further mention of the dean,
Who now, alas, no more is mist,
Than if he never did exist.
Where's now the favourite of Apollo ?
Departed:-And his works must follow;
Must undergo the common fate;
His kind of wit is out of date.

Some country 'fquire to Lintot * goes,
Inquires for Swift in verfe and profe.
Says Lintot, "I have heard the name;
"He dy'd a year ago. The fame."
He searches all the shop in vain :

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255

"Sir, you may find them in Duck-lane †♦
"I fent them, with a load of books,
"Laft Monday, to the pastry-cooks.
"To fancy they could live a year!
"I find you're but a stranger here.
"The dean was famous in his time,
"And had a kind of knack at rhime:

260

"His way of writing now is past:

"The town has got a better taste.

* "Bernard Lintot, a bookfeller. See Pope's Dunciad and, Letters."

+Aftreet where old books were formerly fold.

"I keep no antiquated stuff;

"But spick and span I have enough.

265

"Pray, do but give me leave to shew 'em. "Here's Colley Cibber's birth-day poem.

"This ode you never yet have seen

By Stephen Duck * upon the queen. "Then here's a letter finely pen'd

66

Against the Craftsman and his friend: "It clearly fhews, that all reflection "On ministers is difaffection.

270

"Next, here's fir Robert's vindication, 275

"And Mr. Henley's + laft oration.

"The hawkers have not got them yet; "Your honour please to buy a fett?"

Suppofe me dead; and then suppose

A club affembled at the Rofe ;

Where, from difcourfe of this and that,
I grow the subject of their chat.

'The dean, if we believe report,

Was never ill receiv'd at court.

Altho', ironically grave,

He fham'd the fool and lafh'd the knave.

"Sir, I have heard another story;

"He was a moft confounded tory,

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*A miferable poet (originally a thatcher) patronifed by

the court.

+ Commonly called Orator Henley, a fort of clerical buffoon.

"And grew, or he is much bely'd,

Can we the drapier e'er forget?

Is not our nation in his debt?

"Twas he that writ the Drapier's letters.

"He should have left them for his betters; "We had a hundred abler men,

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301

" Nor need depend upon his pen.— "Say what you will about his reading, "You never can defend his breeding: Who, in his fatyrs running riot, "Could never leave the world in quiet; "Attacking, when he took the whim, "Court, city, camp ;—all one to him.— "But why wou'd he, except he slobber'd, "Offend our patriot, great fir Robert ? "Whofe councils aid the fov'reign pow'r "To fave the nation ev'ry hour. "What scenes of evil he unravels "In fatyrs, libels, lying travels! "Not fparing his own clergy-cloth, "But eats into it like a moth!"

Perhaps I may allow the dean

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310

Had too much fatyr in his vein,

And feem'd determin'd not to starve it,

Because no age could more deserve it.

Vice, if it e'er can be abash'd

Must be or ridicul'd or lafh'd.

315

If you

refent it, who's to blame?

He neither knew you nor your name.
Should vice expect to 'fcape rebuke,
Because its owner is a duke?

His friendships, ftill to few confin'd,
Were always of the midling kind;
No fools of rank, or mongrel breed,
Who fain wou'd pass for lords indeed;
Where titles gave no right or power,
And peerage is a wither'd flower.
He would have deem'd it a difgrace

If fuch a wretch had known his face.

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325

He never thought an honour done him, Because a peer was proud to own him; 330 Would rather flip aside, and choose

To talk with wits in dirty fhoes;

And fcorn the tools with stars and garters

So often feen carefling Chartres.

"Which, if he lik'd, much good may do him.

"His zeal was not to lash our crimes,
"But discontent against the times:
"For, had we made him timely offers
"To raise his poft or fill his coffers,
"Perhaps he might have truckled down,
"Like other brethren of his gown.
"For party he would scarce have bled:
"I fay no more---, because he's dead.-
"What writings has he left behind ?”
I hear they're of a diff'rent kind:

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A few, in verfe; but moft, in profe.- 355 "Some high-flown pamphlets, I fuppofe: "All fcribbled in the worst of times, "To palliate his friend Oxford's crimes, "To praise queen Anne, nay more, defend her, "As never fav'ring the pretender: :- 360 "Or libels yet conceal'd from fight,

Against the court to fhew his fpight:"Perhaps his travels, part the third; "A lye at ev'ry fecond word

"Offenfive to a loyal ear :

365

"But not one fermon, you may swear."As for his works, in verfe or profe,

I own myself no judge of thofe ;

Nor can I tell what criticks thought 'em;
But this I know, all people bought 'em; 370
As with a moral view defign'd,

To please and to reform mankind: