Old Romulus,[92] and father Mars, look down! } Your herdsman primitive, your homely clown, } Is turned a beau in a loose tawdry gown. } His once unkem'd and horrid locks, behold 'Stilling sweet oil; his neck enchained with gold; Aping the foreigners in every dress, Which, bought at greater cost, becomes him less. Meantime they wisely leave their native land; From Sycion, Samos, and from Alaband, And Amydon, to Rome they swarm in shoals: So sweet and easy is the gain from fools. Poor refugees at first, they purchase here; And, soon as denizened, they domineer; Grow to the great, a flattering, servile rout, Work themselves inward, and their patrons out. Quick-witted, brazen-faced, with fluent tongues, Patient of labours, and dissembling wrongs. Riddle me this, and guess him if you can, Who bears a nation in a single man? A cook, a conjurer, a rhetorician, } A painter, pedant, a geometrician, } A dancer on the ropes, and a physician; } All things the hungry Greek exactly knows, And bid him go to heaven, to heaven he goes. In short, no Scythian, Moor, or Thracian born, But in that town which arms and arts adorn.[93] Shall he be placed above me at the board, In purple clothed, and lolling like a lord? Shall he before me sign, whom t'other day } A small-craft vessel hither did convey, } Where, stowed with prunes, and rotten figs, he lay? } How little is the privilege become Of being born a citizen of Rome! The Greeks get all by fulsome flatteries; A most peculiar stroke they have at lies. They make a wit of their insipid friend, His blubber-lips and beetle-brows commend, His long crane-neck and narrow shoulders praise,-- You'd think they were describing Hercules. A creaking voice for a clear treble goes; Though harsher than a cock, that treads and crows. We can as grossly praise; but, to our grief, No flattery but from Grecians gains belief. Besides these qualities, we must agree, They mimic better on the stage than we: The wife, the whore, the shepherdess, they play, In such a free, and such a graceful way, That we believe a very woman shown, And fancy something underneath the gown. But not Antiochus, nor Stratocles,[94] } Our ears and ravished eyes can only please; } The nation is composed of such as these. } All Greece is one comedian; laugh, and they Return it louder than an ass can bray; Grieve, and they grieve; if you weep silently, } There seems a silent echo in their eye; }