I Had ancient times conspir'd to disallow
What then was new, what had been ancient now?
Or what remain'd, so worthy to be read
By learned critics, of the mighty dead?
2 In days of ease, when now the weary sword Was sheath'd, and Luxury with Charles restor❜d; 140 In ev'ry taste of foreign courts improv'd,
"All, by the King's example, liv'd and lov'd."
Then peers grew proud in 3 horsemanship t'excel,
Newmarket's glory rose, as Briton's fell;
The soldier breath'd the gallantries of France,
And ev'ry flow'ry courtier writ romance.
Then 4 marble, soften'd into life, grew warm,
And yielding metal flow'd to human form;
Lely on 5 animated canvas stole
The sleepy eye, that spoke the melting soul.
No wonder then, when all was love and sport,
The willing Muses were debauch'd at Court ;
Ingeniis non ille favet, plauditque sepultis,
Nostra sed impugnat, nos nostraque lividus odit.
I Quod si tam Græcis novitas invisa fuisset,
Quam nobis ; quid nunc esset vetus? aut quid haberet,
Quod legeret tereretque viritim publicus usus ?
2 Ut primum positis nugari Græcia bellis
Cœpit, et vitium fortuna labier æqua,
Nunc athletarum studiis, nunc arsit3 equorum ;
4 Marmoris, aut eboris fabros, aut æris amavit;
Suspendit s picta vultum mentemque tabella;
On I each enervate string they taught the note
To pant, or tremble, thro' an eunuch's throat.
But 2 Britain, changeful as a child at play,
Now calls in princes, and now turns away.
Now Whig, now Tory, what we lov'd we hate;
Now all for pleasure, now for church and state;
Now for prerogatives, and now for laws;
Effects unhappy! from a noble cause.
3 Time was, a sober Englishman would knock His servants up, and rise by five o'clock; Instruct his family in ev'ry rule;
And send his wife to church, his son to school.
To 4 worship like his fathers, was his care;
To teach their frugal virtues to his heir;
To prove that luxury could never hold;
And place on good security his gold.
Now times are chang'd, and one poetic itch
Has seiz'd the Court and City, poor and rich:
Nunc tibicinibus, nunc est gavisa tragœdis:
2 Sub nutrice puella velut si luderet infans,
Quod cupide petiit, mature plena reliquit.
Quid placet, aut cdio est, quod non mutabile credas?
Hoc paces habuere bonæ, ventique secundi.
3 Romæ dulce diu fuit et solenne, reclusa Mane domo vigilare, clienti promere jura, Scriptos nominibus rectis expendere nummos, 5 Majores audire, minori dicere, per quæ Crescere res posset, minui damnosa libido, Mutavit mentem populus levis, 5 et calet uno
Sons, sires, and grandsires, all will wear the bays, Our wives read Milton, and our daughters plays; To theatres and to rehearsals throng,
And all our grace at table is a song.
I, who so oft renounce the Muses, lie,
Not---self e'er tells more fibs than I.
When sick of Muse, our follies we deplore,
And promise our best friends to rhyme no more;
We wake next morning in a raging fit,
And call for pen and ink, to show our wit.
2 He serv'd a 'prenticeship, who sets up shop; Ward try'd on puppies, and the poor, his drop; Ev'n 3 Radcliff's doctors travel first to France, Nor dare to practice till they've learn'd to dance. Who builds a bridge that never drove a pile? (Should Ripley venture, all the world would smile:) But 4 those who cannot write, and those who can, All rhyme, and scrawl, and scribble, to a man. Yet, Sir, 5 reflect; the mischief is not great; These madmen never hurt the church, or state:
Scribendi studio: pueri patresque severi
Fronde comas vincti cœnant, et carmina dictant.
Ipse ego, qui nullos me affirmo scribere versus,
Invenior Parthis mendacior, er prius orto
Sole, vigil, calamum, et chartas, et scrinia posco.
a Navem agere ignarus navis timet: abrotonum ægro
Non audet, nisi qui didicit, dare: quod medicorum est,
Promittunt 3 medici: tractant fabrilia fabri:
Scribimus indocti doctique poémata passim.
Hic error tamen et levis hæc insania quantas,
Sometimes the folly benefits mankind,
And rarely av'rice taints the tuneful mind.
Allow him but his 2 plaything of a pen,
He ne'er rebels, or plots, like other men:
3 Flight of cashiers, or mobs, he'll never mind,
And knows no losses while the Muse is kind.
To 4 cheat a friend, or ward, he leaves to Peter;
The good man heaps up nothing but mere metre;
Enjoys his garden, and his book in quiet;
And then---a perfect hermit in his s diet.
Of little use the man you may suppose
Who says in verse what others say in prose;
Yet let me show, a poet's of some weight,
And ( tho' no soldier) useful to the state.
7 What will a child learn sooner than a song?
What better teach a foreigner the tongue ?
What's long, or short, each accent where to place,
And speak in public with some sort of grace?
I scarce can think him such a worthless thing,
Unless he praise some monster of a king;
Virtutes habeat, sic collige: vatis 1 avarus
Non temere est animus: 2 versus amat, hoc studet.
Detrimenta, 3 fugas servorum, incendia ridet;
Non 5 fraudem socio, puerove incogitat ullam
Pupillo; vivit siliquis, et pane secundo;
Militiæ quanquam piger et malus, utilis urbi;
Si das hoc, parvis quoque rebus magna juvari,
6 Os tenerum pueri balbumque poeta figurat;
Torquet 7 ab obscenis jam nunc sermonibus aurem;
Or virtue, or religion, turn to sport,
To please a lewd, or unbelieving Court.
Unhappy Dryden !---In all Charles's days
Roscommon only boasts unspotted bays;
And in our own (excuse some courtly strains)
No whiter page than Addison remains:
He from the taste obscene reclaims our youth,
And sets the passions on the side of truth;
Forms the soft bosom with the gentlest art,
And pours each human virtue in the heart.
Let Ireland tell how Wit upheld her cause,
Her trade supported, and supply'd her laws,
And leave on Swift this grateful verse engrav'd,
"The rights a court attack'd---a Poet sav'd."
Behold the hand, that wrought a nation's cure,
Stretch'd to relieve the idiot, and the poor,
Proud vice to brand, or injur'd worth adorn,
And 3 stretch the ray to ages yet unborn,
Not but there are who merit other palms;
Hopkins and Sternhold glad the heart with psalms;
The 4 boys, and girls, whom charity maintains, 231
Implore your help in these pathetic strains:
How could Devotion touch the country pews,
Unless the gods bestow'd a proper Muse?».
Mox etiam pectus præceptis format amicis,
Asperitatis et invidiæ corrector et iræ;
Recte facta refert; orientia tempora notis
Instruit exemplis: 2 inopem solatur et ægrum.
Castis cum 3 pueris ignara puella mariti
Disceret unde + preces, vatem ni Musa dedisset?
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