430

TO MY FRIEND,

UPON THE DISPENSARY.

As when the people of the northern zone
Find the approach of the revolving Sun,
Pleas'd and reviv'd, they see the new-born light,
And dread no more eternity of night:

Thus we, who lately, as of summer's heat,
Have felt a dearth of poetry and wit,
Once fear'd, Apollo would return no more
From warmer climes to an ungrateful shore.
But you, the favourite of the tuneful Nine,
Have made the God in his full lustre shine;
Our night have chang'd into a glorious day;
And reach'd perfection in your first essay.
So the young eagle, that his force would try,
Faces the Sun, and towers it to the sky.

Others proceed to art by slow degrees, Awkward at first, at length they faintly please; And still, whate'er their first efforts produce, 'Tis an abortive, or an infant Muse: Whilst yours, like Pallas, from the head of Jove, Steps out full-grown, with noblest pace to move. What ancient poets to their subjects owe, Is here inverted, and this owes to you: You found it little, but have made it great, They could describe, but you alone create.

Now let your Muse rise with expanded wings, To sing the fate of empires and of kings; Great William's victories she'll next rehearse, And raise a trophy of immortal verse: Thus to your art proportion the design, And mighty things with mighty numbers join, A second Namur, or a future Boyne.

H. BLOUNT.

THE DISPENSARY,

A POEM IN SIX CANTOS.

-Hanc veniam petimusque damusque vicissim.
HOR. de Arte Poet.

CANTO I.
SPEAK, Goddess! since 'tis thou that best canst
How ancient leagues to modern discord fell; [tell,
And why physicians were so cautious grown
Of others' lives, and lavish of their own;
How by a journey to th' Elysian plain
Peace triumph'd, and old Time return'd again.
Not far from that most celebrated place,
Where angry' Justice shows her awful face;
Where little villains must submit to fate,
That great ones may enjoy the world in state; 10
There stands a dome2, majestic to the sight,
And sumptuous arches bear its oval height;
A golden globe, plac'd high with artful skill,
Seems, to the distant sight, a gilded pill:
This pile was, by the pious patron's aim,
Rais'd for a use as noble as its frame;
Nor did the learn'd society decline
The propagation of that great design;
In all her mazes, Nature's face they view'd,
And, as she disappear'd, their search pursued. 20
Wrapt in the shade of night the goddess lies,
Yet to the learn'd unveils her dark disguise,
But shuns the gross access of vulgar eyes.

Now she unfolds the faint and dawning strife
Of infant atoms kindling into life;
How ductile matter new meanders takes,
And slender trains of twisting fibres makes;
And how the viscous seeks a closer tone,
By just degress to harden into bone;

30

While the more loose flow from the vital urn,
And in full tides of purple streams return;
How lambent flames from life's bright lamps arise,
And dart in emanations through the eyes;
How from each sluice a gentle torrent pours,
To slake a feverish heat with ambient showers;
Whence their mechanic powers the spirits claim;
How great their force, how delicate their frame;
How the same nerves are fashion'd to sustain
The greatest pleasure and the greatest pain;

40

Why bilious juice a golden light puts on,
And floods of chyle in silver currents run;
How the dim speck of entity began
T'extend its recent form, and stretch to man;
To how minute an origin we owe
Young Ammon, Cæsar, and the great Nassau;
Why paler looks impetuous rage proclaim,
Why envy oft' transforms with wan disguise,
And why chill virgins redden into flame;
And why gay mirth sits smiling in the eyes;
All ice why Lucrece; or Sempronia, fire;
Why Scarsdale rages to survive desire;
When Milo's vigour at th' Olympic 's shown,
Whence tropes to Finch, or impudence to Sloane;
How matter, by the vary'd shape of pores,
Or idiots frames, or solemn senators.

50

GO

Hence 'tis we wait the wondrous cause to find, How body acts upon impassive mind; How fumes of wine the thinking part can fire, Past hopes revive, and present joys inspire; Why our complexions oft our soul declare, And how the passions in the feature are; How touch and harmony arise between Corporeal figure, and a form unseen; How quick their faculties the limbs fulfil, And act at every summons of the will; With mighty truths, mysterious to descry, Which in the womb of distant causes lie.

But now no grand inquiries are descry'd, Mean faction reigns where knowledge should preside,

70

Feuds are increas'd, and learning laid aside.
Thus synods oft concern for faith conceal,
And for important nothings show a zeal:
The drooping sciences neglected pine,
And Pæan's beams with fading lustre shine.
No readers here with hectic looks are found,
The lonely edifice in sweats complains [drown'd;
Nor eyes in rheum, through midnight-watching,
That nothing there but sullen silence reigns.
This place, so fit for undisturb'd repose,
Upon a couch of down in these abodes,
The god of Sloth for his asylum chose,
Supine with folded arms he thoughtless nods;
Indulging dreams his godhead lull to ease,
With murmurs of soft rills, and whispering trees:
The poppy and each numbing plant dispense
Their drowsy virtue, and dull indolence;

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 53. Why Atticus polite, Brutus severe, Why Methwin muddy, Montague why clear.

