Durgen Or, A Plain Satyr upon a Pompous Satyrist. Amicably Inscrib'd, by the Author, to those Worthy and Ingenious Gentlemen misrepresented in a late invective Poem, call'd, The Dunciad [by Edward Ward] |
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 | Durgen |  |
'Tis hard such diff'rent Fortunes should attend
The noble Greek and his translating Friend,
One starv'd in framing his account of Troy,
What he deserv'd his Ape does now enjoy;
But had not Fortune been, like Homer, blind,
Sh'ad chang'd their Fates and to the first been kind,
And plac'd the latter in the same degree
With those that he contemns for Poverty,
Forc'd him, in spight of Wit, to humbly seek
A free-cost Dinner twice or thrice a Week,
And doom'd the proud Homunculus to share
Those Hardships more instructive Authors bear,
Then had his Epick-strains been less abstruse,
And his pert Satyrs freer from abuse;
But Dainties and full Bowls retard his flights,
And make his Muse too lazy when he Writes;
For had not other Wits, first, taken pains
In English Verse to render Homer's strains,
Durgen the knotty Labour had declin'd,
And in Heroick Numbers never shin'd;
But Og's old Version having well explain'd
The Grecian Text to our Translator's Hand,
His Christian Muse, tho' Learn'd, disdain'd to seek
For Homer's sense, in Homer's heathen Greek,
But wisely took it, as before laid down,
Disguis'd the antient Tale to gull the Town,
And in a pompous Style, his Art to shew,
Transform'd the old Translation to a new.
So cunning Bawds oft Dye their Harlot's Hair,
Turn Brown to Black and Bleech the Red to Fair,
Then in rich Dresses pass the wanton Jades,
At Play-house, publick Balls, and Masquerades,
Upon their old Gallants once more for Maids.
The noble Greek and his translating Friend,
One starv'd in framing his account of Troy,
What he deserv'd his Ape does now enjoy;
But had not Fortune been, like Homer, blind,
Sh'ad chang'd their Fates and to the first been kind,
50
With those that he contemns for Poverty,
Forc'd him, in spight of Wit, to humbly seek
A free-cost Dinner twice or thrice a Week,
And doom'd the proud Homunculus to share
Those Hardships more instructive Authors bear,
Then had his Epick-strains been less abstruse,
And his pert Satyrs freer from abuse;
But Dainties and full Bowls retard his flights,
And make his Muse too lazy when he Writes;
For had not other Wits, first, taken pains
In English Verse to render Homer's strains,
Durgen the knotty Labour had declin'd,
And in Heroick Numbers never shin'd;
But Og's old Version having well explain'd
The Grecian Text to our Translator's Hand,
His Christian Muse, tho' Learn'd, disdain'd to seek
For Homer's sense, in Homer's heathen Greek,
But wisely took it, as before laid down,
Disguis'd the antient Tale to gull the Town,
51
Transform'd the old Translation to a new.
So cunning Bawds oft Dye their Harlot's Hair,
Turn Brown to Black and Bleech the Red to Fair,
Then in rich Dresses pass the wanton Jades,
At Play-house, publick Balls, and Masquerades,
Upon their old Gallants once more for Maids.
| Durgen | |