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the Thought. It makes a Poet giddy with turning in a Space too narrow for his Imagination; he lofes many Beauties, without gaining one Advantage. For a Burlesque Rhyme, I have already concluded to be none; or if it were, 'tis more eafily purchas'd in Ten Syllables than in Eight: In both occafions 'tis as in a Tennis-Court, when the Stroaks of greater force are given, when we ftrike out and play at length. Talone and Boileau have left us the best Examples of this way, in the Secchia Rapita, and the Lutrin. And next them Merlin Coccajus in his Baldus. I will fpeak only of the two former, because the laft is written in Latin Verfe. The Secchia Rapita is an Italian Poem, a Satyr of the Varronian kind. 'Tis written in the Stanza of Eight, which is their Measure for Heroique Verfe. The Words are ftately, the Numbers smooth, the Turn both of Thoughts and Words is happy. The first fix Lines of the Stanza feem Majestical and Severe; but the two laft turn them all into a pleafant Ridicule. Boileau, if I am not much deceiv'd, has model'd from hence his famous Lutrin. He had read the Burlefque Poetry of Scarron, with fome kind of Indignation, as witty as it was, and found nothing in France that was worthy of his Imitation. But he copy'd the Italian fo well, that his own may pafs for an Original. He writes it in the French Heroique Verfe, and calls it an Heroique Poem: His Subject is Trivial, but his Verfe is Noble. I doubt not but he had Virgil in his Eye, for we find many admirable Imitations of him, and fome Parodies; as particularly this Paffage in the Fourth of the Exeids.

Nec

Nec tibi Diva Parens; generis nec Dardanus Auctor, Perfide; fed duris genuit te cantibus horrens Caucafus; Hyrcanæque admôrunt abera Tigres.

Which he thus Translates keeping to the Words, but altering the Sense:

Non, ton Pere a Paris, ne fut point Boulanger: Et tu n'es point du fang de Gervais Horloger: Ta Mere ne fut point la Maitresse d'un Coche; Caucafe dans fes flancs, te forma d'une Roché : Une Tigreffe affreuse, en quelque Antre écarté Te fit, avec fon laict, fuccer få Cruanté.

And, as Virgil in his Fourth Georgique of the Bees, perpetually raises the Lowness of his Subject, by the Loftinefs of his Words; and ennobles it by Comparifons drawn from Empires, and from Monarchs.

Admiranda tibi levium fpectacula rerum,

Magnanimofque Duces, totiufque ordine gentis
Mares & ftudia, & populos, & prælia dicam.

And again:

Sit Genus immortale manet; multosque per annos
Stat fortuna domus, & avi numerantur avorum.

We fee Boileau pursuing him in the fame flights; and scarcely yielding to his Mafter. This, I think, my Lord, to be the most Beautiful, and moft Noble kind of Satyr. Here is the Majefty of the Heroique, finely mix'd with the Venom of the other; and raising the Delight which otherwife wou'd be flat and vulgar, by the Sublimity of the Expreffion.

I cou'd fay fomewhat more of the Delicacy of this and fome other of his Satyrs; but it might turn to his Prejudice, if 'twere carry'd back to France.

I have given your Lordship but this bare hint, in what manner this fort of Satyr may best be manag'd. Had-I time, I cou'd enlarge on the beautiful Turns of Words and Thoughts; which are as requifite in this, as in Heroique Poetry it felf; of which the Satyr is undoubtedly a Species. With thefe Beautiful Turns I confefs my felf to have been unacquainted, till about twenty Years ago, in a Converfation which I had with that Noble Wit of Scotland, Sir George Mackenzy: He ask'd me why I did not imitate in my Verfes the Turns of Mr. Waller and Sir John Denham; of which, he repeated many to me: I had often read with pleafure, and with fome profit, thofe two Fathers of our English Poetry; but had not ferioufly enough confider'd thofe Beauties which give the laft Perfection to their Works. Some fprinklings of this kind I had alfo formerly in my Plays; but they were cafual, and not defign'd. But this hint, thus feasonably given me, first made me fenfible of my own Wants, and brought me afterwards to feek for the fupply of them in other English Authors. I look'd over the Darling of my Youth, the famous Cowley; there I found, inftead of them, the Points of Wit, and Quirks of Epigram, even in the Davideis, a Heroick Poem, which is of an oppofite nature to thofe Puerilities; but no elegant Turns, either on the Word or on the Thought. Then I confulted a greater Genius (without offence to the Manes of that Noble Author) I mean Milton; but as he endeavours every where to exprefs Homer, whofe Age had not arriv'd to that fineness, I found in him a true Sublimity, lofty Thoughts, which were clothed

clothed with admirable Grecisms, and ancient Words, which he had been digging from the Mines of Chaucer and Spencer, and which, with all their Rufticity, had fomewhat of Venerable in them. But I found not there neither that for which 1 look'd. At laft I had recoufe to his Mafter, Spencer, the Author of that immortal Poem call'd the Fairy Queen; and there I met with that which I had been looking for fo long in vain. Spencer had ftudy'd Virgil to as much advantage as Milton had done Homer; and amongst the reft of his Excellencies had Copy'd that. Looking farther into the Italian, I found Tallo had done the fame; nay more, that all the Sonnets in that Language, are on the turn of the first thought; which Mr. Walsh, in his late ingenious Preface to his Poems, has obferv'd. In fhort, Virgil and Ovid are the two Principal Fountains of them in Latin Poem. And the French at this day are fo fond of them, that they judge them to be the first Beauties. Delicate & bien tourné, are the highest Commendations, which they beftow, on fomewhat which they think a Mafter Piece.

An Example of the Turn on Words, amongst a thousand others, is that in the laft Book of Ovid's Metamorphofes :

Heu quantum fcelus eft, in vifcera, vifcera condi!
Congeftoque avidum pinguefcere corpore corpus;
Alteriufque Animantem, Animantis vivere leto.

An Example on the Turn both of Thoughts and Words, is to be found in Catullus; in the Complaint of Ariadne, when fhe was left by Thefeus:

Tum

Tum jam nulla viro juranti fæmina credat;
Nulla viri fperet Sermones effe fideles:

Qui dum aliquid cupiens animus prægestit apisci,
Nil metuunt jurare; nihil promittere parcunt.
·Sed fimul ac cupide mentis fatiata libido eft,
Dicta nibil metuere; nihil perjuria curant.

An extraordinary Turn upon the Words, is that in Ovid's Epiftole Heroidum, of Sappho to Phaon:

Sinifi qua forma poterit te digna videri,
Nulla futura tua eft, nulla futura tua eft.

Laftly, a Turn which I cannot fay is abfolutely on Words, for the Thought turns with them, is in the Fourth Georgique of Virgil; where Orpheus is to receive his Wife from Hell, on exprefs Condition not to look on her, till fhe was come on Earth :

Cùm fubita incautum dementia cepit Amantem; Ignofcenda quidem, fcirent fi ignofcere Manes.

I will not burthen your Lordship with more of them; for I write to a Mafter, who understands them better than my felf. But I may fafely conclude them to be great Beauties; I might defcend alfo to the Mechanick Beauties of Heroick Verse; but we have yet no English Profodia, not fo much as a tolerable Dictionary, or a Grammar; fo that our Language is in a manner Barbarous; and what Government will encourage any one, or more, who are capable of refining it, I know not: But nothing under a Publick Expence can go through .with it. And I rather fear a declination of the

Lan

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