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Proud Vice to brand, or injur'd Worth adorn,
And stretch the ray to ages yet unborn.
Not but there are, who merit other palms;
Hopkins and Sternhold glad the heart with psalms:
The 2boys and girls whom charity maintains
Implore your help in these pathetic strains:
How could Devotion touch the country pews,
Unless the gods bestow'd a proper Muse?

Verse cheers their leisure, Verse assists their work,
Verse prays for peace, or sings down 'pope and Turk.
The silenc'd preacher yields to potent strain,
And feels that grace his prayer besought in vain ;
The blessing thrills through all the labouring throng,
And Heaven is won by violence of song.

Our rural ancestors, with little blest,
Patient of labour when the end was rest,
Indulg'd the day that hous'd their annual grain,
With feasts, and offerings, and a thankful strain:
The joy their wives, their sons, and servants share,
Ease of their toil, and partners of their care:
The laugh, the jest, attendants on the bowl,
Smooth'd every brow, and open'd every soul:
With growing years the pleasing licence grew,
And taunts alternate innocently flew.

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But times corrupt, and Nature ill-inclin'd,
Produc'd the point that left a sting behind;
Till, friend with friend, and families at strife,
Triumphant Malice rag'd through private life.
Who felt the wrong, or fear'd it, took th' alarm,
Appeal'd to law, and Justice lent her arm.

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At length by wholesome dread of statutes bound,
The poets learn'd to please, and not to wound:
Most warp'd to 10 flattery's side; but some, more nice,
Preserv'd the freedom, and forbore the vice.
Hence satire rose, that just the medium hit,
And heals with morals what it hurts with wit.
"We conquer'd France, but felt our captive's
charms;

Her arts victorious triumph'd o'er our arms;
Britain to soft refinements less a foe,
Wit grew polite, and 22 numbers learn'd to flow.

2

3

Instruit exemplis; inopem solatur et ægrum.
Castis cum pueris ignara puella mariti
Disceret unde preces, vatem ni Musa dedisset?
Poscit opem chorus, et præsentia numina sentit;
Cœlestes implorat aquas, docta prece blandus;
Avertit morbos, metuenda pericula pellit;
Impetrat et pacem, et locupletem frugibus annum.
Carmine Di superi placantur, carmine Manes.
Agricolæ prisci, fortes parvoque beati,
Condita post frumenta, levantes tempore festo
Corpus et ipsum animum spe finis dura ferentem,
Cum sociis operum pueris et conjuge fida,
Tellurem porco, Silvanum lacte piabant,
Floribus, et vino Genium memorem brevis ævi,
Fescennina per hunc inventa licentia inorem.

7 Versibus alternis opprobria rustica fudit;
Libertasque recurrentes accepta per annos
Lusit amabiliter: donec jam sævus apertam
In rabiem cœpit verti jocus, et per honestas
Ire domos impune minax. doluere cruento
Dente lacessiti: fuit intactis quoque cura
Conditione super communi: quin etiam lex
Punaque lata, malo quæ nollet carmine quemquam
Describi. vertere modum, formidine fustis
Ad 10 bene dicendum, delectandumque redacti.
"Græcia capta ferum victorem cepit, et artes
Intulit agresti Latio. sic horridus ille

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Defluxit 12 numerus Saturnius, et grave virus

Waller was smooth; but Dryden tanght to join
The varying verse, the full resounding line,
The long majestic march, and energy divine.
Though still some traces of our rustic vein
And splayfoot verse remain'd, and will remain,
Late, very late, correctness grew our care,
When the tir'd nation breath'd from civil war.
Exact Racine, and Corneille's noble fire,
Show'd us that France had something to admire.
Not but the tragic spirit was our own,
And full in Shakespeare, fair in Otway shone:
But Otway fail'd to polish or refine,

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3

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And fluent Shakespeare scarce effac'd a line.
Ev'n copious Dryden wanted, or forgot,
The last and greatest art, the art to blot.
Some doubt, if equal pains, or equal fire,
The humbler Muse of comedy require.
But in known images of life, I guess
The labour greater, as th' indulgence less.'
Observe how seldom ev'n the best succeed:
Tell me if Congreve's fools are fools indeed?
What pert low dialogue has Farquhar writ!
How Van wants grace, who never wanted wit!
The stage how loosely does Astræa tread,
Who fairly puts all characters to bed!
And idle Cibber, how he breaks the laws,
To make poor Pinkey 10 eat with vast applause!
But fill their purse, our poets' work is done,
Alike to them, by pathos or by pun.

