the lady, who leading back the knight to the fofa, addreffed him in thefe words:

ON

А

Person engaged in the pursuit of

literary fame must be severely mortified on observing the very speedy neglect into which writers of high merit so

frequently

frequently fall. The revolution of centuries, the extinction of languages, the vaft convulfions which agitate a whole people, are caufes which may well be fubmitted to in overwhelming an author with oblivion; but that in the fame country, with little variation of language or manners, the delights of one age should become utter ftrangers in the next, is furely an immaturity of fate which conveys reproach upon the inconfiftency of national tafte. That noble band, the English Poets, have ample reafon for complaining to what unjuft guardians they have entrusted their renown. While we crown the statue of Shakespeare as the prince of dramatic poets, fhall we forget the works, and almost the names of his contemporaries who poffeffed fo much of a kindred spirit? Shall the Italian Paftor Fido and Amyntas ftand high in our estimation, and the Faithful Shepherdess, the mof

most beautiful paftoral that a poet's fancy ever formed, be fcarcely known amongst us? Shall we feel the fire of heroic poetry in translations from Greece and Rome, and never fearch for it in the native productions of our own country ?

THE capital work of Sir William D'avenant, which I now defire to call forth from its obfcurity, may well be confidered as in a state of oblivion, fince we no where meet with allufions to it, or quotations from it, in our modern writers; and few, I imagine, even of the profeffed ftudents in English claffics, would think their tafte difcredited by confeffing that they had never read GONDIBERT. A very learned and ingenious critic, in his wellknown difcourfe upon poetical imitation, has, indeed, taken notice of this poem; but though he bestows all due praise upon its author, yet the purpose for which

it is mentioned being to inftance an effential error, we cannot suppose that his authority has ferved to gain it more readers. Having very judiciously laid it down as a general obfervation, that writers by studiously avoiding the fancied difgrace of imitation are apt to fall into improper methods, forced conceits, and affected expreffion; he proceeds to introduce the work in question after the following manner. "And, that the reader may not

suspect me of afferting this without ex