But, when its short-liv'd beauties die, Let friendship reign while here we stay ; SONG IX. GIVE me but a friend and a glass, boys, "Tis woman in chains does bind, boys, But none in a brimmer can be. * [Here closes Mr. Pilkington's ode to Lycidas, printed in 1730 with his poems; the spurious addition has been thus refined from its Bacchanalian heathenism, in the song-collections of Mr. Plumptre.] So 'tis with us;-life is not long, Let friendship reign while here we stay : Let virtue aid the cheerful song; When Heav'n shall call, we must obey.] SONG X.* BID me, when forty winters more Nature, who form'd the varied scene No-let me waste the frolic May And wine, the aid of love, be near: * Quære, if not by Sir John Hill, M. D.? SONG XI. BY MR. GAY.* YOUTH's the season made for joys, She alone, who that employs, Let's be gay, While we may, Beauty's a flower despis'd in decay. Let us drink and sport to-day, Age is nought but sorrow. Dance and sing, Time's on the wing, Life never knows the return of spring. SONG XII. BY DR. DALTON.† PREACH not to me your musty rules, * In the Beggar's Opera.' ↑ In his excellent alteration of the masque of 'Comus.' If short my span, I less can spare SONG XIII.* COME now, all ye social pow'rs, Bring the flask, the music bring, Drink and dance, and laugh and sing; Love, thy godhead we adore, Friendship with thy smile divine, Brighten all our features; What but friendship, love and wine, Can make us happy creatures. Bring the flask, &c. * Altered and enlarged from the finale of Bickerstaff's 'School for Fathers.' Why the deuce should we be sad, Then since time will steal away, Spite of all our sorrow; Bring the flask, the music bring, Drink, and dance, and laugh, and sing, SONG XIV. CATO'S ADVICE.* WHAT Cato advises, most certainly wise is, * By Harry Carey; which familiar appellative the reader is desired to prefer in every place to the more stately one of Mr. Henry. Cato's real advice (whoever he was) is comprised in the following distich, prefixed by honest Harry, in his Musical Century,' as a motto to the song: Interpone tuis interdum gaudia curis, Ut possis animo quemvis sufferre laborem. Distich, lib. 3. |