Then, by the rule that made the " Horse-tail bare,
I pluck out year by year, as hair by hair,
And melt w down Ancients like a heap of snow:
While you, to measure merits, look in * Stowe,
And, eftimating authors by the year,
Beftow a Garland only on a Bier.
Shakespeare (whom you and every Playhouse bill Style the divine, the matchlefs, what you will) For gain, not glory, wing'd his roving flight, And grew Immortal in his own despight. Ben, old and poor, as little feem'd to heed a 'The Life to come, in every Poet's Creed. Who now reads b Cowley? if he pleases yet, His Moral pleafes, not his pointed wit; Forgot his Epic, nay Pindaric Art,
But ftill I love the language of his heart.
"Yet furely, furely, these were famous men! "What boy but hears the sayings of old Ben?
Qui vel menfe brevi, vel toto eft junior anno.
Utor permiffo, caudaeque pilos ut " equinae
Paulatim vello: et demo unum, demo et item unum;
Dum cadat elufus ratione w ruentis acervi,
Qui redit in x faftos, et virtutem aestimat annis,
Miraturque nihil, nifi quod y Libitina facravit.
z Ennius et fapiens, et fortis, et alter Homerus,
Ut critici dicunt, leviter curare videtur
Quo a promiffa cadant, et fomnia Pythagorea.
b Naevius in manibus non eft; at c mentibus haeret
Pene recens: dadeo fanctum eft vetus omne poema.
"In all debates where Critics bear a part,
"Not one but nods, and talks of Jonfon's Art,
"Of Shakespeare's Nature, and of Cowley's Wit;
"How Beaumont's judgment check'd what Fletcher
"How Shadwell hafty, Wycherly was flow;
"But, for the Paffions, Southerne fure and Rowe.
"Thefe, f only thefe, fupport the crowded stage,
"From eldest Heywood down to Cibber's age."
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.
Ambigitur quoties, uter utro fit prior; aufert
Pacuvius docti famam fenis, Accius alti:
Dicitur Afranî toga conveniffe Menandro:
Plautus ad exemplar Siculi properare Epicharmi
Vincere Caecilius gravitate, Terentius arte:
Hos edifcit, et hos arcto stipata theatro
Spectat Roma potens; fhabet hos numeratque poetas
Ad noftrum tempus, Livî fcriptoris ab aevo.
8 Interdum vulgus rectum videt: eft ubi peccat.
Sih veteres ita miratur laudatque poetas,
Ut nihil anteferat, nihil illis comparet; errat:
Spenfer himself affects the i Obfolete,
And Sydney's verse halts ill on * Roman feet: Milton's ftrong pinion now not Heaven can bound, Now Serpent-like, in I profe he fweeps the ground, 10 In Quibbles, Angel and Archangel join,
And God the Father turns a School-divine.
m Not that I'd lop the Beauties from his book,
Like " flashing Bentley with his defperate hook,
Or damn all Shakespeare, like th' affected Fool
At court, who hates whate'er he o read at school.
But for the Wits of either Charles's days,
The Mob of Gentlemen who wrote with Eafe;
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,
Or lengthen'd Thought that gleams through many
Has fanctify'd whole poems
Si quaedam nimis i antique, fi pleraque * dure
Dicere credit eos, ignave multa fatetur;
Et fapit, et mecum facit, et Jove judicat aequo.
m Non equidem infector, delendaque carmina Livi
Effe reor, memini quae " plagofum • mihi parvo
Orbilium dictare ;
fed emendata videri
Pulchraque, et exactis minimum diftantia, miror:
Inter quae p verbum emicuit fi forte decorum,
Si verfus paulo concinnior unus et alter:
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 flowers eternal blow,
If I but ask if any weed can grow;
One Tragic fentence if I dare deride,
Whicht Betterton's grave action dignify'd,
Or well-mouth'd Booth with emphafis proclaims,
(Though but, perhaps, a mufter-roll of Names)
How will our Fathers rife up in a rage,
And fwear, all fhame is loft in George's Age!
You'd think " no Fools difgrac'd the former reign,
Did not fome grave Examples yet remain,
Who fcorn a Lad should teach his father skill,
And, having once been wrong, will be so still.
He, who to feem more deep than you or I,
Extols old Bards, w or Merlin's Prophecy,
Injufte totum ducit venditque poema.
Indignor quidquam reprehendi, non quia craffe Compofitum, illepideve putetur, fed quia nuper; Nec veniam antiquis, fed honorem et praemia posci. s 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. 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,
Mistake him not; he envies, 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?
Or what remain'd, fo worthy to be read
By learned Critics, of the mighty Dead?
y In Days of Eafe, when now the weary Sword Was fheath'd, and Luxury with Charles reftor'd; 140 In every taste of foreign Courts improv'd,
"All, by the King's Example, liv'd and lov'd.”
Then Peers grew proud z in Horfemanship t' excel,
Newmarket's Glory rofe, as Britain's fell;
The Soldier breath'd the Gallantries of France,
And every flowery Courtier writ Romance.
Then a Marble, soften'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.
Quod mecum ignorat, folus vult scire videri ;
Ingeniis non ille favet plauditque fepultis,
Noftra fed impugnat, nos nostraque lividus odit,
* Quod fi tam Graecis novitas invifa fuiffet, Quam nobis ; quid nunc effet vetus? aut quid haberet, Quod legeret tereretque viritim publicus usus ?
y Ut primum pofitis nugari Graecia bellis Coepit, et in vitium fortuna labier aequa; Nunc athletarum ftudiis, nunc arfit z equorum a Marmoris aut eboris fabros aut aeris amavit; Sufpendit b picta vultum mentemque tabella;
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