Dictitet Albano Mufas in monte locutas. Eft vetus atque probus, 'centum qui perficit annos. t Qui vel menfe brevi, vel toto eft junior anno. X Qui redit in faftos, et virtutem aeftimat annis, Mi aturque nihil, nifi quod" Libitina facravit. VER. 42. met him at the Devil] The Devil Tavern, where Ben Johnson held his ioetical Club. And each true Briton is to Ben fo civil, m He fwears the Mufes met him at the Devil. Tho' justly Greece her eldest fons admires, We build, we paint, we fing, we dance as well, And P learned Athens to our art must stoop, Could the behold us tumbling thro' a hoop. If Time improve our Wit as well as Wine, Say at what age a Poet grows divine? Shall we, or fhall we not, account him fo, "Who lafts a century can have no flaw, .45 50 55 "I hold that Wit a Claffic, good in law. Suppose he wants a year, will you compound? And shall we deem him Ancient, right and found, Or damn to all eternity at once, At ninety nine, a Modern and a Dunce? "We shall not quarrel for a year or two; "By courtesy of England, he may do. 60 Then, by the rule that made the " Horfe-tail bare, I pluck out year by year, as hair by hair, And meltdown Ancients like a heap of fnow: 65 While you, to measure merits, look in * Stowe, And estimating authors by the year, Bestow a Garland only on a Bier. * Ennius et fapiens, et fortis, et alter Homerus, Ut critici dicunt, leviter curare videtur Quo promiffa cadant, et fomnia Pythagorea. Naevius in manibus non est: at mentibus haeret Pene recens: adeo fanctum eft vetus cmne poema, Ambigitur quoties, uter utro fit prior; aufert e Pacuvius docti famam fenis, Accius alti: Dicitur Afranî toga conveniffe Menandro ; Spectat Roma potens; habet hos numeratque poetas * Interdum vulgus rectum videt: est ubi peccat. VIR..69. Shakespear.] Shakespear and Ben. Johnfon may truly be faid not much to have thought of this Immortality; the one in many pieces compofed in hafte for the Stage; the other in his latter works in general, which Dryden called his Dotages. VIR. 74. The life to come, in ev'ry Poet's Creed.] Quo promiffa cadant, et somnia Pythagorea. The beauty of this arifes from a circumftance in Ennius's ftory. But as this could not be imitated, our Poet endeavoured to equal it; and has fucceeded. VIR. 77, Pindaric Art, Which has much more merit than his Epic, but very unlike the Character, as well as Numbers, of Pindar. VER. 81. In all debates etc.] The Poet has here put the bald cant of women and boys into extreme fine verfe. This is in strict imitation of his Original, where the fame. impertinent and gratuitous criticism is admirably ridiculed. 70 Shakespear (whom you and ev'ry Play-house bill Style the divine, the matchlefs, what you will) For gain, not glory, wing'd his roving flight, And grew Immortal in his own despight. Ben, old and poor, as little feem'd to heed • The Life to come, în ev'ry Poet's Creed, Who now reads b Cowley? if he pleafes yet, His Moral pleases, not his pointed wit; Forgot his Epic, nay Pindaric Art, But ftill I love the language of his heart. d 75 "Yet furely, furely, thefe were famous men! "What boy but hears the fayings of old Ben? Se "In all debates where Critics bear a part. "Not one but nods, and talks of Johnson's Art, "Of Shakespear's Nature, and of Cowley's Wit; "How Beaumont's judgment check'd what Fletcher " writ; "How Shadwell hafty, Wycherly was flow; "But, for the Paffions, Southern sure and Rowe. "Thefe, only thefe, fupport the crouded stage, "From eldest Heywood down to Cibber's age. f 84 VER. 85. Shadwell hafty, Wycherly was flow.] Nothing was lefs true than this particular: But the whole paragraph has a mixture of Irony, and muft not altogether be taken for Horace's own Judgment, only the common Chat of the pretenders to Criticism; in fome things right, in others, wrong; as he tells us in his answer. Interdum vulgus restum videt: est ubi peccat. Sih veteres ita miratur laudatque poetas, Ut nihil anteferat, nihil illis comparet ; errat: Dicere cedit eos, ignave multa fatetur; Et fapit, et mecum facit, et Jove judicat aequo. Non equidem infector, delendaque carmina Livî Effe reor, memini quae" plagofum mihi parvo Orbilium dictare; fed emendata videri Pulchraque, et exactis minimum diftantia, miror: Inter quae verbum emicuit fi forte decorum, Si verfus paulo concinnior unus et alter; Injufte totum ducit venitque poema. VER. 91. Gammer Gurton ] A piece of very low humour, one of the first printed Plays in English, and therefore much valued by fome Antiquaries. |