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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]
Smith, Horace (1779-1849)

expand sectionI. 
BOOK I.
collapse sectionII. 
BOOK II.
 I. 
ODE I. THE FIRST O. P. WAR.
 II. 
ODE II.
 III. 
ODE III. PHILOSOPHIC ENJOYMENT.
 IV. 
ODE IV. THE ACTRESS.
 V. 
ODE V. THE UNFLEDGED MUSE.
 VI. 
ODE VI. THE CLASSIC VILLA.
 VII. 
ODE VII. AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE.
 VIII. 
ODE VIII. To Mrs. MARY ANNE CLARKE.
 IX. 
ODE IX. THE YOUNG WIDOW.
 X. 
ODE X. TO ROMEO,
 XI. 
ODE XI. The QUIDNUNC.
 XII. 
ODE XII. MISS PUFF.
 XIII. 
ODE XIII. The STOCK JOBBER'S LAMENT.
 XIV. 
ODE XIV.
 XV. 
ODE XV. NEW BUILDINGS.
 XVI. 
ODE XVI. WIT ON THE WING.
 XVII. 
ODE XVII. PENNY WISE AND POUND FOOLISH.
 XVIII. 
ODE XVIII. THE UNANSWERABLE QUERY.
 XIX. 
ODE XIX. COBBETT.
 XX. 
ODE XX. THE LYRICAL LACKEY.

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141

ODE XI. The QUIDNUNC.

Quid belicosus Cautaber et Scythes.

Cease, cease, my dear Harry, to trouble your brain,
With Spain and her heroes to liberty true;
Napoleon must cut off an arm of the main,
Ere he, or his arms, can give trouble to you.
Our youth, like a rainbow, soon loses its charms,
And with it life's flattering colours are gone;
Soft sleep, love, and pleasure, are scared from our arms,
As age on his crutches comes tottering on.
142

The spring and its roses soon bend to the blast,
The moon fades away, leaving darkness behind;
Since nature will change, why should misery last,
Or care and his legions bedevil our mind?
Dear Hal, if thou lov'st me, (as Falstaff would say)
Let carking old care be invaulted below;
And if he will rise when you wish to be gay,
Bid him bring you a bottle of Chateau-Margoud.
Then let him, when Bacchus and pleasure combine
To banish the woes of this whirligig world,
Like Clarence obtain his quietus in wine;
Within the Red Sea, let his spirit be hurl'd.
The drinkers of water are drunkards, not we,
Ariston men Udor's an adage for swine;
For man's like a beast tippling water, and he
Must be drunk as a beast who refuses his wine.
Let Laura, the lovely enchantress, appear,
And breathe to her harp the effusions of Moore:
Enjoying these transports, oh, what should we fear,
While wit can exalt us, or beauty allure?
143

Then cease, my dear Quidnunc, to groan at the news,
Nor mourn o'er the records of national sorrow,
But if you must study, oh study to lose,
In this day's enjoyment the thought of to-morrow.
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