HIS tranflation of monfieur Boileau's Art of Poetry was made in the year 1680, by Sir William Soame of Suffolk, Baronet; who being very intimately acquainted with Mr. Dryden, desired his revifal of it. I faw 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 firft 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 Conftantinople, in the reign of King James, but died in the voyage.
ASH author, 'tis a vain prefumptuous crime,
R+Set author, the fvered art
To undertake the facred art of rhime;
If at thy birth the ftars that rul'd thy sense
Shone not with a poetic influence;
In thy ftrait genius thou wilt ftill be bound,
Find Phoebus deaf, and Pegafus unfound.
You then that burn with the defire to try
The dangerous courfe of charming poetry;
Forbear in fruitlefs 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 verse describe an amorous flame,
Another fharpen a fhort epigram:
Waller a hero's mighty acts extol,
Spencer fing Rofalind in paftoral:
But authors that themfelves too much efteem,
Lofe their own genius, and mistake their theme;
Thus in times paft Dubartas vainly writ,
Allaying facred truth with trifling wit,
Impertinently, and without delight,
Defcrib'd the Ifraclites 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 oppofe;
Rhyme must be made with reafon's laws to clofe:
And when to conquer her you bend your foice,
The mind will triumph in the noble courfe :
To reafon's yoke fhe quickly will incline,
Which, far from hurting, renders her divine :
But if neglected will as eafily ftray,
And mafter reafon which the should obey.
Love reafon then; and let whate'er you write
Borrow from her its beauty, force, and light.
Moft writers mounted on a refty mufe,
Extravagant and fenfelefs 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 ftray;
Reafon 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 defcribes a houfe, he fhews the face,
And after walks you round from place to place;
Here is a vifta, there the doors unfold,
Balconies here are balluftred with gold;
Then counts the rounds and ovals in the halls,
"The feftoons, 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 fee,
And fhun 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 verfe was weak, you turn it, much too strong,
And grow obscure 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 difcourfe and phrafe;
A frozen ftyle that neither ebbs nor flows,
Instead of pleafing make us gape and doze.
Those tedious authors are esteem'd by none
Who tire us, humming the fame heavy tone.
Happy who in his verse can gently steer,
From grave to light; from pleasant to fevere:
His works will be admir'd where-ever found,
And oft with buyers will be compafs'd round.
In all you write be neither low nor vile:
The meanest theine may have a proper style.
The dull burlefque appear'd with impudence,
And pleas'd by novelty in fpite of fense.
All, except trivial points, grew out of date;
Parnaffus fpoke the cant of Billingfgate:
Boundless and mad, diforder'd rhyme was feen:
Difguis'd Apollo chang'd to Harlequin.
This plague which first in country towns began,
Cities and kingdoms quickly over-ran;
The dulleft fcribblers fome admirers found,
And the Mock Tempeft was a while renown’d:
But this low ftuff the town at last despis'd,
And scorn'd the folly that they once had priz'd;
Distinguish'd dull from natural and plain,
And left the villages to Fleckno's reign.
Let not fo mean a ftyle your muse debase;
But learn from Butler the buffooning grace:
And let burlesque in ballads be employ'd;
Yet noify bombaft carefully avoid,
Nor think to raife, tho' on Pharfalia's plain,
"Millions of mourning mountains of the flain :”
I The Tempest being revived at the Duke's theatre in 1675, a farce called The Mock-Tempeft, or the Inchanted Castle, was brought out at the theatre-roy.l. It was purpofely written in a burlefque file, and defigned to draw people from the reprefentation of the Tempeft, which was greatly followed.
Nor with Dubartas bridle up the floods,
And perriwig with wool the baldpate woods.
Chufe a juft ftyle; be grave without conftraint,.
Great without pride, and lovely without paint:
Write what your reader may be pleas'd to hear;
And for the measure have a careful ear.
On eafy numbers fix your happy choice;
Of jarring founds avoid the odious noise :
The fulleft verfe and the most labour'd sense,
Displease us,. if the ear once take offence.
Our ancient verfe, as homely as the times,
Was rude, unmeafur'd, only tagg'd with rhimes
Number and cadence that have fince been fhown,
To thofe unpolish'd writers were unknown.
Fairfax 2 was he, who, in that darker age,
By his juft rules reftrain'd poetick rage;
Spencer did next in Paflorals excel,
And taught the noble art of writing well:
To ftricter rules the ftanza did restrain,
And found for poetry a richer vein.
Than D'Avenant came; who, with a new-found art,
Chang'd all,, fpoil'd all, and had his way a-part:
His haughty mufe all others did defpife
And thought in triumph to bear off the prize,
"Till the fharp-fighted criticks of the times
In their Mock-Gondibert expos'd his rhimes ;
The laurels he pretended did refuse,
And dafh'd the hopes of his afpiring mufe.
This headstrong writer falling from on high,
Made following authors take les liberty.
Waller came laft, but was the firfl whofe art
Juft weight and measure did to verfe impart;
That of a well-plac'd word could teach the force,
And fhew'd for poetry a nobler course :-
2 Edmund Fairfax flourished in the time of Charles I. He tranflated Godfrey of Bulloign, from the Italian of Taffo, into alternate verfe and his tranflation is even at this time eflecmed.
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