An heroic postscript to the public: occasioned by their favourable reception of a late heroic epistle to Sir William Chambers, Knt. &c. By the author of that epistle.

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- Just Published.

AN HEROIC POSTSCRIPT TO THE PUBLIC.

[1]I THAT of late, Sir William's Bard, and Squire,

March'd with his helm and buckler on my lyre,

(What time the Knight prick'd forth in ill-starr'd haste,

[2]Comptroller General of the works of taste,)

Now to the Public tune my grateful lays,

Warm'd with the sun-shine of the Public praise;

Warm'd too with mem'ry of that golden time,

When Almon gave me reason for my rhyme;

—glittering orbs, and, what endear'd them more,

Each glittering orb the sacred features bore

Of George the good, the gracious, and the great,

Unfil'd, unsweated, all of sterling weight;

Or, were they not, they pass'd with current ease,

Good seemings then were good realities:

No Senate had convey'd, by smuggling art,

[3]Pow'r to the mob to play Cadogan's part;

Now, thro' the land, that impious pow'r prevails,

All weigh their Sov'reign in their private scales,

[4]And find him wanting: all save me alone,

For, sad to say! my glittering orbs are gone.

But ill beseems a Poet to repent,

Lightly they came, and full as lightly went.

Peace to their manes! may they never feel

Some keen Scotch banker's unrelenting steel;

While I again the Muse's sickle bring

To cut down Dunces, wheresoe'er they spring,

Bind in poetic sheaves the plenteous crop,

And stack my full-ear'd load in Almon's shop.

For now, my Muse, thy fame is fixt as fate,

Tremble ye Fools I scorn, ye Knaves I hate;

I know the vigour of thy eagle wings,

I know thy strains can pierce the ear of Kings.

Did China's monarch here in Britain doze,

[5]And was, like western Kings, a King of Prose,

Thy song could cure his Asiatic spleen,

And make him wish to see and to be seen;

[6]That solemn vein of irony so fine,

Which, e'en Reviewers own, adorns thy line,

Would make him soon against his greatness sin,

Desert his sofa, mount his palanquin,

And post where'er the Goddess led the way,

Perchance to proud Spithead's imperial bay;

[7]There should he see, as other folks have seen,

That ships have anchors, and that seas are green,

Should own the tackling trim, the streamers fine,

With Sandwich prattle, and with Bradshaw dine,

And then sail back, amid the cannon's roar,

As safe, as sage, as when he left the shore.

Such is thy pow'r, O Goddess of the song,

Come then and guide my careless pen along;

Yet keep it in the bounds of sense and verse,

[8]Nor, like Mac-Homer, make me gabble Erse.

No, let the flow of these spontaneous rhymes

So truly touch the temper of the times,

That he who runs may read; while well he knows

I write in metre, what he thinks in prose;

So shall my song, undisciplin'd by art,

Find a sure patron in each English heart.

If this it's fate, let all the frippery things

Be-plac'd, be-pension'd, and be-starr'd by Kings,

[9]Frown on the page, and with fastidious eye,

Like old young Fannius, call it blasphemy.

Let these prefer a levee's harmless talk,

Be ask'd how often, and how far they walk,

Proud of a single word, nor hope for more,

Tho' Jenkinson is blest with many a score:

For other ears my honest number sound,

With other praise those numbers shall be crown'd,

Praise that shall spread, no pow'r can make it less,

While Britain boasts the bulwark of her press.

Yes, sons of freedom! yes, to whom I pay,

Warm from the heart, this tributary lay;

That lay shall live, tho' Court and Grub-street sigh,

Your young Marcellus was not born to die.

The Muse shall nurse him up to man's estate,

[10]And break the black asperity of fate—

Admit him then your candidate for fame,

Pleas'd if in your review he read his name,

Tho' not with Mason and with Goldsmith put,

Yet cheek by jowl with Garrick, Colman, Foote;

But if with higher Bards that name you range,

His modesty must think your judgment strange—

So when o'er Crane-Court's philosophic Gods,

The Jove-like majesty of Pringle nods,

If e'er he chance to wake on Newton's chair,

He "wonders how the devil he came there."

