Frighted, I quit the room, but leave it fo As men from Jails to execution go;

For, hung with deadly fins, I fee the wall,

And lin'd with Giants deadlier than 'em all:

275

Each man an Askapart, of strength to tofs

For Quoits, both Temple-bar and Charing-crofs.

Scar'd at the grizly forms, I fweat, I fly,

And shake all o'er, like a discover'd spy.

279

Courts are too much for wits fo weak as mine:

Charge them with Heav'n's Artill'ry, bold Divine!
From fuch alone the Great rebukes endure,
Whofe Satire's facred, and whofe rage fecure:

'Tis mine to wash a few light stains, but theirs
To deluge fin, and drown a Court in tears.
Howe'er what's now Apocrypha, my Wit,
In time to come, may pass for Holy Writ.

NOTES.

285

VER. 286. my Wit,] The private character of Donne was very amiable and interesting; particularly fo, on account of his fecret marriage with the daughter of Sir George More; of the difficul. ties he underwent on this marriage; of his conftant affection to his wife, his affliction at her death, and the fenfibility he difplayed towards all his friends and relations. WARTON.

His life is written by Ifaac Walton. "He was born," fays Mr. Ellis, "at London in 1573, and educated at home till the eleventh year of his age. His academical residence then became divided between Oxford and Cambridge, and his ftudies between poetry and law. He accompanied the Earl of Effex in an expedition againft Cadiz, was fecretary fome time to Sir Thomas Egerton, Lord keeper of the Great Seal; and having taken orders, was promoted to be King's Chaplain, preacher of the Society of Lincoln's Inn, and Dean of St. Paul's. He died in 1631

In fpeaking of the firft English Satirifts, Warton has faid nothing of Marston, who wrote the "Scourge of Villany."

EPILOGUE

TO THE

SATIRE S.

IN TWO DIALOGUES,

WRITTEN IN MDCCXXXVIII.

The following words of Quintilian might not be an improper motto for thefe Dialogues:

"Ingenii plurimum eft in eo, et acerbitas mira, et urbanitas, et vis fumma; fed plus ftomacho, quam confilio dedit. Præterea ut amari fales, ita frequenter amaritudo ipfa ridicula eft."

EPILOGUE

TO THE

SATIRE S.

WRITTEN IN MDCCXXXVIII.

FR. NOT
Nor

DIALOGUE I.

twice a twelvemonth you appear in Print,

And when it comes, the Court fee nothing in't.

You

VARIATIONS.

After Ver. 2. in the MS.

You don't, I hope, pretend to quit the trade,
Because you think your reputation made:
Like good Sir Paul, of whom so much was said,
That when his name was up, he lay a-bed.
Come, come, refresh us with a livelier fong,
Or, like St. Paul, you'll lie a-bed too long.
P. Sir, what I write, should be correctly writ.
F. Correct! 'tis what no genius can admit.
Befides, you grow too moral for a Wit.

NOTES.

VER. 1. Not twice a twelvemonth, &c.] These two lines are from Horace; and the only lines that are fo in the whole Poeme being meant to give a handle to that which follows in the chp, ter of an impertinent Cenf

of the Ariofto; an account

By long logarth.

measure,

4 BAL

truths he spoke.

and