LONDON:

GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS,

ST. JOHN'S SQUARE.

CONTENTS

OF

THE THIRD VOLUME.

PAGE

ODE on St. Cecilia's Day

TWO CHORUSES to the Tragedy of Brutus
THE DYING CHRISTIAN to his Soul
ELOISA TO ABELARD

EPISTLES

To Mr. Addison on his Dialogues on Medals

To Robert, Earl of Oxford, prefixed to Parnelle's poems
To James Craggs, Esq. Secretary of State.

To Mr. Jervas, with Dryden's Translation of Fresnoy
To Mrs. Martha Blount, on her Birth-day
To the same, with the Works of Voiture

To Mrs. Teresa Blount, on leaving Town
Verses to Mr. C., St. James's Place
PROLOGUES AND EPILOGUES

Lines occasioned by some Verses by the Duke of Buckingham
Macer, a Character

To Mr. John Moore, author of the celebrated Worm-Powder

63

65

67

69

72

73

75

Worm-i

83

To Mr. Gay, who had congratulated him on finishing his house and

Verses on lying in the bed where the Earl of Rochester had slept at

VII. On the Hon. Robert Digby, and his sister Mary VIII. On Sir Godfrey Kneller

IX. On General Henry Withers

PAGE

96

ib.

99

ib.

101

103

104

105

X. On Mr. Elijah Fenton.

112

XI. On Mr. Gay

113

XII. Intended for Sir Isaac Newton

114

XIII. On Dr. Francis Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester
XIV. On Edmund, Duke of Buckingham

XV. For one who would not be buried in Westminster Abbey THE DUNCIAD, in four Books

A letter to the publisher, occasioned by the first correct edition of the Dunciad

Dunciad, with the hyper-critics of Aristarchus .

Testimonies of Authors

Martinus Scriblerus, of the poem

Richardus Aristarchus, of the Hero of the Poem

130

Book III.

271

I. Preface to the five first imperfect editions of the Dunciad
II. A list of books, papers, and verses, in which our author was

III. Advertisement to the first edition with notes, in quarto, 1729 381 IV. Advertisement printed in the Journals, 1730

383

V. Advertisement to the first edition of the fourth book of the

VIII. A parallel of the characters of Mr. Dryden and Mr. Pope
INDEX of Persons celebrated in this Poem

392

401

If we cast a transient view over the most celebrated of the modern lyrics, we may observe, that the stanza of Petrarch, which has been adopted by all his successors, displeases the ear, by its tedious uniformity, and by the number of identical cadences. And, indeed, to speak truth, there appears to be little valuable in Petrarch, except the purity of his diction. His sentiments, even of love, are metaphysical and far-fetched. Neither is there much variety in his subjects, or fancy in his method of treating them. Fulvio Testi, Chiabrera, and Metastasio, are much better lyric poets. When Boileau attempted an ode, he exhibited a glaring proof of what will frequently be hinted in the course of these notes, that the writer, whose grand characteristical talent is satiric or moral poetry, will never succeed, with equal merit, in the higher branches of his art. In his ode on the taking of Namur, are instances of the bombastic, of the prosaic, and of the puerile; and it is no small confirmation of the ruling passion of this author, that he could not conclude his ode, but with a severe stroke on his old antagonist Perrault, though the majesty of this species of composition is so much injured by descending to personal satire.

"We have had (says Mr. Gray) in our language, no other odes of the sublime kind, than that of Dryden on St. Cecilia's Day: for Cowley, who had his merit, yet wanted judgment, style, and harmony, for such a task. That of Pope is not worthy of so great a master. Mr. Mason, indeed, of

late days, has touched the true chords, and with a masterly hand, in some of his choruses; above all in the last of Caractacus ;

66

Hark! heard ye not yon footstep dread?" &c.

Gray's Works, 4to. page 25.-Warton.

The foregoing observations on the character of Petrarch, as a Lyric Poet, will scarcely obtain the assent of the admirers of Italian poetry; who will be shocked by the assertions, that his stanza displeases the ear, and that there is not much variety in his subjects, or fancy in his manner of treating them. Such observations are sufficiently answered by the celebrity which still attends his writings, and by the avidity and pleasure with which they continue to be read; and which is now extended to the English reader, by the correctly beautiful translations of LADY Dacre, published by SIG. UGO FOSCOLO, in his very judicious and entertaining Essays on Petrarch." Still more hazardous is the assertion, that Chiabrera, Fulvio Testi, and Metastasio, are better Lyric poets than Petrarch. That the two former are brilliant and spirited writers may be allowed; but to prefer their extravagant figures, eccentric ideas, and impetuous flow of language, to the sustained dignity and purity of style of Petrarch, is, to say the least, not quite consistent with the good taste displayed by Dr. Warton on other occasions. If, instead of those examples, he had referred to their followers, Guidi, Filicaja, and the other eminent Italian poets at the close of the 17th and beginning of the 18th century, who have purified the manner, and chastened the style of their immediate predecessors, he