s: He pockets the dollars of sages and scholars:


s: Of course then it follows--he laughs in his sleeve.


s: 'Tis useless to speak--but just put on your spectacles,


s: Read about Chatham, and Peale's [See Notes] splendid show:


s: There's Scudder and Dunlap--they both have receptacles


s: Which, I assure you, are now all the go.


s: 'Tis here thought polite too, should giants delight you,


s: And they should invite you, to look at their shapes;


s: To visit their dwelling, where Indians are yelling,


s: And handbills are telling of wonderful apes!


s: 'Tis useless to speak of the din that so heavily


s: Fell on our senses as midnight drew near;


s: Trumpets and bugles and conch-shells, so cleverly


s: Tin-platters for cymbals, and frying-pans too;


s: Dutch-ovens and brasses, and jingles and glasses,


s: With reeds of all classes, together they blew! [See Notes]


s: Then since it is useless to speak about anything


s: All have examined and laid on the shelf,


s: Perhaps it is proper to say now and then a thing


s: Touching the "Mirror"[See Notes]--the day--and myself.


s: Our work's not devoted, as you may have noted,


s: To articles quoted from books out of print;


s: Instead of the latter, profusely we scatter


s: Original matter that's fresh from the mint.


s: Patrons, I greet you with feelings of gratitude;


s: Nor wish I, on earth, for a sweeter beatitude,


s: If I but bask in the smiles of the fair.


s: Such bliss to a poet is precious--you know it--


s: And while you bestow it, the heart feels content:


s: Your bounty has made us, and still you will aid us,


s: But some have not paid us--we hope they'll repent!


s: For holyday pleasure, why these are the times for it;


s: This stanza shall end it, if I can find rhymes for it--


s: Tho' life is so fleeting, and pleasure so cheating,


s: That we are oft meeting with accidents here,


s: Should Fate seek to dish you, oh then may the issue


s: Be what I now wish you--A HAPPY NEW YEAR!


s: Spring's tender blossoms, buds, and leaves,


s: I bless the star-crowned highlands where


s: "Not home," said the page, who suggested


s: Since then the cot beams with his brightness


s: Georgie, come home!--Life's tendrils cling about thee,


s: Where'er thou art, by wayward fancy led.


s: We miss thee, love!--Home is not home without thee--


s: The light and glory of the house have fled:


s: Is like the pang that thrills my frame for thee!


s: Georgie, come home!--To parents, brother, sister


s: Thy place is vacant in this lonely hall,


s: Where shines the river through the "Jeannie Vista,"


s: While twilight shadows lengthen on the wall:


s: Georgie, come home!--The winds and waves are singing


s: The mournful music of their parting song,


s: To soul and sense the sad forboding bringing,


s: Some ill detains thee in the town so long:


s: Oh, that the morn may dissipate the fear,


s: And bring good tidings of my daughter dear!


s: Georgie, come home!--The forest leaves are falling,


s: The fountain on the hill in vain is calling


s: Thee, my beloved one, to thy woodland home.


s: Whispers thy name among the moaning trees!


s: Georgie, come home!--Thy gentle look can banish


s: The gathering gloom round this once cheerful hearth;


s: In thy sweet presence all our care will vanish,


s: Heart of the Highlands!--Georgie, dear, come home!


s: The eastern hills are flecked with light,


s: By love and truth sustained, for flight,


s: The wind-harp has music it moans to the tree,


s: And so has the shell that complains to the sea,


s: The lark that sings merrily over the lea,


s: When rock-fountains gush into glee as they run,


s: And stars of the morn sing their hymns to the sun,


s: Her instruments tuning to harmony there,


s: Our senses beguiling from sorrow and care,


s: But Nature has music far more to my choice--


s: And all in her exquisite changes rejoice!


s: No tones thrill my heart like the dear human voice


s: Through all the land the thrilling shout


s: The strains, by warrior-voices breathed,


s: The eagle, with the wreath, blood-bought,


s: The tune's the same that Russell cribbed


s: Bid the bright rays of revelation gather


s: Remove the sin that stains our souls--for ever!


s: Out doubts dispel--our confidence restore!


s: Write thy forgiveness on our hearts, and never


s: Release us from the sorrows that attend us!


s: Our nerves are torn--at every vein we bleed!


s: Almighty Parent! with thy strength befriend us!


s: Else we are helpless in our time of need!


s: Sustain us, Lord, with thy pure Holy Spirit--


s: New vigor give to Nature's faltering frame;


s: And, at life's close, permit us to inherit


s: The hope that's promised in the Saviour's name.


s: Written for the freemasons of St. John's Lodge No. 1, New York.


s: We'll laugh and we'll quaff and we'll sing,


s: I knew a sweet girl, with a bonny blue eye,


s: I knew a fair maid, soul-enchanting in grace,


s: I have a dear wife, who is ever my guide!


s: On Hearing that Morse Did Not "Invent" the Telegraph


s: What gay assemblage greets my wondering sight!


s: What scene of splendor--conjured here to-night!


s: What voices murmur, and what glances gleam!


s: Sure 'tis some flattering unsubstantial dream.


s: Doctors and lawyers, judges, belles, and beaux,


s: Poets and painters--and Heaven only knows


s: Whom else beside!--And see, gay ladies sit


s: Lighting with smiles that fearful place, the pit--


s: Gray heads are here too, listening to my rhymes,


s: Grave men and studious, strangers to my sight,


s: All gather round me on this brilliant night.


s: And welcome are ye all.  Not now ye come


s: To speak some trembling poet's awful doom;


s: With frowning eyes a "want of mind" to trace


s: Or e'en us old ones (oh, for shame!) to rate


s: "With study good--in time--but--never great:"


s: Not like you travelled native, just to say


s: The can't 'pon honor!"  How the creature starts!


s: His wit and whiskers came from foreign parts!


s: Nay, madam, spare your blushes--you I mean--


s: There--close beside him--oh, you're full nineteen--


s: You need not shake your flowing locks at me--


s: I'll let him off--you'll punish him in time,


s: To wreathe the laurel round the silvered brow


s: With equal charms his pen and pencil drew


s: Bright scenes, to nature and to virtue true.


s: Full oft upon these boards hath youth appeared,


s: And oft your smiles his faltering footsteps cheered;


s: Leaving the ripened sheaf unowned the while;


s: Will you forget the services long past--


s: Turn the old war-horse out to die at last?--


s: When, his proud strength and noble fleetness o'er,


s: His faithful bosom dares the charge no more!


s: Ah, no!--The sun that loves his beams to shed


s: Round every opening floweret's tender head,


s: With smiles as kind his genial radiance throws


s: To cheer the sadness of the fading rose:


s: Thus he, whose merit claims this dazzling crowd,


s: Points to the past, and has his claims allowed;


s: Looks brightly forth, his faithful journey done,


s: And rests in triumph--like the setting sun.


s: For the benefit of James Sheridan Knowles.


s: Nay, Mr. Simpson!--'Tis not kind--polite--


s: To shut me out, sir?--I'm in such a fright!--


s: I can not speak the lines, I'm sure!--Oh, fie!


s: To say I must!--but if I must--I'll try!


s: From him I turn to these more generous souls


s: The drama's patrons and the friends of KNOWLES.


s: Names that shine brightest on our country's page!


s: The props of science--literature--the stage!


s: The fairest floweret of these western wilds--


s: All come to pay the tribute of their praise


s: And welcome, to the green home of the free,


s: With heart and hand, the bard of liberty!


s: Broke the deep slumber of the patriot Tell,


s: And placed him on his native hills again,


s: The poet speaks--for Rome Virginia bleeds!


s: Bold Caius Gracclius in the forum pleads!


s: Alfred--the Great, because the good and wise,


s: Bids prostrate England burst her bonds and rise!


s: Sweet Bess, the Beggar's Daughter, beauty's queen,


s: Walks forth the joy and wonder of the scene!


s: And last, behold the glorious Wife appear!


s: These are the bright creations of a mind


s: Glowing with genius, chastened and refined.


s: In all he's written, be this praise his lot:


s: "Not one word, dying, would he wish to blot!"


s: To land the bard, unless an eagle's wing


s: My muse would take; and, fixing on the sun


s: Her burning eye, soar as his own has done!


s: Did you speak, sir?--What, madam, did he say?


s: Wrangling!--for shame!--before your wedding-day!


s: Nay, gentle lady, by thine eyes of blue,


s: And vermeil blushes, I did not mean you!


s: Bless me, what friends at every glance I see!


s: Artists and authors--men of high degree;


s: Grave politicians, who have weighed each chance,


s: The next election, and the war with France;


s: Doctors, just come from curing half a score--


s: And belles, from killing twice as many more;


s: Judges, recorders, aldermen, and mayors,


s: Seated, like true republicans, down stairs!


s: All wear a glow of sunshine in their faces


s: Might well become Apollo and the graces,


s: Except one yonder, with a look infernal,


s: Like a blurred page from Fanny Kemble's Journal!


s: But to my task.  The muse, when I began,


s: Spoke of the writer--welcome ye the man.


s: Genius, at best, acts but an humble part,


s: And such a one is his, for whom, to-night,


s: These walls are crowded with this cheering sight


s: Ye love the poet--oft have conned him o'er,


s: Knew ye the man, ye'd love him ten times more.


s: Ye critics, spare him from your tongue and quill,


s: Ye gods, applaud him; and ye fops--be still!


s: Don't ring up yet, sir--I've a word to say


s: Your pardon, gentlefolks, nor think me bold,


s: Because I thus our worthy promoter scold:


s: 'Twas all feigned anger.  This enlightened age


s: Requires a RUSE to bring one on the stage!


s: Well, here I am, quite dazzled with the sight


s: Presented on this brilliant festal night!


s: Where'er I turn, whole rows of patrons sit--


s: The house is full--box, gallery, and pit!


s: Who says the New-York public are unkind?


s: I know them well, and plainly speak my mind--


s: "It is our right," the ancient poet sung--


s: With this I will defend ye--and rehearse


s: FIVE glorious ACTS of yours--in modern verse;


s: Each one concluding with a generous deed


s: 'Twas nobly done, ye patriots and scholars!


s: Besides--they netted twenty thousand dollars!


s: "A good round sum," in these degenerate times--


s: "This bank-note world," so called in Halleck's rhymes;


s: And proof conclusive, you will frankly own,


s: In liberal actions New-York stands alone.


s: Though roams he oft 'mong green poetic bowers,


s: The actor's path is seldom strewn with flowers.


s: While others sleep, he burns the midnight oil--


s: Pores o'er his books--thence inspiration draws,


s: And waste's his life to merit your applause!


s: O ye, who come the laggard hours to while,


s: And with the laugh-provoking muse to smile,


s: Remember this:  the mirth that cheers you so,


s: Shows but the surface--not the depths below!


s: Then judge not lightly of the actor's art,


s: Who smiles to please you, with a breaking heart!


s: Neglect him not in his hill-climbing course,


s: Nor treat him with less kindness than your horse:


s: Up hill, indulge him--down the steep descent,


s: Spare--and don't urge him when his strength is spent;


s: But in the stable don't forget his worth!


