The Beggar fings, ev'n when he fees the Place
Befet with Thieves, and never mends his Pace.
Of all the Vows, the first and chief Request
Of each, is to be richer than the rest:
And yet no Doubts the poor Man's Draught control;
He dreads no Poison in his homely Bowl.
Then fear the deadly Drug, when Gems Divine
Enchase the Cup, and fparkle in the Wine.
Will you not now the Pair of Sages praife,
Who the fame End purfu'd, by several Ways?
One pity'd, one contemn'd the Woful Times:
One laugh'd at Follies, one lamented Crimes:
Laughter is eafie; but the Wonder lies,
What Store of Brine fupply'd the Weeper's Eyes.
Democritus cou'd feed his Spleen, and shake
His Sides and Shoulders till he felt 'em ake;
Tho' in his Country Town no Lictors were,
Nor Rods, nor Ax, nor Tribune did appear:
Nor all the Foppifh Gravity of Show,
Which cunning Magiftrates on Crowds bestow :
What had he done, had he beheld, on high
Our Prator feated, in mock Majesty;
His Chariot rowling o'er the dufty Place,
While, with dumb Pride, and a set formal Face,
He moves, in the dull ceremonial Track,
With Jove's Embroyder'd Coat upon his Back:
A Sute of Hangings had not more oppreft
His Shoulders, than that long, laborious Veft.
A heavy Gugaw, (call'd a Crown,) that spread
About his Temples, drown'd his narrow Head:
And wou'd have crush'd it with the maffy Freight,
But that a sweating Slave sustain'd the Weight:
A Slave in the fame Chariot feen to ride,
To mortifie the mighty Madman's Pride.
Add now th'Imperial Eagle, rais'd on high,
With golden Beak (the Mark of Majefty)
Trumpets before, and on the Left and Right,
A Cavalcade of Nobles, all in White:
In their own Natures false and flattʼring Tribes,
But made his Friends, by Places and by Bribes.
In his own Age, Democritus cou'd find
"Sufficient Cause to laugh at Humane Kind:
Learn from fo great a Wit; a Land of Bogs
With Ditches fenc'd, a Heav'n Fat with Fogs,
May form a Spirit fit to fway the State;
And make the neighb'ring Monarchs fear their Fate.
He laughs at all the Vulgar Cares and Fears;
At their vain Triumphs, and their vainer Tears:
An equal Temper in his Mind he found,
When Fortune flatter'd him, and when the frown'd.
"Tis plain, from hence, that what our Vows request,
Are hurtful Things, or useless at the beft,
Some ask for envy'd Pow'r; which publick Hate
Pursues, and hurries headlong to their Fate:
Down go the Titles; and the Statue Crown'd,
Is by base Hands in the next River drown’d.
The Guiltless Horfes and the Chariot Wheel
The fame Effects of Vulgar Fury feel:
The Smith prepares his Hammer for the Stroke,
While the Lung'd Bellows hiffing Fire provokes
`Sejanus 2 almost first of Roman Names,
The great Sejanus crackles in the Flames:
Form'd in the Forge, the Pliant Brafs is laid
On Anvils; and of Head and Limbs are made,
Pans, Cans, and Pifpots, a whole Kitchin Trade.
2 Sejanus was Tiberius's first Favorite; and while he con tinued fo, had the highest Marks of Honour bestowed on him; Statues and Triumphal Chariots were every where erected to him: But
as foon as he fell into Dif grace with the Emperor, thefe were all immediately dif mounted; and the Senate and common People infulted over him as meanly, as they had fawn'd on Him before.
Adorn your Doors with Laurels; and a Bull,
Milk white, and large, lead to the Capitol;
Sejanus with a Rope, is dragg'd along;
The Sport and Laughter of the giddy Throng!
Good Lord, they cry, what Ethiop Lips he has,
How foul a Snout, and what a hanging Face?
By Heav'n, I never cou'd endure his Sight;
But fay, how came his monftrous Crimes to Light?
What is the Charge, and who the Evidence
(The Saviour of the Nation and the Prince?)
Nothing of this; but our old Cafar fent
A noifie Letter to His Parliament :
Nay Sirs, if Cafar writ, I ask no more,
He's guilty; and the Queftion's out of Door.
How goes the Mob? (for that's a mighty Thing,)
When the King's Trump, the Mob are for the King:
They follow Fortune, and the common Cry
Is ftill against the Rogue condemn'd to die.
