And yields her Shelburne to distress and me!
AN EPISTLE TO A FRIEND.
[June, 1780.]
Why, true, thou say'st the fools, at Court denied,
Growl vengeance—and then take the other side;
The unfed flatterer borrows satire's power,
As sweets unshelter'd run to vapid sour.
But thou, the counsel to my closest thought,
Beheld'st it ne'er in fulsome stanzas wrought.
The Muse I court ne'er fawn'd on venal souls,