Time his hours should never drive For, howe'er we boast and strive, Must look on Thrale at thirty-five. IMPROMPTU TRANSLATION OF AN AIR IN THE CLEMENZA DE TITO OF METASTASIO, BEGINNING" Deh se piacermi vuoi." WOULD you hope to gain my heart, TRANSLATION OF A SPEECH OF AQUILEIO IN THE ADRIANO OF METASTASIO, BEGINNING "Tu che in Corte invechiasti." GROWN old in courts, thou surely art not one Who keeps the rigid rules of antient honour; Well skill'd to soothe a foe with looks of kindness, To sink the fatal precipice before him, And then lament his fall with seeming friendship; Open to all, true only to thyself, Thou know'st those arts which blast with envious praise, Which aggravate a fault with feign'd excuses, And drive discountenanc'd virtue from the throne; BURLESQUE OF THE MODERN VERSIFICATIONS OF ANCIENT LEGENDARY TALES. AN IMPROMPTU. THE tender infant meek and mild, Fell down upon the stone: The nurse took up the squealing child, FRIENDSHIP, AN ODE. [This Ode originally appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1743. See Boswell's Life of Johnson, under that year. It was afterwards printed in Mrs. Williams's Miscellanies, in 1766, with several variations which are pointed out below.-J. B.] FRIENDSHIP, peculiar boon of Heaven, While Love, unknown among the blest, With bright, but oft destructive, gleam, Thy gentle flows of guiltless joys • Parent of rage and hot desires.-Mrs. W. In vain for thee the monarch sighs. d Directress of the brave and just, O guide us through life's darksome way! Nor shall thine ardours cease to glow," Shall aid our happiness above. This Stanza is omitted in Mrs. Williams's Miscellanies, and instead of it we have the following, which may be suspected from internal evidence not to have been Johnson's: When virtues, kindred virtues meet, ON SEEING A BUST OF MRS. MONTAGUE. HAD this fair figure which this frame displays, 66 This is Minerva, cast in virtue's mould." IMPROVISO ON A YOUng heir's COMING OF age. LONG expected one-and-twenty, Ling'ring year, at length is flown; Pride and pleasure, pomp and plenty, Great are now your own. Loosen'd from the minor's tether, Free to mortgage or to sell; Wild as wind, and light as feather, Bid the sons of thrift farewell. Call the Betseys, Kates, and Jennies, All that prey on vice or folly Wealth, my lad, was made to wander, Call the jockey, call the pander, When the bonny blade carouses, Should the guardian friend, or mother |