And garble his wares with dogs' and asses' flesh, That's well imagined; it precisely suits him; To dine with me in the hall. You'll fill the seat And you, the rest of you, conduct that fellow [Exeunt. PARABASIS. (From the "Knights" of Aristophanes.) Ir a veteran author had wished to engage But now for the gentle reproaches he bore He begs us to state, that for reasons of weight, Discarded in scorn as exhausted and worn. Seeing Magnes's fate, who was reckoned of late, With his sounds of all sort, that were uttered in sport, Full of spirit and blood, and enlarged like a flood, Oaks, ashes, and yew, with the ground where they grew, And his personal foes, who presume to oppose, All drowned and abolished, dispersed and demolished, And drifted headlong, with a deluge of song. And his airs and his tunes, and his songs and lampoons, Were recited and sung, by the old and the young At feasts and carousals what poet but he? And "The Fair Amphibribe," and "The Sycophant Tree," "Masters and masons and builders of verse! Those were the tunes that all tongues could rehearse; All decayed and forlorn, in his person and dress; Whom his former success should exempt from distress, With subsistence at large, at the general charge, And a seat with the great, at the table of state, In splendid apparel, triumphant and gay. Seeing Crates the next, always teased and perplext, With your tyrannous temper, tormented and vext; That with taste and good sense, without waste or expense, From his snug little hoard provided your board With a delicate treat, economic and neat. Thus hitting or missing, with crowns or with hissing, For better or worse, till he finished his course. To the oar, to the helm, and to look out ahead; If your judgment agrees Or a troublesome lout, To puzzle and bother, and blunder about, At his first setting out! And all pull away With a hearty huzza For success to the play! Send him away, Smiling and gay, Shining and florid, With his bald forehead! PLATO AND BACON. BY LORD MACAULAY. [THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY: An English historian and essayist; born October 25, 1800; son of a noted philanthropist and a Quaker lady; died at London, December 28, 1859. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and called to the bar, but took to writing for the periodicals and to politics; became famous for historical essays, was a warm advocate of Parliamentary Reform, and was elected to Parliament in 1830. In 1834 he was made a member of the Supreme Legislative Council for India, residing there till 1838, and making the working draft of the present Indian Penal Code. He was Secretary at War in 1839. The first two volumes of his "History of England" were published in December, 1848. His fame rests even more on his historical essays, his unsurpassed speeches, and his "Lays of Ancient Rome."] |