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, To call in servants to our aid, Or as, when Lady Wronghead forces 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, Whilst her dear Nephew, Samuel Sands, O Pope, whom ev'ry Muse inspires, On ev'ry nameless name; No longer make her bards thy sport, 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, • 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, Come, and the lively pow'rs dispense; We'll banish politics and care, And scarce remember there's a war Nothing that's serious shall appear, 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. |