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The great Alcides, ev'ry Labour past,
Had ftill this Monfter to fubdue at last.
8 Sure fate of all, beneath whofe rifing ray
Each ftar of meaner merit fades away!
Opprefs'd we feel the beam directly beat,
Thofe Suns of Glory please not till they fet.
To thee, the World its present homage pays,
The Harveft early, but mature the praise :
Great Friend of LIBERTY! in Kings a Name
Above all Greek, above all Roman Fame*:
Whofe Word is Truth, as facred and rever'd,
i As Heav'n's own Oracles from Altars heard.
Wonder of Kings! like whom, to mortal eyes
* None e'er has rifen, and none e'er fhall rife.
Juft in one inftance, be it yet confest
Your People, Sir, are partial in the reft:

NOTES.

20

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of him who pretends to give a proof of what they are fo willing to take for granted, to any thing but an eager concern for the public welfare. This, nothing better fecures than the early damping that dangerous thing, Popularity; which when joined to what is as eafily abused, great Talents, may be productive of, one does not know what, mifchief. SCRIBL.

VER. 17. The great Alcides,] This inftance has not the fame grace here as in the original, where it comes in well after thofe of Romulus, Bacchus, Caftor, and Pollux, tho' aukwardly after Edward and Henry. But it was for the fake of the beautiful thought in the next line; which, yet, does not equal the force of his original.

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Temporibus defuncta videt, faftidit et odit :

' Sic fautor veterum, ut tabulas peccare vetantes
Quas bis quinque viri fanxerunt, foedera regum,
Vel Gabiis vel cum rigidis aequata Sabinis,
Pontificum libros, annofa volumina Vatum,
m Dictitet Albano Mufas in monte locutaș.

n

Si, quia Graecorum funt antiquiffima quaeque
Scripta vel optima, Romani pensantur eadem
Scriptores trutina; non eft quod multa loquamur:
Nil intra eft oleam, nil extra eft in nuce duri.
Venimus ad fummum fortunae: pingimus, atque
Pfallimus, et lu&amur Achivis doctius unétis.
Si meliora dies, ut vina, poemata reddit;
Scire velim, chartis pretium quotus arroget annus.
Scriptor ab hinc annos centum qui decidit, inter
Perfectos veterefque referri debet, an inter

Viles atque novos? excludat jurgia finis.

NOTES.

VER. 38. And beastly Skelton, etc.] Skelton, Poet Laureat to Hen. VIII. a volume of whofe veries has been lately reprinted, confifting almoft wholly of ribaldry, obfcenity, and fcurrilous language. P.

2

Foes to all living worth except your own,

And Advocates for folly dead and gone.

Authors, like coins, grow dear as they grow old; 35 It is the ruft we value, not the gold.

1 Chaucer's worft ribaldry is learn'd by rote, And beaftly Skelton Heads of houses quote:

One likes no language but the Faery Queen;

A Scot will fight for Chrift's Kirk o' the Green; 40 And each true Briton is to Ben fo civil,

m He swears the Muses met him at the Devil,

Tho' juftly" Greece her eldest sons admires, Why should not We be wiser than our fires? In ev'ry Public virtue we excell;

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We build, we paint, we fing, we dance as well,
And learned Athens to our art must stoop,
Could she behold us tumbling thro' a hoop.

If Time improve our Wit as well as Wine,

Say at what age a Poet grows divine?
Shall we, or fhall we not, account him fo,
Who dy'd, perhaps, an hundred years ago ?
End all difpute; and fix the year precise
When British bards begin t' immortalize?

NOTES.

45

50

VER. 40. Chrif's Kirk o' the Green ;] A Ballad made by a King of Scotland. P.

VER. 42. met him at the Devil] The Devil Tavern, where Ben Johnson held his Poetical Club. P.

Eft vetus atque probus, centum qui perficit annos.
Quid? qui deperiit minor uno, menfe vel anno,
Inter quos referendus erit?s veterefne poetas,
An quos et praefens et poftera refpuat aetas?

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Ifte quidem veteres inter ponetur honefte,

Qui vel menfe brevi, vel toto eft junior anno.

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Utor permiffo, caudaeque pilos ut equinae

Paulatim vello: et demo unum, demo et item unum;

Dum cadat elufus ratione ruentis acervi,

Qui redit in * faftos, et virtutem aestimat annis,
Miraturque nihil, nifi quod ▾ Libitina facravit.

z Ennius et fapiens, et fortis, et alter Homerus, Ut critici dicunt, leviter curare videtur

a

Quo promissa cadant, et fomnia Pythagorea.

NOTES.

VER. 69. Shakespear.] Shakespear and Ben Johnson may truly be faid not much to have thought of this Immortality, the one in many pieces compofed in hafte for the Stage; the other in his latter works in general, which Dryden call'd his Dotages. P.

Ibid. and ev'ry Playboufe bill] A ridicule on those who talk of Shakespear, because he is in fashion; who, if they

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"Who lafts a century can have no flaw, "I hold that Wit a Claffic, good in law.

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Suppose he wants a year, will you compound? And shall we deem him Ancient, right and found, Or damn to all eternity at once,

At ninety nine, a Modern and a Dunce?

"We shall not quarrel for a year or two;

t

"By courtesy of England, he may do.

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Then, by the rule that made the ▾ Horse-tail bare, I pluck out year by year, as hair by hair,

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And melt w down Ancients like a heap of fnow: 65
While you, to measure merits, look in Stowe,
And eftimating authors by the year,

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Beftow a Garland only on a ▾ Bier.

Z

70

z Shakespear (whom you and ev'ry Play-house bill Style the divine, the matchless, what you will) For gain, not glory, wing'd his roving flight, And grew Immortal in his own defpight. Ben, old and poor, as little feem'd to heed a The Life to come, in ev'ry Poet's Creed.

NOTES.

dared to do juftice, either to their tafte or their confcience, would own they liked Durfey better.

VER. 74. The life to come, in ev'ry Poet's Creed.]

Quo promiffa cadant, et fomnia Pythagorea.

The beauty of this arifes from a circumftance in Ennius's flory. But as this could not be imitated, our Poet endeavoured to equal it; and has fucceeded.

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