*

Of all the Greeks, 'twas but one hero's due,

And, in him, Plutarch prophefy'd of you. 336
A prince's favours but on few can fall,
But juftice is a virtue fhar'd by all.

Some kings the name of conquerors have affum'd,

341

Some to be great, fome to be gods prefum'd;
But boundless power, and arbitrary luft,
Made tyrants ftill abhor the name of just ;
They fhunn'd the praise this godlike virtue
gives,

And fear'd a title that reproach'd their lives.

The power, from which all kings derive their

state,

Whom they pretend, at least, to imitate,
Is equal both to punish and reward;

345

For few would love their God, unless they fear'd.

Refiftlefs force and immortality Make but a lame, imperfect, deity;

350

Tempests have force unbounded to destroy, And deathlefs being ev'n the damn'd enjoy ; And yet Heaven's attributes, both last and first,

One without life, and one with life accurft: But juftice is Heaven's felf, so strictly he, That could it fail, the Godhead could not be.

Ariftides. See his life in Plutarch. Original edition.

355

This virtue is your own; but life and state
Are one to fortune fubject, one to fate:
Equal to all, you juftly frown or fmile
Nor hopes nor fears your fteady hand be-

;

360

guile; Yourself our balance hold, the world's, our ifle.

MAC FLECKNOE*.

ALL human things are subject to decay,
And when fate fummons, monarchs muft obey.

This is one of the beft, as well as fevereft fatires, ever produced in our language. Mr. Thomas Shadwell is the hero of the piece, and introduced, as if pitched upon, by Flecknoe, to fucceed him in the throne of dullnefs; for Flecknoe was never poet-laureat, as has been ignorantly afferted in Cibber's Lives of the Poets.

Richard Flecknoe, Efq; from whom this poem derives its name, was an Irish priest, who had, according to his own declaration, laid afide the mechanic part of the priesthood. He was well known at court; yet, out of four plays which he wrote, could get only one of them acted, and that was damned. "He has," fays Langbaine, "publifhed fundry works, as he ftiles. them, to continue his name to pofterity, though poffibly an enemy has done that for him, which his own endeavours could never have perfected: for, whatever may become of his own pieces, his name will continue, whilft Mr. Dryden's fatire, called Mac-Flecknoe, fhall remain in vogue."

From this poem Pope took the hint of his Dunciad.

DERRICK.

There is a copy of this fatire in manufcript, among the manufcripts in the Archiepifcopal Library at Lambeth Palace; which prefents fome readings, different from the printed copies, that may probably amufe the reader, and perhaps in two or three inftances induce.him to prefer the written text.

is numbered 711. 8.

The MS.

TODD.

This Flecknoe found, who, like Auguftus,

young

Was call'd to empire, and had govern'd long;

Ver. 1. All human things] Will it be thought an extravagant and exaggerated encomium to fay, that in point of pleafantry, various forts of wit, humour, fatire, both oblique and direct, contempt and indignation, clear diction, and melodious verfification, this poem is perhaps the beft of its kind in any language. Boileau, who spent his life, exhausted his talents, and foured his temper, in profcribing bad poets, has nothing equal to it. It is precifely in the ftyle and manner mentioned by Horace

modò trifti, fæpe jocofo,

Defendente vicem modò Rhetoris atque Poetæ,
Interdum urbani, parcentis viribus atque

Extenuantis eas confultò.

It is obvious to obferve that this poem is the parent of the Dunciad, which, with all the labour bestowed upon it, is not equal to its original: Though Dr. Johnfon praifes it, as being more extended in its plan, and more diverfi fied in its incidents. It certainly is more extended in its plan, by attacking fuch a multitude of mean fcribblers, but the attack, by being fo divided, is of lefs force than if confined to one alone. And what plan does Dr. Johnfon mean? does he mean that in four books, in which the fubject of electing Tibbald as king of the Dunces was totally altered, and enlarged into an account of the Empire of Dulnefs fpreading over the whole world, instead of vesting it in one monarch; which monarch was alfo unhappily and unfkillfully changed to Cibber inftead of Tibbald. I fhall not repeat what is faid on this fubject in the fifth volume of the laft edition of Pope. As to the incidents being more diversified, Dr. Johnfon alludes to the introduction of the games, which are defcribed in the most offenfive language, and in images grofs and vulgar. It is difficult to underftand fully the meaning of Pope in the fourth book of the Dunciad. Many fpecies of falfe and trifling fludies and purfuits are well expofed. But did he really mean to fay, contrary to all experience, that the Empire of Dulnefs was becoming univerfal over all Europe, and that art after art was daily expiring, when every art is every day improving and enlarged? The numbers in Pope's Dunciad, by being very much laboured,