All this may be; the People's Voice is odd,
It is, and it is not, the voice of God.
Toh Gammer Gurton if it give the bays,
And yet deny the Careless Husband praise,
Or fay our Fathers never broke a rule;
Why then, I fay, the Public is a fool,

But let them own, that greater Faults than we
They had, and greater Virtues, I'll agree.
Spenfer himself affects the Obfolete,

90

95

And Sydney's verse halts ill on k Roman feet: Milton's ftrong pinion now not Heav'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.

ΙΟΥ

"Not that I'd lop the Beauties from his book,
Like a 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 more,
(Like twinkling stars the Miscellanies o'er)
One Simile, that P folitary fhines

In the dry defert of a thousand lines,

110

Or 4 lengthen'd Thought that gleams through many

a page,

Has fanctify'd whole poems for an age.

Indignor quidquam reprehendi, non quia craffe Compofitum, illepideve putetur, fed quia nuper; Nec veniam antiquis, fed honorem et praemia pofci. • Recte necne crocum florefque perambulet Attae Fabula, fi dubitem; clamant periiffe pudorem Cuncti pene patres: ea cum reprehendere coner, Quae gravis Aefopus, quae doctus Rofcius egit.

t

u

Vel quia nil rectum, nifi quod placuit fibi, ducunt;

Vel quia turpe putant parere minoribus, et, quae
Imberbi didicere, fenes perdenda fateri.

Jam w Saliare Numae carmen qui laudat, et illud,
Quod mecum ignorat, folus vult fcire videri;
Ingeniis non ille favet plauditque fepultis,
Noftra fed impugnat, nos noftraque lividus odit.

X

Quod fi tam Graecis novitas invifa fuiffet,

Quam nobis; quid nunc effet vetus! aut quid haberet,

Quod legeret tereretque viritim publicus ufus?

VER. 119. On Avon's bank,] At Stratford in Warwickshire, where Shakespear had his birth. The thought of the Origiginal is here infinitely improved. Perambulet is a low allufion to the name and imperfections of Atta.

I lose my patience, and I own it too,
When works are cenfur'd, not as bad but new ?
While if our Elders break all reafon's laws,
Thefe fools demand not pardon, but Applause.
s On Avon's bank, where flow'rs eternal blow,
If I but ask, if 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 rife up in a rage,

And swear, all shame is loft in George's Age!

You'd think "no Fools difgrac'd the former reign,
Did not fome grave Examples yet remain,

115

120

125

Who fcorn a Lad fhould teach his father skill,
And, having once been wrong, will be fo ftill. 130
He, who to feem more deep than you or I,
Extols old Bards, wor Merlin's Prophecy,
Mistake him not; he enviess not admires,
And to debafe the Sons, exalts the Sires.
* Had ancient times confpir'd to difallow
What then was new, what had been ancient now?

135

VER. 124. A mußter-roll of Names,] An abfurd custom of feveral Actors, to pronounce with emphasis the meer Proper Names of Greeks or Romans, which (as they call it) fill the mouth of the Player.

VER. 129-130.] Inferior to the original ? as VER. 133--4i excel it.

y Ut primum pofitis nugari Graecia, bellis

Coepit, et in vitium fortuna labier aequa;·

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

Hoc paces habuere bonae, ventique fecundi.

· And ev'ry flow'ry

VER. 142. A verfe of the Lord Lanfdown. VER. 143. In Horsemanship t'excel, Courtier writ Romance.] The Duke of Newcastle's Book of Horfemanship: the Romance of Parthenissa, by the Earl of Orrery, and most of the French Romances tranflated by Perfons of Quality.

VER. 149. Lely on animated Canvas stole--The fleepy Eye, etc.]

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

Sword

y In Days of Ease, when now the weary Was fheath'd, and Luxury with Charles reftor'd; 140 In ev'ry taste of foreign Courts improv❜d,

"All, by the King's Example, liv'd and lov'd.” Then Peers grew proud in 2 Horfemanship t' excell, Newmarket's Glory rofe, 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 b animated Canvas ftole

The fleepy Eye, that spoke the melting foul.
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' a Eunuch's throat.

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

150

155

160

This was the Characteristic of this excellent Colourist's expreffion; who was an exceffive Manierest.

VER. 153. On each enervate firing, etc.] The Siege of Rhodes by Sir William Davenant, the first Opera fung in England.

3