And has taken just now a firm resolution
To answer your style without circumlocution.
Lady Betty[1] presents you her service most humble,
And is not afraid your worship will grumble,
That she makes of your verses a hoop for miss Tam[2],
Which is all at present; and so I remain —
ON DR. SHERIDAN'S CIRCULAR VERSES.
WITH musick and poetry equally blest,
A bard thus Apollo most humbly addrest;
"Great author of harmony, verses, and light!
Assisted by thee, I both fiddle and write.
Yet unheeded I scrape, or I scribble all day,
My verse is neglected, my tunes thrown away.
Thy substitute here, Vice-Apollo[3], disdains
To vouch for my numbers, or list to my strains;
Thy manual signet refuses to put
To the airs I produce from the pen or the gut.
Be thou then propitious, great Phœbus! and grant
Relief, or reward, to my merit, or want.
Though the Dean and Delany transcendently shine,
O brighten one solo or sonnet of mine!
With them I'm content thou shouldst make thy abode;
But visit thy servant in jig or in ode;
- ↑ The lady of George Rochfort, esq.
- ↑ Miss Thomason, lady Betty's daughter.
- ↑ See "Apollo to the Dean."