O you! whom 12 Vanity's light bark conveys
On Fame's mad voyage by the wind of praise,
With what a shifting gale your course you ply,
For ever sunk too low, or borne too high;
Who pants for glory finds but short repose,
A breath revives him, or a breath o'erthrows.
13 Farewell the stage! if, just as thrives the play,
The silly bard grows fat, or falls away.

14 There still remains, to mortify a wit,
The many-headed monster of the pit;
A senseless, worthless, and unhonour'd crow'd:
Who, 15 to disturb their betters mighty proud,

Munditiæ pepulere: sed in longum tamen ævum
Manserunt, hodieque manent, 1 vestigia ruris.
Serus enim Græcis admovit acumina chartis;
Et post Punica bella quietus quærere cœpit,
Quid Sophocles et Thespis et Aschylus utile fer-

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2

rent:

B

Tentavit quoque rem, digne vertere posset:
Et placuit sibi, natura sublimis et acer:
Namspirat tragicum satis, et feliciter audet:
Sed turpem putat inscite metuitque lituram.
Creditur, ex medio quia res arcessit, habere
Sudoris minimum; sed habet comedia tanto
Plus oneris, quanto veniæ minus.' aspice, Plautuş
Quo pacto partes tutetur amantis ephebi,
Ut patris attenti, lenonis ut insidiosi:
Quantus sit Dossennus edacibus in parasitis;
Quam non 10 astricto percurrat pulpita socco.
Gestit enim " nummum in loculos demittere: post
Securus, cadat an recto stet fabula talo.
Quem tulit ad scenam 12 ventoso gloria curru,
Exanimat lentus spectator, sedulus inflat:
Sic leve, sic parvum est, animum quod laudis ava-

14

run

11

[hoc

Subruit, ac reficit: 13 valeat res ludicra, si me Palma negata macrum, donata reducit opimum. Sæpe etiam audacem fugat hoc terretque poctam Quod numero plures, virtute et honore minores Indocti, stolidique, et " depugnare parati

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Clattering their sticks before ten lines are spoke,
Call for the farce, the bear, or the Black-joke.
What dear delight to Britons farce affords!
Ever the taste of mobs, but now 2 of lords;
(Taste, that eternal wanderer, which flies
From heads to ears, and now from ears to eyes.)
The play stands still; damn action and discourse,
Back fly the scenes, and enter foot, and horse;
Pageants on pageants, in long order drawn,
Peers, heralds, bishops, ermin, gold and lawn;
The champion too! and, to complete the jest,
Old Edward's armour beams on Cibber's breast.
With laughter sure Democritus had dy'd,
Had he beheld an audience gape so wide.
Let bear or elephant be e'er so white,
The people sure, the people are the sight!
Ah luckless poet! stretch thy lungs and roar,
That bear or elephant shall heed thee more;
While all its throats the gallery extends,
And all the thunder of the pit ascends!
Loud as the wolves, on Orca's stormy steep,
Howl to the roarings of the northern deep:
Such is the shout, the long-applauding note,
At Quin's high plume, or Oldfield's ' petticoat;
Or when from court a birth-day suit bestow'd,
Sinks the 10 lost actor in the tawdrey load.
Booth enters-hark! the universal peal!
"But has he spoken ?" Not a syllable.
What shook the stage, and made the people stare?
"Cato's long wig, flower'd gown, and lacquer'd chair.
Yet, lest you think I rally more than teach,
Or praise malignly arts I cannot reach,
Let me for once presume t' instruct the times,
To know the poet from the man of rhymes:
'Tis be 12 who gives my breast a thousand pains,
Can make me feel each passion that he feigns;
Enrage, compose, with more than magic art;
With pity, and with terrour, tear my heart;
And snatch me, o'er the earth, or through the air,
To Thebes, to Athens, when he will, and where.
Si discordet eques, media inter carmina poscunt
Aut1ursum aut pugiles: his nam plebecula gau-
det.
[luptas
Verum equitis quoque jam migravit ab aure vo-
Omnis, ad incertos oculos, et gaudia vana.
Quatuor aut plures aulæa premuntur in horas;
Dum fugiunt equitum turmæ, peditumque ca-

