But present punishment pursues his maw, When, surfeited and swelled, the peacock raw He bears into the bath; whence want of breath, Repletions, apoplex, intestate death. His fate makes table-talk, divulged with scorn, And he, a jest, into his grave is borne. No age can go beyond us; future times Can add no farther to the present crimes. Our sons but the same things can wish and do; } Vice is at stand, and at the highest flow. } Then, Satire, spread thy sails, take all the winds can blow! } Some may, perhaps, demand what muse can yield Sufficient strength for such a spacious field? From whence can be derived so large a vein, Bold truths to speak, and spoken to maintain, When godlike freedom is so far bereft The noble mind, that scarce the name is left? Ere _scandalum magnatum_ was begot, No matter if the great forgave or not; But if that honest licence now you take, } If into rogues omnipotent you rake, } Death is your doom, impaled upon a stake; } Smeared o'er with wax, and set on fire, to light The streets, and make a dreadful blaze by night. Shall they, who drenched three uncles in a draught Of poisonous juice, be then in triumph brought, Make lanes among the people where they go, } And, mounted high on downy chariots, throw } Disdainful glances on the crowd below? } Be silent, and beware, if such you see; 'Tis defamation but to say, That's he! Against bold Turnus the great Trojan arm, Amidst their strokes the poet gets no harm: Achilles may in epic verse be slain, And none of all his myrmidons complain: Hylas may drop his pitcher, none will cry, Not if he drown himself for company; But when Lucilius brandishes his pen, And flashes in the face of guilty men, A cold sweat stands in drops on every part, And rage succeeds to tears, revenge to smart.[77] Muse, be advised; 'tis past considering time, When entered once the dangerous lists of rhime; Since none the living villains dare implead, Arraign them in the persons of the dead. FOOTNOTES: [51] Codrus, or it may be Cordus, a bad poet, who wrote the life and actions of Theseus.--[This and almost all the following notes are taken from Dryden's first edition. Those which are supplied by the present Editor, are distinguished by the letter E.] [52] The name of a tragedy. [53] Another tragedy. [54] Some commentators take this grove to be a place where poets were used to repeat their works to the people; but more probably, both this and Vulcan's grott, or cave, and the rest of the places and names here mentioned, are only meant for the common places of Homer in his Iliads and Odyssies.