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A

CRITICISM

ON THE

ELE GY

WRITTEN IN A

COUNTRY CHURCH YARD.

BEING A CONTINUATION OF

DR. JN's CRITICISM ON THE
POEMS OF GRAY.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR G. WILKIE, No. 71, ST. PAUL'S

CHURCH YARD.

MDCCLXXXIII.

ADVERTISEMENT.

T

to

O prevent any mistakes that might arife, and in justice his Readers and himself, the Editor of the following Tract feels himself bound to declare, that he has no farther concern in it, than as being accidentally the channel through which it is conveyed to the Public. Having ordered, a few months ago, * Irish editions

It is with concern that the Editor has learnt, that this fpecies of traffic, fo convenient for the Knights Compa nions of the light purse, is so much at present on the decline, as to threaten (in the language of the Counter) to be speedily knocked up. The Irish Editors have imprudently fcrewed up their prices too high: and their Rivals on this fide the water have been, of late, unusually sharp fet in running them down, by the affiftance of the Statute Book, and officers of the customs. It was a forry fight to the Editor, last vacation, to see the Royal warehouses at the ports oppofite to the Irish coaft, crowded with so many choice and famous Authors, languishing in ignoble bonds, and some of them expiring, in defiance of MAGNA CHARTA, under cruel tortures. Here lay Mrs. C-TH-NE My, juft new from the beers and Spunge,-" her "filver skin laced with her golden blood,"-pointing to

her

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editions of fome late publications (an irregu larity into which the high prices of town-made books, and the low ftate of his own finances, have fometimes betrayed him, to the detriment of COPY-HOLD rights, and "against the "form of the Statute in that cafe provided;") he found the parcel, on its arrival in his chambers, to be double-fortified with fwathes of printed fheets; refembling, in their general appearance, what is known among the Trade, by the name of Imperfections. This, being quite "felon les Regles," excited neither curiofity nor attention; but approaching, foon after, the parcel to his teeth, for the purpose of undoing the twine, the wrappers were again forced upon bis eye; when he perceived, by certain cabaliftical marks upon the margins and field, and which his printer would laugh at him thould he attempt to depict, that what he had taken at first for imperfections, were no other than proof-fheets, of a work apparently critical, and which he felicitated himself on his chance of

feafting on, perhaps before the Public. He fet

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her ample gashes, and bellowing for her HABEAS CORPUS. There lay the redoubted JUNIUS, his body dif membered by the axe, and his quarters at the King's difpofal,----and there the ftately G-E-NS, laniatum corpore toto, with the vehicle of his keen elocution bored through with red-hot iron, &c. &c.

"

12

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Non, mihi fi linguæ centum fint, oraque centum,
Omnia pœnarum percurrere nomina poffim.

himself

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