s: So with the actor--while you work him hard,


s: Be mindful of his claims to your regard.


s: But hold!--methinks some carping cynic here


s: Will greet my homely image with a sneer.


s: Well--let us see--I would the monster view:


s: Man with umbrageous whiskers, is it you?


s: Beams with benevolence and kindness now;


s: Beauty and fashion all the circles grace--


s: And scowling Envy here were out of place!


s: On every side the wise and good appear--


s: There sit the doctors of the legal clan;


s: Critics and editors, and learned M.D.'s,


s: And there, as if to keep us all in order,


s: Our worthy friends the Mayor and the Recorder!


s: Well, peace be with you!  Friends of native worth,


s: Yours is the power to call it into birth;


s: Yours is the genial influence that smiles upon


s: The budding flowerets opening to the sun.


s: they all around us court your fostering hand--


s: Rear them with care, in beauty they'll expand--


s: With grateful odors well repay your toil,


s: Equal to those sprung from a foreign soil;


s: and more Placides bask in your sunshine then,


s: The first of actors and the best of men.


s: The Maid of Saxony; or, Who's the Traitor?


s: Ladies of the Court, Factory Gils, Peasants, etc.


s: Time -- Latter part of the reign of Frederick the Great.


s: Hans!--Hark!  I hear the postman's horn!


s: Whose notes o'er moor and mountain flung--


s: Where in the world are all these people going to, Hans?


s: Why don't YOU?  You are not fit to keep an inn, Hans.


s: Ho! landlord!--Waiters, look to our luggage!


s: (Enter ALB'T and WEDGEWOOD in cloaks, briskly.)


s: Two bed-chambers, landlord, as soon as possible.


s: (Gives directions to ATTENDANT, who exits)


s: Thank you, sir.  (Aside.) What a nice, queer old gentleman!


s: Among those in bondage is Sophia Mansfield--


s: (Re-enter HANS, with trunks, etc, and GERTRUDE.)


s: Then tell your wife to knock at my door early in the morning.


s: HANS (eyeing him and looking suspiciously.)


s: The streaming banners that flout the sky,


s: I wonder the old hero does not marry some of them himself.


s: I mean it to be so.  What the devil do you wear it for?


s: You have a sharp wit, which I lack, comrade.


s: And I've another thing which you lack--COMRADE.


s: You may not relish the frankness of my manner.


s: You surely will not marry her against her will?


s: Love has all seasons for his own, dear mother.  Listen!


s: The spring-time of love is both happy and gay,


s: For Joy sprinkles blossoms and balm in our way;


s: the sky, earth, and ocean, in beauty repose,


s: And all the bright future is couleur de rose!


s: The summer of love is the bloom of the heart,


s: When hill, grove, and valley their music impart;


s: And the pure glow of heaven is seen in fond eyes,


s: As lakes show the rainbow that's hung in the skies!


s: The autumn of love is the season of cheer--


s: Life's mild Indian summer, the smile of the year--


s: Which comes when the golden-ripe harvest is stored,


s: And yields its own blessing, repose, and reward.


s: The winter of love is the beam that we win,


s: While the storm howls without, from the sunshine within.


s: Love's reign is eternal--the heart is his throne,


s: And he has all season of life for his own.


s: COUNTESS (receiving letters and looking at them.)


s: Mr. Wedgewood, from Esturia and London; and--


s: The angel we met by accident this morning!


s: We have seen each other before, Mr. Worrendorf.


s: Oh, how I long to see the great Frederick!


s: My son, the Count Laniska, will present you to his majesty.


s: FREDERICA (observing the COUNT looks thoughtful.)


s: Why, what's the matter with you, brother?


s: She is my countrywoman, and for that I love her.


s: Your majesty shall have no cause of complain in the future.


s: That duty, sire, you have taught us all our lives.


s: Zounds and fury!--Here's rebellion!  YOU protest against it?


s: But he has also sinned against your high and mighty majesty--


s: Send him to the Castle of Spandau, to be imprisoned--


s: Corporal! (He advances and recovers arms.)


s: You remember what I told you about a hawk's eye.


s: And the lives of us all.  Long live the King!


s: (Flourish of drums.  The KING acknowledges the salute.)


s: (The GIRLS attempt to waltz, as before, etc.)


s: (The WORKMEN and the GIRLS resume their tasks.)


s: In Saxony; but forget that country, and you may be happy in this.


s: She sits as you see her, like one stupefied, half the day.


s: COUNT (raising SOPHIA, who clings to him, and shrinks from KARL.)


s: Some new freak, no doubt, of this eccentric monarch.  (Noises.)


s: You have ears enough already for any two-legged animal--


s: BURGOMASTER (hitting him smartly over the head.)


s: Her I aright?  (The GIRLS of the Factory show great joy at this.)


s: Mugs!  I like that.  He's in the crockery-trade, like myself.


s: All will be zeal throughout the manufactory.


s: So much the greater need for my perseverance.


s: Some will be excited with the hope of gaining their liberty.


s: But none have so strong a motive for exertion as I have.


s: Nobly resolved!  I will assist you with every faculty I possess.


s: (The FACTORY-GIRLS now waltz cheerfully to the music.)


s: (They all waltz with great spirit until the scene closes.)


s: A Street in Berlin.  Enter FREDERICK in a cloak--KARL following.


s: No, I am no tyrant.  I should not be branded with such a title!


s: Your Majesty was ever kind; and if I might--


s: Though the scenes of past years as they rise,


s: I shrink in despair from my shame!  [KARL rushes out.


s: Yes (snuffs)--it's decent blackguard (snuffs)--quite decent.


s: Perhaps you will also do me the favor to accept the box?


s: If it is convenient.  What am I to infer from this?


s: That box will procure you an audience.  Present it at the palace.


s: Not now.  When next we confer, remember me.--Farewell!  [Exit.


s: The king commands your presence at the chateau of the countess.


s: That shoots from out the cultured earth;


s: It is--and the countess insists upon your being present.


s: Well, madam, since you will have it so--


s: Who glide with Fashion's sparkling stream


s: Fair Prussian dames, "earth-treading stars,"


s: KING (who has regarded SOPHIA with great interest.)


s: She must away with us to the castle of Spandau.


s: The king himself!--These orders read!  (Hands paper to COUNT.)


s: (SOPHIA and LANISKA are made prisoners.)


s: 'Tis strange that love within the breast should dwell,


s: When hope, dejected, bids the heart farewell!


s: What sounds are these?  No human form is near,


s: And yet that well-known voice I faintly hear,


s: 'Twas sure the fancied music of the mind,


s: Whose breathings mingled with the midnight wind.


s: Like distant echoes of a melting strain:


s: In melody {her/his} spirit floats around!--


s: That voice!--These walls are vocal with the sound.


s: I hear its music near me still!--'Tis there!


s: Sure 'tis some gentle spirit of the air!


s: (enter JAILOR, from the Tower, to COUNT LANISKA.)


s: Count Laniska--a friend, with an order form the king.


s: 'Twas but a dream!--'Tis past, and all is still again!


s: Hark! 'tis the deep-toned midnight bell,


s: I can find no clew to this most cruel treachery.


s: My life would not be worth preserving, owing anything to you.


s: Subdue this unavailing anger, and listen to your friend.


s: I have heard you!  Now listen to me.  You are my destiny.


s: And his bondwoman spurned you, as she ought!


s: With scorn you did!--I have not forgotten it.


s: Karl, you would not stain this prison-floor with blood!


s: No words, no threats could daunt my soul,


s: If it is convenient!  [They conceal themselves.


s: If the king would but listen to reason--


s: But under this government we have blessings unknown to yours--


s: And would to Heaven I might plead their cause!


s: On one condition, young man, your prayer shall be granted.


s: Managed, Your Majesty?  Why, according to law and justice.


s: Well--well--well--so justice be done, I care not for the means.


s: Perhaps, Mr. Wedgewood, you would like the appointment yourself?


s: KING (rising in excitement, and forgetting himself.)


s: WEDGEWOOD (with great authority rapping on the desk.)


s: Let the counsel for the prisoners now proceed.


s: The subject's rights should be maintained.


s: WEDGEWOOD (as KARL is placed in the witness-box.)


s: You are here to answer, not to question, sirrah!


s: That's true--that's very true--the king alone commands--


s: WEDGEWOOD (shaking his mallet at the KING.)


s: You know yon Saxon maid and the Count Laniska?


s: Who has misled, blinded, and deceived the king?


s: The prisoners are innocent!  (Presto!--all start with joy.)


s: Oh, rage and fury!  (KARL is secured by HAROLD and CORPORAL.)


s: In gratitude, (kneels,) God bless the king!


s: This, with my life, I dedicate to Your Majesty's service!


s: My heart was not deceived!  My long-lost brother!


s: ALBERT (ALBERT and SOPHIA rush into each other's arms.)


s: They're gone with my last shilling.  (Page 88.)


s: "This is a fact, and no poetic fable."--Byron


s: A much-frequented restaurant in Broadway.


s: The country residence of Washington Irving.


s: A wheel rigged for a tiller.  (Page 90.)


s: Long live the valiant Mayor.  (Page 91.)


s: She whispers of coaches,/And lockets and broaches--


s: refers to the holiday-presents in vogue at the time.


s: Descriptive of the manner in which the New Year was ushered in.


s: taking a boat down the river with three friends, one of them his


s: brother-in-law Sir Robert Howard, another Sir Charles Sedley, and


s: worthless measure, and the chief feature of the Essay, which was


s: Dryden always wrote good masculine prose, and all his critical


s: essays are good reading as pieces of English.  His "Essay of


s: weakness.  They represent also Dryden himself with a riper mind


s: covering a larger field of thought, and showing abundantly the


s: strength and independence of his own critical judgment, while he


s: that are blended with them, and in the occasional touches of the


s: poet's personality in quiet references to his critics.  The


s: The wishes and desires of all good men, which have attended your


s: lordship from your first appearance in the world, are at length


s: irreconcilable to one another, that are not united in their


s: affection to you, and the respect they pay you.  They are equally


s: kind.  The universal empire made him only more known and more


s: powerful, but could not make him more beloved.  He had greater


s: declare it to be daylight at high noon:  and all who have the


s: benefit of sight can look up as well and see the sun.


s: It is true, I have one privilege which is almost particular to


s: rudiments of my poetry, without name or reputation in the world,


s: having rather the ambition of a writer than the skill; when I was


s: inventor of some useful art, to make a monopoly of his learning--


s: knowledge of the compass, I was sailing in a vast ocean without


s: foretell you to mankind as the restorer of poetry, the greatest


s: genius, the truest judge, and the best patron.


s: beneficence and candour, is the product of right reason; which of


s: considering that there is nothing perfect in mankind; and by


s: distinguishing that which comes nearest to excellency, though not


s: lordship's to find out the errors of other men; but it is your


s: prerogative to pardon them; to look with pleasure on those things


s: conceptions; and to forgive the many failings of those who, with


s: place without dispute; and have been arrogantly content to be


s: esteemed as second to your lordship, and even that also with a


s: their opinion; they must be like the officer in a play who was


s: called captain, lieutenant, and company.  The world will easily


s: conclude whether such unattended generals can ever be capable of


s: expression.  That which is the prime virtue and chief ornament of


s: conspicuous in your verses that it casts a shadow on all your


s: letter of my own invention of which I have not the example there.