80

Soon as the evening veil'd the mountains heads,
And winds lay hush'd in subterranean beds;
Whilst sickening flowers drink up the silver dew,
And beaux for some assembly dress anew;
The city saints to prayers and play-house
The rich to dinner, and the poor to rest: [haste;
Th' officious phantom then prepar'd with care
To slide on tender pinions through the air.
Oft he attempts the summit of a rock,
And oft the hollow of some blasted oak;
At length approaching where bleak Envy lay;
The hissing of her snakes proclaim'd the way.
Beneath the gloomy covert of an yew,
That taints the grass with sickly sweats of dew;
No verdant beauty entertains the sight,
But baneful hemlock, and cold aconite;
In a dark grot the baleful haggard lay,
Breathing black vengeance, and infecting day.
But how deform'd, and worn with spiteful woes,
When Accius has applause, Dorsennus shows. 20
The cheerful blood her meagre cheeks forsook,
And basilisks sate brooding in her look;
A bald and bloated toad-stool rais'd her head;
The plumes of boding ravens were her bed:
From her chapp'd nostrils scalding torrents fall,
And her sunk eyes boil o'er in floods of gall.
Volcanos labour thus with inward pains,
While seas of melted ore lay waste the plains.
Around the fiend in hideous order sate,
Foul bawling Infamy, and bold Debate;
Gruff Discontent, through Ignorance misled,
And clamorous Faction at her party's head;
Restless Sedition still dissembling fear,
And sly Hypocrisy with pious leer.

30

Glouting with sullen spite the fury shook Her clotted locks, and blasted with each look ; Then tore with canker'd teeth the pregnant scrolls, Where Fame the acts of demigods enrols; And, as the rent-records in pieces fell, Each scrap did some immortal action tell.

40

This show'd, how fix'd as fate Torquatus stood, That, the fam'd passage of the Granic flood; The Julian eagles, here, their wings display, And there, like setting stars, the Decii lay; This does Camillus as a god extol, That points at Manlius in the Capitol;. How Cocles did the Tiber's surges brave, How Curtius plung'd into the gaping grave. Great Cyrus, here, the Medes and Persians join, And, there, th' immortal battle of the Boyne. 50 As the light messenger the fury spy'd, Awhile his curdling blood forgot to glide: Confusion on his fainting vitals hung, And faltering accents flutter'd on his tongue: At length, assuming courage, he convey'd His errand, then he shrunk into a shade. The bag lay long revolving what might be The blest event of such an embassy:

VOL. IX.

Then blazons in dread smiles her hideous form;..
So lightning gilds the unrelenting storm. 60
Thus she-" Mankind are blest, they riot still
Unbounded in exorbitance of ill.

By devastation the rough warrior gains,
And farmers fatten most when famine reigns;
For sickly seasons the physicians wait,
And politicians thrive in broils of state;
The lover 's easy when the fair-one sighs,
And gods subsist not but by sacrifice.

"Each other being some indulgence knows:-
Few are my joys, but infinite my woes.
My present pain Britannia's genius wills,
And thus the Fates record my future ills.

70

80

"A heroine shall Albion's sceptre bear, [prayer.
With arms shall vanquish Earth, and Heaven with
She on the world her clemency shall shower,
And only to preserve exert her power.
Tyrants shall then their impious aims forbear,,
And Blenheim's thunder more than Ætna's fear.
"Since by no arts I therefore can defeat
The happy enterprises of the great,
I'll calmly stoop to more inferior things,
And try if my lov'd snakes have teeth or stings."
She said; and straight shrill Colon's1 person
In morals loose, but most precise in look. [took,
Black-friars' annals lately pleas'd to call
Him warden of Apothecaries-hall;
And, when so dignify'd, did not forbear
That operation which the learn'd declare
Gives colics ease, and makes the ladies fair.
In trifling show his tinsel talent lies;
And form the want of intellects supplies.
In aspect grand and goodly he appears,
Rever'd as patriarchs in primeval years.
Hourly his learn'd impertinence affords
A barren superfluity of words;

The patient's ears remorseless he assails,
Murders with jargon where his med'cine fails.

VARIATIONS.

ed

1

Ver. 60. Then she: "Alas! how long in vain have I
Aim'd at these noble ills the Fates deny?
Within this isle for ever must I find
Disasters to distract my restless mind?
Good Tenison's celestial piety

At last has rais'd him to the sacred see.

Somers does sickening equity restore,
And helpless orphans are oppress'd no more.
Pembroke to Britain endless blessings brings.
He spoke; and Peace clapp'd her triumphant

wings.

Great Ormond shines illustriously bright
With blazes of hereditary right.
The noble ardour of a royal sire
Inspires the generous breast of Devonshire.
And Macclesfield is active to defend
His country with the zeal he loves his friend.
Like Leda's radiant sons divinely clear,

Portland and Jersey deck'd in rays appear,
To gild by turns the Gallic hemisphere.

