ADVERTISEMENT.

HIS tranflation of monfieur Boileau's Art

TH

of Poetry was made in the year 1680, by Sir William Soame of Suffolk, Baronet; who being very intimately acquainted with Mr. Dryden, defired his revifal of it. I saw the manufcript lie in Mr. Dryden's hands for above fix months, who made very confiderable alterations in it, particularly the beginning of the fourth Canto: and it being his opinion that it would be better to apply the poem to English writers, than keep to the French names, as it was first tranflated, Sir William defired he would take the pains to make that alteration; and accordingly that was entirely done by Mr. Dryden.

The poem was first published in the year 1683; Sir William was after fent ambaffador to Conftan

tinople, in the reign of king James, but died in

the voyage.

J. T.

R

CANTO I.

ASH author, 'tis a vain prefumptuous crime,
To undertake the facred art of rhyme;
If at thy birth the stars that rul'd thy sense
Shone not with a poetic influence;
In thy ftrait genius thou wilt ftill be bound,
Find Phœbus deaf, and Pegasus unfound.
You then that burn with the defire to try
The dangerous courfe of charming poetry;
Forbear in fruitless verfe to lofe
your time,
Or take for genius the defire of rhyme:
Fear the allurements of a fpecious bait,
And well confider your own force and weight.
Nature abounds in wits of every kind,

And for each author can a talent find:
One may in verfe defcribe an amorous flame,
Another sharpen a short epigram:
Waller a hero's mighty acts extol,

Spencer fing Rofalind in paftoral:

But authors that themselves too much efteem, Lose their own genius, and mistake their theme; Thus in times past Dubartas vainly writ,

Allaying facred truth with trifling wit,

Impertinently, and without delight,
Describ'd the Ifraelites triumphant flight,
And following Mofes o'er the fandy plain,
Perish'd with Pharaoh in th'Arabian main.

Whate'er you write of pleasant or fublime,
Always let fenfe accompany your rhyme :
Falfely they feem each other to oppose;

Rhyme must be made with reason's laws to clofe: And when to conquer her you bend

your force, The mind will triumph in the noble course ; To reason's yoke fhe quickly will incline, Which, far from hurting, renders her divine : But if neglected will as easily stray,

And master reason which she should obey.

Love reason then; and let whate'er write

༔

you

Borrow from her its beauty, force, and light.
Most writers mounted on a refty muse,
Extravagant and fenfeless objects chufe;
They think they err, if in their verse they fall
On any thought that's plain or natural :
Fly this excefs; and let Italians be
Vain authors of falfe glitt'ring poetry.

All ought to aim at fenfe; but most in vain.
Strive the hard pass and flippery path to gain :
You drown, if to the right or left you stray;
Reason to go
has often but one way.

Sometimes an author fond of his own thought,
Pursues its object till it's over-wrought:

If he describes a house, he fhews the face,
And after walks you round from place to place;
Here is a vista, there the doors unfold,

Balconies here are balluftred with gold;

Then counts the rounds and ovals in the halls,
"The festoons, freezes, and the aftragals :"
Tir'd with his tedious pomp away I run,
And skip o'er twenty pages to be gone.
Of fuch descriptions the vain folly see,
And shun their barren fuperfluity.
All that is needlefs carefully avoid;
The mind once fatisfy'd is quickly cloy'd:
He cannot write who knows not to give o'er;
To mend one fault he makes a hundred more:
A verse was weak, you turn it, much too ftrong,
And grow obfcure for fear you should be long.
Some are not gaudy but are flat and dry;
Not to be low, another foars too high.
Would you of every one deserve the praise?
In writing vary your discourse and phrase;
A frozen ftyle that neither ebbs nor flows,
Inftead of pleafing makes us gape and doze.
Those tedious authors are esteem'd by none
Who tire us, humming the fame heavy tone.