s: It is a general complaint against your lordship, and I must have


s: Fame is in itself a real good, if we may believe Cicero, who was


s: against it, but His own example to the contrary.  The world, my


s: your production--is requisite to refresh your character.


s: their prose and doggerel.  I am so far from defending my poetry


s: thought by posterity what those authors would be thought if any


s: memory of them or of their writings could endure so long as to


s: Heaven be praised, our common libellers are as free from the


s: imputation of wit as of morality, and therefore whatever mischief


s: Persius has given us a fair example in his first Satire, which is


s: In the meantime, as a counsellor bred up in the knowledge of the


s: reputation of private persons, under the notion of humour.  But I


s: produced in you by an excellent wit, a masterly and commanding


s: genius over all writers:  whereby you are empowered, when you


s: yours what was written by any others, or to mistake your genuine


s: poetry for their spurious productions.  I can farther add with


s: part, I could separate your gold from their copper; and though I


s: names.  But your lordship, on the contrary, is distinguished not


s: only by the excellency of your thoughts, but by your style and


s: manner of expressing them.  A painter judging of some admirable


s: have written, and out of a vicious modesty will not publish.


s: Virgil has confined his works within the compass of eighteen


s: The same prevalence of genius is in your lordship, but the world


s: language had not yielded to the Roman majesty, and length of time


s: sciences, as that of Euripides, Sophocles, Aristophanes, and the


s: rest, for stage-poetry amongst the Greeks; that of Augustus for


s: especially if we take into that century the latter end of the


s: But suppose that Homer and Virgil were the only of their species,


s: heroic poetry; in tragedy and satire I offer myself to maintain,


s: against some of our modern critics, that this age and the last,


s: particularly in England, have excelled the ancients in both those


s: eye; that Lucan is wanting both in design and subject, and is


s: unequal, and almost always forced; and, besides, is full of


s: Homer had bestowed the like number on King Priam; he kills the


s: youngest in the same manner; and has provided his hero with a


s: Patroclus, under another name, only to bring him back to the wars


s: throughout the whole poem, and succours the rest when they are in


s: Sidney, whom he intended to make happy by the marriage of his


s: Gloriana, dying before him, deprived the poet both of means and


s: spirit to accomplish his design.  For the rest, his obsolete


s: language and the ill choice of his stanza are faults but of the


s: second magnitude; for, notwithstanding the first, he is still


s: difficulty, his verses are so numerous, so various and so


s: harmonious, that only Virgil, whom he professedly imitated, has


s: surpassed him among the Romans, and only Mr. Waller among the


s: As for Mr. Milton, whom we all admire with so much justice, his


s: subject is not that of an heroic poem, properly so called.  His


s: significant than those in practice, and when their obscurity is


s: taken away by joining other words to them which clear the sense--


s: "Juvenilia" or verses written in his youth, where his rhyme is


s: By this time, my lord, I doubt not but that you wonder why I have


s: embellishments which are afforded in the belief of those ancient


s: prime virtues; and that these include no action but that of the


s: soul, whereas, on the contrary, an heroic poem requires to its


s: heroic action of some great commander, enterprised for the common


s: I wish I could as easily remove that other difficulty which yet


s: remains.  It is objected by a great French critic as well as an


s: admirable poet, yet living, and whom I have mentioned with that


s: honour which his merit exacts from me (I mean, Boileau), that the


s: doctrine, grounded as it was on ridiculous fables, was yet the


s: belief of the two victorious monarchies, the Grecian and Roman.


s: Their gods did not only interest themselves in the event of wars


s: (which is the effect of a superior Providence), but also espoused


s: particular) has contented himself with the partiality of his


s: business, and makes her know the difference of strength betwixt a


s: latter instance from Tasso (as if God had never another messenger


s: This, my lord, I confess is such an argument against our modern


s: But what if I venture to advance an invention of my own to supply


s: philosophy and the mechanics is discovered almost every year, and


s: will, perhaps, conclude to be little worth.


s: It is this, in short--that Christian poets have not hitherto been


s: known to the Almighty Majesty of Heaven, His providential designs


s: called), judging that it would be more for God's honour and the


s: benefit of His people that the Median and Persian monarchy, which


s: conducted, is not my business to show or determine:  these things


s: liberal arts and sciences (and particularly moral philosophy, the


s: evil spirits contending with the good.  For being so much weaker


s: Now what these wicked spirits cannot compass by the vast


s: characters of the chiefest English persons (wherein, after Virgil


s: might perhaps have done as well as some of my predecessors, or at


s: design; but being encouraged only with fair words by King Charles


s: shining qualities which distinguish you from others of your rank.


s: Richelieu of late, would willingly have been such; and David and


s: entitled you, or your merits have acquired you.


s: Sit tibi Musa lyrae solers, et cantor Apollo."


s: only as are obvious to every man of sense and judgment who loves


s: success attends your lordship's thoughts, which would look like


s: wherewithal to imagine so strongly, so justly, and so pleasantly:


s: Speret idem, sudet multum, frustraque laboret,


s: writers, a mixture of rain and sunshine by fits:  you are always


s: variety of entertainment; which creates such an appetite in your


s: picture to a great degree of likeness, though it is but in


s: commissioned me to perform in their behalf this office of a


s: long epistle, to give you from the best authors the origin, the


s: antiquity, the growth, the change, and the completement of satire


s: shall be the subject of my following discourse.


s: The most perfect work of poetry, says our master Aristotle, is


s: tragedy.  His reason is because it is the most united; being more


s: limited to a natural day; and the place circumscribed at least


s: comprehending the whole beauty of it without distraction.


s: But after all these advantages an heroic poem is certainly the


s: If it signifies anything which of them is of the more ancient


s: acquisitions which I have named above, and as many more as I have


s: In a word, what I have to say in relation to this subject, which


s: does not particularly concern satire, is that the greatness of an


s: learned Casaubon, Heinsius, Rigaltius, Dacier, and the Dauphin's


s: Juvenal, to which I shall add some observations of my own.


s: invective, it is certain that it is almost as old as verse; and


s: higher, from the latter end of the second, where his wife advises


s: scoffs and revilings are of the growth of all nations; and


s: descend from Greece to Rome; and derives the word "satire" from


s: signifies a poem, cannot possibly descend.  For satira is not


s: that they were wholly different in species from that to which the


s: Aristotle divides all poetry, in relation to the progress of it,


s: into nature without art, art begun, and art completed.  Mankind,


s: prayers.  The first poetry was thus begun in the wild notes of


s: natural poetry before the invention of feet and measures.  The


s: Grecians and Romans had no other original of their poetry.


s: Festivals and holidays soon succeeded to private worship, and we


s: need not doubt but they were enjoined by the true God to His own


s: their necessities, and to thank him for his benefits.  Thus the


s: Romans, as Horace tells us, paid their thanks to Mother Earth or


s: performed) to spend the remainder of the day in sports and


s: merriments; amongst which songs and dances, and that which they


s: called wit (for want of knowing better), were the chiefest


s: entertainments.  The Grecians had a notion of Satyrs, whom I have


s: young Satyrs and the old--for the tutors, attendants, and humble


s: companions of their Bacchus, habited themselves like those rural


s: deities, and imitated them in their rustic dances, to which they


s: joined songs with some sort of rude harmony, but without certain


s: numbers; and to these they added a kind of chorus.


s: The Romans also, as nature is the same in all places, though they


s: hobbling verse, and they answered in the same kind of gross


s: confounds the singing and dancing of the Satyrs with the rustical


s: this:  that Casaubon finding little light from antiquity of these


s: solemnities, might suppose those wanton Satyrs did the same; and


s: well as Romans), though it is plainly otherwise that he only


s: described the beginning and first rudiments of poetry in his own


s: country.  The verses are these, which he cites from the First


s: Epistle of the Second Book, which was written to Augustus:-


s: "Agricolae prisci, fortes, parvoque beati,


s: Condita post frumenta, levantes tempore festo


s: Corpus, et ipsum animum spe finis dura ferentem,


s: Cum sociis operum, et pueris, et conjuge fida,


s: Floribus et vino Genium memorem brevis aevi.


s: Fescennina per hunc inventa licentia morem


s: Versibus alternis opprobria rustica fudit."


s: "Our brawny clowns of old, who turned the soil,


s: Content with little, and inured to toil,


s: At harvest-home, with mirth and country cheer,


s: Refreshed their spirits, and renewed their hope


s: Then with their fellow-joggers of the ploughs,


s: Their little children, and their faithful spouse,


s: And kindly milk, Silvanus, poured to thee.


s: With flowers and wine their Genius they adored;


s: From flowing cups defaming rhymes ensue,


s: And at each other homely taunts they threw."


s: Yet since it is a hard conjecture that so great a man as Casaubon


s: both were prosecuted with mirth and raillery and rudiments of


s: verses; amongst the Greeks by those who represented Satyrs, and


s: For, indeed, when I am reading Casaubon on these two subjects


s: methinks I hear the same story told twice over with very little


s: beginning of poetry was the same, with a small variety, in both


s: countries, and that the mother of it in all nations was devotion.


s: observed), and the old comedy of the Greeks (which was invective)


s: forbidden for its too much licence in exposing of particular


s: persons, and the rude satire of the Romans was also punished by a


s: "Libertasque recurrentes accepta per annos


s: Lusit amabiliter; donec jam saevus apertam


s: In rabiem verti caepit jocus, et per honestas


s: Ire domos impune minax:  doluere cruento


s: Dente lacessiti; fuit intactis quoque cura


s: Conditione super communi:  quinetiam lex,


s: Paenaque lata, malo quae nollet carmine quenquam


s: Describi:  vertere modum, formidine fustis


s: Ad benedicendum delectandumque redacti."


