AN EPIGRAM ADDRESSED TO THE GENTLEMEN REFLECTED ON IN THE ROSCIAD, A POEM, BY THE AUTHOR Worried with debts and past all hopes of bail, His pen he prostitutes t’ avoid a gaol. ROSCOM. LET not the _hungry_ Bavius’ angry stroke Awake resentment, or your rage provoke; But pitying his distress, let virtue shine, And giving each your bounty, _let him dine_; For thus retain’d, as learned counsel can, 5 Each case, however bad, he’ll new japan; And by a quick transition, plainly show ’Twas no defect of yours, but _pocket low_, That caused his _putrid kennel_ to o’erflow. TO G. C. AND R. L. ’TWAS you, or I, or he, or all together, ’Twas one, both, three of them, they know not whether; This, I believe, between us great or small, You, I, he, wrote it not—’twas Churchill’s all. TRANSLATION OF A SOUTH AMERICAN ODE IN all my Enna’s beauties blest, Amidst profusion still I pine; For though she gives me up her breast, Its panting tenant is not mine. THE DOUBLE TRANSFORMATION A TALE SECLUDED from domestic strife, Jack Book-worm led a college life; A fellowship at twenty-five Made him the happiest man alive; He drank his glass and crack’d his joke, 5 And freshmen wonder’d as he spoke. Such pleasures, unalloy’d with care, Could any accident impair? Could Cupid’s shaft at length transfix Our swain, arriv’d at thirty-six? 10 O had the archer ne’er come down To ravage in a country town! Or Flavia been content to stop At triumphs in a Fleet-street shop. O had her eyes forgot to blaze! 15 Or Jack had wanted eyes to gaze. O!——But let exclamation cease, Her presence banish’d all his peace. So with decorum all things carried; Miss frown’d, and blush’d, and then was—married. 20 Need we expose to vulgar sight The raptures of the bridal night? Need we intrude on hallow’d ground, Or draw the curtains clos’d around? Let it suffice, that each had charms; 25 He clasp’d a goddess in his arms; And though she felt his usage rough, Yet in a man ’twas well enough. The honey-moon like lightning flew, The second brought its transports too. 30 A third, a fourth, were not amiss, The fifth was friendship mix’d with bliss: But when a twelvemonth pass’d away, Jack found his goddess made of clay; Found half the charms that deck’d her face 35 Arose from powder, shreds, or lace; But still the worst remain’d behind, That very face had robb’d her mind.