DIALOGUE BETWEEN A CERTAIN PERSONAGE AND HIS MINISTER.
IMITATED FROM THE NINTH ODE OF HORACE, BOOK III.
Donec gratus eram tibi.
K——- When heedless of your birth and name,
For pow’r yon barter’d future fame,
On that auspicious day,
Of K—gs I reign’d supremely blest:
Not HASTINGS rul’d the plunder’d East
With more despotic sway.
P—TT. When only on my favoured head
Your smiles their royal influence shed,
Then was the son of CH—TH—M
The nation’s pride, the public care,
P—TT and Prerogative their pray’r,
While we, Sir, both laugh’d at ’em.
K——- JENKY, I own, divides my heart,
Skill’d in each deep and secret art
To keep my C—MM—NS down:
His views, his principles are mine;
For these I’d willingly resign
My Kingdom and my Crown.
P—TT. As much as for the public weal,
My anxious bosom burns with zeal
For pious Parson WYV—LL
For him I’ll fret, and fume, and spout,
Go ev’ry length—except go out,
For that’s to me the Devil!
K——- What if, our sinking cause to save,
We both our jealous strife should wave,
And act our former farce on:
If I to JENKY were more stern,
Would you, then, generously turn
Your back upon the Parson?
P—TT. Tho’ to support his patriot plan
I’m pledg’d as Minister and Man,
This storm I hope to weather;
And since your Royal will is so,
Reforms and the Reformers too,
May all be damn’d together!
Prettymaniana.