the doubtful compliment of piracy in 1709, by Henry Hill, of
Blackfriars, on whom presently the author neatly revenged himself in his
verses, "On a Miscellany of Poems to Bernard Lintott," by the following
reference:--

While neat old Elzevir is reckon'd better
Than Pirate Hill's brown sheets and scurvy letter.

This blank-verse poem, which may have been suggested by John Philips'
"Cider," published in 1708, is written in the mock-heroic strain, and
although it has no particular value, shows some sense of humorous
exaggeration, of which Gay was presently to show himself a master.

Of happiness terrestrial, and the source
Whence human pleasures flow, sing, Heavenly Muse,
Of sparkling juices, of th' enlivening grape,
Whose quick'ning taste adds vigour to the soul.
Whose sov'reign power revives decaying Nature,
And thaws the frozen blood of hoary age,
A kindly warmth diffusing--youthful fires
Gild his dim eyes, and paint with ruddy hue
His wrinkled visage, ghastly wan before--
Cordial restorative to mortal man,
With copious hand by bounteous gods bestow'd.

These are the opening lines. The concluding passage describing the
tippling revellers leaving the tavern suggests, as has more than once
been pointed out, the hand that afterwards wrote "Trivia."

Thus we the winged hours in harmless mirth