Whate'er his fame or fate, on this depend;

He is, and means to be his country's friend.

'Tis but to try his strength that now he sports

With Chinese gardens, and with Chinese courts:

But if that country claim a graver strain,

If real danger threat fair Freedom's reign,

If hireling P**rs, in prostitution bold,

Sell her as cheaply as themselves they sold;

Or they, who honour'd by the People's choice,

Against that People lift their rebel voice,

And, basely crouching for their paltry pay,

Vote the best birthright of her sons away,

Permit a nation's in-born wealth to fly

In mean, unkingly prodigality;

Nor, e'er they give, ask how the sums were spent,

So quickly squander'd, tho' so lately lent—

If this they dare; the thunder of his song,

Rolling in deep-ton'd energy along,

Shall strike, with Truth's dread bolt, each miscreant's name,

Who, dead to duty, senseless e'en to shame

Betray'd his country. Yes, ye faithless crew,

His Muse's vengeance shall your crimes pursue,

Stretch you on satire's rack, and bid you lie

Fit garbage for the hell-hound, Infamy.

FINIS.

Notes

1

Verse 1. [I that of late]
‘Rle ego qui quondam, &c.’

VIRGIL; or somebody for him.

↵

2

Verse 4. [Works of taste]

Put synonimously for his Majesty's works.

See Sir William's title page.

↵

3

Verse 16. [Cadogan's part] Master of the Mint.

↵

4

Verse 19. [And find him wanting.] Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. Daniel, chap. 8, v. 27.

↵

5

Verse 34. [A King of Prose.] Kien-Long, the present Emperor of China is a poet. M. de Voltaire did him the honour to treat him as a brother above two years ago; and my late patron, Sir William Chambers, has given a fine and most intelligible prose version of an ode of his Majesty upon tea, in his postscript to his Dissertation. I am, however, vain enough to think, that the Emperor's composition would have appeared still better in my heroic verse; but Sir William forestalled it; on which account I have entirely broke with him.

↵

6

Verse 37. [That solemn vein of irony.] "A sine vein of solemn irony runs through this piece." See Monthly Review, under the article of the Heroic Epistle to Sir William Chambers.

↵

7

Verse 43. [There should he see.] A certain naval event happened just about two calendar months after the publication of the Heroic Epistle. 'Twas impossible, considering the necessary preparations, it could have been sooner. Facts are stubborn things.

↵

8

Verse 52. [Nor like Mac-Homer.] See, if the reader thinks it worth while, a late translation of the Iliad.

↵

9

Verse 62. [Like old young Fannius.] The noble personage here alluded to, being asked to read the Heroic Epistle, said, "No, it was as bad as blasphemy."

Verse 62. [Fannius.] Before I sent the M. S. to the press, I discovered, that an accidental blot had made all but the first syllable of this name illegible. I was doubtful, therefore, whether to print it Fannius or Fannia. After much deliberation, I thought it best to use the masculine termination. If I have done wrong, I ask pardon, not only of the Author, but the Lady. The Editor.

↵

10

Verse 76. [And break the black asperity of fate.]

—"Si qua fata aspera rumpas,

Tu Marcellus eris."

VIRGIL.

↵

AN HEROIC POSTSCRIPT TO THE PUBLIC.

[PRICE ONE SHILLING.]

AN HEROIC POSTSCRIPT TO THE PUBLIC, Occasioned by their favourable Reception of a late HEROIC EPISTLE To Sir WILLIAM CHAMBERS, Knt. &c. By the AUTHOR of that EPISTLE.

Sicelides musae, paullo majora canamus.

VIRGIL.

THE SECOND EDITION.

LONDON: Printed for J. ALMON, opposite BURLINGTON-HOUSE, in PICCADILLY. MDCCLXXIV.

Just Published.

