Our genius brought you here, to inlarge our fame; For your good stars are every where the same. Thy matchlefs hand, of every region free, Adopts our climate, not our climate thee. 125 Great Rome and Venice early did impart To thee the examples of their wond'rous art. Those masters then, but feen, not understood, With generous emulation fir'd thy blood: For what in nature's dawn the child admir'd, The youth endeavor'd, and the man acquir'd. If yet thou haft not reach'd their high de gree, "Tis only wanting to this age, not thee: Is to the living labor of a play; Or what a play to Virgil's work would be, 136 140 But we, who life beftow, ourselves must live; Kings cannot reign, unless their fubjects give; And they, who pay the taxes, bear the rule: Thus thou, fometimes, art forc'd to draw a fool: But fo his follies in thy posture fink, The fenfelefs idiot feems at last to think. 145 Good heaven! that fots and knaves should be. fo vain, To wish their vile refemblance may remain! And ftand recorded, at their own request, Elfe should we fee your noble pencil trace Our unities of action, time, and place: 150 A whole compos'd of parts, and those the best, With every various character exprest: 155 160 Heroes at large, and at a nearer view ; 165 TO THE MEMORY OF MR. OLDHAM. FAREWELL, too little, and too lately known, Thus Nifus fell upon the flippery place, young friend perform'd, and won the race. O early ripe! to thy abundant ftore 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 also the most harmonious in its numbers of all that this great maiter 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 geniutes. To the fame goal did both our ftudies drive. Ver. 7. |