TO THE

MEMORY OF MR. OLDHAM.

FAREWELL, too little, and too lately known,
Whom I began to think, and call my own:
For fure our fouls were near allied, and thine
Caft in the fame poetic mould with mine.
One common note on either lyre did ftrike, 5
And knaves and fools we both abhorr'd alike.
To the fame goal did both our studies drive;
The last set out, the fooneft did arrive.
Thus Nifus fell upon the flippery place,
Whilft his young friend perform'd, and won the

race.

O early ripe! to thy abundant store
What could advancing age have added more?

10

Ver. 1. Farewell, too little,] This fhort elegy is finished with the most exquifite art and fkill. Not an epithet or expreffion can be changed for a better. It is alfo the most harmonious in its numbers of all that this great master of harmony has produced. Oldham's Satire on the Jefuits is written with vigour and energy. It is remarkable that Dryden calls Oldham his brother in fatire, hinting that this was the characteristical turn of both their geniuses.

To the fame goal did both our studies drive.

Ver. 7.
Dr. J. WARTON.

It might (what nature never gives the young) Have taught the numbers of thy native tongue.

But fatire needs not thofe, and wit will fhine 15
Through the harsh cadence of a rugged line.
A noble error, and but feldom made,
When poets are by too much force betray'd.
Thy generous fruits, though gather'd ere their
prime,

Still fhew'd a quickness; and maturing time 20
But mellows what we write, to the dull fweets

of rhyme.

Once more, hail, and farewell; farewell, thou young,

But ah too fhort, Marcellus of our tongue! Thy brows with ivy, and with laurels bound; But fate and gloomy night encompass thee around.

25

TO THE

PIOUS MEMORY

OF THE ACCOMPLISHED YOUNG LADY,

MRS. ANNE KILLIGREW,

EXCELLENT IN THE TWO SISTER ARTS OF

POESY AND PAINTING.

AN ODE.

I.

THOU youngest virgin-daughter of the skies,
Made in the laft promotion of the bleft;
Whose palms, new pluck'd from paradise,
In fpreading branches more fublimely rife,

Ver. 1. Thou youngest virgin] At length we are arrived at the Ode on the Death of Mrs. Anne Killigrew, which Dr. Johnfon, by an unaccountable perverfity of judgment, and want of tafte for true poetry, has pronounced to be undoubtedly the nobleft Ode that our language ever has produced. The firft ftanza, he fays, flows with a torrent of enthusiasm. To a cool and candid reader, it appears abfolutely unintelligible. Examples of bad writing, of tumid expreffions, violent metaphors, farfought conceits, hyperbolical adulation, unnatural amplifications, interfperfed, as ufual, with fine lines, might be collected from this applauded Ode, fo very inferior in all refpects to the

Rich with immortal green above the rest:
Whether, adopted to fome neighb'ring ftar,
Thou roll'st above us, in thy wand'ring race,
Or, in proceffion fix'd and regular,
Mov'ft with the heaven's majestic pace;
Or, call'd to more fuperior blifs,
Thou tread'ft, with feraphims, the vast abyss:
Whatever happy region is thy place,
Ceafe thy celeftial fong a little space;

5

10

divine Ode on St. Cecilia's Day. But fuch a paradoxical judgment cannot be wondered at in a critic, that defpifed the Lycidas of Milton, and the Bard of Gray. I have been cenfured, I am informed, for contradicting fome of Johnfon's critical opinions. As I knew him well, I ever refpected his talents, and more fo his integrity; but a love of paradox and contradiction, at the bottom of which was vanity, gave an unpleasant tincture to his manners, and made his converfation boisterous and offenfive. I often used to tell the mild and fenfible Sir Joshua Reynolds, that he and his friends had contributed to fpoil Johnson, by constantly and cowardly affenting to all he advanced on any fubject. Mr. Burke only kept him in order, as did Mr. Beauclerc alfo, fometimes by his playful wit. It was a great pleafure for Beauclerc to lay traps for him to induce him to oppofe and contradict one day what he had maintained on a former. Left the cenfure presumed to be paffed on this Ode fhould be thought too uncandid and fevere, the reader is defired attentively to confider ftanzas the third, fixth, feventh, ninth, and tenth. In a word, Dryden, by his inequality, much resembles another great genius, Cafimir, of Poland; who, in the very midit of fome poetical strokes in his Ode on the Deluge, mars all by his ufual mixtures of Ovidian puerilities. After saying

- vacuas fpatiofa cete

Ludunt per aulas, ac thalamos pigræ
Preffere Phocæ ;-

Comes this idle conceit,

et refixæ

Ad pelagus rediere Gemmæ.

Lib. iv. Od.

Mafon has too much commended an Ode of Cafimir on the

Eolian Harp.

Dr. J. WARTON.