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HORACE, BOOK I. EP. V.
JOHN DENNIS, THE SHELTERING POET'S INVITATION TO RICHARD STEELE, THE SECLUDED PARTY WRITER AND MEMBER, TO COME AND LIVE WITH HIM IN THE MINT. 1714[1].
Fit to be bound up with The Crisis.
IF thou canst lay aside a spendthrift's air,
And condescend to feed on homely fare,
Such as we Minters, with ragouts unstor'd,
Will, in defiance of the law, afford:
Quit thy patrols with Toby's Christmas box,5
And come to me at The Two Fighting Cocks;
Since printing by subscription now is grown
The stalest, idlest cheat about the town;
And ev'n Charles Gildon, who, a papist bred,
Has an alarm against that worship spread,10
Is practising those beaten paths of cruising,
And for new levies on Proposals musing.
'Tis true, that Bloomsbury square's a noble place:
But what are lofty buildings in thy case?
What's a fine house embellish'd to profusion,15
Where shoulderdabbers are in execution?
Or whence its timorous tenant seldom sallies,
But apprehensive of insulting bailiffs?
This once be mindful of a friend's advice,
And cease to be improvidently nice;20
- ↑ This and the preceding poem were first added to the dean's Works by Mr. Nichols, from copies in the Lambeth Library, K. I, 2. 29, 30. 4to.
