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Humour. But I mean not the Authority, which is annex'd to your Office: I fpeak_of_that_only which is inborn and inherent to your Perfon. What is produc'd in you by an excellent Wit, a Mafterly and Commanding Genius over all Writers: Whereby you are impower'd, when you please, to give the final Decifion of Wit; to put your Stamp on all that ought to pafs for current; and fet a Brand of Reprobation on clipt Poetry, and falfe Coin. A Shilling dipt in the Bath may go for Gold amongst the Ignorant, but the Scepters on the Guineas fhew the Difference. That your Lordship is form'd by Nature for this Supremacy, I could eafily prove, (were it not already granted by the World) from the diftinguishing Character of your Writing. Which is fo vifible to me, that I never cou'd be impos'd on to receive for yours, what was written by any others; or to mistake your Genuine Poetry, for their Spurious Productions. I can farther add with Truth (tho' not without fome Vanity in faying it) that in the fame Paper, written by divers Hands, whereof your Lordship's was only part, I cou'd feparate your Gold from their Copper: And tho' I could not give back to every Author his own Brafs, (for there is not the fame Rule for diftinguishing betwixt bad and bad, as betwixt ill and excellently good) yet I never fail'd of knowing what was yours, and what was not: And was abfolutely certain, that this, or the other Part, was pofitively yours, and cou'd not poffibly be written by any other.

True it is, that fome bad Poems, tho' not all, carry their Owners Marks about 'em. There is fome peculiar Aukwardnefs, falfe Grammar, imperfect Senfe, or at the leaft Obfcurity; fome Brand or other on this Buttock, or that Ear, that

'tis notorious who are the Owners of the Cattle, tho' they fhou'd not fign it with their Names. But your Lordship, on the contrary, is distinguish'd, not only by the Excellency of your Thoughts, but by your Style and Manner of expreffing them. A Painter judging of fome admirable Piece, may affirm with certainty, that it was of Holben, or Vandike: But Vulgar Defigns, and Common Draughts, are easily mistaken, and mifapply'd. Thus, by my long Study of your Lordfhip, I am arriv'd at the Knowledge of your particular Manner. In the Good Poems of other Men, like those Artifts, I can only fay, this is like the Draught of fuch a one, or like the Colouring of another. In fhort, I can only be fure, that 'tis the Hand of a good Maker: But in your Performances, 'tis fcarcely poffible for me to be deceiv'd. If you write in your Strength, you stand reveal'd at the firft view; and fhou'd you write under it, you cannot avoid fome peculiar Graces, which only cost me a fecond Confideration to discover you: For I may fay it, with all the Severity of Truth, that every Line of yours is precious. Your Lordship's only Fault is, that you have not written more; unless I cou'd add another, and that yet greater, but I fear for the Publick, the Accufation wou'd not be true, that you have written, and out of vitious Modeity will not publifh.

Virgil has confin'd his Works within the Compass of Eighteen Thousand Lines, and has not treated many Subjects; yet he ever had, and ever will have, the Reputation of the beft Poet. Martial fays of him, that he could have excell'd Varius in Tragedy, and Horace in Lyrick Poetry, but out of Deference to his Friends, he attempted neither.

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The fame prevalence of Genius is in Your Lordfhip, but the World cannot pardon your concealing it on the fame Confideration; because we have neither a living Varius, nor a Horace, in whofe Excellencies both of Poems, Odes, and Satyrs, you had equall'd them, if our Language had not yielded to the Roman Majefty, and length of Time had not added a Reverence to the Works of Horace. For good Senfe is the fame in all or most Ages; and course of Time rather improves Nature, than impairs her. What has been, may be again: Another Homer, and another Virgil, may poffibly arife from thofe very Caufes which produc'd the firft: Tho' it wou'd be Impudence to affirm that any fuch have appear'd.