tervæ :

Mox traditur manibus regum fortuna retortis;
Esseda festinant, pilenta, petorrita, naves;
Captivum portatur ebur, captiva Corinthus.
*Si foret in terris, rideret Democritus; seu
Diversum confusa genus panthera camelo,
Sive elephas albus vulgi converteret ora.
Spectaret populum ludis attentius ipsis,
Ut sibi præbentem mimo spectacula plura :
Scriptores autem narrare putaret asello
Fabellam surdo. nam quæ pervincere voces
Evaluere sonum, referunt quem nostra theatra?
*Garganum mugire putes nemus, aut mare Tuscum.
Tanto cum strepitu ludi spectantur, et artes,
'Divitiæque peregrina: quibus 10 oblitus actor
Cum stetit in scena, concurrit dextera lævæ.
Dixit adhuc aliquid? nil sane. Quid placet ergo?
"Lana Tarentino violas imitata veneno.

Ac ne forte putes me, quæ facere ipse recusem,
Cum recte tractent alii, laudare maligne :
Ille per extentum funem mihi posse videtur
Ire poeta ; 22 meum qui pectus inaniter angit,

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'But not this part of the poetic state Alone, deserves the favour of the great : 'Think of those authors, sir, who would rely More on a reader's sense, than gazer's eye. Or who shall wander where the Muses sing? Who climb their mountain, or who taste their How shall we fill a library with wit, [spring? When Merlin's Cave is half unfurnish'd yet? My liege! why writers little claim your thought, I guess; and, with their leave, will tell the fault: We poets are (upon a poet's word)

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Of all mankind, the creatures most absurd :
The season, when to come, and when to go,
To sing, or cease to sing, we never know;
And if we will recite nine hours in ten,
You lose your patience just like other men.
Then too we hurt ourselves, when, to defend
A single verse, we quarrel with a friend;
Repeat unask'd; 'lament, the wit's too fine
For vulgar eyes, and point out every line;
But most, when, straining with too weak a wing,
We needs will write epistles to the king;
And from the moment we oblige the town,
Expect a place, or pension from the crown;
Or, dubb'd historians by express command,
T'enroll your triumphs o'er the seas and land,
Be call'd to court to plan some work divine,
As once for Louis, Boileau and Racine.

Yet'think, great sir! (so many virtues shown)
Ah think, what poet best may make them known?
Or chuse at least some minister of grace,
Fit to bestow the 10 laureat's weighty place.

" Charles, to late times to be transmitted fair, Assign'd his figure to Bernini's care; And 12 great Nassau to Kneller's hand decreed To fix him graceful on the bounding steed; So well in paint and stone they judg'd of merit : But kings in wit may want discerning spirit.

Irritat, mulcet, falsis terroribus implet,

Ut magus; et modo me Thebis, modo ponit Athenis.
1 Verum age, et his, qui se lectori credere malunt,
Quam spectatoris fastidia ferre superbi,
Curam impende brevem: si munus Apolline dignum
Vis complere libris; et vatibus addere calcar,
Ut studio majore petant Helicona virentem.

