So comes a reckoning when the banquet 's o'er,
The dreadful reckoning, and men smile no more.1
The What d'ye call it. Act ii. Sc. 9.

"Tis woman that seduces all mankind;
By her we first were taught the wheedling arts.
The Beggar's Opera. Act i. Sc. 1.

Over the hills and far away.2

If the heart of a man is depress'd with cares,
The mist is dispell'd when a woman appears.
The fly that sips treacle is lost in the sweets.
Brother, brother! we are both in the wrong.
How happy could I be with either,
Were t' other dear charmer away!

The charge is prepar'd, the lawyers are met,
The judges all ranged, — a terrible show!
All in the Downs the fleet was moor'd.

Ibid.

Act ii. Sc. 1.

Sc. 2.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Act iii. Sc. 2.

Sweet William's Farewell to Black-eyed Susan.

Adieu, she cried, and waved her lily hand.

Remote from cities liv'd a swain,
Unvex'd with all the cares of gain;
His head was silver'd o'er with age,
And long experience made him sage.

Ibid.

Fables. Part i. The Shepherd and the Philosopher.

Whence is thy learning? Hath thy toil
O'er books consum'd the midnight oil? 3
Where yet was ever found a mother
Who'd give her booby for another?

Ibid.

The Mother, the Nurse, and the Fairy.

1 The time of paying a shot in a tavern among good fellows, or Pantagruelists, is still called in France a "quart d'heure de Rabelais,' - that is, Rabelais's quarter of an hour, when a man is uneasy or melancholy. - Life of Rabelais (Bohn's edition), p. 13.

2 O'er the hills and far away. - D'URFEY: Pills to purge Melancholy (1628-1723).

3" Midnight oil,". -a common phrase, used by Quarles, Shenstone, Cowper, Lloyd, and others.

No author ever spar'd a brother.

Fables. The Elephant and the Bookseller.

Lest men suspect your tale untrue,
Keep probability in view.

The Painter who pleased Nobody and Everybody.

In ev'ry age and clime we see
Two of a trade can never agree.1

Is there no hope? the sick man said;
The silent doctor shook his head.

The Rat-catcher and Cats.

And when a lady 's in the case,
You know all other things give place.

The Hare and many Friends.

Give me, kind Heaven, a private station,
A mind serene for contemplation:

Title and profit I resign;

The post of honour shall be mine.*

Part ii. The Vulture, the Sparrow, and other Birds.

1 Potter is jealous of potter, and craftsman of craftsman; and poor man has a grudge against poor man, and poet against poet. HESIOD: Works and Days, 24.

Le potier au potier porte envie (The potter envies the potter). — BOHN: Handbook of Proverbs.

MURPHY: The Apprentice, act iii.

2 Ελπίδες ἐν ζωοῖσιν, ἀνέλπιστοι δὲ θανόντες (For the living there is hope, but for the dead there is none.) THEOCRITUS: Idyl iv. 42.

Egroto, dum anima est, spes est (While the sick man has life, there is hope). CICERO: Epistolarum ad Atticum, ix. 10.

3 It was n't for nothing that the raven was just now croaking on my left hand. - PLAUTUS: Aulularia, act iv. sc. 3.

4 See Addison, page 298.

From wine what sudden friendship springs!

Life is a jest, and all things show it;
I thought so once, but now I know it.

The Squire and his Cur.

My own Epitaph.

LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU.
1690-1762.

Let this great maxim be my virtue's guide, -
In part she is to blame that has been tried:
He comes too near that comes to be denied.1

The Lady's Resolve. And we meet, with champagne and a chicken, at last.2

Be plain in dress, and sober in your diet;
In short, my deary, kiss me, and be quiet.

The Lover.

A Summary of Lord Lyttelton's Advice.

Satire should, like a polished razor keen,
Wound with a touch that's scarcely felt or seen.

To the Imitator of the First Satire of Horace. Book ii.

But the fruit that can fall without shaking
Indeed is too mellow for me.

The Answer.

CHARLES MACKLIN.

1690-1797.

The law is a sort of hocus-pocus science, that smiles in yer face while it picks yer pocket; and the glorious uncertainty of it is of mair use to the professors than the justice of it.

Love à la Mode. Act ii. Sc. 1.

Every tub must stand upon its bottom.

The Man of the World. Act i. Sc. 2.

1 A fugitive piece, written on a window by Lady Montagu, after her mar

riage (1713). See Overbury, page 193.

2 What say you to such a supper with such a woman? - BYRON : Note to a Second Letter on Bowles.

8 See Bunyan, page 265.

JOHN BYROM. 1691-1763.

God bless the King, I mean the faith's defender!
God bless no harm in blessing the Pretender!
But who pretender is, or who is king, -

God bless us all!— that's quite another thing.

To an Officer of the Army, extempore.

Take time enough: all other graces

Will soon fill up their proper places.1 Advice to Preach Slow.

Some say, compar'd to Bononcini,

That Mynheer Handel's but a ninny;
Others aver that he to Handel
Is scarcely fit to hold a candle.
Strange all this difference should be
"Twixt Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

As clear as a whistle.

On the Feuds between Handel and Bononcini.2

Epistle to Lloyd. I.

The point is plain as a pike-staff.3

Epistle to a Friend.

Bone and Skin, two millers thin,
Would starve us all, or near it;
But be it known to Skin and Bone

That Flesh and Blood can't bear it.
Epigram on Two Monopolists.

Thus adorned, the two heroes, 'twixt shoulder and elbow, Shook hands and went to 't; and the word it was bilbow. Upon a Trial of Skill between the Great Masters of the Noble Science of Defence, Messrs. Figg and Sutton.

1 See Walker, page 265.

2 Nourse asked me if I had seen the verses upon Handel and Bononcini, not knowing that they were mine. - Byrom's Remains (Chetham Soc.), vol. i. p. 173.

The last two lines have been attributed to Swift and Pope (see Scott's edition of Swift, and Dyce's edition of Pope).

8 See Middleton, page 172.

LOUIS THEOBALD. 1691-1744.

None but himself can be his parallel.1 The Double Falsehood.

What's not devoured by Time's devouring hand?

Where's Troy, and where 's the Maypole in the Strand?

Art of Politics.

But Titus said, with his uncommon sense,
When the Exclusion Bill was in suspense:
"I hear a lion in the lobby roar;
Say, Mr. Speaker, shall we shut the door
And keep him there, or shall we let him in
To try if we can turn him out again?" 2
So Britain's monarch once uncovered sat,
While Bradshaw bullied in a broad-brimmed hat.

Ibid.

EARL OF CHESTERFIELD.

Man of Taste.

1694-1773.

Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well. Letter, March 10, 1746.

I knew once a very covetous, sordid fellow," who used to say, "Take care of the pence, for the pounds will take care of themselves." Nov. 6, 1747.

1 Quæris Alcidæ parem? Nemo est nisi ipse

(Do you seek Alcides' equal? None is, except himself). SENECA: Hercules Furens, i. 1; 84.

And but herself admits no parallel. — MASSINGER: Duke of Milan, act ir. sc. 3.

2 I hope, said Colonel Titus, we shall not be wise as the frogs to whom Jupiter gave a stork for their king. To trust expedients with such a king on the throne would be just as wise as if there were a lion in the lobby, and we should vote to let him in and chain him, instead of fastening the door to keep him out. — On the Exclusion Bill, Jan. 7, 1681.

8 W. Lowndes, Secretary of the Treasury in the reigns of King William, Queen Anne, and King George the Third.