s: being all of the same opinion, it becomes me to be silent and to


s: Thespis, or whoever he were that invented tragedy (for authors


s: features.  The very kinds are different; for what has a pastoral


s: tragedy to do with a paper of verses satirically written?  The


s: character and raillery of the Satyrs is the only thing that could


s: communication with the Greeks, or indeed any knowledge of that


s: And here it will be proper to give the definition of the Greek


s: satiric poem from Casaubon before I leave this subject.  "The


s: different species from the Roman poems of Ennius, Pacuvius,


s: Virgil's, but by applying them to another sense they are made a


s: supposed to be the original of Roman satire.  To these "silli,"


s: Thus, my lord, I have at length disengaged myself from those


s: antiquities of Greece, and have proved, I hope, from the best


s: predecessor in that sort of poetry, et Graecis intacti carminis


s: empire), that satire was wholly of Latin growth, and not


s: contradicts them both, and gives no better reason than the


s: empty-handed, had they been ever the less Satyrs?  Or were the


s: "Lancibus et pandis fumantia reddimus exta;"


s: clear a light that no further room will be left for the least


s: unpolished, as all other operations of the soul are in their


s: remaining; we only know from authors that they were nearer prose


s: verses, after measure and numbers had been added to them, at the


s: triumph of their generals; of which we have an example in the


s: triumph of Julius Caesar over Gaul in these expressions:  Caesar


s: Gallias subegit, Nicomedes Caesarem.  Ecce Caesar nunc triumphat,


s: Romans, which, says Dacier, we cannot better represent than by


s: imagining a company of clowns on a holiday dancing lubberly and


s: hister signifies a player; and therefore those actors which were


s: clownish jests, but what they acted was a kind of civil cleanly


s: farce, with music and dances, and motions that were proper to the


s: In this condition Livius Andronicus found the stage when he


s: attempted first, instead of farces, to supply it with a nobler


s: entertainment of tragedies and comedies.  This man was a Grecian


s: born, and being made a slave by Livius Salinator, and brought to


s: Andronicus, thus become a freeman of Rome, added to his own name


s: theatre, and conversant in the archaea comaedia or old comedy of


s: Aristophanes and the rest of the Grecian poets, he took from that


s: Rome.  But I will adventure on this hint to advance another


s: proposition, which I hope the learned will approve; and though we


s: tragedies might be, yet in his comedies he expressed the way of


s: Aristophanes, who turned the wise Socrates into ridicule, and is


s: Andronicus.  And then Quintilian and Horace must be cautiously


s: interpreted, where they affirm that satire is wholly Roman, and a


s: reconcilement of my opinion to the standard of their judgment is


s: theatrical satire was from the plays of Livius Andronicus, which


s: The people, says he, ran in crowds to these new entertainments of


s: farces, in the nature of a separate entertainment from their


s: A year after Andronicus had opened the Roman stage with his new


s: dramas, Ennius was born; who, when he was grown to man's estate,


s: having seriously considered the genius of the people, and how


s: several sorts of verse, varied often in the same paper, retaining


s: formed plays of Livius Andronicus, which were copied from the


s: countrymen in their clownish extemporary way of jeering.


s: their notice.  Most evident it is that, whether he imitated the


s: distinguished from any sort of stage-play.


s: graceful turn, and endeavoured to imitate more closely the vetus


s: Primus in hunc operis componere carmina morem" -


s: he is only thus to be understood--that Lucilius had given a more


s: graceful turn to the satire of Ennius and Pacuvius, not that he


s: invented a new satire of his own; and Quintilian seems to explain


s: which the Romans wanted were not admitted even in the times of


s: Lucretius and Cicero, of which both complain.


s: But to proceed:  Dacier justly taxes Casaubon for saying that the


s: Diomedes makes a specifical distinction betwixt the satires of


s: Ennius and those of Lucilius.  But this, as we say in English, is


s: appear with how much diffidence and caution we are to read their


s: works when they treat a subject of so much obscurity and so very


s: several sorts of verse."  The only difficulty of this passage is


s: But Quintilian meant not that the satire of Varro was in order of


s: corrupted.  The tithes of many of them are indeed preserved, and


s: impudence and obscenity; that he was much given to those parodies


s: manners and his style in many of his dialogues, where Menippus


s: reproduced].  But Varro in imitating him avoids his impudence and


s: public, it will easily be seen by any one sentence whether it be


s: supposititious or genuine.  Many of Lucian's dialogues may also


s: This is what I have to say in general of satire:  only, as Dacier


s: which decried vice or exposed folly, but for others also, where


s: virtue was recommended.  But in our modern languages we apply it


s: satura, not from Satyrus; and if this be so, then it is false


s: correcting afterwards.  But the French are more nice, and never


s: truth, morality, and common justice, and especially in the


s: charioteer in blue, and some for him in green.  The colours


s: animosities, commotions, and bloodshed often happened; and in the


s: engaged in it, even when the barbarians were at their doors, and


s: stickled for the preference of colours when the safety of their


s: people was in question.  I am now myself on the brink of the same


s: unheard cannot be concluded an oppressor.  I remember a saying of


s: encroaching on his fellows, and detracting from them or enriching


s: First, then, for the verse; neither Casaubon himself, nor any for


s: Casaubon gives this point for lost, and pretends not to justify


s: Then, as his verse is scabrous and hobbling, and his words not


s: everywhere well chosen (the purity of Latin being more corrupted


s: commended for his illustrations of him, yet he is still obscure;


s: whether he affected not to be understood but with difficulty; or


s: whether the fear of his safety under Nero compelled him to this


s: render him so cloudy, we may be bold to affirm that the best of


s: After all he was a young man, like his friend and contemporary


s: Lucan--both of them men of extraordinary parts and great acquired


s: think so strongly, than to accuse them of those faults from which


s: believed that he who commits the same crime often and without


s: necessity cannot but do it with some kind of pleasure.


s: master.  He compliments him with so much reverence that one would


s: insinuates that he himself was sufficiently vain-glorious and a


s: virtue of holy obedience to his master.  I cannot help my own


s: himself; but the nature of the thing, as Lucretius says, will not


s: understanding, and may be reckoned amongst those things of


s: Demosthenes which AEschines called [Greek text which cannot be


s: reproduced] not [Greek text which cannot be reproduced]--that is,


s: knowledge of many things is lost in our modern ages which were of


s: difficult nature in itself, and is not written to vulgar readers;


s: Thus far, my lord, you see it has gone very hard with Persius.  I


s: making these two authors English.  In the meantime I think myself


s: A man who is resolved to praise an author with any appearance of


s: Indian, to another light, that he might give it the better gloss.


s: exhortation to virtue."  Thus wit, for a good reason, is already


s: antagonists.  The philosophy in which Persius was educated, and


s: which he professes through his whole book, is the Stoic--the most


s: severe virtue in the soul, to raise in us an undaunted courage


s: against the assaults of fortune, to esteem as nothing the things


s: vices, and conform our actions and conversation to the rules of


s: right reason.  See here, my lord, an epitome of Epictetus, the


s: doctrine of Zeno, and the education of our Persius; and this he


s: expressed, not only in all his satires, but in the manner of his


s: Christian faith).  Persius has fallen into none of them, and


s: edification of the flock.  Passion, interest, ambition, and all


s: their bloody consequences of discord and of war are banished from


s: tranquillity of the mind; virtue lodged at home, and afterwards


s: diffused in her general effects to the improvement and good of


s: humankind.  And therefore I wonder not that the present Bishop of


s: sermons, as the storehouses and magazines of moral virtues, from


s: whence they may draw out, as they have occasion, all manner of


s: assistance for the accomplishment of a virtuous life, which the


s: Stoics have assigned for the great end and perfection of mankind.


s: Persius is everywhere the same--true to the dogmas of his master.


s: been enough to civilise his conversation, and render him


s: accomplished and knowing in all the arts of complacency and good


s: behaviour; and, in short, an agreeable companion for the retired


s: they are equal in the failings of their style, where Juvenal


s: because Horace has written many of them satirically against his


s: private enemies; yet these, if justly considered, are somewhat of


s: reputation of other men; it is taking from them what we cannot


s: restore to them.  There are only two reasons for which we may be


s: permitted to write lampoons, and I will not promise that they can


s: affronted in the same nature, or have been anywise notoriously


s: expect the like pardon for those which we daily commit against


s: which they have done to us; for which reason I have many times


s: avoided the commission of that fault, even when I have been


s: almost any man now living; and I had reason on my side to have


s: crimes and follies, both for their own amendment (if they are not


s: punished in the persons of others.  The first reason was only an


s: capable of this duty!  When they come in my way, it is impossible


s: Amongst men, those who are prosperously unjust are entitled to a


s: panegyric, but afflicted virtue is insolently stabbed with all


s: manner of reproaches; no decency is considered, no fulsomeness


s: better judgments, Juvenal is the more delightful author.  I am


s: unbiassed readers will conclude that my moderation is not to be


s: condemned; to such impartial men I must appeal, for they who have


s: prejudice; and though all who are my readers will set up to be my


s: Juvenal, excepting only his first satire, is in all the rest


s: confined to the exposing of some particular vice; that he lashes,


s: instructive; but they are sprinkled here and there.  Horace is


s: teaching us in every line, and is perpetually moral; he had found


s: imagined), so perhaps it was not so much his talent.


s: "Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico


s: Tangit, et admissus circum praecordia ludit."


s: following the court, as well as in the prosecutor Crispinus, his


s: impertinence and importunity.  It is true, he exposes Crispinus


s: profit, but in pleasure.  But, after all, I must confess that the


s: verse more numerous; and his words are suitable to his thoughts,


s: sublime and lofty.  All these contribute to the pleasure of the


s: reader; and the greater the soul of him who reads, his transports


s: adds a more lively agitation to the spirits.  The low style of


s: copes with him in that humble way of satire, writes under his own


s: other parts of poetry he is faultless, but in this he placed his


s: Stridenti, miserum, stipula, disperdere carmen?"


s: But to return to my purpose.  When there is anything deficient in


s: attending it, as they deserve, with the utmost rigour; and


s: consequently a noble soul is better pleased with a zealous


s: vindicator of Roman liberty than with a temporising poet, a well-


s: After all, Horace had the disadvantage of the times in which he


s: under the reign of Domitian were unknown in the time of Augustus


s: Caesar; that therefore Juvenal had a larger field than Horace.


s: asserted.  There was more need of a Brutus in Domitian's days to


s: redeem or mend, than of a Horace, if he had then been living, to


s: laugh at a fly-catcher.  This reflection at the same time excuses


s: which concerns the particular merits of these two satirists.


s: However, I will pursue my business where I left it, and carry it


s: farther than that common observation of the several ages in which


s: people.  They could not possibly have forgotten the usurpation of


s: defenders--amongst the rest, that horrible action of his when he


s: forced Livia from the arms of her husband (who was constrained to


s: petulancy of Cassius Severus, who had defamed many illustrious


s: persons of both sexes in his writings."  The law to which Tacitus


s: auctoribus, id modo censuit, cognoscendum posthac de iis qui


s: urbis; sed revera ut sibi consuleret:  nam habuit in animo


s: accounted sacred who belonged to him.  As for Cassius Severus, he


s: proverb, with one stone, and revenge both himself and his emperor


s: From hence I may reasonably conclude that Augustus, who was not


s: altogether so good as he was wise, had some by-respect in the


s: enacting of this law; for to do anything for nothing was not his


s: should; for prior laesit is a good excuse in the civil law if


s: belonging to all of them, is yet remaining to be considered.


s: Persius says, Secuit urbem; . . . et genuinum fregit in illis;


s: meaning Mutius and Lupus; and Juvenal also mentions him in these


s: "Ense velut stricto, quoties Lucilius ardens


s: Infremuit, rubet auditor, cui frigida mens est


s: Criminibus, tacita sulant praecordia culpa."


s: So that they thought the imitation of Lucilius was more proper to


s: Thus far that learned critic Barten Holyday, whose interpretation


s: cannot give him up the manner of Horace in low satire so easily.


