beginning with his ESSAY on CRITCIISM, of which: hear firft the most ancient of Critics, Mr JOHN DEN NIS. "His precepts are falfe or trivial, or both; his "thoughts are crude and abortive, his expreffions ab"furd, his numbers harsh and unmufical, his rhymes "trivial and common;-instead of majesty, we have "fomething that is very mean; inftead of gravity, "fomething that is very boyish; and instead of per"fpicuity and lucid order, we have but too often ob "fcurity and confufion." And in another place: "What rare numbers are here! Would not one swear "that this youngster had efpoufed fome antiquated "Mufe, who had sued out a divorce from fome fuper"annuated finner, upon account of impotence, and "who, being poxed by her former fpoufe, has got the "gout in her decrepid age, which makes her hobble fo damnably." No lefs peremptory is the cenfure of our hypercritical. Hiftorian Mr OLD MIXON. "I dare not fay any thing of the Effay on Criti"cifm in verfe; but if any more curious reader has "discovered in it fomething new which is not in Dry"den's prefaces, dedications, and his effay on drama o Reflections critical and fatitical on a Rhapfody, called; An Effay on Criticifm. Printed for Bernard Lintot, 8vo. ❝tic poetry, not to mention the French critics, I "should be very glad to have the benefit of the difcovery P." He is followed (as in fame, fo in judgement) by the modeft and fimple-minded Mr LEONARD WELSTED. Who, out of great refpect to our Poet, not naming him, doth yet glance at his Effay, together with the Duke of Buckingham's, and the Criticisms of Dryden, and of Horace, which he more openly taxeth 9: "As "to the numerous treatifes, effays, arts, &c. both in "verse and profe, that have been written by the mo"derns on this ground-work, they do but hackney the "fame thoughts over again, making them still more trite. "Most of their pieces are nothing but a pert, infipid "heap of common place. Horace has even in his Art of "Poetry thrown out several things which plainly fhew ❝he thought an Art of Poetry was of no use, even "while he was writing one." To all which great authorities, we can only oppose that of Mr ADDISON. « The Art of Criticism (saith he) which was pubelifhed fome months fince, is a master-piece in its ep Effay on Criticism in profe, octavo, 1728, by the author of the Critical History of England. q Preface to his Poems, p, 18.53. Spectator, No253. kind. The obfervations follow one another, like "those in Horace's Art of Poetry, without that me"thodical regularity which would have been requifite " in a profe writer. They are fome of them uncommon, but fuch as the reader muft affent to, when he sees "them explained with that eafe and perfpicuity in "which they are delivered. As for thofe which are "the most known and the most receiv'd, they are placed "in fo beautiful a light, and illustrated with fuch apt "allufions, that they have in them all the graces of novelty; and make the reader, who was before ac on "quainted with them, ftill more convinced of their "truth and folidity. And here give me leave to men❝tion what Monfieur Boileau has fo well enlarged upin the preface to his works: That wit and fine "writing doth not confist so much in advancing things "that are new, as in giving things that are known an "agreeable turn. It is impoffible for us who live in "the latter ages of the world, to make obfervations "in criticism, morality, or any art or fcience, which "have not been touched upon by others; we have "little elfe left us, but to represent the common sense of "mankind in more ftrong, more beautiful, or more "uncommon lights. If a reader examines Horace's "Art of Poetry, he will find but few precepts in it "which he may not meet with in Ariftotle, and which "were not commonly known by all the Poets of the "Auguftan age. His way of expreffing, and applying "them, not his invention of them, is what we are "chiefly to admire. "Longinus, in his Reflections, has given us the fame "kind of fublime, which he obferves in the several "paffages that occafioned them: I cannot but take "notice that our English author has after the same man"ner exemplified feveral of the precepts in the very precepts themselves." He then produces fome instances of a particular beauty in the numbers, and concludes with faying, that "there are three poems in our tongue of the fame nature, and each a masterpiece in its kind: The Effay on Tranflated Verse; the Effay on the Art of Poetry; and the Effay on "Criticisin." Of WINDSOT FOREST, politive is the judgment of the affirmative Mr JOHN DENNIS, "That it is a wretched rhapfody, impudently "writ in emulation of the Cooper's Hill of Sir John "Denham: the author of it is obfcure, is ambiguous, " is affected, is temerarious, is barbarous t." But the author of the Dispensary, Dr GARTH, in the preface to his poem of Claremont, differs from this opinion: Those who have feen these two excellent "poems of Cooper's Hill, and Windfor Foreft, the "one written by Sir John Denham, the other by Mr "Pope, will fhew a great deal of candor if they ap prove of this." s Letter to B. B. at the ends of the Remarks on Pope's Ho mer, 1717. t Printed 1728, p. 12. Of the Epiftle of Eloifa, we are told by the obfcure writer of a poem called Sawney, "That because "Prior's Henry and Emma charm'd the finest tastes, "our author writ his Eloife in oppofition to it; but "forgot innocence and virtue: If you take away her tender thoughts, and her fierce defires, all the reft "is of no value." In which, methinks, his judgment resembleth that of a French taylor on a villa and gardens by the Thames. "All this is very fine, but take away the river, and it is good for nothing.' But very contrary hereunto was the opinion of Mr PRIOR himfelf, faying in his Alma ", Dan Pope, for thy misfortune griev'd, A filken web: and ne'er fhall fade Its colours: gently has he laid The mantle o'er thy fad distress, And Venus fhall the texture blefs, &c. Come we now to his translation of the ILIA D, celebrated by numerous pens, yet fhall it fuffice to mention the indefatigable u Alma, Cant. 2. |