His fervants names he has forgotten quite;

Knows not his friend who fupp'd with him last night.

Not ev❜n the children he begot and bred;

Or his will knows 'em not: for, in their stead,
In form of law, a common hackney jade,
Sole heir, for fecret fervices, is made:
So lewd and fuch a batter'd brothel whore,
That she defies all comers, at her door.
Well, yet suppose his fenfes are his own,
He lives to be chief mourner for his fon;
Before his face his wife and brother burns ;
He numbers all his kindred in their urns,
These are the fines he pays for living long;
And dragging tedious age in his own wrong:
Griefs always green, a houfhold still in tears,
Sad pomps a threshold throng'd with daily biers ;
And liveries of black for length of years.

:

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Next to the raven's age, the Pylian 3 king Was longest liv'd of any two legg'd-thing; Bleft, to defraud the grave fo long, to mount His 4 number'd years, and on his right-hand count; Three hundred seasons, guzzling Muft of wine : But, hold a while, and hear himself repine

At fate's unequal laws; and at the clue

Which, 5 merciless in length, the midmoft fifter drew. When his brave fon upon the fun'ral pyre

He faw extended, and his beard on fire;

He turn'd, and weeping, afk'd his friends, what crime Had curs'd his age to this unhappy time?

3 Neftor king of Pylus; who was 300 years old, according to Homer's account, at least as he is understood by his expofitors. 4 The ancients counted by their fingers. Their Left hand ferved them until they came up to an hundred. After that they used the Right, to exprefs all greater numbers.

5 The Fates were three fifters, who had all fome peculiar business affigned them by the poets, in relation to the lives of men. The first held the diftaff; the fecond fpun the thread; and the third cut it.

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Thus

Thus mourn'd old Peleus for Achilles flain,
And thus Ulyffes' father did complain.

How fortunate an end had Priam made,
Among his ancestors a mighty fhade,

While Troy yet ftood: when Hector, with the race
Of royal baftards, might his fun'ral grace:
Amidft the tears of Trojan dames inurn'd,
And by his loyal daughters truly mourn'd!
Had Heav'n fo bleft him, he had dy'd before
The fatal fleet to Sparta Paris bore.
But mark what age produc'd; he liv'd to fee
His town in flames, his falling monarchy:
In fine, the feeble fire, reduced by fate,
To change his fcepter for a fword, too late,
His 6 laft effort before Jove's altar tries:
A foldier half, and half a facrifice :

Falls like an ox, that waits the coming blow;
Old and unprofitable to the plough.

At 7 least, he dy'd a man; his queen furviv'd,
To howl, and in a barking body liv'd.

I haften to our own; nor will relate

Great 8 Mithridates, and rich 9 Cræfus' fate;

6 Whilst Troy was facking by the Greeks, old king Priam is faid to have buckled on his armour, to oppofe them. Which he had no fooner done, but he was met by Pyrrhus, and flain before the temple of Jupiter, in his own palace, as we have the ftory finely told in Virgil's fecond Æneid.

7 Hecuba, his queen, efcaped the fwords of the Grecians, and out lived him. It seems, fhe behaved herself so fiercely and uneafily to her husband's murderers while fhe lived, that the poets thought fit to turn her into a Bitch, when he died.

8 Mithridates, after he had difputed the empire of the world for 40 years together with the Romans, was at laft deprived of life and empire by Pompey the great.

9 Cræfus, in the midst of his profperity, making his boast to Solon, how happy he was, received this anfwer from the wife man, That no one could pronounce himself happy, until he faw what his end fhould be. The truth of this Crafus found, when he was put in chains by Cyrus, and condemned to die.

Whom Solon wifely counfell'd to attend
The name of happy, till he knew his end.

That Marius was an exile, that he fled,
Was ta'en, in ruin'd Carthage begg'd his bread,
All these were owing to a life too long:
For whom had Rome beheld fo happy, young!
High in his chariot, and with laurel crown'd,
When he had led the Cimbrian captives round
The Roman ftreets; defcending from his state,
In that bleft hour he should have begg'd his fate;
Then, then, he might have dy'd of all admir'd,
And his triumphant foul with fhouts expir'd.
Campania, fortune's malice to prevent,
To Pompey an indulgent favour fent :

I

But public pray'rs impos'd on heaven, to give
Their much lov'd leader an unkind reprieve.
The city's fate and his confpir'd to fave
The head, referv'd for an Egyptian flave.
Cethegus, 2 tho' a traytor to the state,
And tortur'd, 'fcap'd this ignominious fate :
And Sergius, 3 who a bad caufe bravely try'd,
All of a piece, and undiminish'd, dy'd.

