IN IMITATION OF THE THIRD SATIRE
OF JUVENAL
-Quis iniquae

Tam patiens urbis, tam ferreus ut teneat se?
Juv. 1. 30, 1.

(Who so patient of the unjust town, so unfeeling as to restrain himself?)

Though grief and fondness in my breast rebel,
When injured Thales' bids the town farewell,
Yet still my calmer thoughts his choice com-
mend,

(I praise the hermit, but regret the friend,)
Who now resolves, from vice and London far,
To breathe in distant fields a purer air;
And, fix'd on Cambria's2 solitary shore,
Give to St. David3 one true Briton more.

For who would leave, unbrib'd, Hibernia's land, 4

prey;

11

15

20

Or change the rocks of Scotland for the Strand?5
There none are swept by sudden fate away,
But all, whom hunger spares, with age decay:
Here malice, rapine, accident, conspire,
And now a rabble rages, now a fire;
Their ambush here relentless ruffians lay,
And here the fell attorney prowls for
Here falling houses thunder on your head,
And here a female atheist talks you dead.
While Thales waits the wherry that contains
Of dissipated wealth the small remains,
On Thames's banks in silent thought we stood,
Where Greenwich smiles upon the silver flood;
Struck with the seat that gave Eliza birth,
We kneel, and kiss the consecrated earth;
In pleasing dreams the blissful age renew,
And call Britannia's glories back to view;
Behold her cross triumphant on the main,
The guard of Commerce and the dread of Spain,
1 Presumably Johnson's unfortunate friend Richard
Savage, the poet, who was forced to retire from London
to Swansea in Wales.

2 Ancient name of Wales.

3 Patron saint of Wales.

4 Ireland.

25

In Johnson's time, one of the most fashionable streets of London.

Queen Elizabeth was born at Greenwich, 1533.

Some peaceful vale with Nature's paintings gay,

Where once the harass'd Briton found repose,
And safe in poverty defy'd his foes;

Some secret cell, ye Pow'rs indulgent give.
Let live here, for has learn'd to live. 50
Here let those reign, whom pensions can incite
To vote a patriot black, a courtier white;
Explain their country's dear-bought rights
away,

And plead for pirates in the face of day;

With slavish tenets taint our poison'd youth, 55
And lend a lie the confidence of truth.
Let such raise palaces, and manors buy,
Collect a tax, or farm a lottery;9

With warbling eunuchs fill our licens'd stage, 10
And lull to servitude a thoughtless age.

60

Despise a fool in half his pension dress'd,
And strive in vain to laugh at Clodio's jest.12
"Others, with softer smiles and subtler art, 75
Can sap the principles, or taint the heart;
With more address a lover's note convey,
Or bribe a virgin's innocence away.

Well may they rise, while I, whose rustic tongue

Ne'er knew to puzzle right, or varnish wrong, 80 Spurn'd as a beggar, dreaded as a spy,

Live unregarded, unlamented die.

"For what but social guilt the friend endears? Who shares Orgilio's crimes, his fortune shares.

But thou, should tempting villany present 85 All Marlb'rough14 hoarded, or all Villiers 15 spent,

Turn from the glitt'ring bribe thy scornful eye, Nor sell for gold what gold could never buy, The peaceful slumber, self-approving day, Unsullied fame, and conscience ever gay.

90

95

"The cheated nation's happy fav'rites, see! Mark whom the great caress, who frown on me! LONDON! the needy villain's gen'ral home, The common sewer of Paris and of Rome; With eager thirst, by folly or by fate, Sucks in the dregs of each corrupted state. Forgive my transports on a theme like this, I cannot bear a French metropolis. "Illustrious EDWARD!16 from the realms of day,

100

105

The land of heroes and of saints survey;
Nor hope the British lineaments to trace,
The rustic grandeur, or the surly grace;
But, lost in thoughtless ease and empty show,
Behold the warrior dwindled to a beau;
Sense, freedom, piety, refin'd away,
Of France the mimic, and of Spain the prey.
"All that at home no more can beg or steal,
Or like a gibbet better than a wheel;18
Hiss'd from the stage, or hooted from the court,
Their air, their dress, their politics import;
Obsequious, artful, voluble, and gay,

110

On Britain's fond credulity they prey.
No gainful trade their industry can 'scape,
They sing, they dance, clean shoes, their
fiddles scrape:

All sciences a fasting Monsieur knows,
And, bid him go to hell, to hell he goes.

"Ah! what avails it that, from slav'ry far,

115

I draw the breath of life in English air;
Was early taught a Briton's right to prize,
And lisp the tale of Henry's victories;19

120

12 There is a bragging character of this name, given to strange oaths, in Cibber's play, Love makes a Man. Johnson may, however, have had one of his own contemporaries in mind.

13 A personification of the pride of wealth.

14 The Duke of Marlborough (d. 1722) who has been called "the greatest and meanest of mankind."

15 George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (d. 1687) was one of the most extravagant and profligate of the courtiers of Charles II.

16 Edward III., illustrious because of his exploits in France.

17-18 The Gibbet was an English, the wheel a French mode of execution.

19 Henry V.'s victories in France, especially at Agin

court.

160

Then soon your ill-placed confidence repay,
Commence your lords, and govern or betray.
"By numbers here from shame or censure free,
All crimes are safe but hated poverty:
This, only this, the rigid law pursues,
This, only this, provokes the snarling Muse.
The sober trader at a tatter'd cloak
Wakes from his dream, and labours for a joke;
With brisker air the silken courtiers gaze,
And turn the varied taunt a thousand ways. 165
Of all the griefs that harass the distress'd,
Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest;

Fate never wounds more deep the gen'rous heart,

Than when a blockhead's insult points the dart,
"Has Heaven reserv'd, in pity to the poor, 170
No pathless waste, or undiscover'd shore?
No secret island in the boundless main?
No peaceful desert yet unclaim'd by Spain?
Quick let us rise, the happy seats explore,
And bear Oppression's insolence no more.
This mournful truth is everywhere confess'd,
SLOW RISES WORTH, BY POVERTY DEPRESS'D:
But here more slow, where all are slaves to gold,
Where looks are merchandise, and smiles are
sold:

175

Where, won by bribes, by flatteries implor'd, 180 The groom retails the favors of his lord.

20 Lat. balbus, stammering, stuttering. 21 Takes hold of. Examines by touch.

cry,

55

As tyrants doom their tools of guilt to die;

1 The story of Dr. Faustus was made the subject of a farcical pantomime by Thurmond, produced at Drury Lane in 1724. Similar farces were much in vogue for several seasons in London, and were satirized by Pope in the Dunciad, III, II. 233, ff.

2 Aphra Behn (1640-1689), a novelist and playwright. Her plays were noted for their low moral tone.

3 Thomas Durfey (1653-1723) a minor poet, and a writer of comedies and songs.

4 Hunt was a famous boxer on the stage. Mahomet, a famous rope-dancer.