To Rome remov'd, with wit secure to please,
The Comic sisters kept their native ease.
With jealous fear declining Greece beheld
Her own Meander's art almost excell'd!
But ev'ry Muse essay'd to raise in vain
Some labour'd rival of her Tragic strain;
Ilyssus' laurels, tho' transferr'd with toil,
Droop'd their fair leaves, nor knew th' unfriendly soil.