non tu, in triviis, indocte, solebas
Stridenti, miserum, stipula, disperdere, carmen?"
[Wouldst thou not, blockhead, in the public ways,
Squander, on scrannel pipe, thy sorry lays?]
Dryden appreciated the terrible force of this kind of writing for the purposes of satire. At its best, his own satire attains to something like it, as, for instance, in his description of Shaftesbury's early life:--
Next this (how wildly will ambition steer),
A vermin wriggling in the usurper's ear,
Bartering his venal wit for sums of gold,
He cast himself into the saint-like mould;
Groaned, sighed, and prayed, while godliness was gain,