With length of time, much judgment, and more toil, Not ill they acted, what they could not spoil. Their fetting-fun ftill fhoots a glimmering ray, 35 Like ancient Rome, majestic in decay: And better gleanings their worn foil can boast, Than the crab-vintage of the neighbouring coaft. This difference yet the judging world will fee; Thou copiest Homer, and they copy thee. 40 EPISTLE THE TWELFTH. TO MY FRIEND Mr. MOTTE UX*, ON HIS TRAGEDY CALLED, BEAUTY IN DISTRESS. 'TIS hard, my friend, to write in such an age, As damns, not only poets, but the stage. Peter Motteux, to whom this piece is addressed, was born iu Normandy, but fettled as a merchant in London very young, and lived in repute. He died in a houfe of ill fame near the Strand, and was fuppofed to have been murdered, in 1718. He produced eleven dramatic pieces, and his Beauty in Distress is thought much the beft of them: it was played in Lincoln's-innfields by Betterton's company in 1698. DERRICK. Ver. 1. 'Tis hard, my friend,] No French refugee feems to have made himself fo perfect a matter of the English language as Peter Motteux. He has given a very good translation of Don Quixote, which my friend, Mr. Bowle, preferred to more mo dern ones. By trading in a large Eaft India warehouse, and by a place in the poft-office, he gained a confiderable income. It was fuppofed he was murdered in a houfe of ill fame. He wrote fifteen plays; this of Beauty in Diftrefs was acted in 1698. Dryden feems to have felt a particular regard for him. Dr. J. WARTON. 5 That facred art, by heaven itself infus'd, 15 All would fubmit; for all but fools will mend. 23. 22 Ver. 19. Rebellion, worse than witchcraft,] From 1 Sam. xv. "For rebellion is as the fin of witchcraft, &c." TODD. 30 The moral part, at least, we may divide, Contented to be thinly regular: 35. 40 Born there, but not for them, our fruitful foil But whence art thou inspir'd, and thou alone, 50 It moves our wonder, that a foreign gueft Should over-match the moft, and match the beft. |