AN HEROIC EPISTLE to Sir William Chambers, Knight, Comptroller General of his Majesty's Works, and Author of a late Dissertation on Oriental Gardening. Enriched with Explanatory Notes, chiefly extracted from that elaborate Performance.—Non omnes Arbusta juvant, humilesque Myricae. VIRGIL.

BY THE AUTHOR OF THIS HEROIC POSTSCRIPT.

Printed in Quarto, the Eleventh Edition. Price One Shilling.

AN EPISTLE from OBEREA, Queen of Otaheite, to Joseph Banks, Esq Translated by T. Q. Z. Esq Professor of the Otaheite Language in Dublin, and of all the Languages of the undiscovered Islands in the South Sea. With Historical and Explanatory Notes. Printed in Quarto. Fourth Edition. Price 1s.

OBSERVATIONS on the Discourses delivered at the Royal Academy. Addressed to the President. Price 1s.

OBSERVATIONS on the Power of Climate over the Policy, Strength, and Manners of Nations. Price 3s. sewed.

THE SIXTH PART of the New Foundling Hospital for Wit; being a Collection of Fugitive Pieces in Prose and Verse, in no other Collection. Written principally by Persons of Eminence and Fashion. Price 2s. 6d. sewed.

The Volumes, or Parts of this Work having been published at different Times, it is humbly desired, that such Noblemen and Gentlemen as have occasionally purchased any of them, and chuse to complete the Work, will please to send for the Volumes they want as soon as possible: it being intended, when the present Impression is sold, to reprint the whole together, and sell the Work complete. The whole is six Volumes, and may be had, neatly bound 18s. or sewed 15s. or any Part separately 2s. 6d. sewed.

A COMPANION for a Leisure Hour, being a Collection of Fugitive Pieces, chiefly serious; printed in the same Size and Manner; bound 3s. and sewed 2s. 6d.

On the First of March 1774, will be published,

Volume I. (Price 2s. 6d. sewed) to be continued occasionally,

THE FUGITIVE MISCELLANY. Being a Collection of such Fugitive Pieces, in Prose and Verse, as are not in any other Collection. With many Pieces never before published.

The New Foundling Hospital for Wit being finished, and the Idea of a Collection of those Fugitive Pieces of Merit which occasionally appear in Print, or are handed about in Manuscript, being approved by the Public; the Plan will be continued under the above Title, that it may not seem compulsatory on the Purchasers of the former Work to proceed. But it is intended to print these Volumes in the same Size, that such Gentlemen as chuse to have both, may be enabled to bind them uniformly, if they please.

The Assistance of the Ingenious is humbly requested. They may be assured their Favours will be very gratefully received.

Printed for J. ALMON, opposite Burlington-House, in Piccadilly; and sold likewise by every other Bookseller in Town and Country.

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An heroic postscript to the public: occasioned by their favourable reception of a late heroic epistle to Sir William Chambers, Knt. &c. By the author of that epistle.

Mason, William, 1725-1797.

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http://ota.ox.ac.uk/id/4593

ID [isbn10]

1106015924

ID [isbn13]

9781106015921

ID [TCP]

K062800.000

ID [BIBNO]

CW3315011961

ID [ECLL]

0886000900

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— An heroic postscript to the public: occasioned by their favourable reception of a late heroic epistle to Sir William Chambers, Knt. &c. By the author of that epistle., Mason, William, 1725-1797.. The second edition.. 14,[2]p. ; 4⁰. London :: printed for J. Almon,. 1774.. [Author of that epistle = William Mason.] [With a half-title and a final advertisement leaf.] [Verse.] [Reproduction of original from the British Library.] [English Short Title Catalog, ESTCT74528.] [Electronic data. Farmington Hills, Mich. : Thomson Gale, 2003. Page image (PNG). Digitized image of the microfilm version produced in Woodbridge, CT by Research Publications, 1982-2002 (later known as Primary Source Microfilm, an imprint of the Gale Group).]

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