3 Multa quidem nobis facimus mala sæpe poetæ, (Ut vineta egomet cædam mea) cum tibi librum 4 Solicito damus, aut fesso: cum lædimur, 'unum Si quis amicorum est ausus reprendere versum: Cum loca jam recitata revolvimus irrevocati: Cum lamentamur non apparere labores Nostros, et tenui deducta poemata filo:

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Cum speramus eo rem venturam, ut, simul atque
Carmina rescieris nos fingere, commodus ultro
Arcessas, et egere vetes, et scribere cogas.
Sed tamen est operæ pretium cognoscere, quales
Edituos habeat belli spectata domique
Virtus, 10 indigno non committenda poetæ,

"Gratus Alexandro regi magno fuit ille
Chœrilus, incultis qui versibus et male natis
Rettulit acceptos, regale numisma, Philippos.
Sed veluti tractata notam labemque remittunt
Atramenta, fere scriptores carmine fœdo
Splendida facta linunt. idem rex ille, poema
Qui tam ridiculum tam care prodigus emit,
Edicto vetuit, ne quis se præter Apellem
Pingeret, aut alius Lysippo duceret æra
Fortis Alexandri yultuin simulantia. quod si
Judicium subtile videndis artibus illud

The hero William, and the martyr Charles,
One knighted Blackmore, andone pension'dQuarles;
Which made old Ben and surly Dennis swear,
"No lord's anointed, but a ' Russian bear."

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Not with such majesty, such bold relief, The forms august, of king, or conquering chief, E'er swell'd on marble; as in verse have shin'd (In polish'd verse) the manners and the mind. Oh! could I mount on the Monian wing, Your arms, your actions, your repose to sing; What' seas you travers'd, and what fields you fought!

Your country's peace, how oft, how dearly bought! How' barbarous rage subsided at your word,

And nations wonder'd while they dropp'd the sword!

How, when you nodded, o'er the land and deep,
• Peace stole her wing, and wrapp'd the world in
sleep;

Till Earth's extremes your mediation own,
And Asia's tyrants tremble at your throne-
But verse, alas! your majesty disdains;
And I'm not us'd to panegyric strains :
The zeal of fools offends at any time,
But most of all, the zeal of fools in rhyme.
Besides a fate attends on all I write,
That when I aim at praise, they say 10 I bite.
A vile" encomium doubly ridicules:
There's nothing blackens like the ink of fools.
If true, a 12 woful likeness; and if lies,
"Praise undeserv'd is scandal in disguise:"
Well may he blush, who gives it, or receives;
And when I flatter, let my dirty leaves
(Like journals, odes, and such forgotten things
As Eusden, Philips, Settle, writ of kings)

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Sir, he's your slave, for twenty pound a year.
Mere wax as yet, you fashion him with ease,
Your barber, cook, upholsterer, what you please:
A perfect genius at an opera song-

To say too much might do my honour wrong.
Take him with all his virtues, on my word;
His whole ambition was to serve a lord:
But, sir, to you, with what would I not part?
Though faith, I fear, 'twill break his mother's heart.
Once (and but once) I caught him in a lie,
And then, unwhipp'd, he had the grace to cry:
The fault he has I fairly shall reveal,
(Could you o'erlook but that) it is, to steal."

2 If, after this, you took the graceful lad,
Could you complain, my friend, he prov'd so bad?
Faith, in such case, if you should prosecute,
I think sir Godfrey should decide the suit;
Who sent the thief that stole the cash away,
And punish'd him that put it in his way.

'Consider then, and judge me in this light; I told you when I went, I could not write; You said the same; and are you discontent With laws to which you gave your own assent Nay worse, to ask for verse at such a time!

14 Clothe spice, line trunks, or, fluttering in a row, D'ye think me good for nothing but to rhyme Befringe the rails of Bedlam and Soho.

Ad libros et ad hæc Musarum dona vocares; 1 Bootum in crasso jurares aëre natum.

