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Now Night descending, the proud scene was o'er,
But liv'd in Settle's numbers one day more.
90
Now may'rs and shrieves all hush'd and satiate lay,
Yet eat, in dreams, the custard of the day;
While pensive poets painful vigils keep,
Sleepless themselves to give their readers sleep.
Much to the mindful Queen the feast recalls 95
What City swans once sung within the walls;
Much she revolves their arts, their ancient praise,
And sure succession down from Heywood's days.
She saw, with joy, the line immortal run,
Each sire imprest, and glaring in his son:
So watchful Bruin forms, with plastic care,
Each growing lump, and brings it to a bear.
She saw old Pryn in restless Daniel shine,
And Eusden eke out Blackmore's endless line;
She saw slow Philips creep like Tate's poor page,
And all the mighty mad in Dennis rage.

100

106

REMARKS.

v.90. But liv'd in Settle's numbers one day more.] Settle was poet to the City of London. His office was to compose yearly Panegyrics upon the Lord Mayors, and verses to be spoken in the Pageants; but that part of the shows being at length frugally abolished, the employment of City-poet ceased; so that upon Settle's demise there was no successor to that place.

v. 98. John Heywood.] Whose Interludes were printed in the time of Henry VIII.

v. 103.......old Pryn in restless Daniel.] The first edition had it,

She saw in Norton all his father shine. a great mistake! for Daniel de Foe had parts, but Norton de Foe was a wretched writer, and never attempted poetry. Much more justly is Daniel himself made successor to W. Pryn, both of whom wrote verses as well as politics; as appears by the poem De

In each she marks her image full exprest, But chief in Bayes's monster-breeding breast; Bayes, form'd by Nature's Stage and Town to bless, And act, and be, a coxcomb with success.

REMARKS.

110

Jure Divino, &c. of De Foe, and by these lines in Cowley's Miscellanies, on the other:

....One lately did not fear

(Without the Muses' leave) to plant verse here.
But it produc'd such base, rough, crabbed, hedge-
Rymes, as e'en set the hearer's ears on edge;
Written by William Pryn Esquire, the
Year of our Lord six hundred thirty-three.
Brave Jersy Muse! and he's, for his high style,
Call'd to this day the Homer of the Isle.'

And both these authors had a resemblance in their fates as well as their writings, having been alike sentenced to the pillory.

v. 104. And Eusden eke out, &c.] Laurence Eusden, Peetlaureate. Mr. Jacob gives a catalogue of some few only of his works, which are very numerous. Mr. Cooke, in his Battle of Poets, saith of him,

Eusden, a laurel'd bard, by Fortune rais'd,

By very few was read, by fewer prais'd.'

v. 105. Like Tate's poor page ] Nahum Tate was Poet-lau reate, a cold writer, of no invention; but sometimes translated tolerably when befriended by Mr. Dryden. In his second part of Absalom and Ahitophel are above two hundred admirable lines together of that great hand, which strongly shine through the insipidity of the rest. Something parallel may be observed of another author here mentioned.

VARIATIONS.

. 108. But chief in Bayes's, &c.] In the former edition thus:

But chief in Tibbald's monster-breeding breast:
Sees gods with dæmons in strange league engage,
And earth and heav'n, and hell her battles wage.
She ey'd the bard, where supperless he sate,
And pin'd, unconscious of his rising fate;
Studious he sate with all his books around,
Sinking from thought to thought; &c.....

115

Dulness with transport eyes the lively Dunce,
Remembring she herself was Pertness once.
Now (Shame to Fortune !) an ill run at play
Blank'd his bold visage, and a thin third day:
Swearing and supperless the hero sate,
Blasphem'd his gods, the dice, and damn'd his fate;
Then gnaw'd his pen, then dasht it on the ground,
Sinking from thought to thought, a vast profound!
Plung'd for his sense, but found no bottom there,
Yet wrote and flounder'd on in mere despair. 120
Round him much embryo, much abortion lay,
Much future ode, and abdicated play;

REMARKS.

v. 109. Bayes, form'd by Nature, &c.] It is hoped the Poet here hath done full justice to his Hero's character, which it were a great mistake to imagine was wholly sunk in stupidity: he is allowed to have supported it with a wonderful mixture of viva

VARIATIONS.

r. 121. Round him much embryo, &c.] In the former editions thus:

He roll'd his eyes that witness'd huge dismay,
Where yet unpawn'd, much learned lumber lay;
Volumes, whose size the space exactly fill'd,
Or which fond authors were so good to gild,
Or where, by sculpture made for ever known,
The page admires new beauties not its own.
Here swells the shelf, &c.

