DISCOURSE

CONCERNING THE ORIGINAL AND PROGRESS OF

SATIRE:

ADDRESSED TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

CHARLES,

EARL OF DORSET AND MIDDLESEX,

LORD CHAMBERLAIN OF HIS MAJESTY'S HOUSEHOLD, KNIGHT OF THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER, &c.

MY LORD,

THE withes and defires of all good men, which have attended your lordship from your firft appearance in the world, are at length accomplished, from your obtaining thofe honours and dignities which you have fo long deferved. There are no factions, though irreconcileable to one another, that are not united in their affection to you, and the refpect they pay you. They are equally pleafed in your profperity, and would be equally concerned in your afflictions. Titus Vefpafian was not more the delight of human kind. The univerfal empire made him only more known, and more powerful, but could not make him more beloved. He had greater ability of doing good,

but your inclination to it is not lefs; and though you could not extend your beneficence to fo many perfons, yet you have loft as few days as that excellent emperor; and never had his complaint to make when you went to bed, that the fun had fhone upon you in vain, when you had the opportunity of relieving fome unhappy man. This, my lord, has juftly acquired you as many friends as there are perfons who have the honour to be known to you. Mere acquaintance you have none; you have drawn them all into a nearer line; and they who have converfed with you are for ever after inviolably yours. This is a truth fo generally acknowledged, that it needs no proof: it is of the nature of a firft principle, which is received as foon as it is propofed; and needs not the reformation which Defcartes used to his; for we doubt not, neither can we properly fay, we think we admire and love you above all other men; there is a certainty in the propofition, and we know it. With the fame affurance I can fay, you neither have enemies, nor can fcarce have any; for they who have never heard of you, can neither love or hate you; and they who have, can have no other notion of you, than that which they receive from the public, that you are the beft of men. After this, my teftimony can be of no farther ufe, than to declare it to be day-light at highnoon; and all who have the benefit of fight, can look up as well, and fee the fun.

It is true, I have one privilege which is almost particular to myself, that I saw you in the east at your first arising above the hemisphere: I was as foon fenfible as any man of that light, when it was but just

fhooting out, and beginning to travel upwards to the meridian. I made my early addreffes to your lordfhip, in my "Effay of Dramatic Poetry ;" and therein bespoke you to the world, wherein I have the right of a first discoverer. When I was myself in the rudiments of my poetry, without name or reputation in the world, having rather the ambition of a writer, than the skill; when I was drawing the outlines of an art, without any living mafter to inftruct me in it; an art which had been better praised than studied here in England, wherein Shakspeare, who created the ftage among us, had rather written happily, than knowingly and justly, and Jonfon, who, by studying Horace, had been acquainted with the rules, yet feemed to envy to pofterity that knowledge, and, like an inventor of fome useful art, to make a monopoly of his learning; when thus, as I may fay, before the ufe of the loadstone, or knowledge of the compafs, I was failing in a vaft ocean, without other help than the pole-ftar of the ancients, and the rules of the French stage amongst the moderns, which are extremely different from ours, by reafon of their oppofite taste; yet even then, I had the prefumption to dedicate to your lordship-a very unfinished piece, I muft confefs, and which only can be excufed by the little experience of the author, and the modefty of the title"An Effay." Yet I was ftronger in prophecy than I was in criticifin; I was infpired to foretell you to mankind, as the reftorer of poetry, the greateft genius, the trueft judge, and the best patron.

Good fenfe and good nature are never feparated, though the ignorant world has thought otherwise.—

Good nature, by which I mean beneficence and candour, is the product of right reafon; which of neceffity will give allowance to the failings of others, by confidering that there is nothing perfect in mankind; and by distinguishing that which comes nearest to excellency, though not abfolutely free from faults, will certainly produce a candour in the judge. It is incident to an elevated understanding, like your lordfhip's, to find out the errors of other men; but it is your prerogative to pardon them; to look with pleafure on those things, which are fomewhat congenial, and of a remote kindred to your own conceptions; and to forgive the many failings of thofe, who, with their wretched art, cannot arrive to thofe heights that you poffefs, from a happy, abundant, and native genius which are as inborn to you, as they were to Shakspeare; and, for aught I know, to Homer; in either of whom we find all arts and fciences, all moral and natural philosophy, without knowing that they ever ftudied them.

There is not an English writer this day living, who is not perfectly convinced, that your lordship excels all others in all the feveral parts of poetry which you have undertaken to adorn. The moft vain, and the most ambitious of our age, have not dared to affume fo much, as the competitors of Themiftocles: they have yielded the firft place without difpute; and have been arrogantly content to be efteemed as fecond to your lordship; and even that alfo, with a longo, sed proximi intervallo. If there have been, or are any, who go farther in their felf-conceit, they must be very fingular in their opinion; they must be like the officer

in a play, who was called Captain, Lieutenant, and Company. The world will eafily conclude, whether fuch unattended generals can ever be capable of making a revolution in Parnaffus.

I will not attempt, in this place, to say any thing particular of your Lyric Poems, though they are the delight and wonder of this age, and will be the envy of the next. The fubject of this book confines me to fatire; and in that, an author of your own quality, (whofe afhes I will not disturb,) has given you all the commendation which his self-sufficiency could afford to any man: " The beft good man, with the worstnatured mufe." In that character, methinks, I am reading Jonfon's verfes to the memory of Shakspeare; an infolent, fparing, and invidious panegyric: where good nature, the moft godlike commendation of a man, is only attributed to your perfon, and denied to your writings; for they are every where fo full of candour, that, like Horace, you only expose the follies of men, without arraigning their vices; and in this excel him, that you add that pointednefs of thought, which is vifibly wanting in our great Roman. There is more of falt in all your verses, than I have feen in any of the moderns, or even of the ancients; but you have been fparing of the gall, by which means you have pleafed all readers and offended none. Donne alone, of all our countrymen, had your talent; but was not happy enough to arrive at your verfification; and were he tranflated into numbers, and English, he would yet be wanting in the dignity of expreffion. That which is the prime virtue, and chief ornament, of Virgil, which diftin