s: pleases, yet still the nicest and most delicate touches of satire


s: thinking, which is not to be taught, and therefore not to be


s: shadowing.  This is the mystery of that noble trade, which yet no


s: fineness of a stroke that separates the head from the body and


s: leaves it standing in its place.  A man may be capable, as Jack


s: extravagances; to which the wittier a man is, he is generally the


s: could not railly, but he could declaim:  and as his provocations


s: This manner of Horace is indeed the best; but Horace has not


s: wittily than Horace has rallied.  Horace means to make his reader


s: quickness of their own understandings, that they can see a jest


s: farther off than other men; they may find occasion of laughter in


s: scolding.  For my own part, I can only like the characters of all


s: sake of Horace; but certain it is, he has no fine palate who can


s: But I have already wearied myself, and doubt not but I have tired


s: trivial discourse.  Upon the one-half of the merits, that is,


s: pleasure, I cannot but conclude that Juvenal was the better


s: satirist.  They who will descend into his particular praises may


s: Barten Holyday, who translated both Juvenal and Persius, has made


s: And to show I am impartial I will here translate what Dacier has


s: It is easy to observe that Dacier, in this noble similitude, has


s: "In these two books of satire it is the business of Horace to


s: instruct us how to combat our vices, to regulate our passions, to


s: things themselves; to come back from our prejudicate opinions, to


s: Let Horace go off with these encomiums, which he has so well


s: To conclude the contention betwixt our three poets I will use the


s: rewards of the foot-race to the three first who should reach the


s: Accipient, flauaque caput nectentur oliva."


s: Let these three ancients be preferred to all the moderns as first


s: "Primus equum phaleris insignem victor habeto."


s: "Alter Amazoniam pharetram, plenamque sagittis


s: Threiciis, lato quam circumplectitur auro


s: Balteus, et tereti subnectit fibula gemma."


s: "Tertius Argolico hoc clypeo contentus abito."


s: Tithoni prima quot abest ab origine Caesar."


s: true; but then they had no communication with Greece; so that


s: Andronicus was the first who wrote after the manner of the old


s: properly, began the Roman satire, according to that description


s: which Juvenal gives of it in his first:-


s: "Quicquid agunt homines, votum, timor, ira voluptas,


s: Gaudia, discurses, nostri est farrago libelli."


s: This is that in which I have made hold to differ from Casaubon,


s: Roman satire; which sort of poem, though we had not derived from


s: Rome, yet nature teaches it mankind in all ages and in every


s: It is but necessary that, after so much has been said of satire,


s: some definition of it should be given.  Heinsius, in his


s: figuratively and occultly; consisting, in a low familiar way,


s: satire, is wholly accommodated to the Horatian way, and excluding


s: necessity he must fall with him; and I may safely say it of this


s: present age, that if we are not so great wits as Donne, yet


s: But I have said enough, and it may be too much, on this subject.


s: Will your lordship be pleased to prolong my audience only so far


s: them.  Will you please but to observe that Persius, the least in


s: perfect satire--that it ought only to treat of one subject; to be


s: only be transiently lashed, and not be insisted on, so as to make


s: adventures, yet they are subservient to the chief fable, carried


s: beloved author to be the first who found out and introduced this


s: method of confining himself to one subject.


s: authority, has wholly confined himself in all his satires to this


s: subject, as it is diversely treated in the several subordinate


s: branches of it, all relating to the chief.  It may be illustrated


s: Under this unity of theme or subject is comprehended another rule


s: virtue, and to caution him against some one particular vice or


s: inculcate one virtue, and insist on that.  Thus Juvenal, in every


s: instructive point, or to the shunning of moral evil.  Even in the


s: womankind, there is a latent admonition to avoid ill women, by


s: showing how very few who are virtuous and good are to be found


s: I have already declared who are the only persons that are the


s: adequate object of private satire, and who they are that may


s: properly be exposed by name for public examples of vices and


s: satire is of the Varronian kind, though unmixed with prose.  The


s: choice of his numbers is suitable enough to his design as he has


s: managed it; but in any other hand the shortness of his verse, and


s: perpetually shining through all he writes; it affords us not the


s: time of finding faults:  we pass through the levity of his rhyme,


s: After all, he has chosen this kind of verse, and has written the


s: The quickness of your imagination, my lord, has already prevented


s: advantage.  For a burlesque rhyme I have already concluded to be


s: Merlin Cocaius in his "Baldus."  I will speak only of the two


s: former, because the last is written in Latin verse.  The "Secchia


s: "Nec tibi diva parens, generis nec Dardanus auctor,


s: Perfide; sed duris genuit te cautibus horrens


s: Caucasus, Hyrrcanaeque admorunt ubera tigres:"


s: which he thus translates, keeping to the words, but altering the


s: "Non, ton pere a Paris, ne fut point boulanger:


s: Et tu n'es point du sang de Gervais, l'horloger;


s: Ta mere ne fut point la maitresse d'un coche;


s: Caucase dans ses flancs te forma d'une roche;


s: Une tigresse affreuse, en quelque antre ecarte,


s: Te fit, avec son lait, succer sa cruaute."


s: ennobles it by comparisons drawn from empires and from monarchs -


s: "Admiranda tibi levium spectacula rerum,


s: Magnanimosque duces, totiusque ordine gentis


s: Mores et studia, et populos, et praelia dicam;"


s: "At genus immortale manet, multosque per annos


s: Stat fortuna domus, et avi numerantur avorum;"


s: we see Boileau pursuing him in the same flights, and scarcely


s: yielding to his master.  This I think, my lord, to be the most


s: this and some other of his satires, but it might turn to his


s: prejudice if it were carried back to France.


s: fathers of our English poetry, but had not seriously enough


s: considered those beauties which give the last perfection to their


s: brought me afterwards to seek for the supply of them in other


s: thoughts which were clothed with admirable Grecisms and ancient


s: words, which he had been digging from the minds of Chaucer and


s: Spenser, and which, with all their rusticity, had somewhat of


s: farther into the Italian, I found Tasso had done the same; nay,


s: beauties; delicate, et bien tourne, are the highest commendations


s: "Heu! quantum scelus est, in viscera, viscera condi!


s: Congestoque avidum pinguescere corpore corpus;


s: Alteriusque animantem animantis vivere leto."


s: "Tum jam nulla viro juranti faemina credat;


s: Nulla viri speret sermones esse fideles;


s: Qui, dum aliquid cupiens animus praegestit apisci,


s: Sed simul ac cupidae mentis satiata libido est,


s: Dicta nihil metuere, nihil perjuria curant."


s: An extraordinary turn upon the words is that in Ovid's "Epistolae


s: "Si, nisi quae forma poterit te digna videri,


s: Nulla futura tua est, nulla futura tua est."


s: Lastly a turn, which I cannot say is absolutely on words--for the


s: "Cum subita incautum dementia cepit amantem;


s: Ignoscenda quidem, scirent si ignoscere Manes."


s: conclude them to be great beauties.  I might descend also to the


s: mechanic beauties of heroic verse; but we have yet no English


s: Prosodia, not so much as a tolerable dictionary or a grammar (so


s: that our language is in a manner barbarous); and what Government


s: sons.  I have perused some of the Satires which are done by other


s: And if we are not altogether so faithful to our author as our


s: predecessors Holyday and Stapleton, yet we may challenge to


s: ourselves this praise--that we shall be far more pleasing to our


s: They who will not grant me that pleasure is one of the ends of


s: poetry, but that it is only a means of compassing the only end


s: (which is instruction), must yet allow that without the means of


s: "Pulverulenta putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum."


s: Here is the difference of no less than seven syllables in a line


s: monosyllables (of which our barbarous language affords him a wild


s: cramming his ill-chosen and worse-sounding monosyllables so close


s: recompense my pains; but in Holyday and Stapleton my ears, in the


s: make us intelligible.  We make our author at least appear in a


s: poetic dress.  We have actually made him more sounding and more


s: manners of nations and ages are not to be confounded; we should


s: Thus, my lord, having troubled you with a tedious visit, the best


s: great confusion for having entertained you so long with this


s: thankful acknowledgments, prayers, and perpetual good wishes of,


s: convenient to carry on the main design--either so necessary that


s: without them the poem must be imperfect, or so convenient that no


s: cavities ought not to be filled with rubbish which is of a


s: perishable kind--destructive to the strength--but with brick or


s: poet's aim (the completing of his work), which he is driving on,


s: strength with his master, Virgil, as Virgil had before tried his


s: confess the truth) they were both ornamental, or, at best,


s: convenient parts of it, rather than of necessity arising from it.


s: Champions (who are heroes all alike), or more properly for the


s: serpent (that author of all evil) to make way for those funeral


s: If this economy must be observed in the minutest parts of an epic


s: whole body of so great a work?  I touch here but transiently,


s: without any strict method, on some few of those many rules of


s: imitating nature which Aristotle drew from Homer's "Iliads" and


s: flourished under AEschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles (for the


s: original of the stage was from the epic poem).  Narration,


s: limbs they formed their bodies; what he had contracted, they


s: have each of them the divinae particulam aurae.  They flowed from


s: year, it sufficed to teach them that their action being less, and


s: consequence, must be circumscribed in a less compass, which they


s: slow, but the cure is likely to be more perfect.  The effects of


s: tragedy, as I said, are too violent to be lasting.  If it be


s: It is one reason of Aristotle's to prove that tragedy is the more


s: because it shoots up in the compass of a night.  A chariot may be


s: proportion to their several magnitudes; and consequently the


s: quickness or slowness of their motion, and the time of their


s: characteristical virtue his poet gives him, raises first our


s: admiration; we are naturally prone to imitate what we admire, and


s: vicious--as, for example, the choler and obstinate desire of


s: enemy, nor the selling his body to his father.  We abhor these


s: virtue.  Horace paints him after Homer, and delivers him to be


s: copied on the stage with all those imperfections.  Therefore they


s: passions.  The passions, as I have said, are violent; and acute


s: that both sorts of poetry are of use for their proper ends.  The


s: I proceed from the greatness of the action to the dignity of the


s: actors--I mean, to the persons employed in both poems.  There


s: likewise tragedy will be seen to borrow from the epopee; and that


s: subject supplies.  And suppose the persons of the drama wholly


s: I might also add that many things which not only please, but are


s: real beauties in the reading, would appear absurd upon the stage;


s: over with much delight and as much instruction, and without


s: which is made sacred by his place.  I gave the unknown author his


s: approbation was given to your merit, not your titles.  Thus, like


s: some of the objections; for in this address to your lordship I


s: design not a treatise of heroic poetry, but write in a loose


s: through all this prefatory dedication.  Yet all this while I have


s: There have been but one great "Ilias" and one "AEneis" in so many


s: excellence.  After these three are entered, some Lord Chamberlain


s: "Fortunam Priami cantabo, et nobile bellum."


s: plea for his "Faerie Queen," had his action been finished, or had


s: worthies, they are not to be ranked amongst the three whom I have


s: Before I quitted the comparison betwixt epic poetry and tragedy I


s: There an author may beautify his sense by the boldness of his


s: expression, which if we understand not fully at the first we may


s: dwell upon it till we find the secret force and excellence.  That


s: I must now come closer to my present business, and not think of


s: against the manners of his hero, I shall omit the rest as mere


s: cavils of grammarians--at the worst but casual slips of a great


s: discipline in an army, and obedience in the several chiefs to the


s: resents the injury.  Both parties are faulty in the quarrel, and


s: "Quicquid delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi."