Worth in distress is rais'd by Montague;
Augustus listens if Mæcenas sue;

And Vernon's vigilance no slumber takes,
Whilst faction peeps abroad, and anarchy awakes."

Ver. 95. In haste he strides along, to recompense
The want of business with its vain pretence.

Lee, an apothecary.

FF

100

The fury thus assuming Colon's grace, So slung her arms, so shuffl'd in her pace. Onward she hastens to the fam'd abodes, Where Horoscope 2 invokes th' infernal gods; And reach'd the mansion where the vulgar run, For ruin throng, and pay to be undone.

This visionary various projects tries,
And knows that to be rich is to be wise.
By useful observations he can tell
The sacred charms that in true sterling dwell;
How gold makes a patrician of a slave,
A dwarf an Atlas, a Thersites brave.
It cancels all defects, and in their place
Finds sense in Brownlow, charms in lady Grace;
It guides the fancy, and directs the mind;
No bankrupt ever found a fair-one kind.

So truly Horoscope its virtues knows,
To this lov'd idol 'tis, alone, he bows;
And fancies such bright heraldry can prove,
The vile plebeian but the third from Jove.

110

120

Long has he been of that amphibious fry,
Bold to prescribe, and busy to apply.
His shop the gazing vulgar's eyes employs
With foreign trinkets, and domestic toys.
Here mummies lay most reverendly stale;
And there the tortoise hung her coat of mail;
Not far from some huge shark's devouring head
The flying fish their finny pinions spread;
Aloft in rows large poppy heads were strung,
And near, a scaly alligator hung;

In this place, drugs in musty heaps decay'd;
In that, dry'd bladders and drawn teeth were laid.
An inner room receives the numerous shoals 130
Of such as pay to be reputed fools.

Globes stand by globes, volumes on volumes lie,
And planetary schemes amuse the eye.

The sage, in velvet chair, here lolls at ease,
To promise future health for present fees;
Then, as from tripod, solemn shame reveals,
And what the stars know nothing of, foretels.

One asks how soon Panthea may be won,
And longs to feel the marriage-fetters on:
Others, convinc'd by melancholy proof, 140
Inquire when courteous fates will strike them off.
Some, by what means they may redress their

wrong,

150

When fathers the possession keep too long.
And some would know the issue of their cause,
And whether go'd can solder up its flaws.
Poor pregnant Lais his advice would have,
To lose by art what fruitful Nature gave;
And Portia, old in expectation grown,
Laments her barren curse, and begs a son:
Whilst Iris his cosmetic wash would try,
To make her bloom revive, and lovers die.
Some ask for charms, and others philtres choose,
To gain Corinna, and their quartans lose.
Young Hylas, botch'd with stains too foul to name,
In cradle here renews his youthful frame:
Cloy'd with desire, and surfeited with charms,
A hot house he prefers to Julia's arms.
And old I ucullus would th' arcanum prove,
Of kindling in cold veins the sparks of love.
Bleak Envy these dull frauds with pleasure sees,
And wonders at the senseless mysteries.
In Colon's voice she thus calls out aloud
On Horoscope environ'd by the croud:
"Forbear, forbear, thy vain amusements cease,
Thy woodcocks from their gins awhile release;

2 Dr. Barnard,

161

170

croud,

181

And mortars utter their attempts aloud.
If they should once unmask our mystery,
Each nurse, ere long, would be as learn'd as we;
Our art expos'd to every vulgar eye;
And none, in complaisance to us, would die.
What if we claim their right t' assassinate,
Must they needs turn apothecaries straight?
Prevent it, gods! all stratagems we try,
To crowd with new inhabitants your sky.
'Tis we who wait the Destinies' command, 190
To purge the troubled air, and weed the land.
And dare the college insolently aim
To equal our fraternity in fame?
Then let crabs-eyes with pearl for virtue try,
Or Highgate-bill with lofty Pindus vie!
So glow-worms may compare with Titan's beams,
And Hare-court pump with Aganippe's streams.
Our manufactures now they meanly sell,
And their true value treacherously tell;
Nay, they discover too, their spite is such, 200
That health, than crowns more valued, costs not
much;

Whilst we must steer our conduct by these rules,
To cheat as tradesmen, or to starve as fools."

At this fam'd Horoscope turn'd pale, and straight In silence tumbled from his chair of state: The crowd in great confusion sought the door, And left the magus fainting on the floor; Whilst in his breast the fury breath'd a storm, Then sought her cell, and re-assum'd her form. Thus from the sore although the insect flies, 210 It leaves a brood of maggots in disguise.

Officious Squirt in haste forsook his shop, To succour the expiring Horoscope. Oft be essay'd the magus to restore, By salt of succinum's prevailing power; Yet still supine the solid lumber lay, An image of scarce-animated clay; Till Fates, indulgent when disasters call, By Squirt's nice hand apply'd a urinal. The wight no sooner d'd the stream receive, 220 But rouz'd, and bless'd the stale restorative. The springs of life their former vigour feel; Such zeal he had for that vile utensil. So when the great Pelides Thetis found, godHe knew the sea-weed scent, and th' azure