With whiskers, band, and pantaloon, And ruff composed most duly; The squire he dropped his pen full soon, While as the light burnt bluely. "Ho! Master Sam," quoth Sandys' sprite, "Write on, nor let me scare ye; Forsooth, if rhymes fall in not right, To Budgell seek, or Carey. "I hear the beat of Jacob's drums, Poor Ovid finds no quarter! See first the merry P---- comes[197] In haste, without his garter. "Then lords and lordlings, squires and knights, Wits, witlings, prigs, and peers! Garth at St. James's, and at White's, Beats up for volunteers. "What Fenton will not do, nor Gay, Nor Congreve, Rowe, nor Stanyan, Tom Burnett or Tom D'Urfey may, John Dunton, Steele, or anyone. "If Justice Philips' costive head Some frigid rhymes disburses; They shall like Persian tales be read, And glad both babes and nurses. "Let Warwick's muse with Ashurst join, And Ozell's with Lord Hervey's: Tickell and Addison combine, And Pope translate with Jervas. "Lansdowne himself, that lively lord, Who bows to every lady, Shall join with Frowde in one accord, And be like Tate and Brady. "Ye ladies too draw forth your pen, I pray where can the hurt lie? Since you have brains as well as men, As witness Lady Wortley. "Now, Tonson, 'list thy forces all, Review them, and tell noses; For to poor Ovid shall befall A strange metamorphosis. "A metamorphosis more strange Than all his books can vapour;" "To what" (quoth squire) "shall Ovid change?" Quoth Sandys: "To waste paper". [Footnote 197: The Earl of Pembroke, probably.--_Roscoe_.] XXXVII. SATIRE ON THE WHIG POETS. This is practically the whole of Pope's famous Epistle to Arbuthnot, otherwise the _Prologue to the Satires_. The only portion I have omitted, in order to include in this collection one of the greatest of his satires, is the introductory lines, which are frequently dropped, as the poem really begins with the line wherewith it is represented as opening here.