Proceed we to what is more certain, his Works, though not lefs uncertain the judgments concerning them; beginning with his ESSAY on CRITICISM, of which hear first the most ancient of Critics, Mr. JOHN DENNIS. "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 inftead 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 fued out a divorce from fome fuper"annuated finner, upon account of impotence, and "who, being poxed by the former spouse, has got the Cs gout in her decrepid age, which makes her hobble fo "damnably "." No lefs peremptory is the cenfure of our hypercritical Hiftorian Mr. OLDMIXON. "I dare not fay any thing of the Essay on Criticism "in verfe; but if any more curious reader has difco"vered in it fomething new which is not in Dryden's "prefaces, dedications, and his effay on dramatic • Reflections critical and fatirical on a Rhapfody, called, An Effay on Criticifin. Printed for Bernard Lintot, octavo. "poetry, "poetry, not to mention the French critics, I fhould "be very glad to have the benefit of the discovery p.” He is followed (as in fame, fo in judgment) by the modeft and fimple-minded Mr. LEONARD WELSTED. Who, out of great respect 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 prose, 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 feveral things which "plainly fhew, he thought an Art of Poetry was of "no ufe, even while he was writing one." To all which great authorities, we can only oppose that of Mr. ADDISON. ❝r The Art of Criticism (faith he) which was pub→ "lished fome months fince, is a mafter-piece in its "kind. The observations follow one another like ❝ thofe in Horace's Art of Poetry, without that metho"dical regularity which would have been requisite in P Effay on Criticism in profe, octavo, 1728, by the author of the Critical Hiftory of England. 9 Preface to his Poems, p. 18, 53. Spectator, No 253. C 4 "a profe "a profe writer. They are fome of them uncommon, "but fuch as the reader muft affent to, when he fees "them explained with that eafe and perfpicuity in "which they are delivered. As for those which are "the most known and the most received, 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"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 upon "in the preface to his works: That wit and fine wri"ting 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 science, which "have not been touched upon by others; we have “ little else 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 Aristotle, and which "were not commonly known by all the poets of the “Augustan 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 feveral "paffages that occafioned them: I cannot but take "notice "notice that our English author has after the fame "manner 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 master"piece in its kind! The Effay on Translated Verfe; "the Effay on the Art of Poetry; and the Effay on "Criticism." Of WINDSOR FOREST, pofitive 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 Den"ham: The author of it is obfcure, is ambiguous, is "affected, is temerarious, is barbarous." But the author of the Dispensary, Dr. GARTH, in the preface to his poem of Claremont, differs from this opinion: "Those who have seen these two excel"lent 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 "approve of this." Of the Epistle of ELOISA, we are told by the obfcure writer of a poem called Sawney, "That because "Prior's Henry and Emma charmed the finest tastes, Letter to B. B. at the end of the Remarks on Pope's Homer, 1717. Printed 1728, p. 12. ❝ our ❝our author writ his Eloife in oppofition to it; but for "got innocence and virtue: If you take away her *tender thoughts, and her fierce defires, all the rest is of no value." In which, methinks, his judgment refembleth 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." 66 But very contrary hereunto was the opinion of himself, faying in his Alma". O Abelard! ill fated youth, Thy tale will justify this truth: Dan Pope, for thy misfortune griev'd, A filken web; and ne'er fhall fade And Venus fhall the texture blefs, &c. Come we now to his tranflation of the ILIAD, celebrated by numerous pens, yet fhall it fuffice to mention the indefatigable Sir RICHARD BLACKMORE, Kt. Who (though otherwife a fevere cenfurer of our author) yet styleth this a " laudable tranflation w." That ready writer u Alma, Cant. 2. ~ In his Essays, vol. 1. printed for E, Curll. Mr. |