high-ways with Robbers, and the garrets with Clippers, Coiners, and Weekly Journalists.

But admitting that two or three of these, offend lefs in their morals, than in their writings; muft poverty make nonfenfe facred? If fo, the fame of bad authors would be much better taken care of, than that of all the good ones in the world; and not one of a hundred had ever been call'd by his right

name.

They mistake the whole matter: It is not charity to encourage them in the way they follow, but to get 'em out of it: For men are not bunglers because they are poor, but they are poor because they are bunglers.

Is it not pleasant enough to hear our authors crying out on the one hand, as if their perfons and characters were too facred for' Satyre; and the publick objecting on the other, that they are too mean even for Ridi cule? But whether bread or fame be their end, it must be allow'd, our author by and in this poem, has mercifully given 'em a little of both.

There are two or three, who by their rank and fortune have no benefit from the former objections (fuppofing them good) and these I was forry to fee in fuch company. But if without any provocation, two or three gentlemen will fall upon one, in an affair wherein his intereft and reputation are equally embark'd; they cannot certainly,

after

after they had been content to print themfelves his enemies, complain of being put into the number of them.

Others, I'm told, pretend to have been once his Friends; furely they are their enemies who fay fo, fince nothing can be more odious than to treat a friend as they have done: but of this I can't perfuade my self, when I confider the conftant and eternal aversion of all bad writers to a good one.

Such as claim a merit from being his Admirers, I wou'd gladly ask, if it lays him under any perfonal obligation? at that rate he would be the moft oblig'd humble fervant in the world. I dare fwear, for these in particular, he never defir'd them to be his Admirers, nor promis'd in return to be theirs; that had truly been a fign he was of their acquaintance; but wou'd not the malicious world have fufpected fuch an approbation of fome motive worse than ignorance, in the Author of the ESSAY on CRITICISM? Be it as it will, the reasons of their Admiration and of his Contempt are equally fubfifting; for His Works and Theirs are the very fame that they were.

Óne therefore of their accufations I believe may be juft, "That he has a contempt "for their writings." And there is another which would probably be fooner allow'd by himfelf, than by any good judge befide," "That his own have found too much fuccefs with the publick." But as

it cannot confift with his modesty to claim this as a justice, it lies not on him, but entirely on the publick, to defend its own judgment.

There remains what in my opinion might feem a better plea for these people, than any they have made use of. If Obscurity or Poverty were to exempt a man from Satyre, much more should Folly or Dulness, which are ftill more involuntary, nay as much fo as perfonal deformity. But even this will not help them: Deformity becomes the object of ridicule when a man fets up for being handfome: and fo muft Dulnefs when he fets up for a Wit. They are not ridicul'd because Ridicule in itself is or ought to be a pleasure; but because it is juft, to undeceive or vindicate the honeft and unpretending part of mankind from impofition, because particular intereft ought to yield to general, and a great number who are not naturally Fools ought never to be made fo in complaifance to a few who are. Accordingly we find that in all ages, all vain pretenders, were they ever fo poor or ever fo dull, have been conftantly the topicks of the most candid Satyrifts, from the Codrus of JUVENAL to the Damon of BOILEAU.

Having mention'd BOILEAU, the greatest Poet and most judicious Critic of his age and country, admirable for his talents, and yet perhaps more admirable for his judgment in the proper application of them; I

cannot

cannot help remarking the resemblance betwixt Him and our Author in Qualities, Fame, and Fortune; in the diftinctions fhewn to them by their Superiors, in the general efteem of their Equals, and in their extended reputation amongst Foreigners; in the latter of which ours has met with the better fortune, as he has had for his Tranflators perfons of the most eminent rank and abilities in their refpective Nations.* But the refemblance bolds in nothing more, than in their being equally abus'd by the ignorant pretenders to Poetry of their times; of which not the leaft memory will remain but in their own writings, and in the notes made upon them. What BOILEAU has done in almost all his Poems, our Author has only in this: I dare answer for him he will do it in no more; and on his principle of attacking few but who had flander'd him, he could not have done it at all had he been confin'd from cenfuring obfcure and worthlefs perfons, for fcarce any other were his

Effay on Criticism in French Verse by General Hamilton. The fame in Verfe alfo by Monfieur Roboton, Counsellor and Privy Secretary to King George I. Rape of the Lock, in French, Paris, 1728.

In Italian Verfe, by the Abbe Conti, a Noble Venetian; and by the Marquifs Rangani, Envoy Extraordinary from Modena to King George II.

Others of his Works by Salvini of Florence, &c.

His Effays and Differtations on Homer, in French, Pavis 1728.

enemies.

enemies. However, as the parity is fo remarkable, I hope it will continue till the laft; and if ever he fhall give us an edition of this Poem himself, I may fee fome of 'em treated as gently (on their repentance or better merit) as Perault and Quinault were at laft by BOILEAU.

In one point I must be allow'd to think the character of our English Poet the more amiable. He has not been a follower of fortune or fuccefs: He has liv'd with the great without Flattery, been a friend to Men in Power without Penfions, from whom as he ask'd, fo he receiv'd no favour but what was done him in his Friends. As his Satyrs were the more juft for being delay'd, fort nit Pargyrieke; beftow'd only on fuch perfons as he had familiarly known, only for fuch virtues as he had long obferv'd in them, and only at fuch times as others ceafe to praise if not begin to calumniate them, I mean when out of Power or out of Fashion.* A Satyre therefore on writers fo notorious. th. contray, became no man fo well as himself; as none (it is plain) was

*As Mr. Wycherley, at the time the Town declaim'd against his Book of Poems: Mr. Wal, after his death: Sir William Trumbull, when he refign'd the Office of Secretary of State: Lord Bolingbroke at his leaving England after the Queen's death: Lord Oxford in his laft decline of Life: Mr. Secretary Craggs at the end of the SouthSea Year, and after his death: Others, only in Epitaphs.

fo