Page:The Poetical Works of Thomas Parnell (1833).djvu/282

154 was the scorn he conceived against him. But Zoilus still undauntedly renewed his petitions, till Ptolemy, being weary of his persecution, gave him a flat denial. Homer, says the prince, who has been dead these thousand years, has maintained thousands of people; and Zoilus, who boasts he has more wit than he, ought not only to maintain himself, but many others also.

His petitions being thrown carelessly about, were fallen into the hands of men of wit, whom, according to his custom, he had provoked, and whom it is unsafe to provoke if you would live unexposed. I can compare them to nothing more properly, than to the bee, a creature winged and lively, fond to rove through the choicest flowers of nature, and blest at home among the sweets of its own composition: not ill-natured, yet quick to revenge an injury; not wearing its sting out of the sheath, yet able to wound more sorely than its appearance would threaten. Now these being made personal enemies by his malicious expressions, the court rung with petitions of Zoilus transversed; new petitions drawn up for him; catalogues of his merits, supposed to be collected by himself; his Complaints of Man's Injustice set to a Harp out of Tune, and a hundred other sports of fancy, with which their epigrams played upon him. These were the ways of writing which Zoilus hated, because they were not only read, but retained easily, by reason of their spirit, humour, and brevity; and because they not only