for the better. For Virgil's Age was more Civiliz'd, and better bred; and he writ according to the Politeness of Rome, under the Reign of Auguftus Ce far; not to the Rudeness of Agamemnon's Age, or the Times of Homer. Why fhould we offer to confine free Spirits to one form, when we Cannot fo much as confine our Bodies to one Fafhion of Apparel? Wou'd not Donn's Satyrs, which abound with fo much Wit, appear more charming, if he had taken care of his Words, and of his Numbers? But he followed Horace fo very close, that of Neceffity he must fall with him: And I may fafely fay it of this prefent Age, That if we are not fo great Wits as Donn, yet, certainly, we are better Poets.

But I have faid enough, and it may be too much, on this Subject. Will your Lordship be pleafed to Prolong my Audience, only fo far, till I tell you my own trivial Thoughts, how a Modern Satyr fhou'd be made. I will not deviate in the leaft from the Precepts and Examples of the Ancients, who were always our beft Mafters. I will only illuftrate them, and difcover fome of the hidden Beauties in their Defigns, that we thereby may form our own in imitation of them. Will you please but to obferve, that Perfius, the leaft in Dignity of all the Three, has notwithstanding been the firit, who has difcover'd to us this important Secret, in the defigning of a perfect Satyr; that it ought only to treat of one Subject; to be confin'd to one particular Theme; or, at leaft, to one principally. If other Vices occur in the Management of the Chief, they fhould only be tranfiently lafh'd, and not be infifted on, fo as to make the Defign double. As in a Play of the English Fashion, which we call a Tragecomedy, there is to be but one main

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Defign: And tho' there be an Under-plot, or Second Walk of Comical Characters and Adventures, yet they are fubfervient to the Chief Fable, carry'd along under it, and helping to it; fo that the Drama may not feem a Monster with two Heads. Thus the Copernican Syftem of the Planets makes the Moon to be mov'd by the motion of the Earth, and carry'd about her Orb, as a Dependent of hers. Mafcardi in his Difcourfe of the Doppia favola, or double tale in Plays, gives an Inftance of it, in the famous Paftoral of Guarini, call'd Il Paftor Fido; where Corifca and the Satyr are the Under-parts: Yet we may obferve, that Corifca is brought into the Body of the Plot, and made fubfervient to it. 'Tis certain, that the Divine Wit of Horace was not ignorant of this Rule, that a Play, though it confifts of many Parts,, muft yet be one in the Action, and muft drive on the Ac-. complishment of one defign; for he gives this very Precept, Sit quodvis fimplex duntaxat & unum; yet he feems not much to mind it in his Satyrs, many of them confifting of more Arguments than one; and the fecond without dependance on the first. Cafaubon has obferv'd this before me, in his Preference of Perfius to Horace: and will have his own belov'd Author to be the firft, who found out, and introduc'd this Method of confining himfelf to one Subject. I know it may be urg'd in defence of Horace, that this Unity is not neceffary; because the very Word Satura fignifies a Difh plentifully ftored with all variety of Fruits and Grains,, Yet Juvenal, who calls his Poems a Farrago, which is a Word of the fame fignification with Satura, has chofen to follow the fame Method of Perfius, and not of Horace. And Boileau, whofe Example alone is a fufficient Authority, has wholly con

fin'd himself, in all his Satyrs, to this Unity of Defign. That variety which is not to be found in any one Satyr, is, at leaft, in many, written on feveral Occafions. And if Variety be of abfolute neceffity in every one of them, according to the Etymology of the Word; yet it may arife, naturally from one Subject, as it is diverfly treated, in the feveral Subordinate Branches of it; all relating to the Chief. It may be illuftrated accordingly with variety of Examples in the Subdivifions of it; and with as many Precepts as there are Members of it; which all together may compleat that Olla, or Hotchpotch, which is properly a Satyr.

