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101

In quibbles angel and archangel join,
And God the Father turns a school-divine.
Not that I'd lop the beauties from his book,
Like slashing Bentley with his desperate hook;
Or damn all Shakspeare, like the affected fool 105
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,
Sprat, Carew, Sedley, and a hundred more,
Like twinkling stars the Miscellanies o'er;
One simile, that solitary shines

In the dry desert of a thousand lines,

110

Or lengthen'd thought that gleams through many

a page,

Has sanctified whole poems for an age.

I lose my patience, and I own it too,

115

When works are censured, not as bad, but new;
While, if our elders break all reason's laws,
These fools demand not pardon, but applause.
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 dignified,

120

109 Sprat. In his last will, he gave thanks to God, that he, who had been bred at neither Eton nor Westminster, but at a little country school by the churchyard side, should come to be a bishop at last.' Warburton, who was in the same condition, sarcastically observes, 'that the honor of being a Westminster schoolboy, some have at one age, and some at another, and some all their life long.'

122 Betterton's grave action. This celebrated actor was one of the earliest friends of Pope. Cibber, in his 'Life,' has given an interesting analysis of Betterton's powers: he was a man of honor and intelligence. Booth, who was second only to him, was a Westminster boy, whom Busby's praises of his perform

125

Or well-mouth'd Booth with emphasis proclaims,
Though but perhaps a muster-roll of names,
How will our fathers rise up in a rage,
And swear all shame is lost in George's age!
You'd think no fools disgraced 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. 130
He, who, to seem more deep than you or I,
Extols old bards, or Merlin's prophecy,
Mistake him not; he envies, not admires;
And to debase the sons, exalts the sires.
Had ancient times conspired 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?

135

141

In days of ease, when now the weary sword Was sheathed, and luxury with Charles restored; In every taste of foreign courts improved, 'All, by the king's example, lived and loved.' Then peers grew proud in horsemanship to excel; Newmarket's glory rose, as Britain's fell; The soldier breathed the gallantries of France, 145 And every flowery courtier writ romance: Then marble, soften'd into life, grew warm; And yielding metal flow'd to human form:

ance of the Pamphilus of Terence stimulated to try the stage. His chef d'œuvre was Othello: yet the description of his figure seems singularly at variance with success. His form was clumsy, his head was large, his arms were remarkably short, and his back was bowed.'

142 A verse of lord Lansdowne.

143 In horsemanship to excel,—And every flowery 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.-Pope.

Lely on animated canvas stole

150

155

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 through an eunuch's throat.
But Britain, changeful as a child at play,
Now calls in princes, and now turns away:
Now whig, now tory, what we loved we hate;
Now all for pleasure, now for church and state;
Now for prerogative, and now for laws:
Effects unhappy, from a noble cause!

Time was, a sober Englishman would knock
His servants up, and rise by five o'clock,
Instruct his family in every rule,

And send his wife to church, his son to school :
To worship like his fathers was his care;

To teach their frugal virtues to his heir;
To prove that luxury could never hold;
And place on good security his gold.

160

165

149 Lely on animated canvas stole. Walpole says, that if Wycherley had nature in his comedies, it was nature stark naked the painters of his time veiled it but little more.' With his usual finesse, he observes that Lely's nymphs are too irregular in their appearance to be taken for any thing but maids of honor.' When Cromwell sat to Lely, he characteristically said,- Mr. Lely, I desire you would use all your skill to paint my picture truly like me, and not flatter me at all but remark all those roughnesses, pimples, warts, and every thing as you see me; otherwise I shall not pay a farthing for it.'

152 The willing Muses. Warton quotes a letter from the duke of Ormond to Clarendon, in 1658, in which he strikingly says of Charles II.,-'I fear his immoderate delight in empty, effeminate, and vulgar conversations, is become an irresistible part of his nature; and will never suffer him to animate his own designs and others' actions with that spirit which is requisite for his quality, and much more for his fortune.'

Now times are changed, and one poetic itch
Has seized the court and city, poor and rich: 170
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.

175

I, who so oft renounce the Muses, lie;
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

He served a 'prenticeship who sets up shop; Ward tried on puppies and the poor his drop; Ev'n Radcliffe's doctors travel first to France, Nor dare to practise till they 've learn'd to dance. Who builds a bridge that never drove a pile? 185 Should Ripley venture, all the world would smile: But those who cannot write, and those who can, All rhyme, and scrawl, and scribble, to a man.

Yet, sir, reflect, the mischief is not great; These madmen never hurt the church or state: Sometimes the folly benefits mankind; And rarely avarice taints the tuneful mind. Allow him but his plaything of a pen, He ne'er rebels, or plots, like other men :

191

186 Should Ripley venture. Ripley was the government architect; and, with the usual ill fate of favorites, contrived to please none but his employers. He built the Admiralty, which is still demonstrative of his taste; having all the disadvantages of massiveness without dignity, and elaborateness without elegance. The screen was erected by the Adamses. But Warton slightly vindicates his skill in the minor departments of his art, the disposition of rooms, &c., and cites Houghton, and lord Walpole's at Woollerton.

Flight of cashiers or mobs he'll never mind; 195
And knows no losses while the Muse is kind.

To cheat a friend or ward he leaves to Peter;
The good man heaps up nothing but mere metre ;
Enjoys his garden and his book in quiet;
And then a perfect hermit in his diet.

200

Of little use the man, you may suppose, Who says in verse what others say in prose; Yet let me show, a poet's of some weight; And, though no soldier, useful to the state. What will a child learn sooner than a song ? 205 What better teach a foreigner the tongue; What's long or short; each accent where to place; And speak in public with some sort of grace? I scarce can think him such a worthless thing, Unless he praise some monster of a king ; Or virtue or religion turn to sport, To please a lewd or unbelieving court.

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195 Flight of cashiers. Coxe, in his Memoirs of Walpole,' narrates the national panic on the bankruptcy of the South-sea company. A committee of the house of commons having been chosen to examine all papers, &c., Knight, the cashier, fled the country, carrying with him his 'green book,' as was supposed, with the connivance of government: the committee reported this flight, and the commons ordered the doors to be locked, and the keys laid on the table. General Ross then stated, in the extravagant language, whether of art or terror, that the committee had discovered a train of the deepest villany and fraud hell had ever contrived to ruin a nation.' In consequence of this speech, four of the members, who were directors, were expelled the house, and taken into custody: the other directors shared the same fate; all their books, papers, and effects were seized; and the royal assent was given to a bill for restraining them from leaving the kingdom, discovering their estates, and disqualifying them from holding office in any of the companies.

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