[At neque dedecorant tua de se judicia, atque Munera quæ multa dantis cum laude tulerunt, Dilecti tibi Virgilius Variusque poetæ ;]

Nec magis expressi 2 vultus per ahenea signa, Quam per vatis opus mores animique virorum Clarorum apparent. nec sermones ego mallem Repentes per humum, quain res componere

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Terrarumque situs et flumina dicere, et arces
Montibus impositas, et barbara regna, tuisque
Auspiciis totum "confecta duella per orbem,
Claustraque custodem pacis cohibentia Janum,
Et formidatum Parthis, te principe, Romam :
Si quantum cuperem, posşem quoque. sed neque
parvum

'Carmen majestas recipit tua; nec meus audet Rem tentare pudor, quam vires ferre recusent. Sedulitas autem 10 stulte, quem diligit, urget; Præcipue cum se numeris commendat et arte. Discit enim citius, meminitque libentius illud Quod quis deridet, quam quod probat et veneratur.

[ficto

Nil moror officium, "quod me gravat: ac neque
In 12 pejus vultu proponi cercus usquam,
Nec prave factis decorari versibus opto:

Ne rubeam pingui donatus munere, et una
Cum scriptore meo capsa porrectus aperta,
44 Deferar in vicum vendentem thus et odores,
Et piper, et quicquid chartis amicitur ineptis.

4 In Anna's wars, a soldier poor and old Had dearly earn'd a little purse of gold:

EPISTOLA II.

FLORE, bono claroque fidelis amice Neroni,
'Si quis forte velit puerum tibi vendere natum.
Tibure vel Gabiis, et tecum sic agat: "Hic et
Candidus, et talos a vertice pulcher ad imos,
Fiet eritque tuus nummorum millibus octo;
Verna ministeriis ad nutus aptus heriles;
Litterulis Græcis imbutus, idoneus arti
Cuilibet argilla quidvis imitaberis uda:
Quin etiam canet indoctum, sed dulce bibenti.
Multa fidem promissa levant, ubi plenius æquo
Laudat venales, qui vult extrudere, merces.
Res urget me nulla: meo sum pauper in ære.
Nemo hoc mangonum faceret tibi: non temere a

:

me

Quivis ferret idem: semel hic cessavit, et (ut fit)
In scalis latuit metuens pendentis habenæ :
Des nummos, excepta nihil te si fuga lædit."
2 Ille ferat pretium, pœnæ securus, opinor.
Prudens emisti vitiosum: dicta tibi est lex.
Insequeris tamen hunc, et lite moraris iniqua.

Dixi me pigrum proficiscenti tibi, dixi
Talibus officiis prope mancum; ne mea sævus
Jurgares ad te quod epistola nulla veniret.
Quid tum profeci, mecum facientia jura
Si tamen attentas? quereris super hoc etiam, quod
Expectata titi non mittam carmina mendax.

4 Luculli miles collecta viatica multis Frumnis, lassus dum noctu stertit, ad assem Perdiderat : post hoc vehemens lupus, et sibi et hosti

Tir'd with a tedious march, one luckless night,
He slept, poor dog! and lost it to a doit.
This put the man in such a desperate mind,
Between revenge and grief, and hunger join'd,
Against the foe, himself, and all mankind,
He leap'd the trenches, scal'd a castle-wall,
Tore down a standard, took the fort and all.

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Prodigious well!" his great commander cry'd, Gave him much praise, and some reward beside. Next, pleas'd his excellence a town to batter, (Its name I know not, and 'tis no great matter); "Go on my friend," (he cry'd) "see yonder walls! Advance and conquer! go where Glory calls! More honours, more rewards, attend the brave." Don't you remember what reply he gave?

D'ye think me, noble general, such a sot?
Let him take castles who has ne'er a groat."
1 Bred up at home, full early I begun
To read in Greek the wrath of Peleus' son.
Besides, my father taught me from a lad,
The better art, to know the good from bad:
(And little sure imported to remove,

To hunt for truth in Maudlin's learned grove.)
But knottier points, we knew not half so well,
Depriv'd us soon of our paternal cell;
And certain laws, by sufferers thought unjust,
Deny'd all posts of profit or of trust:
Hopes after hopes of pious papists fail'd,
While mighty William's thundering arm prevail'd.
For right hereditary tax'd and fia'd,
He stuck to poverty with peace of mind;
And me, the Muses help'd to undergo it;
Convict a papist he, and I a poet.

