Enabled by a chain of facts to tell Let me not only the distempers know Too sure at last to do its destined work : 565 570 Let me, forewarn'd, each sign, each system learn, Let me, (though great, grave brethren of the gown 575 Preach all faith up, and preach all reason down, 580 Which law hath sanction'd: let me find out there 585 The times have been, when priests have dared to tread, Proud and insulting, on their monarch's head 596 595 Out of the world they banish'd common sense; 605 610 Let me, (though statesmen will no doubt resist, And to my eyes present a fearful list Of men, whose wills are opposite to mine, Let me, (with firmness, which becomes a king, Destroy their jobs, lay bare their ways and means, Why Guilt's provided for, when Worth is not, 625 630 Let me, (though Dignity, by nature proud, Retires from view, and swells behind a cloud, As if the sun shone with less powerful ray, Less grace, less glory, shining every day, Though when she comes forth into public sight, Unbending as a ghost, she stalks upright, With such an air as we have often seen, And often laugh'd at in a tragic queen, Nor, at her presence, though base myriads crook The supple knee, vouchsafes a single look) Let me, (all vain parade, all empty pride, All terrors of dominion laid aside, All ornament, and needless helps of art, 636 All those big looks, which speak a little heart) 640 Destroys all fear, bids love with reverence live, In full fair tide let information flow; That evil is half cured, whose cause we know. 645 650 And thou, where'er thou art, thou wretched thing, Who art afraid to look up to a king, 650 Lay by thy fears—make but thy grievance plain, dart, Though it is doom'd to pierce a favourite's heart, 'Tis mine to give it force, to give it aimI know it duty, and I feel it fame. 664 662 The invariable burthen of all that was said or sung by Wilkes and his adherents was the influence of Lord Bute as a favourite, which, although of short duration and rather nominal than real, laid the foundation for that inner cabinet, that power behind the throne, but greater than the throne itself, which existed during much of George the Third's reign, and tended occasionally to counteract the plans of his ostensible and responsible ministers. THE AUTHOR. THIS Poem was published in December 1763, and for it and the Duellist, Churchill obtained from Mr. Flexney and Mr. Kearsley the sum of £450. The sale was very extensive, and the price of half a crown required for so short a poem rendered it a profitable concern to the booksellers. The Rosciad, a production of nearly four times the length, had been published by Churchill at the moderate price of one shilling, but at that period his name had not risen to that degree of celebrity which afterwards enabled his majesty of Gotham to impose a monthly poll-tax of half a crown upon his liege subjects. The poem having been announced and advertised long previous to its actual publication, the following friendly epigram was written by Colman: But where is this Author was promised so long He's sick, Sir, cries one; he's burnt out, cries another, For Parson and Fanny together are laid. By contemporary critics "The Author" was considered as the most agreeable and unexceptionable of Churchill's poems, both as regarded the tendency of the subject and the execution, the interests of genius and learning being cordially espoused and powerfully supported, while the contempt of professed ignorance and the shallowness of pretenders to science were justly exposed and lashed by the blameless rod of general satire. |