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ARTESMISIA and PHRYNE are two characters in the manner of the Earl of Dorset, an elegant writer, and amiable man; equally noted for the severity of his satire, and the sweetness of his manners, and who gave the fairest proof that these two qualities are by no means incompatible. "The greatest wits (says Addison) I have ever conversed with, were persons of the best tem pers." Dorset possessed the rare secret of uniting energy with ease in his striking compositions. His verses to Mr. Edward Howard, to Sir Thomas St. Serfe, his epilogue to the Tartuffe, his song written at sea in the first Dutch war, his ballad on knotting, and on Lewis XIV. may be named as examples of this happy talent, and as confutations of a sentiment of the judicious M. de Montesquieu, who, in his noble chapter on the English Constitution, Book 19, speaks thus of our writers: "As society, and the mixing in company, gives to men a quicker sense of ridi

cule,

ministers attended without. "Tell them (says Cromwell, with a countenance instantly composed) that I am retired, that I cannot be disturbed, for I am seeking the Lord;" and turning afterwards to his companions, he added, "These scoundrels think we are seeking the Lord, and we are only looking for our bottle-screw.”

cule, so retirement more disposes men to reflect on the heinousness of vice; the satirical writings, therefore, of such a nation, are sharp and severe; and we shall find among them many Juvenals, without discovering one Ho

race.

The DESCRIPTION of the LIFE of a Country Parson is a lively imitation of Swift,* and is full of humour. The point of the likeness consists

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* See a Pipe of Tobacco, p. 282, vol. 2. Dodsley's Miscell. where Mr. Hawkins Browne has imitated, from a hint of Dr. John Hoadly, six later English poets with success, viz. Swift, POPE, Thomson, Young, Phillips, Cibber. Some of these writers thinking themselves burlesqued, are said to have been mortified. But POPE observed on the occasion, Browne is an excellent copyist; and those who take his imitations amiss, are much in the wrong; they are very strongly mannered; and few, perhaps, could write so well if they were not so.”—In POPE's imitation of the sixth epistle of Horace, there were two remarkable lines, the second of which was thought to contain a heavy anticlimax :

Grac❜d, as thou art, with all the power of words,
Known to the Courts, the Commons, and the Lords.

The unexpected flatness and familiarity of the last line, was thus ridiculed by Mr. Browne, with much humour :

Persuasion tips his tongue whene'er he talks,
And he has chambers in the King's-Bench walks.

in describing the objects as they really exist in life, like Hogarth's paintings, without heightening or enlarging them, and without adding any imaginary circumstances. In this way of writing, Swift excelled; witness his description of a morning in the city, of a city shower, of the house of Baucis and Philemon, and the verses on his own death. These are of the same species with the piece before us. In this also consists the chief beauty of Gay's Trivia, a subject Swift desired him to write upon, and for which he furnished him with many hints. The character of Swift has been scrutinized in so many late writings, that it is superfluous to enter upon it, especially as from many materials judiciously melted down and blended together, Dr. Hawkesworth has set before the public so complete a figure of him. I cannot, however, forbear to mention a remark of Voltaire, who affims, "that the famous Tale of a Tub is an imitation of the old story of the three invisible rings, which a father bequeathed to his three children. These three rings were the Jewish, Christian, and Mahometan religions. It is, moreover, an imitation of the history of Mero and Enegu, by Fontenelle.

nelle.* Mero was the anagram of Rome, and Enegu of Geneva. These two sisters claimed the succession to the throne of their fathers. Mero reigned first; Fontenelle represents her as a sorceress, or juggler, who could convey away bread, and perform acts of conjuration with dead bodies: This is precisely the Lord Peter of Swift, who presents a piece of bread to his two brothers, and says to them, This, my good friends, is excellent Burgundy; these partridges have an admirable flavour.' The same Lord Peter in Swift, performs throughout the very part that Mero plays in Fontenelle. Thus all is imitation. The idea of the Persian Letters is taken from the Turkish Spy. Boiardo has imitated Pulci, Ariosto has imitated Boiardo. The geniuses, apparently most original, borrow from each other."t

I shall conclude this section with a story, which POPE himself related, because it is chaE 2 racteristical

*It was inserted by Bayle, in his Nouvelles, &c. vol. v. p, 88, as a serious narration; so happily was the allegory disguised.

+ Oeuvres de Voltaire a Geneve. Tom. 4, pag. 223, 1756,

racteristical of his old friend; and I shall give it in the very words which POPE used when he told it to Mr. Spence. "Dr. Swift has an odd blunt way, that is mistaken by strangers for ill-nature; it is so odd, that there is no describing it but by facts.* I'll tell you one, the first that comes into my head. One evening Gay and I went to see him. On our coming in, "Hey-day! gentlemen, (says the Dean,) what can be the meaning of this visit? How came you to leave all the great lords you are so fond of, to come hither to see a poor scurvy Dean ?" "Because we

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*The archbishop of Armagh, Dr. Hoadly, happening to object one day, in Swift's company, to an expression of POPE, as not being the purest English, Swift answered, with his usual roughness, "I could never get the blockhead to study his grammar."

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