But (thanks to Homer) since I live and thrive,
Indebted to no prince or peer alive,

Sure I should want the care of ten Monroes,

If I would scribble, rather than repose.

This subtle thief of life, this paltry Time,
What will it leave me, if it snatch my rhyme ?
If every wheel of that unweary'd mill,
That turn'd ten thousand verses, now stands still?
3 But after all, what would you have me do?
When out of twenty I can please not two;
When this heroics only deigns to praise,
Sharp satire that, and that Pindaric lays?
One likes the pheasant's wing, and one the leg;
The vulgar boil, the learned roast, an egg.
Hard task! to hit the palate of such guests,
When Oldfield loves what Dartineuf detests.
4 But grant I may relapse, for want of grace,
Again to rhyme: can London be the place?
Who there his Muse, or self, or soul attends,
In crouds, and courts, law, business, feasts, and
My counsel sends to execute a deed:
[friends?

A poet begs me I will hear him read:
In Palace-yard at nine you'll find me there-
At ten, for certain, sir, in Bloomsbury-square-
Before the lords at twelve my cause comes on-
There's a rehearsal, sir, exact at one-
"Oh but a wit can study in the streets,
And raise his mind above the mob he meets."
Not quite so well however as one ought;

A hackney coach may chance to spoil a thought;
And then a nodding beam, or pig of lead,
God knows, may hurt the very ablest head.
Have you not seen, at Guildhall's narrow pass,
Two aldermen dispute it with an ass
ass?
And peers give way, exalted as they are,
Ev'n to their own s-r-v-nce in a car?

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Go, lofty poet! and in such a croud, Sing thy sonorous verse-but not aloud. Alas! to grottoes and to groves we run, To ease and silence, every Muse's son: Blackmore himself, for any grand effort,

2 Years following years steal something every day, Would drink and doze at Tooting or Earl's-Court.

At last they steal us from ourselves away;
In one our frolics, one amusements end,
In one a mistress drops, in one a friend :

Iratus pariter, jejunis dentibus acer,
Præsidium regale loco dejecit, ut aiunt,
Summe munito, et multarum divite rerum.
Clarus ob id factum, donis ornatur honestis,
Accipit et bis dena super sestertia numinum.
Forte sub hoc tempus castellum evertere prætor
Nescio quod cupiens, hortari cœpit eundem
Verbis, quæ timido quoque possent addere mentem:
I, bone, quo virtus tua te vocat: i pede fausto,
Grandia laturus meritorum præmia: quid stas?
Post hæc ille catus, quantumvis rusticus, " Ibit,
Ibit eo, quo vis, qui zonam perdidit," inquit.

1 Romæ nutriri mihi contigit, atque doceri,
Iratus Graiis quantum nocuisset Achilles.
Adjecere bonæ paulo plus artis Athenæ :
Scilicet ut possem curvo dignoscere rectum,
Atque inter sylvas Academi quærere verum.
Dura sed emovere loco me tempora grato;
Civilisque rudem belli tulit æstus in arma,
Cæsaris Augusti non responsura lacertis.
Unde simul primum me demisere Philippi,
Decisis humilem pennis, inopemque paterni
Et laris, et fundi, paupertas impulit audax
Ut versus facerem: sed, quod non desit habentem,
Quæ poterunt unquam satis expurgare cicutæ,
Ni melius dormire putem, quam scribere versus ?
2 Singula de nobis anni prædantur euntes;
Eripuere jocos, venerem, convivia, ludum;

How shall I rhyme in this eternal roar? [fore? How match the bards whom none e'er match'd beThe man, who, stretch'd in Isis' calm retreat, To books and study gives seven years complete,

