Let others spin their meagre lines for hire; Let SOUTHEY sing, although his teeming Muse, Let simple WORDSWORTH chime his childish verse, To rouse the galleries, or to raise a ghost; Let MOORE be lewd; let STRANGFORD steal from MOORE, be less addicted to "Gramarye," and more to Grammar, than the lady of the Lay, and her Bravo William of Deloraine. * It may be asked why I have censured the earl of Carlisle, my guardian and relative, to whom I dedicated a volume of puerile poems a few years ago. The guardianship was nominal, at least as far as I have been able to. discover; the relationship I cannot help, and am very sorry for it; but as his lordship seemed to forget it on a very essential occasion to me, I shall not burthen my memory with the recollection. I do not think that personal differences sanction the unjust condemnation of a brother scribbler; but I see no reason why they should act as a preventive, when the author, noble or ignoble, has for a series of years beguiled a " discerning public" (as the advertisements have it) with divers reams of most orthodox imperial nonsense. Besides, I do not step aside to vituperate the earl; no-his works came fairly in review with those of other patrician literati. If, before I escaped from my teens, I said any thing in favour of his lordship's paper books, it was in the way of dutiful dedication, and more from the advice of others than my own judgment, and I seize the first opportunity of pronouncing my sincere recantation. I have heard that some persons conceive me to be under obligations to Lord Carlisle: if so, I shall be most particularly happy to learn what they are, and when conferred, that they may be duly appreciated, and publicly acknowledged. What I have humbly advanced as an opinion on VOL. III. 17 Scrawl on till death release us from the strain, Whose sons forget the poet and his song: his printed things, I am prepared to support if necessary, by quotations from elegies, eulogies, odes, episodes, and certain facetious and dainty tragedies bearing his name and mark: "What can ennoble knaves, or fools, or cowards? Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards!" So says Pope. Amen! Tolere humo, victorque virum volitare per ora."-Virgil. E'en now, what once lov'd minstrels scarce may claim When Fame's loud trump hath blown its noblest blast, Ye! who in Granta's honours would surpass, There CLARKE, still striving piteously "to please," A would-be satirist, a hir'd buffoon, A monthly scribbler of some low lampoon, *The "Games of Hoyle," well known to the votaries of whist, chess, &c. are not to be superseded by the vagaries of his poetical namesake, whose poem comprised, as expressly stated in the advertisement, all the "Plagues of Egypt." This person, who has lately betrayed the most rapid symptoms of confirmed authorship, is writer of a poem denominated the " Art of Pleasing,', as "Incus a non lucendo," containing little pleasantry and less poesy. He also acts as monthly stipendiary and collector of calumnies for the Satirist Oh dark asylum of a Vandal race!" At once the boast of learning, and disgrace; So sunk in dulness and so lost in shame That SMYTEE and HODGSON† Scarce redeem thy fame! But where fair Isis rolls her purer wave, No just applause her honour'd name shall lose, If this unfortunate young man would exchange the magazines for the mathematics, and endeavour to take a decent degree in his university, it might eventually prove more serviceable than his present salary. * "Into Cambridgeshire the emperor Probus transported a considerable body of Vandals.”-Gibbon's Decline and Fall, page 83, vol. 2. There is no reason to doubt the truth of this assertion, the breed is still in high perfec tion. This gentleman's name requires no praise: the man who in translation displays unquestionable genius, may well be expected to excel in original composition, of which it is to be hoped we shall soon see a splendid specimen. The Aboriginal Britons," an excellent poem by Richards. Like these thy strength may sink, in ruin hurl'd, The flowers of rhetoric, though not of sense, lime. But should I back return, no letter'd rage Shall drag my common-place book on the stage: And equal him whose work he sought to mar; * A friend of mine being asked why his grace of P. was likened to an old woman, replied," he supposed it was because he was past bearing," † Calpe is the ancient name of Gibraltar. Stamboul is the Turkish word for Constantinople. Mount Caucasus. ** Lord Valentia (whose tremendous travels are forthcoming with due decorations, graphical, topographical, and typographical) deposed, on Sir John Carr's unlucky suit, that Dubois's satire prevented his purchase of the "Stranger in Ireland." Oh, fie, my lord, has your lordship no more feeling for a fellow tourist? but " two of a trade," they say, &c. |