Under this Unity of Theme, or Subject, is comprehended another Rule for perfecting the Defign of true Satyr. The Poet is bound, and that ex Officio, to give his Reader fome one Precept of moral Virtue; and to caution him against fome one particular Vice or Folly. Other Virtues, fubordinate to the first, may be recommended, under that Chief Head; and other Vices or Follies may be fcourged, befides that which he principally intends. But he is chiefly to inculcate one Virtue, and infilt on that Thus Juvenal in every Satyr, excepting the first, ties himfelf to one Principal Inftructive Point, or to the thunning of Moral Evil. Even in the fixth, which feems only an Arraignment of the whole Sex of Womankind; there is a latent Admonition to avoid Ill Women, by fhewing how very few, who are Virtuous and Good, are to be found amongst them. But this, tho' the wittieft of all his Satyrs, has yet the leaft of Truth or Inftruction in it. He has run himself into his old declamatory way, and almost forgotten that he was now fetting up for a Moral Poet.

Perfius is never wanting to us in fome profitable Doctrine, and in expofing the oppofite Vices to it. His kind of Philofophy is one, which is the Stoique; and every Satyr is a Comment on one particular Dogma of that Sect; unless we will except the first, which is againft bad Writers; and yet even there he forgets not the Precepts of the Porch. In general, all Virtues are every where to be praised and recommended to Practice; and all Vices to be reprehended, and made either Odious or Ridiculous; or elfe there is a Fundamental Error in the whole Defign.

I have already declar'd who are the only Perfons that are the Adequate Object of private Satyr, and who they are that may properly be expofed by Name for publick Examples of Vices and Follies; and therefore I will trouble your Lordship no farther with them. Of the best and finest manner of Satyr, I have faid enough in the Comparison betwixt Juvenal and Horace: 'Tis that fharp, wellmanner'd way, of laughing a Folly out of Countenance, of which your Lordship is the best Master in this Age. I will proceed to the Verfification, which is moft proper for it, and add fomewhat to what I have faid already on that Subject. The fort of Verfe which is call'd Burlesque, confifting of Eight Syllables, or Four Feet, is that which our excellent Hudibras has chofen. I ought to have mentioned him before, when I fpake of Donn; but by a flip of an Old Man's Memory he was forgotten. The Worth of his Poem is too well known to need any Commendation, and he is above my Cenfure: His Satyr is of the Varronian kind, tho' unmix'd with Profe. The Choice of his Numbers is fuitable enough to his Defign, as he has manag'd it: But in any other Hand, the Shortnefs

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Shortness of his Verfe, and the quick returns of Rhyme, had debafed the Dignity of Style. And befides, the double Rhyme, (a, neceffary Companion of Burlefque Writing) is not fo proper for Manly Satyr, for it turns Earneft too much to Jeft, and gives us a Boyish kind of Pleafure. It tickles aukwardly with a kind of Pain, to the belt fort of Readers; we are pleafed ungratefully, and if I may fay fo, againft our liking. We thank him not for giving us that unfeasonable Delight, when we know he could have given us a better, and more folid. He might have left that Task to others, who not being able to put in Thought, can only make us grin with the Excrefcence of a Word of two or three Syllables in the Clofe. 'Tis, indeed, below fo great a Mafter to make ufe of fuch a little Inftrument. But his good Senfe is perpetually fhining through all he writes; it affords us not the time of finding Faults. We pafs through the Levity of his Rhyme, and are immediately carry'd into fome admirable ufeful Thought. After all, he has chofen this kind of Verfe; and has written the beft in it: And had he taken another, he would always have excelled. As we fay of a Court-Favourite, that whatfoever his Office be, he ftill makes it uppermoft, and moft beneficial to himself.

The Quickness of your Imagination, my Lord, has already prevented me; and you know beforehand, that I wou'd prefer the Verfe of Ten Syllables, which we call the English Heroique, to that of Eight. This is truly my Opinion: For this fort of Number is more roomy: The Thought can turn it felf with greater eafe in a larger in compafs. When the Rhyme comes too thick upon us, it ftraitens the Expreffion; we are thinking of the Close, when we fhou'd be employ'd in adorning

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