Horace, Ode Xi. Lib. Ii. Freely Translated By The Prince Regent.

[1]     Come, Yarmouth, my boy, never trouble your brains,         About what your old crony,         The Emperor Boney,     Is doing or brewing on Muscovy's plains;     Nor tremble, my lad, at the state of our granaries:         Should there come famine,         Still plenty to cram in     You always shall have, my dear Lord of the Stannaries.     Brisk let us revel, while revel we may;     For the gay bloom of fifty soon passes away,         And then people get fat,         And infirm, and--all that,     And a wig (I confess it) so clumsily sits,     That it frightens the little Loves out of their wits;     Thy whiskers, too, Yarmouth!--alas, even they,         Tho' so rosy they burn,         Too quickly must turn     (What a heart-breaking change for thy whiskers!) to Grey.     Then why, my Lord Warden, oh! why should you fidget         Your mind about matters you dont understand?     Or why should you write yourself down for an idiot,         Because "you," forsooth, "have the pen in your hand!"         Think, think how much better         Than scribbling a letter,         (Which both you and I         Should avoid by the by,)     How much pleasanter 'tis to sit under the bust         Of old Charley,[2] my friend here, and drink like a new one;     While Charley looks sulky and frowns at me, just         As the Ghost in the Pantomime frowns at Don Juan.         To Crown us, Lord Warden,         In Cumberland's garden     Grows plenty of monk's hood in venomous sprigs:         While Otto of Roses         Refreshing all noses     Shall sweetly exhale from our             whiskers and wigs.     What youth of the Household will cool our Noyau         In that streamlet delicious,         That down midst the dishes,         All full of gold fishes,         Romantic doth flow?--         Or who will repair     Unto Manchester Square,     And see if the gentle Marchesa be there?         Go--bid her haste hither,         And let her bring with her     The newest No-Popery Sermon that's going--     Oh! let her come, with her dark tresses flowing,     All gentle and juvenile, curly and gay,     In the manner of--Ackerman's Dresses for May!