All this may be ; & the People's Voice is odd,

It is, and it is not, the voice of God.

90

Toh Gammer Gurton if it give the bays,

And yet deny the Careless Husband praise,
Or say our Fathers never broke a rule;
Why then, I say, the Public is a fool.

But let them own, that greater faults than we
They had, and greater Virtues, I'll agree.
Spenser himself affects the Obsolete,

95

And Sydney's verse halts ill on k Roman feet:
Milton's strong pinion now not Heav'n can bound,
Now serpent like, in 'prose he sweeps the ground, 100
In Quibbles, Angel and Archangel join,

And God the Father turns a School-divine.
mNot that I'd lop the beauties from his book,
Like "slashing Bentley with his desp❜rate hook,
Or damn all Shakespear, like th' affected Fool
At court, who hates whate'er he read at school.
But for the Wits of either Charles's days,
The Mob of Gentlemen who wrote with Ease;

• Interdum vulgus rectum videt: est ubi peccat.
Si veteres ita miratur laudatque poetas,
Ut nihil anteferat, nihil illis comparet; errat:
Si quaedam nimis i antique, si pleraque dure
Dicere cedit eos, lignave multa fatetur ;
Et sapit, et mecum facit, et Jove judicat aequo.
m Non equidem insector, delendaque carmina Livî
Esse reor, memini quae "plagosum mihi parvo
Orbilium dictare;

sed emendata videri

NOTES.

105

Ver. 91. Gammer Gurton] A piece of very low humour, one of the first printed Plays in English, and therefore much valued by some Antiquaries.

VOL. II.

2 B

Sprat, Carew, Sedley, and a hundred more, (Like twinkling stars the Miscellanies o'er) One Simile, that P solitary shines

In the dry desert of a thousand lines,

110

Or a lengthen'd Thought that gleams through many page,

Has sanctify'd whole poems for an age.

r I lose my patience, and I own it too,

When works are censur'd, not as bad but new;
While if our Elders break all reason's laws,
These fools demand not pardon, but Applause.

s On Avon's bank, where flowers eternal blow, If I but ask, if any weed can grow?

One Tragic sentence if I dare deride,
Which Betterton's grave action dignify'd,
Or well-mouth'd Booth with emphasis proclaims,
(Tho' but, perhaps, a muster-roll of Names)

Pulchraque, et exactis minimum distantia, miror :
Inter quae P verbum emicuit si forte decorum,
Si a versus paulo concinnior unus et alter;
Injuste totum ducit venitque poema.

Indignor quidquam reprehendi, non quia crasse
Compositum, illepideve putetur, sed quia nuper;
Nec veniam antiquis, sed honorem et praemia posci.
• Recte necne crocum floresque perambulet Attae
Fabula, si dubitem; clamant periisse pudorem
Cuncti pene patres: ea cum reprehendere coner,
Quae gravis Aesopus, quae doctus Roscius egit.

t

NOTES.

a

115

120

Ver. 119. On Avon's bank,] At Stratford, in Warwickshire, where Shakespear had his birth. The thought of the original is here infinitely improved. Perambulet is a low allusion to the name and imperfections of Atta.

Ver. 124. A muster-roll of Names] An absurd custom of several Actors, to pronounce with emphasis the mere Proper Names of

Greeks

How will our Fathers rise up in a rage,

And swear, all shame is lost in George's Age!
You'd think "no Fools disgrac'd the former reign,
Did not some grave Examples yet remain,
Who scorn a Lad should teach his father skill,
And, having once been wrong, will be so still.
He, who to seem more deep than you or I,
Extols old Bards, w or Merlin's Prophecy,
Mistake him not; he envies, not admires,
And to debase the Sons, exalts the Sires.
*Had ancient times conspir'd to disallow

What then was new, what had been ancient now ?
Or what remain'd, so worthy to be read
By learned Critics, of the mighty Dead?

125

130

135

y In Days of Ease, when now the weary Sword Was sheath'd, and Luxury with Charles restor'd; 140 In ev'ry taste of foreign Courts improv'd,

66

All, by the King's Example, liv'd and lov'd."

Vel quia nil" rectum, nisi quod placuit sibi, ducunt;
Vel quia turpe putant parere minoribus, et, quae
Imberbi didicere, senes perdenda fateri.

Jam w Saliare Numae carmen qui laudat, et illud,
Quod mecum ignorat, solus vult scire videri ;
Ingeniis non ille favet plauditque sepultis,
Nostra sed impugnat, nos nostraque lividus odit.
* Quod si tam Graecis novitas invisa fuisset,
Quam nobis; quid nunc esset vetus? aut quid haberet,
Quod legeret tereretque viritim publicus usus ?

y Ut primum positis nugari Graecia bellis Coepit, et in vitium fortuna labier aequa;

NOTES.

Greeks or Romans, which (as they call it) fill the mouth of the Player.

Ver. 129-130.] Inferior to the original: as Ver. 133-4. excel it. Ver. 142. A verse of Lord Lansdown,

Then Peers grew proud in Horsemanship t' excel,
Newmarket's Glory rose, as Britain's fell;
The Soldier breath'd the Gallantries of France,
And ev'ry flow'ry Courtier writ Romance.
Then a Marble, soften'd into Life, grew warm,
And yielding Metal flow'd to human form:
Lely on banimated Canvas stole

The sleepy Eye, that spoke the melting soul.
No wonder then, when all was love and sport,
The willing Muses were debauch'd at Court:
On each enervate string they taught the note
To pant, or tremble thro' an Eunuch's throat.

But d Britain, changeful as a child at play,
Now calls in Princes, and now turns away.
Now Whig, now Tory, what we lov'd we hate;
Now all for Pleasure, now for Church and State;

Nunc athletarum studiis, nunc arsit 2 equorum.
a Marmoris aut eboris fabros aut aeris amavit;
Suspendit picta vultum mentemque tabella;
Nunc tibicinibus, nunc est gavisa tragoedis:

145

150

155

d Sub nutrice puella velut si luderet infans, Quod cupide petiit, mature plena reliquit. Quid placet, aut odio est, quod non mutabile credas? Hoc paces habuere bonae, ventique secundi.

NOTES.

Ver. 143. In Horsemanship excel,-And ev'ry flow'ry Courtier writ Romance.] The Duke of Newcastle's Book of Horsemanship; the Romance of Parthenissa, by the Earl of Orrery; and most of the French Romances translated by Persons of Quality.

Ver. 149. Lely on animated Canvas stole-The sleepy Eye, etc.] This was the Characteristic of the excellent Colourist's expression; who was an excessive Manierest.

Ver. 153. On each enervate string, etc.] The Siege of Rhodes by Sir William Davenant, the first Opera sung in England.

Now for Prerogative, and now for Laws;

Effects unhappy! from a Noble Cause.

160

eTime was, a sober Englishman would knock

His servants up, and rise by five o'clock,

Instruct his Family in ev'ry rule,

And send his Wife to Church, his Son to School.

To f worship like his Fathers, was his care;

165

To teach their frugal Virtues to his Heir;

Το

prove, that Luxury could never hold;
And place, on good & Security, his Gold.
Now times are chang'd, and one h Poetic Itch
Has seiz'd the Court and City, poor and rich:

Sons, Sires, and Grandsires, all will wear the bays,
Our Wives read Milton, and our Daughters Plays,
To Theatres, and to Rehearsals throng,

And all our Grace at table is a song.

170

I, who so oft renouce the Muses, i lye,

175

Not's self e'er tells more Fibs than I;
When sick of Muse, our follies we deplore,

And promise our best Friends to rhyme no more;
We wake next morning in a raging fit,

And call for pen and ink to show our Wit.

180

Romae dulce diu fuit et solemne, reclusa

Mane domo vigilare, clienti promere jura ;
Scriptos & nominibus rectis expendere nummos;
Majores audire, minori dicere, per quae
Crescere res posset, minui damnosa libido.
Mutavit mentem populus levis, het calet uno
Scribendi studio: puerique patresque severi
Fronde comas vincti coenant, et carmina dictant.
Ipse ego, qui nullos me affirmo scribere versus,
Invenior Parthis mendacior; et prius orto
Sole vigil, calamum et chartas et scrinia posco.