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The Poet brings in a friend of his, giving him on account why he removes from London to live in the country,
THOUGH much concerned to lose my dear old friend,[2]
I must however his design commend
Of fixing in the country; for were I
As free to chose my residence as he,
The Peak, the Fens, the Hundreds, or Land's-end,
I would prefer to Fleet-street, or the Strand.[3]
What place so desert, and so wild is there,
Whose inconveniences one would not bear,
Bather than the alarms of midnight fire,
The fall of houses,[4] knavery of cits,
The plots of factions, and the noise of wits,
And thousand other plagues, which up and down
Each day and hour infest the cursèd town?
As fate would have it, on the appointed day
Of parting hence, I met him on the way,
- ↑ Written in May, 1682.
- ↑ In the original this line stands
’Though much concerned to leave my dear old friend.'
This was evidently a blunder (for which no doubt the printer was solely responsible), as it was plain that Oldham was not going to leave his friend, but that his friend was going to leave him. Boswell supplies the emendation adopted in the text, which was suggested to him by a lady. The third satire of Juvenal, here imitated and applied to London by Oldham, had been previously applied to Paris by Boileau, and was afterwards adopted by Dr. Johnson as the groundwork of his poem of London. - ↑ Or change the rocks of Scotland for the Strand.
Johnson's London.
’Whether Johnson,' says Boswell, ’had previously read Oldham's imitation I do not know; but it is not a little remarkable that there is scarcely any coincidence found between the two performances though upon the very same subject.' This judgment is hasty. The parallel passages are numerous, and generally there is more strength, though less finish, in Oldham. - ↑ Here falling houses thunder on your head.—London
