The standard of thy ftyle let Etherege be; For wit, the immortal fpring of Wycherly: Learn, after both, to draw fome just design, 30 And the next age will learn to copy thine.

EPISTLE THE NINTH.

то

HENRY HIGDEN*, Efq;

ON HIS

TRANSLATION OF THE TENTH SATIRE OF
JUVENAL.

THE Grecian wits, who Satire firft began,
Were pleasant Pafquins on the life of man;

*This gentleman brought a comedy on the stage in 1693, called the Wary Widow, or Sir Noify Parrot, which was damned, and he complains hardly of the ili ufage; for the Bear-Garden critics treated it with cat-calls. It is printed, and dedicated to the courtly Earl of Dorfet: Sir Charles Sedley wrote the prologue, and it was ushered into the world with feveral copies of verfes. The audience were difmiffed at the end of the third act, the author having contrived fo much drinking of punch in the play, that the actors all got drunk, and were unable to finish it. See G. Jacob's Lives of the Poets. DERRICK.

Ver. 1. The Grecian wits,] The first edition of this imitation, dedicated to Lord Lumley, in quarto, 1690, is a very defpicable performance, in hort, eight fyllable verfes, with an affectation of Hudibraftic humour and diction, directly oppofite to the ftatelinefs and majefty of the original. It was a difgrace to Dryden to prefix to it thefe commendatory verfes in conjunction with Afra Behn and Elkanah Settle.

Curru fervus portatur eodem.

Dr. J. WARTON.

At mighty villains, who the state oppreft, They durft not rail, perhaps; they lafh'd, at

leaft,

S

And turn'd them out of office with a jeft. 5
No fool could peep abroad, but ready ftand
The drolls to clap a bauble in his hand.
Wife legiflators never yet could draw
A fop within the reach of common law ;
For posture, dress, grimace and affectation,
Though foes to fenfe, are harmless to the na-
tion.

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15

Our laft redress is dint of verfe to try,
And Satire is our court of Chancery.
This way took Horace to reform an age,
Not bad enough to need an author's rage.
But your's, who liv'd in more degenerate times,
Was forc'd to faften deep, and worry crimes.
Yet you, my friend, have temper'd him fo well,
You make him fmile in spite of all his zeal ;
An art peculiar to yourself alone,
To join the virtues of two ftyles in one.

Oh! were your author's principle receiv'd,
Half of the lab'ring world would be reliev'd:
For not to wifh is not to be deceiv'd.
Revenge would into charity be chang'd,
Because it cofts too dear to be reveng'd:

It cofts our quiet and content of mind,
And when 'tis compass'd leaves a fting behind.

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25

Suppose I had the better end o'th' staff,
Why should I help the ill-natur'd world to
laugh?

"Tis all alike to them, who get the day;
They love the spite and mischief of the fray.
No; I have cur'd myself of that disease ;
Nor will I be provok'd, but when 1 please :
But let me half that cure to you reftore;
You give the falve, I laid it to the fore.
Our kind relief against a rainy day,
Beyond a tavern, or a tedious play,
We take your book, and laugh our fpleen

away.

Spleen

If all your tribe, too ftudious of debate,
Would ceafe falfe hopes and titles to create,
Led by the rare example you begun,
Clients would fail, and lawyers be undone.

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35

40

EPISTLE THE TENTH.

TO MY DEAR FRIEND,

Mr. CONGREVE,

ON HIS COMEDY CALLED,

THE DOUBLE DEALER,

WELL then, the promis'd hour is come at laft,

The prefent age of wit obfcures the past ;

Ver. 1. Well then,] To be able to write a good comedy evidently implies and pre-fuppofes an acquaintance with real life and living manners, a long commerce with the world, with much experience and obfervation. To produce therefore fuch a comedy as the Old Batchelor, at only one and twenty years, was an extraordinary phenomenon. Dryden on its perufal expreffed great aftonifhment at fecing fuch a firft play. Dr. John-. fon thinks the idea of the comic characters might have been caught from a diligent perufal of former writers. The chief fault afcribed to it, as to all his other pieces, is a fuperabur dance and affectation of wit on all fubjects and occafions, and the univerfal confeffion, that his fools are not fools indeed. In the next year, 1694, he brought out his "Double Dealer," which did not meet with the expected applaufe; and the year after his fertile pen produced Love for Love, in my humble opinion the most pleafing of all his comedies. His laft play, the Way of the World, was fo ill received, that in deep difguft he determined to write no more for the theatre. The paucity of