WHILE you, great Patron of mankind! fustain
The balanc'd world, and open all the main,
Your country, chief in arms, abroad defend,
At home with morals, arts, and laws amend;
2 How shall the Muse, from fuch a monarch, steal 5
An hour, and not defraud the public weal?
3 Edward and Henry, now the boast of fame,
And virtuous Alfred, a more 4 facred name,
After a life of gen'rous toils endur'd,
The Gaul fubdu'd, or property fecur'd,
Ambition humbled, mighty cities storm'd,
Or laws establish'd, and the world reform'd,
5 Clos'd their long glories with a figh to find
Th' unwilling gratitude of base mankind!
All human virtue, to its latest breath,
6 Finds Envy never conquer'd but by Death.
The great Alcides, ev'ry labour patt,
Had still this monster to fubdue at last:
7 Sure fate of all, beneath whose rifing ray
Each star of meaner merit fades away!
sustineas et tanta negotia folus,
Res Italas armis tuteris moribus ornes,
Legibus emendes; in publica commoda peccem,
Si longo fermone morer tua tempora, Cæfar.
3 Romulus, et Liber pater, et cum Castore Pollux, Post ingentia facta, 4 Deorum in templa recepti, Dum terras hominumque colunt genus, afpera bella Componunt, agros affignant, oppida condunt; 5 Ploravere suis non refpondere favorem Speratum meritis. diram qui contudit hydram, Notaque fatali portenta labore fubegit, Comperit 6 invidiam fupremo fine domari. 7 Urit enim fulgore suo, qui prægravat artes
Opprefs'd we feel the beam directly beat;
Thote funs of glory please not till they fet.
To thee the world its prefent homage pays,
The harvest early, but mature the praife:
Great friend of liberty! in kings a name
Above all Greek, above all Roman, fame;*
Whose word is truth, as facred and rever'd
2 As Heav'n's own oracles from altars heard.
Wonder of kings! like whom, to mortal eyes,
3 None e'er has rifen, and none e'er shall rise.
Just in one instance; be it yet confeft
Your people, Sir, are partial in the rest;
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.
4 Chaucer's worst 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;
And each true Briton is to Ben. fo civil,
5 He fwears the Mufes met him at the Devil.
Tho' justly Greece her eldest fons admires,
Why should not we be wifer than our fires?
Infra se pofitas: extinctus amabitur idem.
Præfenti tibi maturos largimur honores,
2 Jurandasque tuum per nomen ponimus aras,
3 Nil oriturum alias, nil ortum tale fatentes.
Sed tuus hic populus, sapiens et justus in uno.
* Te noftris ducibus, te Graiis anteferendo,
Cætera nequaquam fimili ratione modoque
Æltimat; et, nifi quæ terris semota, suisque
Temporibus defuncta vedet, faftidit et odit;
4 Sic fautor veterum, ut tabulas peccare vetantes.
Quas bis quinque viri fanxerunt, fœdera regum,
Vel Gabiis vel cum rigidis æquata Sabinis,
Pontificum libros, annosa volumina vatum,
5 Dictitet Albano Mufas in monte locutas.
Si, quia Græcorum funt antiquiffima quæque.
Scripta, vel optima; Romani penfantur eadem
In ev'ry public virtue we excel ;
We build, we paint, Iwe sing, we dance, as well;
And learned Athens to our art must stoop,
Could she behold us tumbling thro' a hoop.
If 3 time improve our wits as well as wine,
Say at what age a poet grows divine ?
Shall we, or shall we not, account him fo
Who dy'd, perhaps, an hundred years ago?
End all difpute; and fix the year precife
When British Bards began t' immortalize!
"Who lasts a 4 century can have no flaw;
" I hold that wit a classic good in law."
Suppose he wants a year, will you compound?
And shall we deem him 5 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 ;
" By 6 courtesy of England he may do."
Then by the rule that made the 7 horse-tail bare,
I pluck out year by year, as hair by hair,
And melt & down Ancients like a heap of snow, 65
While you, to meafure merits, look in Stowe,
Scriptores trutina; non eft quod muita loquamur :
Nil intra est oleam, nil extra est in nuce duri.
Venimus ad fummum fortunæ: pingimus atque
Pfallimus, et 2 luctamur Achivis doctius unctis.
Si 3 meliora dies, ut vina, poemata reddit;
Scire velim, chartis pretium quotus arroget annus.
