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who, by an undifputed Title, are the King of Poets, what an Extent of Power you have, and how lawfully you may exercise it, over the petulent Scriblers of this Age. As Lord Chamberlain, I know, you are absolute by your Office, in all that belongs to the Decency and Good Manners of the Stage. You can banish from thence Scurrility and Profanenefs, and reftrain the licentious Infolence of Poets and their Actors in all things that shock the publick Quiet, or the Reputation of Private Persons, under the Notion of 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 Person. What is produc'd in you by an excellent Wit, a Masterly 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 pass for current; and fet a Brand of Reprobation on clipt Poetry, and falle 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 distinguishing Character of your Writing. Which is so visible 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 separate your Gold from their Copper: And tho' I I could not give back to every Author his own Brass, (for there is not the fame Rule for diftinguishing be. twixt 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,

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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 Awkwardnefs, 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 shou'd not fign it with their Names. But your Lordship, on the contrary, is diftinguifh'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 miftaken, and mifapply'd. Thus, by my long Study of your Lordship, I am arriv'd at the Knowledge of your particular Manner. In the Good Poems of other Men, like thofe 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 Mafter; But in your Performances, 'tis fcarcely poffible for me to be deceiv'd. If you write in your Strength, you ftand reveal'd at the first View; and fhou'd you write under it, you cannot avoid fome peculiar Graces, which only coft me a fecond Confideration to discover you: For I may say 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 vicious Modefty will not publi.

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 best Poet. Martial says of him, that

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he could have excell'd Varius in Tragedy, and Horace in Lyrick Poetry, but out of Deference to his Friends, he attempted neither.

The fame Prevalence of Genius is in Your Lordship, 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 moft 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 those very Causes 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, Ariftophanes, and the rest 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 these are obvious: But what I wou'd infer is this; That in fuch an Age, 'tis poffible fome Great Genius may arife, to equal any of the Ancients; abating only for the Language. For great Contemporaries whet and cultivate each other: And mutual Bor

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rowing, 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 myself to maintain against fome 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 myfelf 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 whofe 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 entering into the Interefts of Factions and Parties, and relating only to the Bounty of that King to Men of Learning and Merit: A Praise so just, that even we who are his Enemies, cannot refuse 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 so much as approach'd to the Excellencies of Homer or of Virgil; I muft farther add, that Statius, the beft Verfificator next Virgil, knew not how to Defign 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 Vaftness of his Draught: His Style is luxurious, without Majefty, or Decency, and his Adventurers without the Compass of Nature and Poffibility: Tasso, 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 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 Taffe, he borrows from the Invention of Boyarde, and in his Alteration of his Poem, which is infinitely the worfe, imitates Homer fo very fervilely, that (for example) he gives the King of Jeru falem fifty Sons, only because Homer had bestowed the like Number on King Priam; he kills the youngeft 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,

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