101

All this may be ; the People's Voice is odd, It is, and it is not, the voice of God.

90 To b Gammer Gurton if it give the bays, And yet deny the Careless Husband praise, Or say our Fathers never broke a rule ; Why then, I say, the Public is a fool. But let them own, that greater Faults than we They had, and greater Virtues, I'll agree. Spenser himself affects the 'Obsolete, And Sydney's verse halts ill on k Roman feet: Milton's strong pinion now not Heay'n can bound." Now Serpent-like, in profe he sweeps the ground, In Quibbles, Angel and Archangel join, And God the Father turns a school-divine.

Not that I'd lop the Beauties from his book, Like " flashing Bentley with his desp’rate hook, Or damn all Shakespear, like th' affected Fool 105 At court, who hates whate'er he ° read at school.

But for the Wits of either Charles's days, The Mob of Gentlemen who'wrote with Ease; Sprat, Carew, Sedley, and a hundred morė, (Like twinkling stars the Miscellanies o'er) One Simile, that P.solitary shines In the dry desert of a thousand lines, Or 9 lengthend Thought that gleams through many

a page, Has fandtify'd whole poems for an age.

IIO

'Indignor quidquam reprehendi, non quia crase Compofitam, illepideve putetur, fed quia nuper i Nec veniam antiquis, Sed honorem et praemia, posej.

Recte neone crocum florefque perambulet Atras Fabula, fi dạbitem ; clamant periile pudorem Cunci penc patres: ca cum reprehendere coner,

Quae' gravis Aesopus, quac doctus Rofcius egit. Vel quia nil' scétum, nifi quod placuit fibi, ducunt ; Vel quia turpe putant parerc minoribus, et, quae Imberbi didicere, fenes perdenda fateri. jam "Saliare Numae carmen qui laudat, et ilļud, Quod mecum ignorat, solus vult scire videri ; Ingeniis non ille favet plauditque sepultis, Nostra fed impugnat, nos noftraque lividus odit.

* Quod fi tam Graccis noviras invifa fuiffet, Quam nobis ; quid nunc esset vetus! aut quid ha

beret, Qyod legeret tereretque viritim publicus ufus ?

Ver. 119. On Avon's bank,) Ac Stratford in Warwickshire, where Shakespear had his birth. The thought of che Original is here infinitely improved. Perambulet is a low allufion lo ebe Aame and imperfections Arre,

I 20

'I lose my patience, and I own it too, 115
When works are censur'd, not as bad but new;
While if our Elders break all rcafon's laws,
These fools demand not pardon, but Applause.

*On Avon's bank, where fow'rs eternal blow, - If I but ak, it any weed can grow ?

One Tragic fentence if I dare deride,
Which Betterton's grave action dignify'd,
Or well-mouth'd Booth with emphasis proclaims.
(Tho' but, perhaps, a mufter-roll of Names)
How will our Fathers rise up in a rage,

125
And swear, all fame is loft in George's Age!
You'd think "no Fools disgraced the former reign,
Did not fome grave Examples yet remain,
Who scorn a Lad should teach his father skill,
And, having once been wrong, will be so still. 139
He, who to seem more deep than you or I,
Extols old Bards, or Merlin's Prophecy,
Miftake him not; he envies, not admires,
And to debase the Sons, exalts the Sires.
* Had ancient times conspir'd to disallow 135
What then was new, what had been ancient now?

VER. 124. A muffer-roll of Names,] An absurd cuftory of Several Actors, to pronounce with emphasis the meer Proper Name of Greeks or Romans, which (as they call it) All the mgurb of the Player,

VER, 129-130.] Inferior to the original: as Ver. 137 excel it.

Quid placet, aut odio eft, quod non mutabile credas?

Hoc paces habuere bonae, ventique secundi.

Ver. 142, A Verse of the Lord Lansdown,

VER. 143. In Horsemanship r'excel, - And ev'ry foto'ry Courtier writ Romance.) The Duke of Newcaftle's book of Horsemanship: the Romance of Parthenisa, by the Earl of Orrery, and most of the French Romances translated by Performs of Quality

VER. 149. Lely on animated Canvas fole-Tbe sleepy Eye, &c.]

Or what remain'd, so worthy to be read
By learned Critics, of the mighty Dead?

y In Days of Ease, when now, the weary Sword Was sheath'd, and Luxury with Charles restord ; 140 In ev'ry tafte of foreign Courts improv'd,

All, by the King's Example, liv,'d and lov'd.” Then Peers grew proud in - Horsemanship t' excell, New-market's Glory rose, as Britain's fell; The Soldier breath'd the Gallantries of France, 145 And ev'ry flow'ry Courtier writ Romance. Then - Marble, foften'd into life, grew warm, And yielding Metal flow'd to human form: Lely on animated Canvas stole The sleepy Eye, that spoke the melting soul, 150 No wonder then, when all was Love and sport, The willing Muses were debauch'd at Court: On each enervate ftring they taught the note To pant, or tremble thro' an Eunuch's throat,

But Britain, changeful as a Child at play, 155 Now calls in Princes, and now turns away. Now Whig, now Tory, what we lov'd we hate; Now all for Pleasure, now for Church and State; Now for Prerogative, and now for Lavs; Effects unhappy! from a Noble Cause.

160

This was the Characteristic of this excellent Colouritt's expression; who was an excellive Maniereft. VER.

R. 1:3. On eacb enervate firing, etc.] The Siege of Rhodes, by Sir William Davenant, the firft Opera sung in England.