Perfius, before, in small Efteem was had,
Unless, what to Antiquity is paid;
But like Apocrypha, with Scruple read,
(30 far, our Ignorance, our Faith mif-led)
'Till you, Apollo's darling Prieft, thought fit
To place it in the Poet's Sacred Writ.

As Coin, which bears fome awful Monarch's Face,.
For more than its intrinfick Worth will pass:
So your bright Image, which we here behold,
Adds Worth to Worth, and dignifies the Gold.
To you, we, all this following Treasure owe,
This Hippocrene, which from a Rock did flow.
Old Stoick Virtue, clad in rugged Lines,
Polish'd by you, in Modern Brillant fhines:
And as before, for Perfius, our Efteem
To his Antiquity was paid, not him:
So now, whatever Praife from us is due,
Belongs not to Old Perfius, but the New.
For fill Obfcure, to us no Light he gives;
Dead in himself, in You alone he lives.

So, fubborn Flints their inward Heat conceal,
'Till Art and Force th’unwilling Sparks reveal;
But thro' your Skill, from thofe fmall Seeds of Fire,
Bright Flames arife, which never can Expire.

Will. Congreve.

Pa

P ER SIUS

THE

FIRST SATYR.

By Mr. DRYDEN

Argument of the Prologue to the First Satyr..

The Defign of the Author was to conceal his Name and Quality. He lived in the dangerous Times of the Tyrant Nero; and aims particularly at Him, in most of his Satyrs. For which Reafon, though he was a Roman Knight, and of a plentiful Fortune, he wou'd appear in this Prologue but a Beggarly Poet, who writes for Bread. After this, he breaks into the Bufinefs of the Firft Satyr; which is, chiefly to decry the Poetry then in Fafbion; and the Impudence of those, who were endea vouring to pass their Stuff upon the World.

PRO

PROLOGUE

I

To the First SAT YR.

Never did on cleft Parnaffus dream,

Nor tafte the facred Heliconian Stream;
Nor can remember when my Brain inspir'd,
Was, by the Mufes, into Madness fir'd.
My fhare in pale Pyrene I refign;

2

And claim no part in all the mighty Nine..
Statues 3, with winding Ivy crown'd, belong
To nobler Poets, for a nobler Song:

Heedlefs of Verfe, and hopeless of the Crown,
Scarce half a Wit, and more than half a Clown,
Before the 4 Shrine I lay my rugged Numbers down.
Who taught the Parrot Human Notes to try,
Or with a Voice endu'd the chatt'ring Pye?
"Twas witty Want, fierce Hunger to appeafe:
Want taught their Masters, and their Masters thefe..
Let Gain, that gilded Bait, be hung on high,
The hungry Witlings have it in their Eye:
Pyes, Crows, and Daws, Poetick Presents bring:
You fay they fqueak; but they will fwear they fing.

1 Parnaffus and Helicon were HillsConfecrated to the Mufes, and the fuppos'd Place of their Abode. Parnaffus was forked on the top; and from Helicon ran a Stream, the Spring of which was call'd the Mufes Well.

rinth; Confecrated alfo to the Mufes

3 The Statues of the Poets were Crown'd with Ivy about their Brows.

4 Before the Shrine; that is, before the Shrine of Apollo, in his Temple at Rome, call'd

2 Pyrene, a Fountain in Co- the Palatine..