SANDYS" GHOST, OR, A PROPER NEW BALLAD ON THE NEW OVID'S METAMORPHOSES: AS IT WAS INTENDED TO BE TRANSLATED BY PERSONS OF QUALITY.2 YE lords and Commons, men of wit And pleasure about town, Read this, ere you translate one bit Beware of Latin authors, all, Nor think your verses sterling, For not the desk with silver nails, Nor standish well japann'd, avails 1 George Sandys, the old, and as yet unequalled, translator of Ovid's Metamorphoses. 2 A note prefixed to this poem in Roscoe's ed. of Pope's Works informs us that "Sir Samuel Garth, who published the Metamorphoses of Ovid, translated by 'Dryden, Addison, Garth, Mainwaring, Congreve, Rowe, Pope, Gay, Eusden, Croxal, and other eminent hands,' had himself no other share in the undertaking, than engaging the various translators in their task, and putting their labours into some order." The fact is, Sir Samuel translated the whole of the 14th Book, and the story of Cippus in the 15th Book of the Metamorphoses. Hear how a ghost in dead of night, In woful wise did sore affright A wit and courtly 'squire. Rare imp of Phoebus, hopeful youth! Ah! why did he write poetry, A desk he had of curious work, Now, as he scratch'd to fetch up thought, All upright as a pin. With whiskers, band, and pantaloon, Ho! master Sam, quoth Sandys' sprite, I hear the beat of Jacob's drums, See first the merry P 4 comes In haste without his garter. Then lords and lordlings, 'squires and knights, Beats up for volunteers. What Fenton will not do, nor Gay, Nor Congreve, Rowe, nor Stanyan, Tom Burnet, or Tom D'Urfey may, John Dunton, Steele, or any one. If justice Philips' costive head Some frigid rhymes disburses: Let Warwick's Muse with Ash-t join, Tickell and Addison combine, And Pope translate with Jervas. L- himself, that lively lord, 8 Old Jacob Tonson, the publisher of the Metamorphoses. 4 Perhaps Pembroke. Ye ladies, too, draw forth your pen; I pray, where can the hurt lie? Since you have brains as well as men, As witness Lady Wortley. Now, Tonson, list thy forces all, A metamorphosis more strange Than all his books can vapour— "To what (quoth 'squire) shall Ovid change?" Quoth Sandys, "To waste paper." UMBRA.1 CLOSE to the best known author Umbra sits, The constant index to old Button's wits, "Who's here?" cries Umbra: "Only Johnson.” 2 Your slave," and exit; but returns with Rowe: 1 Intended, it is said, for Ambrose Philips. But cries as soon, "Dear Dick, I must be gone, SYLVIA, A FRAGMENT.1 SYLVIA my heart in wondrous wise alarm'd, Now deep in Taylor, and the Book of Martyrs, 1 Introduced, with some alterations, into the Second of the Moral Epistles, Of the Characters of Women. |