To Venus, the fond mother makes a pray'r,
That all her fons and daughters may be fair :
True, for the boys a mumbling vow fhe fends;
But for the girls, the vaulted temple rends:
They must be finish'd pieces: 'tis allow'd
Diana's beauty made Latona proud:

1 Pompey, in the midst of his glory, fell into a dangerous fit of fickness, at Naples. A great many cities then made public fupplications for him. He recovered, was beaten at Pharfalia, fled to Ptolomy king of Ægypt; and instead of receiving protection at his court, had his head ftruck off by his order, to please Cæfar.

2 Cethegus was one that confpired with Cataline, and was put to death by the fenate.

3 Cataline died fighting.

T 3

And

And pleas'd, to fee the wond'ring people pray
To the new-rifing fifter of the day.

And yet Lucretia's fate would bar that vow:
And fair 4 Virginia would her fate bestow
On Rutila; and change her faultless make
For the foul rumple of her camel-back.

But, for his mother's boy, the beau, what frights
His parents have by day, what anxious nights!
Form join'd with virtue is a fight too rare :
Chafte is no epithet to fuit with fair.
Suppose the fame traditionary ftrain
Of rigid manners, in the house remain ;
Inveterate truth an old plain Sabine's heart;
Suppofe that Nature, too, has done her part;
Infus'd into his foul a fober grace,

And blusht a modeft blood into his face,
(For Nature is a better guardian far,
Than faucy pedants, or dull tutors are :)
Yet ftill the youth must ne'er arrive at man ;
(So much almighty bribes, and prefents, can ;)
Evʼn with a parent, where persuasions fail,
Money is impudent, and will prevail.

We never read of such a tyrant king
Who gelt a boy deform'd, to hear him fing.
Nor Nero, in his more luxurious rage,
E'er made a mistress of an ugly page:
Sporus, his spouse, nor crooked was, nor lame,
With mountain back, and belly, from the game
Crofs-barr'd: but both his fexes well became.
Go, boaft your Springal, by his beauty curft
To ills; nor think I have declar'd the worst ;
His form procures him journey-work; a ftrife
Betwixt town-madams, and the merchant's wife:

4 Virginia was killed by her own father, to prevent her being expofed to the luft of Appius Claudius, who had ill defigns upon her. The ftory at large is in Livy's third book; and it is a remarkable one, as it gave occafion to the putting down the power of the Decemviri; of whom Appius was one.

Guefs, when he undertakes this public war,
What furious beafts offended cuckolds are.

Adult'rers are with dangers round befet;
Born under Mars, they cannot 'scape the net;
And from revengeful husbands oft have try'd
Worfe handling, than fevereft laws provide:
One ftabs; one flashes; one, with cruel art,
Makes Colon fuffer for the peccant part.

But your Endymion, your smooth, fmock'd-fac'd boy, Unrivall'd, fhall a beauteous dame enjoy : Not fo: one more falacious, rich, and old, Outbids, and buys her pleasure for her gold: Now he must moil, and drudge for one he loaths: She keeps him high, in equipage and clothes : She pawns her jewels, and her rich attire, And thinks the workman worthy of his hire: In all things elfe immoral, ftingy, mean; But, in her lufts, a conscionable quean.

He may be handfome, yet be chafte, you fay;
Good obfervator, not so fast away :

Did it not coft the 5 modeft youth his life,
Who fhunn'd th' embraces of his father's wife?
And was not t' other 6 ftrippling forced to fly,
Who coldly did his patron's queen deny;
And pleaded laws of hofpitality?

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The ladies charg'd 'em home, and turn'd the tale;
With shame they redden'd, and with spight grew pale.
'Tis dang'rous to deny the longing dame;
She lofes pity, who has loft her shame.

5 Hippolitus, the fon of Thefeus, was loved by his mother-inlaw Phædra. But he not complying with her, the procured his death.

6 Bellerophon, the fon of king Glaucus, refiding fome time at the court of Patus king of the Argives, the queen, Sthenobæa, fell in love with him. But he refufing her, fhe turned the accufation upon him; and he narrowly escaped Pætus's vengeance.

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Now