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 almoft 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 refufe it to him.

Now if it may be permitted me to go back again to the Confideration of Epique Poetry, I have confefs'd, that no Man hitherto has reach'd, or fo much as approach'd to the Excellencies of Homer or of Virgil; I must 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, Ariofto neither defign'd Juftly, nor obferv'd any Unity of Action, or Compafs of Time, or Moderation in the Vastness of his Draught: His Style is luxurious, without Majefty, or Decency, and his Adventurers without the Compafs of Nature and Poffibility: Taffo, whofe Delign was Regular, and who

obferv'd

obferv'd the Rules of Unity in Time and Place, more clofely 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 those 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 Tao, he borrows from the Invention of Boyardo, and in his Alteration of his Poem, which is infinitely the worse, imitates Homer fovery fervilely, that (for example) he gives the King of Jerufalem fifty Sons, only becaufe Hamer had be ftowed the like Number on King Priam; he kills the youngest in the fame manner, and has provided his Hero with a Patroclus, under another Name, only to bring him back to the Wars, when his Friend was kill'd. The French have perform'd nothing in this kind, which is not as below those two Italians, and fubject to a thousand more Reflections, without examining their St. Lewis, their Pu celle, or their Alarique: The English have only to boast of Spencer and Milton, who neither of them wanted either Genius or Learning, to have been perfect Poets; and yet both of them are liable to many Cenfures. For there is no Uniformity in

the

the Defign of Spencer: He aims at the Accomplishment of no one Action: He raises up a Heroe for every one of his Adventures: and endows each of them wirh fome particular Moral Virtue, which renders them all equal, without Subordination or Preference. Every one is moft Valiant in his own Legend; only we must do them that Juftice to obferve, that Magnanimity, which is the Character of Prince Arthur, fhines throughout the whole Poem; and fuccours the reft, when they are in Diftrefs. The Original of every Knight was then living in the Court of Queen Elizabeth; and he attributed to each of them that Virtue which he thought most conspicuous in them: An ingenious Piece of Flattery, tho' it turn'd not much to his Account. Had he liv'd to finish his Poem, in the fix remaining Legends, it had certainly been more of a Piece; but cou'd not have been perfect, becaufe the Model was not true. But Prince Arthur, or his chief Patron Sir Philip Sidney, whom he intended to make happy by the Marriage of his Gloriana, dying before him, depriv'd the Poet, both of Means and Spirit, to accomplish his Defign: For the reft, his obfolete Language, and the ill Choice of his Stanza, are Faults but of the Second Magnitude: For notwithstanding the firft, he is ftill intelligible, at least after a little Practice; and for the lat, he is the more to be admir'd; that labouring under fuch a Difficulty, his Verfes are fo numerous, fo various, and fo harmonious, that only Virgil, whom he profeffedly imitated, has furpafs'd him, among the Romans; and only Mr. Waller among the English.

As for Mr. Milton, whom we all admire with fo much Justice, his Subject is not that of an Heroick Poem, properly fo call'd. His Defign is the Lofing of our Happiness; his Event is not profperous,

Itke that of all other Epique Works: His Hea venly Machines are many, and his Human Perfons are but two. But I will not take Mr. Rhymer's Work out of his Hands: He has promis'd the World a Critique on that Author; wherein, the❜ he will not allow his Poem for Heroick, I hope he will grant us, that his Thoughts are elevated, his Words founding, and that no Man has fo happily copy'd the Manner of Homer; or fo copioufly tranflated his Grecifms, and the Latin Elegancies of Virgil. 'Tis true, he runs inro a flat Thought, fometimes for a hundred Lines together, but 'tis when he is got into a Track of Scripture: His antiquated Words were his Choice, not his Neceffity; for therein he imitated Spencer, as Spencer did Chaucer. And tho', perhaps, the Love of their Mafters may have tranfported both too far, in the frequent ufe of them; yet in my Opinion, obfolete Words may then be laudably reviv'd, when either they are more founding, or more fignificant than those in Practice; And when their Obscurity is taken away, by joining other Words to them, which clear the Senfe; according to the Rule of Horace, for the Admiffion of new Words. But in both Cafes, a Moderation is to be observ'd in the Use of them. For unneceffary Coinage, as well as unneceffary Revival, runs into Affectation; a Fault to be avoided on either hand. Neither will I ju. ftify Milton for his blank Verfe, tho' I may excufe him, by the Example of Hannibal Caro, and other Italians who have us'd it: For whatever Caufes he alledges for the abolishing of Rhyme (which I have not now the Leifare to examine) his own particular Reason is plainly this, that Rhyme was not his Talent; he had neither the Eafe of doing it, nor the Graces of it; which is manifeft in his Juvenilia, or Verfes written in his Youth; where

his Rhyme is always conftrain'd and forc'd, and comes hardly from him, at an Age when the Soul is most pliant, and the Paffion of Love makes almost every Man a Rhymer, tho' not a Poet.

By this time, my Lord, I doubt not but that you wonder, why I have run off from my Biafs fo long together, and made fo tedious a Digreffion from Satyr to Heroick Poetry. But if you will not excufe it, by the tatling Quality of Age, which, as Sir William Davenant fays, is always Narrative; yet I hope the Usefulness of what I have to fay on this Subject, will qualify the Remoteness of it; and this is the last time I will commit the Crime of Prefaces, or trouble the World with my Notions of any thing that relates to Verfe. I have then, as you fee, obferv'd the Failings of many great Wits amongst the Moderns, who have attempted to write an Epique Poem: Befides these, or the like Animadverfions of them by other Men, there is yet a farther Reafon given, why they cannot poffibly fucceed, fo well as the Ancients, even tho' we cou'd allow them not to be inferiour, either in Genius or Learning, or the Tongue in which they write, or all thofe other wonderful Qualifications which are neceffary to the forming of a true accomplish'd Heroick Poet. The Fault is laid on our Religion: They fay that Christianity is not capable of thofe Embellishments which are afforded in the Belief of those Ancient Heathens.

And 'tis true, that in the fevere Notions of our Faith, the Fortitude of a Chriftian confifts in Patience and Suffering, for the Love of GOD,whatever Hardships can befal in the World; not in any great Attempts, or in performance of thofe Enterprizes which the Poets call Heroique; and which are commonly the Effects of Intereft, Oftentation, Pride, and Worldly Honour. That Humility and Refignation