That author's work will ne'er be reckon'd good,
Who has not been where Curll the printer flood.
P Alas poor me! you may my fortune guess:
I write, and yet humanity profefs:
(Though nothing can delight a modern judge,
Without ill-nature and a private grudge)
I love the king, the queen, and royal race :
I like the government, but want no place:
Too low in life to be a juftice I,
And for a conftable, thank God, too high:
Was never in a plot, my brain's not hurt;
I politicks to poetry convert.
A politician muft (as I have read)
Be furnish'd, in the first place, with a head:
A head well fill'd with Machiavelian brains,
And stuff'd with precedents of former reigns :
Si tribus Anticyris caput infanabile nunquam
Tonfori Licino commiferit.
ego lævus,
Qui purgor bilem fub verni temporis horam:
Non alius faceret meliora poëmata, verum
Nil tanti eft: ergo fungar vice cotis, acutum
Reddere quae ferrum valet, exfors ipfa fecandi 3
Munus & officium, nil fcribens ipfe, docebo;
Unde parentur opes, quid alat formetque Poëtam :
Quid deceat, quid non: quò virtus, quò ferat error.
• Scribendi recte, fapere eft principium &fons:
Rem tibi Socratica poterunt oftendere charte,
Verbaque provifam rem non invita fequentur.
Qui didicit, patriæ quid debeat, & quid amicis,
Quo fit amori parens, quo frater amandus, & hofpes,
Muft journals read, and magna charta quote;
But acts ftill wifer, if he speaks by note:
Learn well his leffon, and ne'er fear mistakes;
For ready-money ready-speakers makes.
He must instructions and credentials draw,
Pay well the army, and protect the law:
Give to his country what's his country's due,
But first help brothers, fons, and coufins too.
He must read Grotius upon war and peace,
And the twelve judges' falary increase,
He muft oblige old friends and new allies,
And find out ways and means for fresh supplies.
He must the weavers grievances redress,
And merchants wants in merchants words exprefs.
* Dramatick poets that expect the bays,
Should cufl our hiftories for party plays;
Wickford's Embaffador fhould fill their head,
And the State-trials carefully be read:
For what is Dryden's mufe and Otways's plots,
To th' earl of Effex or the queen of Scots ?
Quod fit confcripti, quod judicis officium, que
Partes in bellum mifi ducis; ille profectò
Reddere perfonae fcit convenientia cuique.
Refpicere exemplar vita morumque jubebo
Doctum imitatorem, & veras hinc ducere voces.
Fabula, nullius veneris, fine pondere & arte,
Valdius oblectat populum, meliufque moratur,
Quam verfus inopes- rerum, nugæque canora.
'Tis faid that queen Elizabeth could speak,
At twelve years old, right Attick full-mouth'd Greek ;
Hence was the student forc'd at Greek to drudge,
If he would be a bishop or a judge.
Divines and lawyers now don't think they thrive,
"Till promis'd places of men still alive :
How old is fuch a one in such a post ?
The answer is, he's seventy-five almost :
Th' arch-bishop and the mafter of the rolls?
Neither is young, and one's as old as Paul's.
Will men that afk fuch queftions, publish books
Like learned Hooker, or chief juftice Coke's?
t On tender subjects with discretion touch,
And never fay too little, or too much.
On trivial matters flourishes are wrong,
Motions for candles never should be long:
Graiis ingenium, Graiis dedit ore rotundo
Mufa loqui, &c.
Romani pueri longis rationibus affem
Difcunt in partes centum diducere.
Filius urbani, fi de quincunce remota eft
Uncia, quid fupereft? poteras dixiffe, triens. Eu!
Rem poteris fervare tuam.
Semis. Ad hæc animos ærugo & cura peculi
Cum femel imbuerit, fperamus carmina fingi
Poffe linenda cedro, & lævi fervanda cupreffo?
Quicquid præcipies, efto brevis; ut cito dicta
Percipiant animi dociles, teneantque fideles ;
Omne fupervacuum pleno de pectore manat.
Or if you move in case of sudden rain,
To shut the windows, speak diftinct and plain.
Unless you talk good English downright fenfe,
Can you be understood by ferjeant Spence ?
"New ftories always fhould with truth agree,
Or truth's half fifter, probability:
Scarce could Toft's rabbits and pretended throes
On half the honourable houfe impose.
* When Cato fpeaks, young Shallow runs away, And fwears it is fo dull he cannot stay :
When rakes begin on blafphemy to border,
Bromley and Hanmer cry aloud to order.
The point is this, with manly fenfe and ease
T' inform the judgment, and the fancy please.
Praise it deferves, nor difficult the thing,
At once to ferve one's country and one's king.
Such fpeeches bring the wealthy Tonfons gain,
From age to age they minuted remain,
As precedents for George the twentieth's reign.
Fita voluptatis caufâ, fint proxima veris:
Nec, quodcunque volet, pofcat fibi fabula credi;
Neu pranfe Lamia vivum puerum extrahat alvo.
*Centuria feniorum agitant expertia frugis;
Celfi prætereunt auftera poëmata Rhamnes.
Omne tulit punctum qui mifcuit utile dulci,
Lectorem delectando, pariterque monendo.
Hic meret æra liber Sofiis, hic & mare tranfit,
Et longum noto fcriptori prorogat ævum.
> Is there a man on earth fo perfect found,
Who ne'er miftook a word in fenfe or found ?
Not blund'ring, but perfifting is the fault;
No mortal fin is Lapfus Linguæ thought:
Clerks may mistake; confidering who 'tis from,
I pardon little flips in Cler. Dom. Com.
I'll not take his part,
'. But let me tell you
If ev'ry Thursday he date Die Mart.
Of sputt'ring mortals 'tis the fatal curse,
By mending blunders ftill to make them worse.
Men fneer when-gets a lucky thought,
And ftare if Wyndham fhould be nodding caught,
But fleeping's what the wifeft men may do,
Should the committee chance to fit till two.
z Not unlike paintings, principles appear, Some beft at diftance, fome when we are near.
Sunt delecta tamen, quibus ignoviffe velimus;
Non femper feriet quodcunque minabitur arcus:
Verum ubi plura nitent in carmine, non ego paucis
Offendar maculis, quas aut incuria fudit,
Aut humana parum cavit natura. Quid ergo eft?
Ut fcriptor fi peccat idem librarius ufque,
Quamvis eft monitus, venia caret : & Citharœdus
Ridetur, chorda qui femper oberrat eâdem :
Sic mihi, qui multùm ceffat, fit Charilus ille,
Quem bis terque bonum, cum rifu miror: & idem
Indignor quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus :
Verum opere in longo fas eft obrepere fomnum.
z Ut pi&ura Poëfis erit; que, fi propius ftes,
Te capiet magis: & quædam, fi longius abfies.
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