But truth is fcarce, the scene of action large,
And correfpondence an exceffive charge.
37 There are who fay, no man can be a wit,
Unless for Newgate, or for Bedlam fit;
Let pamphleteers abufive fatire write,
To fhew a genius is to fhew a fpite :
That author's work will ne'er be reckon'd good, Who has not been where Curli the printer stood. 38 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)
37 Ingenium miferâ quia fortunatius arte
Credit, & excludit fanos Helicone Poëtas
Democritus; bona pars non ungues ponere curat,
Non barbam-
Nancifcetur enim pretium nomenque Poëtæ,
Si tribus Anticyris caput infanabile nunquam
Tonferi Licino commiferit.
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.
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.
39 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 ftuff'd with precedents of former reigns:
Muft journals read, and Magna Charta quote;
But acts still wiser if he speaks by note:
Learn well his lesson, and ne'er fear mistakes ;
For ready-money ready-fpeakers makes.
He must instructions 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 cousins too,
39 Scribendi recte, fapere eft & principium & fons:
Rem tibi Socraticæ poterunt oftendere chartæ,
Verbaque provisam rem non invita sequentur.
Qui didicit, patriæ quid debeat, & quid amicis,
Quo fit amore parens, quo frater amandus, & hofpes;
Quod fit confcripti, quod judicis officium, quæ
Partes in bellum miffi ducis; ille profectò
Reddere perfonæ fcit convenientia cuique.
He must read Grotius upon war and peace,
And the twelve judges' falary increase.
He muft 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.
4 Dramatic poets that expect the bays,
Should cull our hiftories for party plays;
a Wicquefort's Embaffador fhould fill their head,
And the State-trials carefully be read :
For what is Dryden's Muse, and Otway's plots,
To th' Earl of Effex or the Queen of Scots ?
4 "Tis faid that queen Elizabeth could speak,
At twelve years old, right Attic full-mouth'd Greek;
40 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 canore.
41 Graiis ingenium, Graiis dedit ore rotundo
Mufa loqui, &c.
Romani pueri longis rationibus affem
a A book entitled, "The Ambafador and his functions," written by Monf. de Wicquefort, Privy Counsellor to the Duke of Brunswick and Lunenburg Zell.-Tranflated by Mr. Digby. Folio.
b Two plays by Banks, which, although written in the most contemptible language, yet never fail to melt the audience into tears, merely by the force of judicious and well-arranged plots and incidents.
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 ftill alive:
How old is fuch a one in fuch a post?
The answer is, he's feventy-five almoft:
Th' archbishop and the mafter of the rolls?
Neither is young, and one's as old as Paul's.
Will men that ask such questions, publish books
Like learned Hooker's, or chief justice Coke's ?
42 On tender fubjects with difcretion touch,
And never fay too little or too much.
On trivial matters flourishes are wrong,
Motions for candles never should 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 fenfe,
Can you be understood by ferjeant Spence ?
Difcunt in partes centum diducere. Dicat
Filius urbani, fi de quincunce remota eft
Uncia, quid fupereft ? poterat dixiffe, triens. Eu!
Rem poteris fervare tuam,
Semis. Ad hæc animos ærugo & cura peculî
Cum femel imbuerit, fperamus carmina fingi
Poffe linenda cedro, & lævi fervanda cupresso ?
42 Quicquid præcipies, efto brevis ; ut cito dicta
Percipiant animi dociles, teneantque fideles;
Omne fupervacuum pleno de pectore manat,
43 New ftories 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.
44 When Cato speaks, young Shallow runs away,
And fwears it is fo dull he cannot stay :
When rakes begin on blafphemy to border,
Bromley and Hanmer d cry aloud-to order.
The point is this, with manly fenfe 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.
43 Ficta voluptatis caufâ, fint proxima veris :
Nec, quodcunque volet, pofcat fibi fabula credi;
Neu pranfæ Lamiæ vivum puerum extrahat alvo.
44 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.
c Mary Tofts, of Godalmin in, Surry, in 1726, pretended to have been delivered of feveral rabbits, and impofed on the credulity of many eminent perfons, before the cheat was discovered.
d William Bromley, Efq; and Sir Thomas Hanmer, Bart. both Speakers of the House of Commons, in the reign of Queen Anne.
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