IMITATED. TO AUGUSTUS. WHILE you, great Patron of mankind! fustain The balanc'd world, and open all the main, Your country, chief in arms, abroad defend, 3 Edward and Henry, now the boast of fame, HOR. LIB. II. EPIST. I. AD AUGUSTUM. UM tot 1 fuftineas et tanta negotia folus, CUM Res Italas armis tuteris moribus ornes, Legibus emendes; in2 publica commoda peccem, Si longo fermone morer tua tempora, Cæfar. 15 20 3 Romulus, et Liber pater, et cum Caftore Pollux, Poft ingentia facta, 4 Deorum in templa recepti, Dum terras hominumque colunt genus, afpera bella Componunt, agros affignant, oppida condunt; Ploravere fuis non refpondere favorem Speratum meritis. diram qui contudit hydram, Notaque fatali portenta labore fubegit, Comperit invidiam fupremo fine domari. 6 7 Urit enim fulgore fuo, qui prægravat artes Opprefs'd we feel the beam directly beat; To thee the world its prefent homage pays, 25 30 Authors, like coins, grow dear as they grow old; 35 4 Chaucer's worst ribaldry is learn'd by rote, 5 He fwears the Mufes met him at the Devil. 6 Tho' juftly Greece her eldest fons admires, Why should not we be wifer than our fires? Infra fe pofitas: extinctus amabitur idem. 1 Præfenti tibi maturos largimur honores, 2 Jurandafque tuum per nomen ponimus aras, 3 Nil oriturum alias, nil ortum tale fatentes. Sed tuus hic populus, fapiens et juftus in uno. *Te noftris ducibus, te Graiis anteferendo, Cætera nequaquam fimili ratione modoque Eftimat; et, nifi quæ terris femota, fuifque Temporibus defun&ta vedet, faftidit et odit; 4 Sic fautor veterum, ut tabulas peccare vetantes. Quas bis quinque viri fanxerunt, foedera regum, Vel Gabiis vel cum rigidis æquata Sabinis, Pontificum libros, annofa volumina vatum, 5 Dictitet Albano Mufas in monte locutas. 6 Si, quia Græcorum funt antiquiffima quæque. Scripta, vel optima; Romani penfantur eadem 40 In ev'ry public virtue we excel; We build, we paint, we fing, we dance, as well If 3 time improve our wits as well as wine, "Who lafts a 4 century can have no flaw; "I hold that wit a claffic good in law." 45 50 55 Suppose he wants a year, will you compound? And shall we deem him 5 ancient, right, and found, Or damn ;o all eternity at once At ninety-nine a modern and a dunce ? "We fhall not quarrel for a year or two; "By courtesy of England he may do." 6 Then by the rule that made the 7 horse-tail bare, Scriptores trutina; non eft quod muita loquamur : Eft vetus atque probus 4 centum qui perficit annos. 60 65 And eftimating authors by the year, 70 2 Shakespeare (whom you and ev'ry play-house bill Style the Divine, the Matchlefs, what you will) For gain, not glory, wing'd his roving flight, And grew immortal in his own defpight. Ben. old and poor, as little feem'd to heed 3 The life to come in ev'ry poet's creed. Who now reads 4 Cowley? if he pleafes yet, His moral pleafes, not his pointed wit: Forgot his Epic, nay, Pindaric art; But till 5 I love the language of his heart. 75 80 "Yet furely, furely, thefe were famous men ! "What boy but hears the fayings of old Ben.? "In all 7 debates, where critics bear a part, "Not one but nods, and talks of Jonfon's art, "Of Shakespeare's nature, and of Cowley's wit; "How Beaumont's judgment check'd what Fletcher "How Shadwell hafty, Wycherley was flow; [writ; "But for the paffion, Southern, fure, and Rowe ! 86 "Thefe, 8 only thefe, fupport the crowded ttage, "From eldest Heywood down to Cibber's age." . All this may be ; 9 the people's voice is odd; It is, and it is not, the voice of God. Qui redit ad faftos, et virtutem æltimat annis, 2 Ennius et fapiens, et fortis, et alter Homerus, 90 Spectat Roma potens ; 8 habet hos numeratque poetas Ad noftrum tempus, Livî fcriptoris ab ævo, 9 Interdum vulgus rectum videt: est ubi peccat. To Gammer Gurton if it give the bays, But let them own that greater faults than we 95 They had, and greater virtues I'll agree. Spenfer himself affects the 2 obfolete, And Sydney's verfe halts ill on 3 Roman feet; Milton's ftrong pinion now not heav'n can bound, Now, ferpent-like, in 4 profe he sweeps the ground; In quibbles angel and archangel join, And God the Father turns a fchool-divine. 6 5 Not that I'd lop the beauties from his book, In the dry defert of a thousand lines, 101 105 110 Or 9 lengthen'd thought, that gleams thro' many a Has fanctify'd whole poems for an age. [page, 10 I lose my patience, and I own it too, Si veteres ita miratur laudat que poetas, Et fapit, et mecum facit, et Jove judicat æquo. fed emendata videri, 8 Injufte totum ducit venditque poema. * Indignor quidquam reprehendi, non quia craffe 115 |