Shortness of his Verfe, and the quick Returns of Rhyme, had debased 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 Earnest too much to Jeft, and gives us a Boyish kind of Pleafure. It tickles aukwardly with a kind of Pain, to the best fort of Readers; we are pleafed ungratefully, and if I may fay fo, againft our liking. We thank him not for giving us that unfeafonable Delight, when we know he could have given us a better, and more folid. He might have left that Tak 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 what foever 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 compass. When the Rhyme comes too thick upon us, it ftraitens the Expreffion; we are thinking of the Clofe, when we fhou'd be employ'd in adorning

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. Tallone and Boileau have left us the beft 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 Verse. 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 fmooth, 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 Burlesque 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 Eneids.

Nec

Nectibi Diva parens; generis nec Dardanus auctor, Perfide; fed duris genuit te cautibus horrens Caucafus, Hyrcaneque admorust ubera tigres.

Which he thus Tranflates, 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, Tefit, avec fon laict, fuccer Ja Gruauté.

And, as Virgil in his Fourth Georgique of the Bees, perpetually raifes the Lownels 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
Mores & ftudia, & populos, & prælia dicam.

And again:

Sic Genus immortale manet; multefque 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 railing 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 beft 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 pleasure, and with fome profit, thofe two Fathers of our English Poetry; but had not seriously 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 casual, and not defign'd. But this Hint, thus feasonably given me, firit made me fenfible of my own Wants, and brought me afterwards to feek for the Supply of them in other English Authors. I look'd over the Darling of my Youth, the famous Cowley; there I found, instead of them, the Points of Wit, and Quirks of Epigram, even in the Davideis, an 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 Chau cer and Spencer, and which, with all their Rufticity, had fomewhat of Venerable in them. But I found not there neither that for which I look'd. At last I had recourfe to his Mafter, Spencer, the Author of that inmortal Poem call'd the Fairy Queen; and there I met with that which I had been looking for fo long in vain. Spencer had study'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 Taffo 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 fort, Virgil and Ovid are the two Principal Fountains of themin 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 Master-Piece.

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

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

Tam