LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU. 1690 - 1762.

Let this great maxim be my virtue's guide,
In part she is to blame that has been tried:
He comes too near that comes to be denied.
The Lady's Resolve.
And we meet, with champagne and a chicken, at

last.2

The Lover.

Be plain in dress, and sober in your diet;
In short, my deary! kiss me, and be quiet.
A Summary of Lord Lyttleton's Advice.
Satire should, like a polish'd razor keen,
Wound with a touch that 's scarcely felt or seen.
To the Imitator of the First Satire of Horace. Book ii.
But the fruit that can fall without shaking,
Indeed is too mellow for me.

The Answer.

WILLIAM OLDYS. 1696-1761.

Busy, curious, thirsty fly,

Drink with me, and drink as I.

On a Fly drinking out of a Cup of Ale.

1 A fugitive piece, written on a window by Lady Montagu, after her marriage (1713). The last lines were taken from Overbury, The Wife, St. 36. Ante, p. 154.

2 What say you to such a supper with such a woman? Byron, Note to Letter on Bowles.

322 O'Hara.-Macklin. - Green. - Theobald.

KANE O'HARA.

- 1782.

Pray, goody, please to moderate the rancour of your tongue;

Why flash those sparks of fury from your eyes?
Remember, when the judgment's weak the preju-
dice is strong.
Midas. Acti. Sc. 4.

CHARLES MACKLIN.

1690-1797.

The law is a sort of hocus-pocus science, that smiles in yer face while it picks yer pocket; and the glorious uncertainty of it is of mair use to the professors than the justice of it.

Love à la Mode. Act ii. Sc. I.

MATTHEW GREEN. 1696-1737.

Fling but a stone, the giant dies.

The Spleen. Line 93.

Though pleased to see the dolphins play,

I mind my compass and my way. Ibid. ad fin.

LOUIS THEOBALD. 1691 – 1744. None but himself can be his parallel.1

The Double Falsehood.

1 Quæris Alcidæ parem?

Nemo est nisi ipse. - Seneca, Hercules Furens, i. 1.
And but herself admits no parallel.

Massinger, Duke of Milan, Act iv. Sc. 3.

JOHN BYROM. 1691-1763.

God bless the King, I mean the faith's defender; God bless-no harm in blessing-the pretender; But who pretender is, or who is king,

God bless us all, that's quite another thing.
To an Officer of the Army, extempore.

Take time enough: all other graces
Will soon fill up their proper places.1

Advice to Preach Slow.

Some say, compar'd to Bononcini,
That Mynheer Handel's but a ninny;
Others aver that he to Handel

Is scarcely fit to hold a candle.2
Strange all this difference should be
"Twixt Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
On the Feuds between Handel and Bononcini.3
Epistle to Lloyd.

As clear as a whistle.

Bone and Skin, two millers thin,

Would starve us all, or near it ;
But be it known to Skin and Bone
That Flesh and Blood can't bear it.
Epigram on two Monopolists.

1 Compare Walker, ante, p. 232.
2 See Proverbial Expressions.

3 "Nourse asked me if I had seen the verses upon Handel and Bononcini, not knowing that they were mine." Byrom's Remains (Chetham Soc.), Vol. i. p. 173. The last two lines have been attributed to Swift and Pope. See Scott's edition of Swift, and Dyce's edition of Pope.

Thus adorned, the two heroes, 'twixt shoulder and elbow,

Shook hands and went to 't, and the word it

was bilbow.

Upon a Trial of Skill between the Great Masters of the
Noble Science of Defence, Messrs. Figg and Sutton.

EARL OF CHESTERFIELD. 1694-1773. Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing Letter. March 10, 1746.

well.

I knew once a very covetous, sordid fellow,1 who used to say, Take care of the pence; for the pounds will take care of themselves.

Letter.

Sacrifice to the Graces.2 Letter.

Nov. 6, 1747.

March 9, 1748.

Manners must adorn knowledge, and smooth its way through the world. Like a great rough diamond, it may do very well in a closet by way of curiosity, and also for its intrinsic value.

Letter. July 1, 1748.

Style is the dress of thoughts.

Letter. Nov. 24, 1749.

Despatch is the soul of business.

Letter. Feb. 5, 1750.

1 W. Lowndes, Secretary of the Treasury in the reigns of King William, Queen Anne, and King George the Third.

2 Literally from the Greek Ove тais Xúpioi. — Diog. Laert. Lib. IV. § 6, Xenocrates.

Chapter of accidents.1

Letter. Feb. 16, 1753.

I assisted at the birth of that most significant word "flirtation," which dropped from the most beautiful mouth in the world.

The World. No. 101.

Unlike my subject now shall be my song,
It shall be witty, and it sha'n't be long.

Impromptu Lines.

The dews of the evening most carefully shun,— Those tears of the sky for the loss of the sun. Advice to a Lady in Autumn.

The nation looked upon him as a deserter, and he shrunk into insignificancy and an earldom. Character of Pulteney.

The picture placed the busts between,
Adds to the thought much strength;
Wisdom and Wit are little seen,

But folly's at full length.2

On the Picture of Richard Nash placed at full length between the busts of Sir Isaac Newton and Mr. Pope, at Bath.

1 See Burke, Notes for Speeches, ed. 1852, Vol. ii. p. 426. John Wilkes said that "the Chapter of Accidents is the longest chapter in the book.” — Southey, The Doctor, cxviii.

2 This epigram is generally ascribed to Chesterfield, but Mr. Dyce in his Specimens of British Poetesses gives it to Jane Brereton.