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Try it, my Own. You have no choice, What if you lose your charming voice!" She tried, it seems. And whether then Some god stepped in, benign to men; Or Modesty, too long outlawed, Contrived to aid the pious fraud, I know not:--but from that same day She talked in quite a different way. THE NOBLE PATRON. "_Ce sont les amours Qui font les beaux jours._" What is a _Patron_? JOHNSON knew, And well that lifelike portrait drew. _He is a Patron who looks down With careless eye on men who drown; But if they chance to reach the land, Encumbers them with helping hand._ Ah! happy we whose artless rhyme No longer now must creep to climb! Ah! happy we of later days, Who 'scape those _Caudine Forks_ of praise! Whose votive page may dare commend A Brother, or a private Friend! Not so it fared with scribbling man, As POPE says, "under my Queen ANNE." DICK DOVECOT (this was long, be sure, Ere he attained his _Wiltshire_ cure, And settled down, like humbler folks, To cowslip wine and country jokes) Once hoped--as who will not?--for fame, And dreamed of honours and a Name. A fresh-cheek'd lad, he came to Town In homespun hose and russet brown, But armed at point with every view Enforced in RAPIN and BOSSU. Besides a stout portfolio ripe For LINTOT'S or for TONSON'S type. He went the rounds, saw all the sights, Dropped in at _Wills_ and _Tom's_ o' nights; Heard BURNET preach, saw BICKNELL dance, E'en gained from ADDISON a glance; Nay, once, to make his bliss complete, He supp'd with STEELE in _Bury Street_. ('Tis true the feast was half by stealth: PRUE was in bed: they drank her health.) By this his purse was running low, And he must either print or go. He went to TONSON. TONSON said-- Well! TONSON hummed and shook his head; Deplor'd the times; abus'd the Town; But thought--at length--it might go down; With aid, of course, of _Elzevir_, And _Prologue_ to a Prince, or Peer. Dick winced at this, for adulation Was scarce that candid youth's vocation: Nor did he deem his rustic lays Required a _Coronet_ for _Bays_. But there--the choice was that, or none. The Lord was found; the thing was done. With HORACE and with TOOKE'S _Pantheon_, He penn'd his tributary pae
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