Fires that fcorch, yet dare not shine: Pureft love's unwafting treasure, Days of ease, and nights of pleasure ; NOTES. 40 a These two Chorus's are enough to fhew us his great talents for this fpecies of Poetry, and to make us lament he did not profecute his purpofe in executing fome plans he had chalked out; but the Character of the Managers of Playhouses at that time, was what (he faid) foon determined him to lay afide all thoughts of that nature. Nor did his morals, lefs than the juft fenfe of his own importance, deter him from having any thing to do with the THEATRE. He remembered that an ancient Author hath acquainted us with this extraordinary circumftance; that, in the conftruction of Pompey's magnificent Theatre, the feats of it were fo contrived, as to serve, at the same time, for steps to a temple of Venus, which he had joined to his theatre. The moral Poet could not but be ftruck with a story where the λoyos and the pobos of it ran as imperceptibly into one another, as the Theatre and the Temple. ODE ON SOLITUDE. APPY the man, whose wish and care HAPPY A few paternal acres bound, Content to breathe his native air, In his own ground. Whofe herds with milk, whofe fields with bread, Bleft, who can unconcern'dly find Quiet by day, Sound fleep by night; study and ease, Thus let me live, unfeen, unknown, Steal from the world, and not a stone Tell where I lie. a This was a very early production of our Author, written at about twelve years old. P. CONTENTS OF THE ESSAY ON CRITICISM. That a true Tafte is as rare to be found, as a true Ge- That most men are born with some Tafte, but spoiled by The multitude of Critics, and causes of them, ver. 26 to 45. That we are to study our own Taste, and know the Limits Nature the best guide of Judgment, ver. 68 to 87. Improv'd by Art and Rules, which are but methodiz'd Rules derived from the practice of the Ancient Poets, That therefore the Ancients are neceffary to be study'd by a Critic, particularly Homer and Virgil, ver. 120 |