Tendunt extorquere poemata. quid faciam vis?
3 Denique non omnes eadem mirantur amantque.
Carmine tu gaudes: hic delectatur iambis;
Ille Bioneis sermonibus, et sale nigro.
Tres mihi convivæ prope dissentire videntur,
Poscentes vario multum diversa palato. [alter:
Quid dem? quid non dem? renuis quod tu, jubet
Quod petis, id sane est invisum acidumque duobus.
4 Præter cætera me Romæ ne poemata censes
Scribere posse, inter tot curas totque labores?
Hic sponsum vocat, hic auditum scripta, relictis
Omnibus officiis: cubat hic in colle Quirini,
Hic extremo in Aventino; visendus uterque.
Intervalla vides humane commoda.

"Verum

Puræ sunt plateæ, nihil ut meditantibus obstet."
Festinat calidus mulis gerulisque redemtor: [num:
Torquet nunc lapidem, nunc ingens machina tig-
Tristia robustis luctantur funera plaustris:
Hac rabiosa fugit canis, hac lutulenta ruit sus.
"I nunc, et versus tecum meditare canoros. [urbes,.
Scriptorum chorus omnis amat nemus, et fugit
Rite cliens Bacchi, somno gaudentis et umbra.
Tu me inter strepitus nocturnos atque diurnos
Vis canere, et contracta sequi vestigia vatum?

Ingenium, sibi quod vacuas desumsit Athenas,
Et studiis annos septem dedit, insenuitque
Libris et curis, statua taciturnius exit

See! strow'd with learned dust, his nightcap on,
He walks, an object new beneath the Sun!
The boys flock round him, and the people stare:
So stiff, so mute! some statue you would swear,
Stepp'd from its pedestal to take the air!

And here, while town, and court, and city roars,
With mobs, and duns, and soldiers, at their doors;
Shall I, in London, act this idle part?
Composing songs, for fools to get by heart?

The Temple late two brother sergeants saw,
Who deem'd each other oracles of law;
With equal talents, these congenial souls,
One lull'd th' Exchequer, and one stunn'd the Rolls;
Each had a gravity would make you split,
And shook his head at Murray, as a wit.
"Twas, "Sir, your law”—and “Sir, your eloquence," |
"Yours, Cowper's manner"—" and yours, Talbot's
2 Thus we dispose of all poetic merit, [sense."
Yours Milton's genius, and mine Homer's spirit.
Call Tibbald Shakespeare, and he'll swear the Nine,
Dear Cibber! never match'd one ode of thine.
Lord! how we strut through Merlin's Cave, to see
No poets there, but Stephen, you, and me.
Walk with respect behind, while we at ease
Weave laurel crowns, and take what names we
My dear Tibullus!" If that will not do, [please.
"Let me be Horace, and be Ovid you;
Or, I'm content, allow me Dryden's strains,
And you shall rise up Otway for your pains.”
Much do I suffer, much, to keep in peace
This jealous, waspish, wrong head, rhyming race;
And much must flatter, if the whim should bite
To court applause by printing what I write:
But let the fit pass o'er, I'm wise enough
To stop my ears to their confounded stuff.

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3 In vain, bad rhymers all mankind reject, They treat themselves with most profound respect;

Plerumque, et risu populum quatit; hic ego rerum
Fluctibus in mediis, et tempestatibus urbis,
Verba lyræ motura sonum connectere diguer?

1

Frater erat Roma consulti rhetor; ut alter Alterius sermone meros audiret honores: Gracchus ut hic illi foret, huic ut Mucius ille. Qui minus argutos vexat furor iste poetas? 2 Carmina compono, hic elegos; mirabile visu, Cælatumque novem Musis opus. aspice primum, Quanto cum fastu, quanto molimine circumspectemus vacuam Romanis vatibus ædem. Mox etiam (si forte vacas) sequere, et procul audi, Quid ferat, et quare sibi nectat uterque coronam. Cædimur, et totidem plagis consumimus hostem, Lento Samnites ad lumina prima duello. Discedo Alcæus puncto illius; ille meo quis? Quis, nisi Callimachus? si plus adposcere visus: Fit Mimnermus, et optivo cognomine crescit. Multa fero, ut placem genus irritabile vatum, Cum scribo, et supplex populi suffragia capto: Idem, finitis studiis, et mente recepta, Obturem patulas impune legentibus aures,