s: As the poet in the first part of the example had shown the bad


s: effects of discord, so after the reconcilement he gives the good


s: adapted to the times in which the Roman poet lived.  Had Virgil


s: flourished in the age of Ennius and addressed to Scipio, he had


s: mob), under the specious pretence of the public good and of doing


s: priesthood refining on the heathen.  Sylla, to be sure, meant no


s: more good to the Roman people than Marius before him, whatever he


s: landlord to take physic (of which be died) for the benefit of his


s: After the death of those two usurpers the commonwealth seemed to


s: each being a check to the other's growth, struck up a false


s: friendship amongst themselves and divided the government betwixt


s: what you know, after the death of Crassus Pompey found himself


s: injured, and unable to resist the faction of the nobles which was


s: been violated on the account of any private wrong.  But he


s: prevailed, and Heaven declaring for him, he became a providential


s: though Dante in his "Inferno" has put him and Cassius, and Judas


s: Iscariot betwixt them, into the great devil's mouth), the


s: "Secretosque pios; his dantem jura Catonem."


s: But to return from my long rambling; I say that Virgil having


s: them happy.  This was the moral of his divine poem; honest in the


s: himself, or that AEneas ever was in Italy, which Bochartus


s: last will and testament, was because it did him a real service as


s: Lucretius dedicates to one of that family, a branch of which


s: destroyed Corinth.  I likewise either found or formed an image to


s: thoroughly provoked, he will do himself justice, how ever dear it


s: commentators; but one poet may judge of another by himself.  The


s: humour:  they would be thought to descend from a son, I think, of


s: I have transgressed my bounds and gone farther than the moral led


s: Frenchman durst.  I have already told your lordship my opinion of


s: subjects, and deserve to be called the "Father of His Country."


s: From this consideration it is that he chose for the groundwork of


s: Priam's heir in a lineal succession, for Anchises, the hero's


s: father, was only of the second branch of the royal family, and


s: Caesar, such a title being but one degree removed from conquest:


s: Pantheus, in the second book of the "AEneis," for his hero to


s: "Sacra suosque tibi commendat Troja Penates."


s: "Postquam res Asiae, Priamique evertere gentem,


s: Immeritam visum superis."--AENEIS, I. iii., line 1.


s: Augustus, it is true, had once resolved to rebuild that city, and


s: I will pass by many less material objections for want of room to


s: answer them.  What follows next is of great importance, if the


s: eminently seen in his Augustus.  Those manners were piety to the


s: possibly be expressed in any modern language, for there it


s: comprehends not only devotion to the gods, but filial love and


s: tender affection to relations of all sorts.  As instances of this


s: sorrow for his death, of the games instituted in honour of his


s: memory, or seeking him by his command even after death in the


s: Elysian fields.  I will not mention his tenderness for his son,


s: which everywhere is visible; of his raising a tomb for Polydorus;


s: Of the other parts which compose his character as a king or as a


s: general I need say nothing; the whole "AEneis" is one continued


s: assertion good, which is but doing justice to my country--part of


s: always just, your numbers harmonious, your words chosen, your


s: example would make all precepts needless.  In the meantime that


s: contemporaries), as a principal ornament of our language; but the


s: When I speak of your lordship, it is never a digression, and


s: blamed for giving what predominant quality they pleased to their


s: "Virgil had considered that the greatest virtues of Augustus


s: valour, destitute of other virtues, cannot render a man worthy of


s: itself, with all other qualities which are good.  Can we, for


s: Contulimusque manus:  experto credite, quantus


s: In clypeum adsurgat, quo turbine torqueat hastam.


s: Si duo praeterea tales Inachias venisset ad urbes


s: Dardanus, et versis lugeret Graecia fatis.


s: Quicquid apud durae cessatum est maenia Trojae,


s: Haesit, et in decumum vestigia retulit annum.


s: Ambo animis, ambo insignes praestantibus armis:


s: I give not here my translation of these verses, though I think I


s: insinuates that Homer had done his hero wrong in giving the


s: advantage of the duel to his own countryman, though Diomedes was


s: manifestly the second champion of the Grecians; and Ulysses


s: The French translator thus proceeds:- "They who accuse AEneas for


s: errant.  If it be replied, continues Segrais, that it was not


s: difficult for him to undertake and achieve such hardy enterprises


s: them, and therefore is safe if they are so.  Who knows, says


s: (who was well versed in the Chaldean mysteries), under the


s: though not only Horace and Persius, but Augustus himself, thought


s: described lamenting their lost loves:  Briseis was taken away by


s: force from the Grecians, Creusa was lost for ever to her husband.


s: booby, was complaining to his mother when he should have revenged


s: "Extemplo AEneae solvuntur frigore membra:


s: Ingemit, et duplices tendens ad sidera palmas," &c.


s: But to this I have answered formerly that his fear was not for


s: reader?  They were threatened with a tempest, and he wept; he was


s: Thus much I have urged elsewhere in the defence of Virgil:  and


s: doubtful of his fortune is apparent by the address she made to


s: Jupiter on his behalf; to which the god makes answer in these


s: "Parce metu, Cytherea, manent immota tuorum


s: Notwithstanding which the goddess, though comforted, was not


s: assured; for even after this, through the course of the whole


s: "AEneis," she still apprehends the interest which Juno might make


s: whether he could alter fate or not; and indeed some passages in


s: Virgil would make us suspect that he was of opinion Jupiter might


s: "Si mora praesentis leti, tempusque caduco


s: Oratur juveni, meque hoc ita ponere sentis,


s: Tolle fuga Turnum, atquc instantibus eripe fatis.


s: Hactenus indulsisse vacat.  Sin altior istis


s: Sub precibus venia ulla latet, totumque moveri


s: Mutarive putas bellum, spes pascis inanis."


s: Tot nati cecidere deum; quin occidit una


s: Sarpedon, mea progenies; etiam sua Turnum


s: Fata vocant, metasque dati pervenit ad aevi."


s: doctrine of the Stoics, and he set me right, from the concurrent


s: "Tolle fuga Turnum, atque instantibus eripe fatis" -


s: himself obeyed destiny in giving her that leave.


s: I need say no more in justification of our hero's courage, and am


s: misfortunes which befell others.  They give him two contrary


s: characters--acknowledging and ungrateful, compassionate and hard-


s: "Vultis et his mecum pariter considere regnis?


s: This was an obligement never to be forgotten, and the more to be


s: considered because antecedent to her love.  That passion, it is


s: these advances, it was still in his power to have refused them.


s: party.  Segrais pleads for Virgil that no less than an absolute


s: command from Jupiter could excuse this insensibility of the hero,


s: "Fata obstant, placidasque viri Deus obstruit aures."


s: This notwithstanding, as Segrais confesses, he might have shown a


s: But let Virgil answer for himself.  He still loved her, and


s: struggled with his inclinations to obey the gods:-


s: Multa gemens, magnoque animum labefactus amore."


s: Upon the whole matter, and humanly speaking, I doubt there was a


s: sometimes in a heroic poem!  This of Mercury is plainly one; and


s: Virgil was constrained to use it here, or the honesty of his hero


s: mercy than the Bacchanals did Orpheus:  for if too much constancy


s: pass to another article of his defence on the present subject,


s: concluded for the banishment of all poets, would at least have


s: But let us consider the secret reasons which Virgil had for thus


s: framing this noble episode, wherein the whole passion of love is


s: "AEneis," yet there he has given its beginning, its progress, its


s: She was warmed with the graceful appearance of the hero; she


s: after that the consummation.  Of Venus and Juno, Jupiter and


s: Mercury, I say nothing (for they were all machining work); but


s: possession having cooled his love, as it increased hers, she soon


s: nothing availing, despairs, curses, and at last becomes her own


s: indeed our common duty.  A poet makes a farther step for


s: account, slew not Mezentius, but was slain by him; and the


s: chronicles of Italy tell us little of that Rinaldo d'Este who


s: apply this to Virgil, he thought himself engaged in honour to


s: nations.  It is true, he colours the falsehood of AEneas by an


s: express command from Jupiter to forsake the queen who had obliged


s: Thus I hope, my lord, that I have made good my promise, and


s: justified the poet, whatever becomes of the false knight.  And,


s: decreed for the future--no poet should presume to make a lady die


s: story, Virgil is the Apollo who has this dispensing power.  His


s: credit of Virgil was so great that he made this fable of his own


s: others, for our author needs not their admiration.


s: The motive that induced Virgil to coin this fable I have showed


s: already, and have also begun to show that he might make this


s: anachronism, by superseding the mechanic rules of poetry, for the


s: fiction against the order of time, when we commend Ovid and other


s: nature?  For what else are the splendid miracles of the


s: things as he finds not there, if they can be brought to embellish


s: "Nec pars ulla magis legitur de corpore toto,


s: Quam non legitimo faedere junctus amor."


s: Where, by the way, you may observe, my lord, that Ovid in those


s: writing my 'Art of Love' and my wanton elegies; yet your own poet


s: owns it a marriage by an innuendo--pulchramque uxorius urbem


s: when he leaves his lady.  "I made no such bargain with you at our


s: comfort yourself with the next stranger who happens to be


s: aright, we must pardon him for a poor blind heathen, who knew no


s: I have detained your lordship longer than I intended on this


s: Rhodius, and others who preceded him.  But in the first place, if


s: read it.  At this rate, as Solomon hath told us, there is nothing


s: imitated others which were built before it?  Walls, doors and


s: "Quid prohibetis aquas?  Usus communis aquarum est."


s: distinguish copies from originals.  The Poet who borrows nothing


s: mother was forced to appear to him and restrain his fury, which


s: their original.  They translate him, as I do Virgil; and fall as


s: short of him as I of Virgil.  There is a kind of invention in the


s: their heroes--one went home, and the other sought a home.


s: either of them were in being.  But to close the simile as I began


s: would not give the same story under other names, with the same


s: better verse."  This is like Merry-Andrew on the low rope copying


s: I will trouble your lordship but with one objection more, which I


s: misspends it on some trivial image.  He pours cold water into the


s: Similitudes (as I have said) are not for tragedy, which is all


s: violent, and where the passions are in a perpetual ferment; for


s: there they deaden, where they should animate; they are not of the


s: business; and admiration is not of so violent a nature as fear or


s: declining; when he has warmed us in his description as much as


s: Neptune composing the ocean, on which AEolus had raised a tempest


s: them from the seas; he had beaten down the billows with his mace;


s: "Ac, veluti magno in populo cum saepe coorta est


s: Seditio, saevitque animis ignobile vulgus;


s: Jamque faces, et saxa volant; furor arma ministrat;


s: Tum, pietate gravem ac meritis si forte virum quem


s: Conspexere, silent, arrectisque auribus adstant:


s: Ille regit dictis animos, et pectora mulcet:


s: Sic cunctus pelagi cecidit fragor, aequora postquam


s: Prospiciens genitor, coeloque invectus aperto


s: Flectit equos, curruque volans dat lora secundo."


