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That author's work will ne'er be reckon❜d good,
Who has not been where Curll the printer stood.

P Alas poor me! you may my Fortune guess:
I write, and yet humanity profess:
(Though nothing can delight a modern judge,
Without ill-nature and a private grudge)
I love the king, the queen, and royal race:
I like the government, but want no place :
Too low in life to be a juftice I,

And for a conftable, thank God,. too high:
Was never in a plot, my brain's not hurt;
I politics to poetry convert.

A politician muft (as I have read)
Be furnish'd, in the first place, with a head:
A head well fill'd with Machiavelian brains,
And stuff'd with precedents of former reigns:

Si tribus Anticyris caput infanabile nunquam
Tonfori Licino commiferit.

O ego lævus,
Qui purgor bilem fub verni temporis horam:
Non alius faceret meliora poëmata, verum
Nil tanti eft ergo fungar vice cotis, acutum
Reddere quæ ferrum valet, exfors ipfa fecandi;
Munus & officium, nil fcribens ipfe, docebo;
Unde parentur opes, quid alat formetque Poëtam:
Quid deceat, quid non: quò virtus, quò ferat error.
4 Scribendi recte, fapere eft & principium & fons:
Rem tibi Socratica poterunt oftendere chartæ,
Verbaque provifam rem non invita fequentur,
Qui didicit, patriæ quid debeat, & quid amicis,

Muft

Muft journals read, and magna charta quote;
But acts ftill wifer, if he speaks by note:
Learn well his leffon, and ne'er fear mistakes;
For ready-money ready-fpeakers makes.
He muft inftructions and credentials draw,
Pay well the army, and protect the law:
Give to his country what's his country's due,
But firft help brothers, fons, and coufins too.
He must read Grotius upon war and

peace,

And the twelve judges' falary increase.

He must oblige old friends and new allies,
And find out ways and means for fresh supplies.
He must the weavers grievances redress,
And merchants wants in merchants words express.
* Dramatic poets that expect the bays,
Should cull our histories for party plays;
Wickford's Embaffador should fill their head,
And the State-trials carefully be read:

Quo fit amore parens, quo frater amandus, et hofpes,
Quod fit confcripti, quod judicis officium, quæ
Partes in bellum miffi ducis; ille profectò
Reddere perfonæ fcit convenientia cuique.
Refpicere exemplar vitæ morumque jubebo
Doctum imitatorem, & veras hinc ducere voces.
Fabula, nullius veneris, fine pondere & arte,
Valdius oblectat populum, meliufque moratur,
Quam verfus inopes rerum, nugæque canoræ.

For

For what is Dryden's Mufe, and Otway's plots,
To th' earl of Effex or the queen of Scots ?

'Tis faid that queen Elizabeth could speak,
At twelve years old, right Attic full-mouth'd Greek;
Hence was the ftudent forc'd at Greek to drudge,
If he would be a bishop or a judge.

Divines and lawyers now don't think they thrive,
'Till promis'd places of men still alive :
How old is fuch a one in fuch a post?
The anfwer is, he's feventy-five almost :
Th' archbishop and the master of the rolls?
Neither is young, and one's as old as Paul's.
Will men that afk fuch questions, publish books
Like learned Hooker's, or chief justice Coke's?
* On tender fubjects, with difcretion touch,
And never fay too little or too much.

• Graiis ingenium, Graiis dedit ore rotundo
Mufa loqui, &c.

t

Romani pueri longis rationibus affem

Difcunt in partes centum diducere. Dicat
Filius urbani, fi de quincunce remota eft

Uncia, quid fupereft? poteras dixiffe, triens. Eu!
Rem poteris fervare tuam.

redit uncia, quid fit?

Semis. Ad hæc animos ærugo & cura peculî
Cum femel imbuerit, fperamus carmina fingi
Poffe linenda cedro, & lævi fervanda cupreffo?
Quicquid præcipies, efto brevis; ut cito dicta
Percipiant animi dociles, teneantque fideles;
Omne fupervacuum pleno de pectore manat.

On trivial matters flourishes are wrong,
Motions for candles never fhould be long:
Or if you move in cafe of fudden rain,

To fhut the windows, fpeak diftinct and plain.
Unless you talk good English, downright fense,
Can you be understood by ferjeant Spence?

"New stories always fhould with truth agree, Or truth's half fifter, probability:

Scarce could Toft's rabbits and pretended throes
On half the honourable house impofe.

* When Cato speaks, young Shallow runs away,
And swears it is fo dull he cannot stay :
When rakes begin on blafphemy to border,
Bromley and Hanmer cry aloud to order.
The point is this, with manly sense and ease
T' inform the judgment, and the fancy please.
Praise it deferves, nor difficult the thing,

At once to serve one's country, and one's king.

Ficta voluptatis caufâ, fint proxima veris: 2-
Nec, quodcunque volet, pofcat fibi fabula credi;
Neu pranfæ Lamiæ vivum puerum extrahat alvo.
Centuriæ feniorum agitant expertia frugis;
Celfi prætereunt auftera poëmata Rhamnes.
Omne tulit punctum qui mifcuit utile dulci,
Lectorem delectando, pariterque monendo.
Hic meret æra liber Sofiis, hic & mare tranfit,
Et longum noto fcriptori prorogat ævum.

Such

Such speeches bring the wealthy Tonfons gain,
From age to age they minuted remain,

As precedents for George the twentieth's reign.

> Is there a man on earth so perfect found,
Who ne'er miftook a word in fenfe or found?
Not blund'ring, but perfifting is the fault;
No mortal fin is Lapfus Linguæ thought:
Clerks may mistake; confidering who 'tis from
I pardon little flips in Cler. Dom. Com.
But let me tell you I'll not take his part,
If every Thursday he date Die Mart.
Of fputt'ring mortals, 'tis the fatal curse,
By mending blunders ftill to make them worse.
Men fneer when-gets a lucky thought,
And ftare if Wyndham fhould be nodding caught.
But fleeping's what the wifeft men may do,
Should the committee chance to fit 'till two.

▾ Sunt delicta tamen, quibus ignoviffe velimus;
Non femper feriet quodcunque minabitur arcus:
Verum ubi plura nitent in carmine, non ego paucis
Offendar maculis, quas aut incuria fudit,
Aut humana parum cavit natura. Quid ergo eft?
Ut fcriptor fi peccat idem librarius ufque,
Quamvis est monitus, venia caret : & Citharœdus
Ridetur, chordâ qui femper oberrat eâdem :
Sic mihi, qui multùm ceffat, fit Chœrilus ille,
Quem bis terque bonum, cum rifu miror: & idem
Indignor quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus :
Verum opere in longo fas eft obrepere fomnum.

Not

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