3 Ridentur mala qui componunt carmina: verum
Gaudet scribentes, et se venerantur, et ultro,
Si taceas, laudant; quidquid scripsere, beati.
At qui legitimum cupiet fecisse poema,

Cum tabulis animum censoris sumet honesti :
Audebit quæcunque parum splendoris habebunt,
Et sine pondere erunt, et honore indigna ferentur,
Verba movere loco; quamvis invita recedant,
Et versentur adhuc intra penetralia Vestæ:

'Tis to small purpose that you hold your tongue,
Each prais'd within, is happy all day long:
But how severely with themselves proceed
The men, who write such verse as we can read?
Their own strict judges, not a word they spare,
That wants or force, or light, or weight, or care,
Howe'er unwillingly it quits its place,

Nay though at court (perhaps) it may find grace;
Such they'll degrade; and sometimes, in its stead,
4 In downright charity revive the dead;
Mark where a bold, expressive phrase appears,
Bright through the rubbish of some hundred years;
Command old words that long have slept to wake,
Words, that wise Bacon, or brave Rawleigh spake;
Or bid the new be English, ages hence,
(For Use will father what's begot by Sense)
Pour the full tide of cloquence along,
Serenely pure, and yet divinely strong,
Rich with the treasures of each foreign tongue;
Prune the luxuriant, the uncouth refine,
But show no mercy to an empty line:
Then polish all, with so much life and ease,
You think 'tis Nature, and a knack to please:
"But ease in writing flows from art, not chance;
As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance.”
"If such the plague and pains to write by rule,
Better (say I) be pleas'd, and play the fool;
Call, if you will, bad rhyming a disease,

It gives men happiness, or leaves them case.
There liv'd in primo Georgii (they record)
A worthy member, no small fool, a lord;
Who, though the house was up, delighted sate;
Heard, noted, answer'd, as in full debate:
In all but this, a man of sober life,
Fond of his friend, and civil to his wife;
Not quite a madman, though a pasty fell;
And much too wise to walk into a well.
Him, the damn'd doctors and his friends immur'd,
They bled, they cupp'd, they purg'd; in short,
they cur'd:

Whereat the gentleman began to stare- [care!
"My friends!" he cry'd,
for your

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4 Obscurata diu populo bonus eruet, atque
Proferet in lucem speciosa vocabula rerum,
Quæ priscis memorata Catonibus atque Cethegis,
Nunc situs informis premit et deserta vetustas;
Adsciscet nova, quæ genitor produxerit usus:
Vehemens et liquidus, puroque simillimus amni,
| Fundet opes, Latiumque beabit divite lingua:
Luxuriantia compescet: nimis aspera sano
Levabit cultu, virtute carentia tollet:
Laudentis speciem dabit, torquebitur, ut qui
Nunc Satyrum, nunc agrestem Cyclopa movetur.
5 Pratulerim scriptor delirus inersque videri,
Dum mea delectent mala me, vel denique fallant,
Quam sapere, et ringi. Fuit haud ignobilis Argis
Qui se credebat miros audire tragados,
In vacuo lætus sessor plausorque theatro :
Cætera qui vita servaret munia recto
More; bonus sane vicinus, amabilis hospes,
Comis in uxorem? posset qui ignoscere servis,
Et signo læso non insanire lagenæ :

Posset qui rupem, et puteum vitare patentem,
Hic ubi cognatorum opibus curisque refectus,
Expulit elleboro morbum bilemque meraco,
Et redit ad sese: Pol me occidistis, amici,
Non servastis, ait; cui sic extorta voluptas,
Et demptus per vim mentis gratissimus error,

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