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Poems (Volume II.)
Long, long, long, long, like Dan's long nose.[4]
[Footnote 1: In the Dublin edition:
ÝMakes thy verse smooth, and makes them last.Û]
[Footnote 2: For a clear description of the phalanx, see Smith's ÝGreek
and Roman Antiquities,Û p. 488. W. E. B.]
[Footnote 3: The projection in the centre of the shield, which caused the
missiles of the enemy to glance off. See Smith, as above,
p. 298. W. E. B.]
[Footnote 4: See post, the poems on Dan Jackson's Picture. W. E. B.]
GEORGE-NIM-DAN-DEAN'S INVITATION
TO THOMAS SHERIDAN
Gaulstown, Aug. 2, 1721.
Dear Tom, this verse, which however the beginning may appear, yet in the
end's good metre,
Is sent to desire that, when your August vacation comes, your friends
you'd meet here.
For why should you stay in that filthy hole, I mean the city so smoky,
When you have not one friend left in town, or at least not one that's
witty, to joke w' ye?
For as for honest John,[1] though I'm not sure on't, yet I'll be hang'd,
lest he
Be gone down to the county of Wexford with that great peer the Lord
Anglesey.[2]
O! but I forgot; perhaps, by this time, you may have one come to town,
but I don't know whether he be friend or foe, Delany:
But, however, if he be come, bring him down, and you shall go back in a
fortnight, for I know there's no delaying ye.
O! I forgot too: I believe there may be one more, I mean that great fat
joker, friend Helsham, he
GEORGE-NIM-DAN-DEAN'S INVITATION TO THOMAS SHERIDAN 319
Poems (Volume II.)
That wrote the prologue,[3] and if you stay with him, depend on't, in the
end, he'll sham ye.
Bring down Longshanks Jim[4] too; but, now I think on't, he's not yet
come from Courtown,[5] I fancy;
For I heard, a month ago, that he was down there a-courting sly Nancy.
However, bring down yourself, and you bring down all; for, to say it we
may venture,
In thee Delany's spleen, John's mirth, Helsham's jokes, and the soft soul
of amorous Jemmy, centre.
POSTSCRIPT
I had forgot to desire you to bring down what I say you have, and you'll
believe me as sure as a gun, and own it;
I mean, what no other mortal in the universe can boast of, your own
spirit of pun, and own wit.
And now I hope you'll excuse this rhyming, which I must say is (though
written somewhat at large) trim and clean;
And so I conclude, with humble respects as usual
Your most dutiful and obedient
GEORGE-NIM-DAN-DEAN.
[Footnote 1: Supposed to mean Dr. Walmsley. F.]
[Footnote 2: Arthur, Earl of Anglesey. Scott.]
[Footnote 3: It was customary with Dr. Sheridan to have a Greek play
acted by his head class, just before they entered the university; and,
accordingly, in the year 1720, the Doctor having fixed on Hippolytus,
writ a prologue in English, to be spoken by Master Thom. Putland, one of
the youngest children he had in his school. The prologue was very neat
and elegant, but extremely puerile, and quite adapted to the childhood of
the speaker, who as regularly was taught and rehearsed his part as any of
the upper lads did theirs. However, it unfortunately happened that Dr.
King, Archbishop of Dublin, had promised Sheridan that he would go and
see his lads perform the tragedy. Upon which Dr. Helsham writ another
prologue, wherein he laughed egregiously at Sheridan's; and privately
instructed Master Putland how to act his part; and at the same time
exacted a promise from the child, that no consideration should make him
GEORGE-NIM-DAN-DEAN'S INVITATION TO THOMAS SHERIDAN 320
Poems (Volume II.)
repeat that prologue which he had been taught by Sheridan. When the play
was to be acted, the archbishop attended according to his promise; and
Master Putland began Helsham's prologue, and went through it to the
amazement of Sheridan; which fired him to such a degree (although he was
one of the best-natured men in the world) that he would have entirely put
off the play, had it not been in respect to the archbishop, who was
indeed highly complimented in Helsham's performance. When the play was
over, the archbishop was very desirous to hear Sheridan's prologue; but
all the entreaties of the archbishop, the child's father, and Sheridan,
could not prevail with Master Putland to repeat it, having, he said,
promised faithfully that he would not, upon any account whatever; and
therefore insisted that he would keep his word. F.]
