AN ODE

ΤΟ

MR. POP E,*

ON TWO LATE PROMOTIONS.

Written in January 1743-4.

Haud secus ac Veluti.

AS when a great tragedian's ill,

The manager, his part to fill,

Brings forth some wretched fellow Who spoils the part, who damns the play, And thus the cobler of to day,

To-morrow struts Othello :

* Sir Charles Williams, after Mr. Pope's death, sailing up the Thames by his house at Twickenham, pulled off his hat, saying, "I am afraid of that Gunpowder Percy, though he be dead."-W.

Or as mad Charles, in war delighting, At Bender desperately fighting,

By Janizarries wrapt in;

His friends destroy'd, his gen'rals slain, Preferr'd the lowest of his train,

And made his cook a captain :

Or as, to make a dance at night,
When in the country, we submit,
Where company's but rare,

To call in servants to our aid,
The butler and my lady's-maid
Make up the wanted pair:

Or as, when Lady Wronghead forces
Her booby mate to drive six horses,
T' indulge her haughty heart;
Sir Francis never kept but four,
But as my lady would have more,
He fetch'd two from the Cart:

So now at court preferments go, Where all that's vulgar, dull and low,

By pow'r is dragg'd up stairs; How rapidly they rise to Fame,

For the first hour you hear their name, They're ministers or peers.

Dulness herself has forc'd her way,
Her darling son, Sir John,*'s in play,
And rules the Navy-board;

Whilst her dear Nephew, Samuel Sands,
Has kiss'd his sov'reign's lavish hands,
For coff'rer and lord.

O Pope, whom ev'ry Muse inspires,
No longer spend thy noble fires

On ev'ry nameless name;

No longer make her bards thy sport,
But boldly enter Dulness' court,

And crown her statesmen's fame.

* Sir John Rushout.

AN ODE

HUMBLY INSCRIBED TO THE

RIGHT HONOURABLE

THOMAS WINNINGTON, ESQ.*

BY

HENRY HARRIS, ESQ.†

ONE OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF THE WINE LICENCE, 1743.

O, BEST of patrons, and of friends,
Who once a year still condescends

• Winnington had been bred a Tory, but had left them in the height of Sir Robert Walpole's power. When that minister sunk, he had injudiciously, and to please my Lady Townshend, who had then the greatest influence over him, declined visiting him in a manner to offend the steady old Whigs: he had a jolly way of laughing at his own want of principles; he had more wit than any man I

ever

+ Henry Harris was a good scholar, much attached to Mr. Winnington, a mistress of whom he married, and by whose interest he was made Commissioner of Wine Licences, &c.-W.

To bless my poor abode;

That I your servant once again,
That annual honour may obtain,
Accept this annual ode.

Come, and the lively pow'rs dispense;
Mirth, humour, wit, good-nature, sense,
Make up thy constant train;

We'll banish politics and care,

And scarce remember there's a war
In Germany or Spain.

Nothing that's serious shall appear,
Nor merit, Pelham's merit, there,

ever knew, and it was as ready and quick as it was constant and unmeditated. He died by the ignorance of a quack, who blooded and purged him to death in a few days.-W.

Winnington was first made a Lord of the Admiralty, then of the Treasury, then Cofferer, and lastly, Paymaster of the Forces, when Mr. Pelham was at the head of the Treasury.-W.

Winnington had, unluckily, lived when all virtue had been set to notorious sale, and in ridicule of false pretences had affected an honesty in avowing whatever was dishonourable. -W.