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Horace in London

Consisting of imitations of the first two books of the odes of Horace. By the authors of the rejected addresses, or the new theatrum poetarum [Horace and James Smith]

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ODE XXXIII. CROSS PURPOSES.
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98

ODE XXXIII. CROSS PURPOSES.

Albi, ne doleas plus nimio, memor.

'Tis folly yourself and your readers to vex,
With verses as feeble and bald as old Q.;
Your Fanny but echoes the creed of her sex,
Preferring a younger Adonis to you.
Amanda, the mild, follows Ned thro' the Park,
From Kensington Gardens to Cumberland Gate,
Yet Ned, an ungrateful and volatile spark,
Adores a virago, and truckles to Kate.
But sooner the shark from West Indian seas,
Shall swim in a bowl, and by children be fed,
Than Kitty, as rampant as Pope's Eloise,
Surrender the mistress, and marry with Ned.

99

So wills Madame Venus: she's ever delighted
To join young and old in one wearisome yoke,
Then tortures the bosom with flames unrequited,
And thinks our misfortunes an excellent joke.
Why cannot I love pretty Susan, or Polly,
Or gentle Nannette, or dear sensitive Jane?
The answer, alas! but exposes my folly—
I court lovely Ellen, and court her in vain.
I'd give all I'm worth to be able to hate her;
She smiles, and I picture consent in her eye,
When, cold and deceitful as ice to a skaiter,
She tempts me to pleasure, but leaves me to die.