Scriptor ab hinc annos centum qui decidit, inter
Perfectos veteresque referri debet, an inter
Viles atque novos? excludat jurgia finis.
Est vetus atque probus 4 centum qui perficit annos.
Quid? qui deperiit minor uno mense, vel anno;
Inter quos referendus erit ? 5 veteresne poetas,
An quos et præfens et postera refpuet ætas ?
Iste quidem veteres enter ponetur 6 honeste,
Qui vel menfe brevi, vel toto est junior anno.
Utor permiffo, caudæque pilos ut 7 equinæ,
Paulatim vello, et demo unum, demo etiam unum:
Dum cadat elufus ratione & ruentis acervi,
And estimating authors by the year,
Bestow a garland only on a bier.
2 Shakespeare (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 despight. Ben. old and poor, as little seen'd to heed 3 The life to come in ev'ry poet's creed. Who now reads 4 Cowley ? if he pleases yet, His moral pleases, not his pointed wit : Forgot his Epic, nay, Pindaric art; But ftill 5 I love the language of his heart.
" Yet furely, 6 furely, these were famous men ! "What boy but hears the fayings of old Ben.? "In all 7 debates, where critics bear a part, "Not one but nods, and talks of Jonfon's art, " Of Shakespeare's nature, and of Cowley's wit; "How Beaumont's judgment check'd what Fletcher "How Shadwell hafty, Wycherley was flow; [writ; "But for the paffion, Southern, fure, and Rowe ! 86 "These, & only these, support the crowded stage, " From eldest Heywood down to Cibber's age." All this may be; 9 the people's voice is odd; It is, and it is not, the voice of God.
Qui redit ad fastos, et virtutem æstimat annis,
Miraturque nihil, nifi quod Libitina sacravit.
2 Ennius et sapiens, et fortis, et alter Homerus,
Ut critici dicunt, leviter, curare videtur,
Quo 3 promiffa cadant, et fomnia Pythagorea.
4 Nævius in manibus non eft, et 5 mentibus hæret
Pene recens : 6 adeo fanctum est vetus omne poema.
Ambigitur 7 quoties, uter utro fit prior; aufert
Pacuvius docti famam senis, Accius alti:
Dicitur Afranâ toga conveniffe Menandro;
Plautus ad exemplar Siculi properare Epicharmi;
Vincere Cæcilius gravitate, Terentius arte.
Hos edifcit, et hos arcto stipata theatro
Spectat Roma potens; 8 habet hos numeratque poetas Ad noftrum tempus, Livî fcriptoris ab ævo, 9 Interdum vulgus rectum videt: est ubi peccat.
To Gammer Gurton if it give the bays,
And yet deny the Careless Husband praise,
Or fay our fathers never broke a rule,
Why then, I fay, the public is a fool.
But let them own that greater faults than we
They had, and greater virtues I'll agree.
Spenfer himself affects the 2 obsolete,
And Sydney's verse halts ill on 3 Roman feet;
Milton's strong pinion now not heav'n can bound,
Now, ferpent-like, in 4 prose he sweeps the ground;
In quibbles angel and archangel join,
And God the Father turns a school-divine.
5 Not that I'd lop the beauties from his book,
Like 6 flashing Bentley with his desp'rate hook;
Or damn all Shakespeare, like the affected fool
At court, who hates whate er he 7 read at school.
But for the wits of either Charles's days,
The mob of gentlemen, who wrote with ease;
Sprat, Carew, Sedley, and a hundred more,
(Like twinkling stars the mifcellanies o'er ;)
One fimile that & folitary shines
In the dry defert of a thousand lines,
Or 9 lengthen'd thought, that gleams thro' many a
Has fanctify'd whole poems for an age.
10 I lose my patience, and I own it too,
When works are cenfur'd, not as bad, but new;
Si veteres ita miratur laudatque poetas,
Ut nihil anteferat, nihil illis comparet; errat:
Si quædam nimis 2 antique, si pleraque 3 dure
Dicere credit eos, 4 ignave multa fatetur;
Et fapit, et mecum facit, et Jove judicat æquo.
5 Non equidem insector, dalendaque carmina Livî
Effe reor, memini quæ 6 plagofum 7 mihi parvo
Orbilium dare;
fed emendata videri,
Pulchraque, et exactis minimum distantia, miror :
Inter quæ & verbum emicuit fi forte decorum, et
Si 9 verfus paulo concinnior unus et alter;
Injuste totum ducit venditque poema.
* Indignor quidquam reprehendi, non quia craffe
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