Stage by a Lady

An Ode for the Birth-Day of the King of Pruffia

An Ode for the Birth-Day of the late General

178

180

182

ib.

183

185

186

187

An Epigram

188

Another

189

Apollo to Mr. C. F.

ib.

On feeing C. F-ft, Efq; abused in a News-

paper

Verses written about three Weeks before his Death 193

192

END OF CUNNINGHAM'S POEMS.

THE SPLE E N*.

AN EPISTLE TO MR. CUTHBERT JACKSON.

HIS motley piece to you I fend,

THIS

Who always were a faithful friend;
Who, if disputes fhould happen hence,
Can beft explain the author's fense;
And, anxious for the public weal,
Do, what I fing, so often feel.
The want of method pray excufe,
Allowing for a vapour'd Muse;
Nor to a narrow path confin'd,
Hedge in by rules a roving mind.

The child is genuine, you may trace
Throughout the fire's tranfmitted face.
Nothing is ftol'n: my Mufe, though mean,
Draws from the fpring fhe finds within;
Nor vainly buys what + Gildon fells,

Poetic buckets for dry wells.

School helps I want, to climb on high,

Where all the ancient treasures lie,

"In this Poem," Mr. Melmoth fays, "there are more ori"ginal thoughts thrown together than he had ever read in the "fame compafs of lines.

Fitzofborne's Letters, p. 114.

† Gildon's Art of Poetry.

P 2

And

And there unfeen commit a theft

On wealth in Greek exchequers left.

Then where? from whom? what can I steal,

They cannot give who want relief;
Some few excepted, names well known,
And juftly laurel'd with renown,
Whofe ftamp of genius marks their ware,
And theft detects of theft beware;
From More + fo lafh'd, example fit,
Shun petty larceny in wit.

First know, my friend, I do not mean
To write a treatife on the Spleen;
Nor to prefcribe when nerves convulse;
Nor mend th' alarum watch, your pulfe.
If I am right, your question lay,
What courfe I take to drive away
The day-mare Spleen, by whofe falfe pleas
Men prove mere fuicides in eafe ;
And how I do myself demean
In ftormy world to live ferene.

A painted veft Prince Vortiger had on,
Which from a naked Pict his grandfire won.

Howard's British Princes.

James More Smith, Efq; See Dunciad, B. ii. 1. 50. and

the notes, where the circumstances of the transaction here alluded to are very fully explained.