GEORGE-NIM-DAN-DEAN'S INVITATION

To THOMAS SHERIDAN,

Gaulftown, Aug. 2d, 1721.

DE

EAR Tom, this verfe, which however the beginning may appear, yet in the end's good mêtre, Is fent to defire that, when your Auguft vacation comes, your friends you'd meet here.

For why should you ftay in that filthy hole, I mean the city fo fmoaky,

When you have not one friend left in town, or at leaft not one that's witty, to joke w'ye?

For, as for honeft John*, though I am not fure on 't, yet I'll be hang'd, left be

Be gone down to the

county

'peer the lord Anglesey.

of Wexford with that great

Oh! 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 fhall go back in a fortnight, for I know there 's no delaying ye.

Oh! I forgot too; I believe there may be one more, I mean that great fat joker, friend Helsham, ve That wrote the prologue †, and if you ftay with him, depend on 't, in the end, be 'll fbam ye.

*Supposed to mean Dr. Walmsley.

Bring

+ One fpoken by young Putland, in 1720, before Hippolytus ; in which Dr. Sheridan (who had written Q2 a pro

Bring down Long Shanks Jim too; but, now I think on 't, he's not yet come from Courtown, I fancy ; For I heard, a month ago, that he was down there a-courting Лy Nancy.

However, bring down yourself, and you bring down all; for, to fay it we may venture,

In thee Delany's spleen, John's mirth, Helfham's jokes, and the foft foul of amorous Jemmy, center.

POSTSCRIPT.

I had forgot to defire you to bring down what I fay you have, and you'll believe me as fure as a gun, and own it;

I mean, what no other mortal in the univerfe can boast of, your own fpirit of pun, and own wit. ·

And now I hope you 'll excufe this rhyming, which I muft fay is (though written fomewhat at large) trim and clean;

And fo I conclude, with humble refpects as ufual, Your moft dutiful and obedient

GEORGE-NIM-DAN-DEAN.

a prologue for the cccafion) was most unexpectedly and egregioufly laughed at. Both the prologues are printed in the "Supplement to Swift's Works."

ΤΟ

TO GEORGE-NIM-DAN-DEAN, Efq. Upon his incomparable VER SE S, &c.

By Dr. DELANY, in SHERIDAN'S Name *.

H

AIL, human compound quadrifarious,
Invincible as Wight Briareus!

Hail! doubly-doubled mighty merry one,
Stronger than triple-body'd Geryon !
O may your vasiness deign t'excuse
The praises of a puny Muse,
Unable, in her utmost flight,
To reach thy huge Coloffian height.
T'attempt to write like thee were frantic,
Whofe lines are, like thyfelf, gigantic.

Yet let me blefs, in humbler ftrain,
Thy vaft, thy bold Cambyfian vein,
Pour'd out t' enrich thy native isle,
As Egypt wont to be with Nile.
Oh, how I joy to fee thee wander,
In many a winding loofe mæander,
In circling mazes, smooth and fupple,
And ending in a clink quadruple ;
Loud, yet agreeable withal,

Like rivers rattling in their fall!

Thine, fure, is poetry divine,

Where wit and majesty combine;

*Thefe were all written in circles.

Q3:

Where

Where every line, as huge as feven,

If stretch'd in length, would reach to Heavene:
Here all comparing would be flandering,
'The leaft is more than Alexandrine.

Against thy verse Time fees with pain,
He whets his envious scythe in vain ;
For, though from thee he much may pare,,
Yet much thou ftill wilt have to fpare.
Thou haft alone the fkill to feaft
With Roman elegance of tafte,
Who haft of rhymes as vast resources
As Pompey's caterer of courses.

Oh thou, of all the Nine infpir'd!'
My languid foul, with teaching tir'd,
How is it raptur'd, when it thinks
On thy harmonious fett of clinks;
Each anfwering each in various rhymes,
Like Echo to St. Patrick's chimes !
Thy Mufe, majestic in her rage,.
Moves like Statira on the ftage;

e fuftain

And fcarcely can one page.1

The length of fuch a flowing train:
Her train, of variegated die,.

Shews like Thaumantia's in the sky;
Alike they glow, alike they please,

Alike impreft by Phoebus' rays.

Thy verfe

(Ye Gods! I cannot bear it).

To what, to what fhall I compare it?

'Tis like, what I have oft' heard spoke on, The famous ftatue of Laocoon.

'Tis like, O yes, 'tis very like it,

The long, long ftring, with which you fly kite.
"Tis like what you, and one or two more,
Roar to your Echo* in good-humour ;
And every couplet thou haft writ
Conclude like Rattab-whittah-whit↑.

To Mr. THOMAS SHERIDAN, Upon his Verfes written in Circles. By Dr. SWIFT..

I

T never was known that circular letters,

By humble companions, were fent to their betters: And, as to the subject, our judgement, meherc'le, Is this, that you argue like fools in a circle. But now for your verfes; we tell you, imprimis, The fegment so large 'twixt your reason and rhyme is, That we walk all about, like a horse in a pound, And, before we find either, our noddles turn round.. Sufficient it were, one would think, in your mad rant, To give us your measures of line by a quadrant. But we took our dividers, and found your d-n'd metre,, In each fingle verse, took up a diameter.

But how, Mr. Sheridan, came you to venture

George, Dan, Dean, and Nim, to place in the centre ‡ ? "Twill appear, to your coft, you are fairly trepann'd, For the chord of your circle is now in their hand.

* At Gaulstown, there is a remarkably famous echo.. + An allufion to the found produced by the echo.. Their figures were in the centre of the verses.