s: This is the first similitude which Virgil makes in this poem, and


s: improper; for the poet could have compared it to nothing more


s: impetuous than itself; consequently he could have made no


s: illustration.  If he could have illustrated, it had been an


s: ambitious ornament out of season, and would have diverted our


s: judicious commentator on Virgil's works) has used Pontanus, his


s: greatest benefactor, of whom he is very silent, and I do not


s: action were within the year, or took up some months beyond it.


s: Indeed, the whole dispute is of no more concernment to the common


s: action of the "AEneis" began in the spring, and was not extended


s: beyond the autumn; and we have known campaigns that have begun


s: confesses farther, that AEneas left Carthage in the latter end of


s: "Quin etiam hiberno moliris sidere classem."


s: which time he places the first appearance of his hero on the sea,


s: Carthage in the latter end of summer, staying there the winter


s: following, departing thence in the very beginning of the spring,


s: making a short abode in Sicily the second time, landing in Italy,


s: remained for him but without delay to pursue his first adventure?


s: beaten soldiers on a friendly coast.  These indeed are but


s: suppositions on both sides, yet those of Segrais seem better


s: autumn; the hunting followed properly, when the heats of that


s: which the poet seems to have painted expressly in the seventh


s: Assuetae ripis volucres, et fluminis alveo,


s: complete, and may be comprehended in less compass.


s: "Pastorals," but more particularly in the "Georgics," our poet is


s: "Cum subito assurgens fluctu nimbosus Orion."


s: "Dum pelago desaevit hiems, et aquosus Orion."


s: Ilioneus calls him nimbosus, Anna, aquosus.  He is tempestuous in


s: I have yet a word or two to say of Virgil's machines, from my own


s: religion as well as in the Greek, that there were gods, and both


s: thought to derive the rites of their religion than from the


s: Grecians, because they thought themselves descended from them).


s: Each of those gods had his proper office, and the chief of them


s: Create new ministers; he must take what he found in his religion.


s: watching, and secure of a quiet passage by his observation of the


s: "O nimium coelo et pelago confise sereno,


s: Nudus in ignota, Palinure, jacebis arena."


s: mistress kills Aruns.  The next is in the twelfth AEneid, where


s: Virgil had not life enough to correct his work, though he had


s: should be burned.  As for the death of Aruns, who was shot by a


s: goddess, the machine was not altogether so outrageous as the


s: wounding Mars and Venus by the sword of Diomede.  Two divinities,


s: "Nec deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus" -


s: that rule is to be applied to the theatre, of which he is then


s: speaking, and means no more than this--that when the knot of the


s: play is to be untied, and no other way is left for making the


s: sword; for that of Turnus was not his own (which was forged by


s: Terret, ait; dii me terrent, et Jupiter hostis."


s: In answer to which, I say that this machine is one of those which


s: "Jupiter ipse duas aequota examine lances


s: Sustinet, et fata imponit diversa duorum;


s: Quem damnet labor, et quo vergat pondere letum."


s: For I have taken these words Quem damnet labor in the sense which


s: genius as Milton; for I am much mistaken if he alludes not to the


s: nymph beforehand that her brother was to fight


s: "Imparibus fatis; nec diis, nec viribus aequis;"


s: I doubt not but the adverb solum is to be understood ("It is not


s: Turnus by the sword; whereas Turnus had manifestly declined the


s: consented to it; for it is plain he knew her by these words:-


s: "O soror, et dudum agnovi, cum prima per artem


s: Faedera turbasti, teque haec in bella dedisti;


s: I have dwelt so long on this subject that I must contract what I


s: lordship my opinion that those two friends had consulted each


s: other's judgment wherein they should endeavour to excel; and they


s: "Ornari res ipsa negat, contenta doceri" -


s: and therefore, as he himself professes, are sermoni propriora


s: (nearer prose than verse).  But Virgil, who never attempted the


s: lyric verse, is everywhere elegant, sweet, and flowing in his


s: endeavoured to follow the example of my master, and am the first


s: Englishman perhaps who made it his design to copy him in his


s: language which is overstocked with consonants.  Such is not the


s: Latin where the vowels and consonants are mixed in proportion to


s: each other; yet Virgil judged the vowels to have somewhat of an


s: that his versification cannot so properly be called sweet as


s: luscious.  The Italians are forced upon it once or twice in every


s: advantage, that they may go the farther.  He must also know the


s: translation of his works, I had four years more allowed me to


s: correct my errors, that I might make my version somewhat more


s: many you will make allowances, with Horace:-


s: "Si plura nitent in carmine, non ego paucis


s: Offendar maculis, quas aut incuria fudit,


s: leave two vowels opening on each other, as in that verse of the


s: "Et succus pecori, et lac subducitur agnis."


s: But nobis non licet esse tam disertis--at least, if we study to


s: refine our numbers.  I have long had by me the materials of an


s: English "Prosodia," containing all the mechanical rules of


s: versification, wherein I have treated with some exactness of the


s: Alexandrines.  But as Virgil propounds a riddle which he leaves


s: "Dic quibus in terris, inscripti nomina regum


s: Nascantur flores, et Phyllida solus habeto" -


s: "Though deep, yet clear; though gentle, yet not dull;


s: Strong without rage; without o'erflowing, full" -


s: quantities is difficult to be cured in any modern language; since


s: observed those rules myself which I can teach others; since I


s: liberty to make my thoughts public.  In the meantime, that I may


s: often employed it in his odes.  It adds a certain majesty to the


s: verse when it is used with judgment, and stops the sense from


s: language is not strong with sinews, like our English; it has the


s: trifling in comparison of the English--more proper for sonnets,


s: those turns, like Ovid, but much more sparing of them in his


s: "AEneis" than in his Pastorals and Georgics.


s: "Ignoscenda quidem, scirent si ignoscere manes."


s: That turn is beautiful indeed; but he employs it in the story of


s: Orpheus and Eurydice, not in his great poem.  I have used that


s: "Semivirumque bovem, semibovemque virum."


s: banishment of Ovid was a blot in his escutcheon; yet he was only


s: banished, and who knows but his crime was capital?  And then his


s: exile was a favour.  Ariosto, who, with all his faults, must be


s: little speed.  I will not make a digression here, though I am


s: strangely tempted to it, but will only say that he who can write


s: I return to our Italian translator of the "AEneis;" he is a foot-


s: gods cannot control destiny.  The verse follows -


s: "Sic ait; atque oculos Rutulorum rejicit arvis" -


s: What I have said, though it has the face of arrogance, yet is


s: burden light, let them attempt the fourth, sixth, or eighth


s: manners, his judicious management of the figures, the sober


s: judges, and would stand or fall by them alone.  Segrais has


s: represent them on a mountebank's stage, or to be masters of the


s: describes an ill habit of body, full of humours, and swelled with


s: governor in their travels, and many of these three sorts are the


s: I have already named two sorts of judges, but Virgil wrote for


s: reader; the more he studies it, the more it grows upon him, every


s: "AEneis" and Marini's "Adone."  And if I may be allowed to change


s: "Mobilitate viget, viresque acquirit eundo."


s: Such a sort of reputation is my aim, though in a far inferior


s: "Arms, and the man I sing, who forced by Fate," &c. -


s: but a much better instance may be given from the last line of


s: Manilius, made English by our learned and judicious Mr. Creech -


s: "Nor could the world have borne so fierce a flame" -


s: where the many liquid consonants are placed so artfully that they


s: remember, taxes Balzac for placing twenty monosyllables in file


s: added of my own.  Yet the omissions, I hope, are but of


s: language before they brought it to perfection.  They rejected all


s: English as he would himself have spoken if he had been born in


s: magnificence of his style.  But I shall have occasion to speak


s: farther on this subject before I end the preface.


s: that the affected purity of the French has unsinewed their heroic


s: excels all other poets; but he knows how far to extend his


s: franchises, and advances to the verge without venturing a foot


s: times he was forced to travel at an age when, instead of learning


s: Latin, excepting only Virgil:  and there is no question but he


s: thought he had Virgil's authority for that licence.  But I am


s: confident our poet never meant to leave him or any other such a


s: perfection at which he aimed, that we know how hard a sentence he


s: For Ascanius must have been born some years before the burning of


s: enthusiasm seizing him while he was reading to Augustus:-


s: "Misenum AEolidem, quo non praestantior alter


s: another book?  I had certainly been reduced to pay the public in


s: hammered money for want of milled; that is, in the same old words


s: observed, in some Latin words, which is wholly lost in any modern


s: If I cannot copy his harmonious numbers, how shall I imitate his


s: noble flights, where his thoughts and words are equally sublime?


s: "Aude, hospes, contemnere opes, et te quoque dignum


s: Lay by Virgil, I beseech your lordship and all my better sort of


s: them from a foreign country?  I carry not out the treasure of the


s: myself; and if the public approves of it, the bill passes.  But


s: Besides this help, which was not inconsiderable, Mr. Congreve has


s: excellent young man has shown me many faults, which I have


s: Two other worthy friends of mine, who desire to have their names


s: That your lordship may see I was in earnest when I premised to


s: I have emitted the four preliminary lines of the first AEneid,


s: substantive arva in the latter end of the third; which keeps his


s: "Arma, virumque cano, Trojae qui primus ab oris," -


s: Scarce a word without an r, and the vowels for the greater part


s: sonorous.  The prefacer began with Ille ego, which he was


s: beginning of this work, as he did to the two former, in the last


s: lines of the fourth Georgic.  I will not reply otherwise to this,


s: others, which we know are his, because no poet but he alone could


s: amidst a thousand courtiers.  It was a superfluous office, and


s: "I, who before, with shepherds in the groves,


s: Sung to my oaten pipe their rural loves,


s: And issuing thence, compelled the neighb'ring field


s: A plenteous crop of rising corn to yield;


s: Manured the glebe, and stocked the fruitful plain


s: (A poem grateful to the greedy swain)," &c.