[Footnote 4: Dr. James Stopford, Bishop of Cloyne. F.]
[Footnote 5: The seat of Hussay, Esq., in the county of
Kildare. F.]
TO GEORGE-NIM-DAN-DEAN, ESQ.
UPON HIS INCOMPARABLE VERSES. BY DR. DELANY IN SHERIDAN'S NAME[1]
Hail, human compound quadrifarious,
Invincible as wight Briareus![2]
Hail! doubly-doubled mighty merry one,
Stronger than triple-bodied Geryon![3]
O may your vastness deign t' excuse
The praises of a puny Muse,
Unable, in her utmost flight,
To reach thy huge colossian height!
T' attempt to write like thee were frantic,
Whose lines are, like thyself, gigantic.
Yet let me bless, in humbler strain,
Thy vast, thy bold Cambysian[4] vein,
Pour'd out t' enrich thy native isle,
As Egypt wont to be with Nile.
O, how I joy to see thee wander,
In many a winding loose meander,
In circling mazes, smooth and supple,
And ending in a clink quadruple;
Loud, yet agreeable withal,
TO GEORGE-NIM-DAN-DEAN, ESQ. 321
Poems (Volume II.)
Like rivers rattling in their fall!
Thine, sure, is poetry divine,
Where wit and majesty combine;
Where every line, as huge as seven,
If stretch'd in length, would reach to Heaven:
Here all comparing would be slandering,
The least is more than Alexandrine.
Against thy verse Time sees with pain,
He whets his envious scythe in vain;
For though from thee he much may pare,
Yet much thou still wilt have to spare.
Thou hast alone the skill to feast
With Roman elegance of taste,
Who hast of rhymes as vast resources
As Pompey's caterer of courses.
O thou, of all the Nine inspired!
My languid soul, with teaching tired,
How is it raptured, when it thinks
Of thy harmonious set of chinks;
Each answering each in various rhymes,
Like echo to St. Patrick's chimes!
Thy Muse, majestic in her rage,
Moves like Statira[5] on the stage;
And scarcely can one page sustain
The length of such a flowing train:
Her train of variegated dye
Shows like Thaumantia's[6] in the sky;
Alike they glow, alike they please,
Alike imprest by Phoebus' rays.
Thy verse (Ye Gods! I cannot bear it)
To what, to what shall I compare it?
'Tis like, what I have oft heard spoke on,
The famous statue of Laocoon.
'Tis like, O yes, 'tis very like it,
The long, long string, with which you fly kite.
'Tis like what you, and one or two more,
Roar to your Echo[7] in good humour;
And every couplet thou hast writ
Concludes with Rhattah-whittah-whit.[8]
[Footnote 1: These were written all in circles, one within another, as
appears from the observations in the following poem by Dr. Swift. F.]
[Footnote 2: The hundred-armed giant, Ýcentumgeminus Briareus,Û Virg.,
ÝAen.,Û vi, 287; also called Aegaeon, Ýcentum cui brachia dicunt,Û Virg.,
ÝAen.,Û x, 565; see Heyne's notes. W. E. B.]
TO GEORGE-NIM-DAN-DEAN, ESQ. 322
Poems (Volume II.)
[Footnote 3: A mythic king, having three bodies, whose arms were carried
off by Hercules. Lucr., v, 28, and Munro's note; Virg. ÝAen.,Û vii, 662,
and viii, 202:
Ýmaxumus ultor
Tergemini nece Geryonae spoliisque superbus
Alcides aderat taurosque hac victor agebat
Ingentis, vallemque boves amnemque tenebant.Û W. E. B.]
[Footnote 4: Cambyses, the warrior king of Persia, whose name is the
emblem of bravado. W. E. B.]
[Footnote 5: Represented as the perfection of female beauty in
ÝCassandra,Û a romance by La Calprenede, romancier et auteur dramatique,
1610-1663, Larousse. W. E. B.]
[Footnote 6: Iris, daughter of Thaumas, and the messenger of Juno,
descending and returning on the rainbow. W. E. B.]
[Footnote 7: At Gaulstown there is so famous an echo, that if you repeat
two lines of Virgil out of a speaking-trumpet, you may hear the nymph
return them to your ear with great propriety and clearness. F. ]
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