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EPIST LE

TO MR. JERVAS,

With Mr. DRYDEN'S Tranflation of FRESNOY'S Art of Painting.

THIS Epiftle, and the two following, were written fome years before the reft, and originally printed in 1717.

ΤΗ

line;

HIS Verse be thine, my friend, nor thou refuse This, from no venal or ungrateful Muse. Whether thy hand ftrike out fome free defign, Where Life awakes, and dawns at every Or blend in beauteous tints the colour'd mafs, And from the canvafs call the mimic face: Read these inftructive leaves, in which conspire Frefnoy's close Art, and Dryden's native Fire: And reading wifh, like theirs, our fate and fame, So mix'd our ftudies, and fo join'd our name; Like them to fhine through long fucceeding age, So just thy skill, fo regular my rage.

Smit with the love of Sifter-Arts we came, And met congenial, mingling flame with flame; Like friendly colours found them both unite, And each from each contract new ftrength and light. How oft in pleafing tasks we wear the day, While fummer-funs roll unperceiv'd away! How oft our slowly-growing works impart, While Images reflect from art to art!

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10

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20 How

How oft review; each finding like a friend

Something to blame, and fomething to commend! What flattering scenes our wandering fancy wrought, Rome's pompous glories rifing to our thought! Together o'er the Alps methinks we fly,

Fir'd with Ideas of fair Italy.

With thee on Raphael's Monument I mourn,
Or wait infpiring Dreams at Maro's Urn:

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With thee repose, where Tully once was laid,
Or feek fome Ruin's formidable shade:

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While Fancy brings the vanifh'd piles to view,
And builds imaginary Rome anew.

Here thy well-ftudied marbles fix our eye;
A fading Frefco here demands a figh:

Each heavenly piece unwearied we compare,

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Match Raphael's grace with thy lov'd Guido's air,
Carracci's ftrength, Correggio's fofter line,

Paulo's free ftroke, and Titian's warmth divine.
How finish'd with illuftrious toil appears

This fmall, well-polish'd Gem, the work of years! 40
Yet ftill how faint by precept is exprefs'd
The living image in the painter's breaft!
Thence endless streams of fair Ideas flow,
Strike in the sketch, or in the picture glow;
Thence Beauty, waking all her forms, fupplies
An Angel's sweetness, or Bridgewater's eyes.

Mufe! at that Name thy facred forrows fhed,
Those tears eternal that embalm the dead;
Call round her Tomb each object of defire,
Each purer frame inform'd with purer fire:

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Bid

Bid her be all that chears or softens life,
The tender fifter, daughter, friend, and wife:
Bid her be all that makes mankind adore;
Then view this marble, and be vain no more!
Yet ftill her charms in breathing paint engage; 55
Her modeft cheek fhall warm a future age.
Beauty, frail flower that every season fears,
Blooms in thy colours for a thousand years.
Thus Churchill's race fhall other hearts furprise,
And other Beauties envy Worfley's eyes;
Each pleafing Blount fhall endless smiles bestow,
And foft Belinda's blufh for ever glow.

Oh, lafting as those Colours may they shine,
Free as thy stroke, yet faultless as thy line;
New graces yearly like thy works display,
Soft without weakness, without glaring gay;
Led by fome rule, that guides, but not constrains;
And finish'd more through happiness than pains!
The kindred Arts fhall in their praise conspire,
One dip the pencil, and one ftring the lyre.
Yet fhould the Graces all thy figures place,
And breathe an air divine on every face;
Yet fhould the Mufes bid my numbers roll

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ός.

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Strong as their charms, and gentle as their foul;
With Zeuxis' Helen thy Bridgewater vie,

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And these be fung till Granville's Myra die:
Alas! how little from the grave we claim !
Thou but preferv'ft a Face, and I a Name.

EPISTLE

EPISTL E

TO MISS BLOUNT,

WITH THE WORKS OF VOITURE..

IN

N these gay thoughts the Loves and Graces fhine,
And all the Writer lives in every line:
His eafy Art may happy Nature seem,
Trifles themselves are elegant in him.
Sure to charm all was his peculiar fate,
Who without flattery pleas'd the fair and great;
Still with efteem no lefs convers'd than read;
With wit well-natur'd, and with books well-bred:
His heart, his mistress and his friend did fhare;
His time, the Muse, the witty and the fair.
Thus wifely careless, innocently gay,
Chearful he play'd the trifle, Life, away;
Till fate scarce felt his gentle breath fuppreft,
As fmiling Infants fport themselves to reft.
Ev'n rival Wits did Voiture's death deplore,

And the gay mourn'd who never mourn'd before;
The trueft hearts for Voiture heav'd with fighs,
Voiture was wept by all the brightest Eyes:
The Smiles and Loves had died in Voiture's death,
But that for ever in his lines they breathe.

Let the strict life of graver mortals be

A long, exact, and ferious Comedy;

In every scene fome Moral let it teach,

And, if it can, at once both please and preach.

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15.

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Let

Let mine, an innocent

gay

farce appear,,

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And more diverting ftill than regular,

Have Humour, Wit, a native Eafe and Grace,

Though not too strictly bound to Time and Place:
Critics in Wit, or Life, are hard to please;

Few write to thofe, and none can live to thefe.

Too-much your Sex are by their forms confin'd,
Severe to all, but most to Womankind;

Custom, grown blind with Age, must be your guide;
Your pleasure is a vice, but not your pride;
By Nature yielding, ftubborn but for fame;
Made Slaves by honour, and made Fools by fhame.
Marriage may all those petty Tyrants chace,
But fets up one, a greater in their place:

Well might you wish for change by thofe accurft,
But the laft Tyrant ever proves the worft.

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35.

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Still in constraint your fuffering Sex remains,
Or bound in formal, or in real chains:

Whole years neglected, for fome months ador'd,

The fawning Servant turns a haughty Lord.

Ah, quit not the free innocence of life,

For the dull glory of a virtuous Wife;

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Nor let falfe Shews, nor empty Titles please:

Aim not at Joy, but rest content with Ease.

The Gods, to curfe Pamela with her prayers,

Gave the gilt Coach and dappled Flanders Mares, 50
The fhining robes, rich jewels, beds of state,
And, to complete her blifs, a Fool for Mate.
She glares in Balls, front Boxes, and the Ring,
A vain, unquiet, glittering, wretched Thing!

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