The goddess then o'er his añointed head, With mystic words, the sacred opium shed. And, lo! her bird (a monster of a fowl, Something betwixt a Heidegger and owl) Perch'd on his crown:- All hail! and hail again, My son ! the promis'd land expects thy reign. Known Eusden thirsts no more for sack or praise; He sleeps among the dull of ancient days; Safe where no critics damn, no duns molest, Where wretched Withers, Ward, and Gildon rest,296 REMARKS. wretch knew, and every body knows, that the whole bench of bishops, not long ago, were pleased to give me a purse of guineas for discovering the erroneous translations of the Common-Prayer in Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, &c. As for my genius, let Mr. Clelaud shew better verses in all Pope's Works than Ozell's version of Boileau's Lutrin, which the late Lord Halifax was so pleased with, that he complimented him with leave to dedicate it to him, &c. Let him shew better and truer poetry in the Rape of the Lock, than in Ozell's Rare of the Bucket (La Secchia rapita). And Mr. Toland and Mr. Gildon publicly declared Ozell's translation of Homer to be, as it was prior, so like wise superior to Pope's.-Surely, surely, every man is free to deserve well of his country.' JOHN OZELL. We cannot but subscribe to such reverend testimonies as those of the Bench of Bishops, Mr. Toland, and Mr. Gildon. W . 296 Withers was a great pretender to poetical zeal against the vices of the times, and abused the greatest personages in power, which brought upon him frequent correction. The Marshalsea and Newgate were no strangers to him. Winstanley. 296 Gildon.] Charles Gildon, a writer of criticisms and libels, of the last age, bred at St. Omer's with the Jesnits; but renouncing popery, he published Blunt's books against the divinity of Christ, the oracles of reason, &c. He signalized himself as a critic, having written some very bad plays; abused Mr. P. very scandalously in an anonymous pamphlet of the Life of Mr. Wycherley, printed by Curl: in another, called The New Rehearsal, printed in 1914; in a third, entitled The Complete Art of English Poetry, in two volumes; and others. On of Homer rely, surely, JOHN 02 And high-born Howard, more majestic sire, 297 • Oh! wben shall rise a monarch all our own,311 REMARKS. 297 Howard.) Hon. Edward Howard, author of the British Princes, and a great number of wonderful pieces, celebrated by the late Earls of Dorset and Rochester, Duke of Buckiugham, Mr. Waller, &c. IMITATIONS. - Quorum imagines lambunt PER. 311 0! when shall rise a monarch, &c.] Boileau, Latrin chant ii. • Helas! qu'est devenu ce tems, cet henreux tems, . Ou les rois s'bonoroient du nom de faineans,' &C. She ceas'd. Then swells the Chapel-royal tbroat; «God save king Cibber!' mounts in every note. Familiar White's, 'God save king Colley!' cries; God save king Colley ! Drury-lane replies : To Needham's quick the voice triumphal rode, But pious Needham dropt the name of God; 324 Back to the devil the last echoes roll, 325 And Coll!' each butcher roars at Hockley-hole. So when Jove's block descended from on high, (As sings thy great forefather Ogilby) Loud thunder to its bottom shook the bog, And the hoarse nation croak’d, God save king Log! REMARKS. 924 - pious Needham.) A matton of great fame and very religious in her way; whose constant prayer it was that she might get enough by her profession to leave it off in time, and make her peace with God.' But her fate was not so bappy; for being convicted, and set in the pillory, she was (to the lasting shame of all her great friends and votaries) so ill used by the populace, that it put an end to her days. W. 325 The Devil tavern in Fleet-street, where the court-odes were usually rehearsed. BOOK II. ARGUMENT. The King being proclainted, the solemnity is graced with public games and sports of various kinds ; pot instituted by the hero, as by Æneas in Virgil, but for greater honour by the goddess in person in like manner as the games Pythia, Isthmia, &c. were anciently said to be ordained by the gods, and as Thetis herself appearing, according to Homer, Odyssey XXIV. proposed the prizes in hopour of her son Achilles). Hither flock the poets and critics, at. tended, as is but just, with their patrons and booksellers. The goddess is frst pleased, for her disport, to propose games to the booksellers, and setteth up the phantom of a poet, which they contend to overtake. The races described, with their divers accidents. Next, the game for a poetess. Then follow the exercises for the poets, of tickjing, vociferating, diving; the first holds forth the arts and practices of dedicators, the second of disputants and fustian poets, the third of profound, dark, and dirty partywriters. Lastly, for the critics the goddess proposes (with great propriety) an exercise, not of their parts, but their patience, in hearing the works of two voluminous authors, the one in verse and the other in prose, deliberately read, without sleeping : the various effects of which, with the several degrees and manners of their operation, are here set forth, till the whole number, not of critics only, but of spectators, actors, and all present, fall fast asleep; which naturally and necessarily ends the games. greence, in hearing the other in prostof which, w High on a gorgeous seat, that far outslione' REMARKS. 9 Fleckno's Irish throne.) Richard Fleckno was an Irish priest, but had laid aside (as himself expressed it) the mechanic part of priesthood. He printed some plays, poems, IMITATIONS. 1 High on a gorgeous seat.] Parody of Milton, Buok II. • Higb on a throne of royal state, that far Outshone the wealth of Ormus and or Ind, Or that where on her Curls the public pours, 3 their horns. REMARKS. letters, and travels. I doubt not our author took occasion to mention hiun in respect to the poem of Mr. Dryden, to which this bears some resemblance, though of a character more different from it than that of the Ænied from the Iliad, or the Lutrin of Boileau from the Defaite des Bouts Times of Sarazin. W. 3 Edmund Curl stood in the pillory at Charing Cross, March 1727-8. 15 Camillo Querno was of Apulia, who, hearing the greatencouragement which Leo X. gave to poets, travelled to Rome with a barp in his hand, and sung to it twenty thousand verses of a poem called Alexias. He was introduced as a buffoon to Leo, and promoted to the honour of the laurel; a jest wbich the court of Rome and the Pope himself entered into so far, as to cause bim to ride on an elephant to the Capitol, and to hold a solemn festival on his coronation; at which, it is recorded, the poet himself was so transported as to weep for joy *. He was ever after a constant fre IMITATIONS. * Bee Life of c, C. chap. vi. p. 149. |