But the fame very Mob, that Rascal Crowd,
Had cry'd Sejanus, with a Shout as loud;
Had his Defigns (by Fortune's Favour blest)
Succeeded, and the Prince's Age oppreft.
But long, long fince, the Times have chang'd their Face,
The People grown degenerate and base:
Not fuffer'd now the Freedom of their Choice,
To make their Magistrates, and fell their Voice,
Our wife Fore-Fathers, great by Sea and Land,
Had once the Pow'r and abfolute Command;
All Offices of Truft, themselves difpos'd;
Rais'd whom they pleas'd, and whom they pleas'd Depos'd.
But we who give our native Rights away,
And our enflav'd Pofterity betray,
Are now reduc'd to beg an Alms, and go
On Holidays to fee a Puppet Show.
There was a damn'd Design, cries one, no doubt; For Warrants are already issued out:
I met Brutidius in a mortal Fright;
He's dipt for certain, and plays leaft in fight:
I fear the Rage of our offended Prince,
Who thinks the Senate flack in his Defence!
Come let us hafte, our Loyal Zeal to fhow,
And spurn the wretched Corps of Cafar's Foe:
But let our Slaves be present there, left they
Accufe their Mafters, and for Gain betray.
Such were the Whispers of those jealous Times,
About Sejanus' Punishment, and Crimes.
Now tell me truly, woud'st thou change thy Fate
To be, like him, firft Minifter of State?
To have thy Levees crouded with Resort,
Of a depending, gaping, fervile Court:
Difpofe all Honours of the Sword and Gown,
Grace with a Nod, and ruin with a Frown;
To hold thy Prince in pupil Age, and sway
That Monarch, whom the master'd World obey 2
While he, intent on fecret Lufts alone,
Lives to himself, abandoning the Throne;
Coop'd 3 in a narrow Ifle, obferving Dreams
With flattering Wizards, and erecting Schemes!
I well believe, thou wou'dft be Great as he;
For ev'ry Man's a Fool to that degree;
All with the dire Prerogative to kill;
Ev'n they wou'd have the Pow'r, who want the Will:
But wou'dst thou have thy Wishes understood,
To take the Bad together with the Good?
Wou'dft thou not rather chufe a fmall Renown,
To be the May'r of fome poor paltry Town,
Soothsayers, and worfe Com
And from thend
3 The Inland of Caprea, which, for fome Years with Divine lies about a League out at Sea from the Campanian Shore,pany was the Scene of Tiberius's Pleasures in the latter Part the Senate. of his Reign. There he liv'd
dispatch'd all his Orders
Bigly to look, and barb'rously to fpeak;
To pound falle Weights, and fcanty Measures break?
Then, grant we that Sejanus went aftray
In ev'ry Wish, and knew not how to pray:
For he who grafp'd the World's exhaufted Store
Yet never had enough, but wish'd for more,
Rais'd a top-heavy Tow'r, of monstrous height,
Which mould'ring, crush'd him underneath the Weight.
What did the mighty Pompey's Fall beget?
It Ruin'd 4 him, who Greater than the Great,
The Stubborn Pride of Roman Nobles broke;
And bent their haughty Necks beneath his Yoke:
What elfe, but his immoderate Luft of Pow's,
Pray'rs made and granted in a Luckless Hour?
For few Ufurpers to the Shades defcend
By a dry Death, or with a quiet End.
The Boy, who fcarce has paid his Entrance down
To his proud Pedant, or declin'd a Noun,
(So fmall an Elf, that when the Days are foul,
He and his Satchel must be born to School,)
Yet prays, and hopes, and aims at nothing less,
To prove a Tully, or Demofthenes :
But both thofe Orators, fo much renown'd,
In their own Depths of Eloquence were drown'd:
The Hand and Head were never loft, of thofe
Who dealt in Dogrel, or who punn'd in Profe.
Fortune 6 foretun'd the Dying Notes of Rome:
Till I, thy Conful fole, confol'd thy Doom.
4 Julias Cafar, who got the better of Pompey, that was ftill'd The Great.
s Demofthenes and Tully, both died for their Oratory. Demofthenes gave himself Poyafon, to avoid being carried to Antipater, one of Alexander's
Captains, who had then made himself Master of Athens. Tully was murdered by M. Anthony's Order, in return for thofe Invectives he had made against him.
6 The Latin of this Couplet is a Famous Verfe of Tully's,
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