IMITATIONS.

Var. He roll'd his eyes that witness'd huge dismay.] ......round he throws his eyes,

'That witness'd huge affliction and dismay."

Milt. Book I.

The progress of a bad poet in his thoughts, being (like the progress of the Devil in Milton) through a chaos, might probably _suggest this imitation.

Nonsense precipitate, like running lead,

That slipt through cracks and zigzags of the head;
All that on Folly Frenzy could beget,

Fruits of dull heat, and sooterkins of wit.
Next, o'er his books his eyes began to roll,
In pleasing memory of all he stole ;

125

How here he sip'd, how there he plunder'd snug,
And suck'd all o'er like an industrious bug. 130
Here lay poor Fletcher's half-eat scenes, and here
The frippery of crucify'd Moliere ;
There hapless Shakespeare, yet of Tibbald sore,
Wish'd he had blotted for himself before.
The rest on outside merit but presume,
Or serve (like other fools) to fill a room;
Such with their shelves as due proportion hold,
Or their fond parents dress'd in red and gold;
Or where the pictures for the page atone,

135

And Quarles is sav'd by beauties not his own. 140

REMARKS.

city. This character is heightened according to his own desire, in a letter he wrote to our Author: Pert and dull at least you might have allowed me. What! am I only to be dull, and dull 'still, and again, and for ever? He then solemnly appealed to his own conscience, that he could not think himself so, or believe that our Poet did; but that he spoke worse of him than he could possibly think; and concluded it must be merely to shew his wit, or for some profit or lucre to himself.' Life of C.C. ch. vii. and Letter to Mr. P. p. 15, 40, 53. And to shew his claim to what the Poet was so unwilling to allow him, of being pert as well as dull, he declares he will have the last word; which occasioned the following epigram:

Quoth Cibber to Pope, though in verse you foreclose,
I'll have the last word; for, by G..... I'll write prose.
Poor Colly thy reas'ning is none of the strongest,
For know, the last word is the word that lasts longest.

Here swells the shelf with Ogilby the Great;
There, stamp'd with arms, Newcastle shines com-
Here all his suff'ring brotherhood retire, {plete:
And 'scape the martyrdom of jakes and fire :
A Gothic library! of Greece and Rome 145
Well purg'd, and worthy Settle, Banks, and Broome.

REMARKS.

v. 141. Ogilby the Great.] John Ogilby was one who, from a 'late initiation into literature, made such a progress as might ⚫ well style him the prodigy of his time! sending into the world 'so many large volumes! his translations of Homer and Virgil done to the life, and with such excellent sculptures: and (what added great grace to his works) he printed them all on special 'good paper, and in a very good letter,' Winstanley, Lives of poets.

Win

v. 142. There, stamp'd with arms, Newcastle shines complete.) "The Dutchess of Newcastle was one who busied herself in the ravishing delights of poetry; leaving to posterity in 6 print three ample volumes of her studious endeavors.' stanley, ibid. Langbaine reckons up eight folios of her Grace's, which were usually adorned with gilded covers, and had her coat of arms upon them.

v. 146.....worthy Settle, Banks and Broome.] The Poet has mentioned these three authors in particular, as they are parallel to our hero in his three capacities: 1. Settle was his brother Laureate, only indeed upon half-pay, for the City instead of the Court; but equally famous for unintelligible flights in his poems on public occasions, such as shows, birth-days, &c. 2 Banks was his rival in tragedy, (though more successful,) in one of his tragedies, the Earl of Essex, which is yet alive: Anna Boleyn, the Queen of Scots, and Cyrus the Great, are dead and gone. These he dressed in a sort of beggar's velvet, or a happy mixture of the thick fustian and thin prosaic; exactly imitated in Parolla and Isidora, Cæsar in Egypt, and the heroic Daughter. 3. Broome

1

IMITATIONS.

. 140. In the former edit.

The page admires new beauties not its own.]
Miraturque novas frondes et non sua poma.'

Virg. Georg. II.

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