'Tis manifeft, that fome particular Ages have been more happy than others in the Production of Great Men, in all forts of Arts and Sciences : As that of Euripides, Sophocles, Aristophanes, and the reft for Stage Poetry amongst the Greeks: That of Auguftus for. Heroick, Lyrick, Dramatick, Elegiaque, and indeed all forts of Poetry; in the Perfons of Virgil, Horace, Varius, Ovid, and many others; efpecially if we take into that Century the latter end of the Common-wealth; wherein we find Varro, Lucretius, and Catullus: And at the fame time liv'd Cicero, and Saluft, and Cafar. A famous Age in modern Times, for Learning in every kind, was that of Lorenzo de Medici, and his Son Leo X. wherein Painting was reviv'd and Poetry flourish'd, and the Greek Language was restor❜d.

Examples in all thefe are obvious: But what I wou'd inferr is this; That in fuch an Age, 'tis poffible fome Great Genius may arife, to equal any of the Ancients; abating only for the Lan

guage.

guage. For great Contemporaries whet and coltivate each other: And mutual Borrowing, and Commerce, makes the common Riches of Learning, as it does of the Civil Government.

But fuppofe that Homer and Virgil were the only of their Species, and that Nature was fo much worn out in producing them, that she is never able to bear the like again; yet the Example only holds in Heroick Poetry In Tragedy and Satyr I offer my felf to maintain against foine of our modern Criticks, that this Age and the laft, particularly in England, have excell'd the Ancients in both thofe Kinds; and I wou'd inftance in Shakespear of the former, of your Lordship in the latter fort.

Thus I might fafely confine my felf to my Native Country: But if I would only cross the Seas, I might find in France a living Horace and a Juvenal, in the Perfon of the admirable Boileau; whofe Numbers are Excellent, whofe Expreffions are Noble, whofe Thoughts are Juft, whofe Language is Pure, whofe Satyr is Pointed, and whose Senfe is Clofe: What he borrows from the Ancients, he repays with Ufury of his own; in Coin as good, and almost as univerfally valuable: For fetting Prejudice and Partiality apart; tho' he is our Enemy, the Stamp of a Louis, the Patron of all Arts, is not much inferior to the Medal of an Auguftus Cæfar. Let this be faid without entring into the Interefts of Factions and Parties; and relating only to the Bounty of that King to Men of Learning and Merit: A Praise fo juft, that even we who are his Enemies, cannot refuse it to him.

Now if it may be permitted me to go back a gain to the Confideration of Epique Poetry, I have confefs'd, that no Man hitherto has reach'd, $

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or fo much as approach'd to the Excellencies of Homer or of Virgil; I muft farther add, that Statius, the best Verfificator next Virgil, knew not how to Design after him, tho' he had the Model in his Eye; that Lucan is wanting both in Defign and Subject, and is befides too full of Heat and Affectation; that among the Moderns, Arifto neither defign'd Juftly, nor obferv'd any Unity of Action, or Compafs of Time, or Moderation in the Vaftness of his Draught: His Style is luxurious, without Majefty, or Decency, and his Adventurers without the Compafs of Nature and Poffibility: Taffo, whofe Defign was Regular, and who obferv'd the Rules of Unity in Time and Place, more closely than Virgil, yet was not fo happy in his Action; he confeffes himself to have been too Lyrical, that is, to have written beneath the Dignity of Heroick Verfe, in his Episodes of Sophronia, Erminia, and Armida; his Story is not fo pleafing as Ariofto's; he is too flatulent fometimes, and fometimes too dry; many times unequal, and almost always forc'd; and befides, is full of Conceptions, Points of Epigram and Witticifms; all which are not only below the Dignity of Heroick Verfe, but contrary to its Nature: Virgil and Homer have not one of them. And thofe who are guilty of fo Boyish an Ambition in fo grave a Subject, are fo far from being confider'd as Heroick Poets, that they ought to be turn'd down from Homer to the Anthologia, from Virgil to Martial and. Owen's Epigrams, and from Spencer to Flecno; that is, from the top to the bottom of all Poetry. But to return to Tajo, he borrows from the Invention of Boyardo, and in his Alteration of his Poem, which is infinitely the worse, imitates Homer fo very fervilely, that (for example) he gives the King of Jerufalem

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