s: place; but I have done great wrong to Virgil in the whole


s: translation.  Want of time, the inferiority of our language, the


s: undertaking.  What avails it me to acknowledge freely that I have


s: Be pleased, my lord, to accept with your wonted goodness this


s: unworthy present which I make you.  I have taken off one trouble


s: cannot be concealed you will please to connive at, though in the


s: public, I may expose your judgment to be censured.  As for my own


s: lordship has any, they will not dare to arraign you for want of


s: addressed to a poet and a critic of the first magnitude, I had


s: myself been taxed for want of judgment, and shamed my patron for


s: want of understanding.  But neither will you, my lord, so soon be


s: That I may pursue the allegory with a short prayer after a long


s: cannot be wished more earnestly by any man than by


s: misconstrued in all I write; and my judges, if they are not very


s: equitable, already prejudiced against me by the lying character


s: which has been given them of my morals.  Yet steady to my


s: especially the last, in all our poets; even in those who being


s: One is for raking in Chaucer (our English Ennius) for antiquated


s: this redemption any more than the crowds of men who daily die, or


s: Neither am I ignorant but I may justly be condemned for many of


s: these faults of which I have too liberally arraigned others:


s: gratitude is due to such who were willing to oblige me.  But how


s: liberality [was] as much unexpected as it was undeserved.  The


s: might justly be condemned for the most unthankful of mankind if I


s: Neither am I to forget the noble present which was made me by


s: editions of Virgil and all the commentaries of those editions in


s: Latin, amongst which I could not but prefer the Dauphin's as the


s: Being invited by that worthy gentleman, Sir William Bowyer, to


s: Denham Court, I translated the first Georgic at his house and the


s: surpass the rest; and own the satisfaction I received in his


s: Georgics, and six first AEneids from my bookseller, and has read


s: them in the country together with my friend.  This noble person


s: access, and desire of obliging those who stand in need of his


s: protection are known to all who have approached him, and to me in


s: Georgic (which he calls "The Power of Love") has put me to


s: sufficient pains to make my own not inferior to his; as my Lord


s: passages than proofs that so he meant.  The unlearned may have


s: recourse to any poetical dictionary in English for the names of


s: persons, places, or fables, which the learned need not, but that


s: little which I say is either new or necessary, and the first of


s: these qualifications never fails to invite a reader, if not to


s: Mary's Lamb                  Sarah Josepha Hale


s: Baby's Breakfast             Emilie Poulsson


s: Sephestia's Lullaby          Robert Greene


s: Rebecca's After-Thought      Elizabeth Turner


s: A Little Page's Song         William Alexander Percy


s: The World's Music            Gabriel Setoun


s: The Wind's Song              Gabriel Setoun


s: Child's Song in Spring       Edith Nesbit


s: Answer to a Child's Question Samuel Taylor Coleridge


s: The Cricket's Story          Emma Huntington Nason


s: Nurse's Song                 William Blake


s: October's Party              George Cooper


s: The Peddler's Caravan        William Brighty Rands


s: See'n Things                 Eugene Field


s: The Captain's Daughter       James Thomas Fields


s: Mary's Baby                  Shaemas OSheel


s: A Child's Song of Christmas  Marjorie L. C. Pickthall


s: A Visit from St. Nicholas    Clement Clarke Moore


s: The Children's Hour          Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


s: A Child's Laughter           Algernon Charles Swinburne


s: Letty's Globe                Charles Tennyson Turner


s: Dove's Nest                  Joseph Russell Taylor


s: The Child's Heritage         John G. Neihardt


s: Children's Song              Ford Madox Hueffer


s: In the Children's Hospital   Alfred Tennyson


s: The Mother's Prayer          Dora Sigerson Shorter


s: For Charlie's Sake           John Williamson Palmer


s: The First Snow-fall          James Russell Lowell


s: The Child's Wish Granted     George Parsons Lathrop


s: Sonnets from "Mimma Bella"   Eugene Lee-Hamilton


s: Somebody's Child             Louise Chandler Moulton


s: To-morrow                    John Collins


s: The Old Man's Comforts       Robert Southey


s: The Year's End               Timothy Cole


s: An Old Man's Song            Richard Le Gallienne


s: Blossom where there blows"  Giles Fletcher


s: in My bosom"                Thomas Lodge


s: full of woes"               Samuel Daniel


s: Love's Perjuries             William Shakespeare


s: Love's Emblems               John Fletcher


s: Love's Horoscope             Richard Crashaw


s: something of the sea"       Charles Sedley


s: love is bought"             Isaac Pocock


s: winning"                    Thomas Campbell


s: ever"                       George Gordon Byron


s: A Woman's Shortcomings       Elizabeth Barrett Browning


s: "Love hath a Language"       Helen Selina Sheridan


s: ground"                     Alfred Tennyson


s: "When will Love Come"        Pakenham Beatty


s: Song of Eros from "Agathon"  George Edward Woodberry


s: Song, "Take it, love"        Richard Le Gallienne


s: the house of love"          Alfred Noyes


s: Upon Julia's Clothes         Robert Herrick


s: Jove bestows"               Thomas Carew


s: others Prize"               Mark Akenside


s: The Lover's Choice           Thomas Bedingfield


s: none of Beauty's daughters" George Gordon Byron


s: "Flowers I would Bring"      Aubrey Thomas de Vere


s: outward view"               Hartley Coleridge


s: lovely hair"                Charles Swain


s: not love her"               Robert Browning


s: The Henchman                 John Green1eaf Whittier


s: "Girl of the Red Mouth"      Martin MacDermott


s: The Lover's Song             Edward Rowland Sill


s: Ballade of My Lady's Beauty  Joyce Kilmer


s: loosened hair"              Bliss Carman


s: happy tread"                William Watson


s: said, 'is King of Kings'"   Rupert Brooke


s: Song, "How do I love you"    Irene Rutherford McLeod


s: Of Corinna's Singing         Thomas Campion


s: Men's are"                  Thomas Campion


s: your conquering eyes"       George Etherege


s: Long He would Love Her"     George Etherege


s: I'll Never Love Thee More    James Graham


s: To Althea, from Prison       Richard Lovelace


s: A Deposition from Beauty     Thomas Stanley


s: agree at last"              John Sheffield


s: "False though She be"        William Congreve


s: and over the earth"         James Thomson


s: with Me"                    Thomas Percy


s: Cavalier's Song              Robert Cunninghame-Graham


s: falsehood framed"           Richard Brinsley Sheridan


s: "Take back the Virgin Page"  Thomas Moore


s: The Wandering Knight's Song  John Gibson Lockhart


s: highroad"                   Dana Burnett


s: The Lady's "Yes"             Elizabeth Barrett Browning


s: daughter"                   Alfred Tennyson


s: and I can tarry"            Robert Browning


s: Kate Temple's Song           Mortimer Collins


s: were Gone"                  William Ernest Henley


s: To-day"                     John Bennett


s: To-day                       Benjamin R. C. Low


s: The Serf's Secret            William Vaughn Moody


s: Song, "Song is so old"       Hermann Hagedorn


s: it said"                    Walter Savage Landor


s: Love's Philosophy            Percy Bysshe Shelley


s: first"                      Robert Browning


s: in the land, my love"       Joaquin Miller


s: Sabina wakes"               William Congreve


s: "Come into the Garden, Maud" Alfred Tennyson


s: A Lover's Lullaby            George Gascoigne


s: secure his Treasure"        Matthew Prior


s: "Wouldn't You Like to Know"  John Godfrey Saxe


s: "Sing Heigh-ho"              Charles Kingsley


s: Don't                        James Jeffrey Roche


s: Time's Revenge               Walter Learned


s: back my Heart"              John Suckling


s: Muckle-Mou'd Meg             James Ballantine


s: whose hearts are free"      George Etherege


s: The Lover's Resolution       George Wither


s: I love"                     William Browne


s: fond Lover"                 John Suckling


s: luster see"                 Richard Brinsley Sheridan


s: Love's Spite                 Aubrey Thomas de Vere


s: "When I was One-and-Twenty"  Alfred Edward Housman


s: Love's Young Dream           Thomas Moore


s: "We'll go no More a Roving"  George Gordon Byron


s: amid the sounds dispersing" Aubrey Thomas de Vere


s: Field-path"                 Charles Swain


s: A Woman's Last Word          Robert Browning


s: Windle-straws                Edward Dowden


s: The Chess-board              Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton


s: white rapture"              Charles Hanson Towne


s: The Nymph's Song to Hylas    William Morris


s: garden, yea"                Arthur O'Shaughnessy


s: without the rose"           Arthur O'Shaughnessy


s: whose sacred wine"          Edward Coote Pinkney


s: A Woman's Thought            Richard Watson Gilder


s: Lies"                       Irene Rutherford McLeod


s: Love's Prisoner              Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer


s: "I heard a Soldier"          Herbert Trench


s: where are you roaming"      William Shakespeare


s: at land"                    Charles Sackville


s: parting lover"              Matthew Prior


s: rising morn"                Allan Ramsay


s: "My Nannie's Awa"            Robert Burns


s: The Sea-lands                Orrick Johns


s: The Palm-tree and the Pine   Richard Monckton Milnes


s: The Flower's Name            Robert Browning


s: A song of Parting            H. C. Compton Mackenzie


s: and fair the day"           William Morris


s: absence Conquers love"      Frederick William Thomas


s: the sunlight strong"        Richard Le Gallienne


s: Love's Rosary                Alfred Noyes


s: array"                      William Blake


s: Porphyria's Lover            Robert Browning


s: Affaire d'Amour              Margaret Deland


s: The Lass that Died of Love   Richard Middleton


s: Of Joan's Youth              Louise Imogen Guiney


s: There's Wisdom in Women      Rupert Brooke


s: Maid's Tragedy"             John Fletcher


s: from "Aella"                Thomas Chatterton


s: His dying child"            Thomas Campbell


s: The Maid's Lament            Walter Savage Landor


s: "She is Far from the Land"   Thomas Moore


s: Beauty's Bloom"             George Gordon Byron


s: Rosalind's Scroll            Elizabeth Barrett Browning


s: The King of Denmark's Ride   Caroline E. S. Norton


s: "O that 'Twere Possible"     Alfred Tennyson


s: rocky dells"                Emily Bronte


s: dearest"                    Christina Georgina Rossetti


s: Love's Resurrection Day      Louise Chandler Moulton


s: Janette's Hair               Charles Graham Halpine


s: waited"                     Ernest Dowson


s: The King's Ballad            Joyce Kilmer


s: Her Dwelling-place           Ada Foster Murray


s: The Wife from Fairyland      Richard Le Gallienne


s: garden"                     Maurice Baring


s: "My True-love Hath My Heart" Philip Sidney


s: Song, "O sweet delight"      Thomas Campion


s: I sat against her feet"     Algernon Charles Swinburne


s: buds unfold"                Florence Earle Coates


s: lover's breast"             George Meredith


s: Love among the Ruins         Robert Browning


s: Earl Mertoun's Song          Robert Browning


s: Mary Beaton's Song           Algernon Charles Swinburne


s: A Woman's Question           Adelaide Anne Procter


s: low song of night"          Hildegarde Hawthorne


s: medlar"                     Theophile Marzials


s: The Newly-wedded             Winthrop Mackworth Praed


s: Love's Calendar              William Bell Scott


s: The Land of Heart's Desire   Emily Huntington Miller


s: The Irish Wife               Thomas D'Arcy McGee


s: The Shepherd's Wife's Song   Robert Greene


s: "Truth doth Truth Deserve"   Philip Sidney


s: A Wife's Song                William Cox Bennett


s: The Sailor's Wife            William Julius Mickle


s: An Old Man's Idyl            Richard Realf


s: The Poet's Song to his Wife  Bryan Waller Procter


s: Sonnets from "Amoretti"      Edmund Spenser


s: Sonnets from "To Delia"      Samuel Daniel


s: Sonnets from "Idea"          Michael Drayton


s: Sonnets from "Diana"         Henry Constable


s: upon the Air"               Louise Chandler Moulton


s: Sonnets after the Italian    Richard Watson Gilder


s: Stanzas from "Modern Love"   George Meredith


s: Sonnets from "Thysia"        Morton Luce


s: God's World                  Edna St. Vincent Millay