To his worthily esteemed Friend and learned Antiquary, Mr. William Somner, upon his treasury of the Saxon tongue, entituled Dictionarium Saxonico-LatinoAnglicum.

A SATIRE.

What mean'st thou man? think'st thou thy learned page,
And worthy pains, will relish with this age?
Think'st that thy treasury of Saxon words
Will be deem'd such amidst unletter'd swords?
Boots it to know how our fore-fathers spoke
E're Danish, Norman, or this present yoke
Did gall our patient necks?—or matters it
What Hengist utter'd, or how Horsa writ?
Last, think'st that we, who have destroyed
Our grandsires did, will with their language bear?
That we, who have all famous monuments

Razed, and defeated thus all good intents

Of former piety, will honour give

To antique characters?-shall

paper live,

And ink, when brass and marble can't withstand
This iron age's violating hand?

Or that this title, Dictionarium
Saxonico-Latino-Anglicum,

Will sell thy book?-think'st that the reader's itch
Of knowing much the author will enrich?
Thy barbarous Saxon, with the heathen Greek,
And profane Latin, buyers may go seek :
Together with the Hebrew, and the rest
Which are the language of that Romish beast:
Our mother-tongue well nos'd with a wry face,
And eyes inverted, now hath chiefest grace.
'Tis strange, but true; our modern rhetorick
Best heals a brother, and makes other sick.

So that thy trade is out of fashion, friend.
Lo! 'gainst antiquities we now contend:

Our quarrel is against the former age;
'Gainst our dead fathers we dire wars do wage.
Had'st thou some Bible-Dictionary made,

A Concordance, or dealt in such a trade;
Had'st thou some Gospel-Truths, some common place
Presented to this fighting-preaching race;

Or to our sword-divines assistance lent
By paraphrase, expounding, or comment,
The brethren would have been thy readers; now
The saints will not thy learned pains allow.

Yet be not thou discourag'd, worthy friend,
Thy oil and pains in vain thou dost not spend:
All are not fighters, not all preachers are ;
All are not saints, nor for the cause declare;
All are not godly, nor reformers all;
Nor build up Christ by letting churches fall:
There yet are left some pious, sober, wise,
Learned, discreet, who will thy labours prize:
Some masters yet of truth, some who adore
The ages past, and present do deplore;
Some who dare honest be, who learning love;
Fear not; such will thine industry approve.
O happy thou! who dost thyself enjoy,
Sequester'd from the world, free from th' annoy
Of blusting times; thou dost securely sit,
Enriching both thy own and other's wit:

Th' ambition of the great nes, or their fears
Disturb thy honest quiet; nothing scares

Thee 'midst thy learned guard of books, where thou
Happier than princes may'st thyself avow;

Whose fate thou may'st with unconcern'd thoughts read,
And so compare the living with the dead!
Proceed, brave soul, nor since the wicked rage
Of profane hands, and a destroying age
Threatens to ruin what antiquity

To us has left, let thy pen idle be :
'Tis true, we of thy learned diligence

Have had a taste,* which only wak'd our sense;
We do a fuller meal expect from thee:
Thou must not only whet, but satisfy
Our craving appetites,-do thyself right,
Do us, the future times, more largely write,
Nor to one Town confine thy streighter care;
Thy hand more ample ruins must repair:
Lo! the whole kingdom calls thee,-in time save
Its falling monuments; them from the grave
Rescue, that thy worth with the age's crimes
May be compared by the succeeding times.

CANTERBURY, Sept. 30th, 1656.

In eundem distichon.

Te somno, Somnere, premi cui dicere fas est
Testatur doctus te vigilare liber!

A manuscript poem by this author exists in the Library of Canterbury Cathedral to which it was presented by Thomas Parke, Esq. in 1802. It is a thin folio containing upwards of a hundred closely written pages entitled "Fasti Cantuarienses" and comprising in

The Antiquities of Canterbury.

English hexameter, a general history of the Cathedral, including a detailed account of the introduction of Christianity into Britain by the mission of Augustin. The various parts of the building are described in succession together with the monuments of the dead, and some notices of illustrious men who have been interred in the church, or connected with it in their lives. Besides a preface of some length in which he states his motives for the undertaking, and professes himself with great propriety, desirous to be considered rather as an antiquary and an historian than as a poet, the author has inserted several notes "chronological, classical and historical," and a dedication to Archbishop Sheldon, in whose primacy the work was composed about 1672.

Whether this work was intended for publication, or not does not appear. What the author proposed to do, he certainly has effected in a respectable, and sometimes in an amusing manner. Annexed to the manuscript is a small quarto entitled "a Panegyric to his sacred majesty upon the conclusion of the auspicious marriage between the two crowns of England and Portugal." Besides the translation from Virgil which we have noticed, he also appears to have published" Æneas his Errors" 8vo. 1661 To these employments of his muse he alludes in the opening paragraph of his manuscript poem:

Now thou, Great God !—who to no place art tied
Nor dost in temples made by hands abide ;-
Yet temples for thy worship dost require,
As thy terrestrial mansions,-me inspire;
Whilst I on holy ground do tread; the shoes
Of my once prophane muse let me unloose,

That she, whilst I thy temple's beauties shew,-
May, Moses like, before thee bare-foot go.

Perhaps the following specimen of the composition of this poem will be sufficient for the satisfaction of our readers.

Having the shrine survey'd, we now proceed,
A statue kneeling I survey, and read
Engraven on the marble Wotton's name,
Wotton a person of no vulgar fame :

Who when thy monks the old possessors, were
Forc'd to resign, rule, as first Dean, did bear
Over this church, in York's cathedral he
At the same time, with the same dignity
Was graced, a great civilian,

A great divine, a canonist, a man
As well for action as for study made;

Of men as well as books he knowledge had,
In both was exquisitely learned; hence
To high employments by his gracious prince
He was called forth; ten times ambassador
He lived abroad; at home a councellor

To four of England's Monarchs; and design'd
For higher place but he that weight resign'd.

And though it be the dryest common place
If virtue be not join'd, from high-born race
Or long continued ancestors to raise

Fame to the man whom we intend to praise ;
Yet since in Wotton both concur, we'll see
Him in his great illustrious pedigree.

Kent, who of worthies not unfruitful art,
Hast, as his native soil, in him a part: