Now what relief can righteous David So formed to speak a loyal nation's bring? 811 How fatal 'tis to be too good a king! Friends he has few, so high the madness grows; 905 sense, That, as their band was Israel's tribes in small, So fit was he to represent them all. Who dare be such must be the people's Now rasher charioteers the seat ascend, 135 And from his brows damps of oblivion shed Full on the filial dulness: long he stood, Repelling from his breast the raging god; At length burst out in this prophetic mood: "Heavens bless my son! from Ireland let him reign To far Barbadoes on the western main; 140 Of his dominion may no end be known, And greater than his father's be his throne; Beyond Love's Kingdom let him stretch his pen!" He paused, and all the people cried "( Amen." Then thus continued he: "My son, ad And justify their author's want of sense. To lard with wit thy hungry Epsom prose. And when false flowers of rhetoric thou wouldst cull, Trust nature; do not labor to be dull; 165 But write thy best, and top; and in each line Sir Formal's oratory will be thine. Sir Formal, though unsought, attends thy quill, And does thy northern dedications fill. 170 Nor let false friends seduce thy mind to fame By arrogating Jonson's hostile name; Let father Flecknoe fire thy mind with praise, And uncle Ogleby thy envy raise. Thou art my blood, where Jonson has no part: 175 What share have we in nature or in art? Where did his wit on learning fix a brand, And rail at arts he did not understand? Where made he love in Prince Nicander's vein, Or swept the dust in Psyche's humble strain? 180 |