711

Athens. Capuchin Convent, March 12th, 1811.
WHO would not laugh, if Lawrence, hired to grace
His costly canvas with each flatter'd face,
Abused his art, till Nature, with a blush,
Saw cits grow centaurs underneath his brush?
Or, should some limner join, for show or sale,

A maid of honour to a mermaid's tail?
Or low* Dubost (as once the world has seen)
Degrade God's creatures in his graphic spleen?
Not all that forced politeness, which defends '
Fools in their faults, could gag his grinning friends.
Believe' me, Moschus, like that picture seems
The book which, sillier than a sick man's dreams,
Displays a crowd of figures incomplete,
Poetic nightmares, without head or feet.

Poets and painters, as all artists know,
May shoot a little with a lengthen'd bow;
We claim this mutual mercy for our task,
And grant in turn the pardon which we ask;
But make not monsters spring from gentle dams-
Birds breed not vipers, tigers nurse not lambs.

A labour'd, long exordium, sometimes tends
(Like patriot speeches) but to paltry ends:
And nonsense in a lofty note goes down,
As pertness passes with a legal gown:
Thus many a bard describes in pompous strain
The clear brook babbling through the goodly plain;

Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam
Jungere si velit, et varias inducere plumas,
Undique collatis membris, ut turpiter atrum
Desinat in piscem mulier formosa superne;
Spectatum admissi risum teneatis, amici?
Credite, Pisones, iste tabulæ fore librum -
Persimilem, cujus, velut ægri somnia, vanæ
Fingentur species, ut nec pes, nec caput uni
Reddatur formæ. Pictoribus atque poetis
Quidlibet audendi semper fuit æqua potestas.
Scimus, et hanc veniam petimusque damusque vicis.
sim:

Sed non ut placidis coëant immitia; non ut
Serpentes avibus geminentur, tigribus agni.
Incœptis gravibus plerumque et magna professi
Purpureus, late qui splendeat, unus et alter

* In an English newspaper, which finds its way abroad wherever there are Englishmen, I read an account of this dirty dauber's caricature of Mr. H, and the consequent action, &c. The circumstance is probably too well known to require further comment.

The groves of Granta, and her gothic halls,
King's Coll., Cam's stream, stain'd windows, and ɔid
walls:

Or, in advent'rous numbers, neatly aims
To paint a rainbow, or the river Thames.t

You sketch a tree, and so perhaps may shine-
But daub a shipwreck like an alehouse sign;
You plan a vase-it dwindles to a pot;
Then glide down Grub-street-fasting and forgot;
Laugh'd into Lethe by some quaint review,
Whose wit is never troublesome till-true.
In fine, to whatsoever you aspire,
Let it at least be simple and entire.

The greater portion of the rhyming tribe
(Give ear, my friend, for thou hast been a scribe)
Are led astray by some peculiar lure.

I labour to be brief-become obscure;

One falls while following elegance too fast;
Another soars, inflated with bombast;
Too low a third crawls on, afraid to fly,
He spins his subject to satiety;

Absurdly varying, he at last engraves

Fish in the woods, and boars beneath the waves!

Unless your care's exact, your judgment nice,
The flight from folly leads but into vice;
None are complete, all wanting in some part,
Like certain tailors, limited in art.

Assuiter pannus; cum lucus et ara Dianæ,

Et properantis aquæ per amœnos ambitus agros,
Aut flumen Rhenum, aut pluvius describitur arcur
Sed nunc non erat his locus; et fortasse cupressum
Scis simulare: quid hoc, si fractis enatat exspes
Navibus, ære dato qui pingitur? ampora cœpit
Institui: currente rotâ cur urceus exit?
Denique sit quod vis, simplex duntaxat et unum
Maxima pars vatum, pater, et juvenes patre dign
Decipimur specie recti. Brevis esse laboro,
Obscurus fio: sectantem levia, nervi
Deficiunt animique: professus grandia, turget:
Serpit humi, tutus nimium, timidusque proceline ›
Qui variare cupit rem prodigialiter unam,
Delphinum sylvis appingit fluctibus aprum.

In vitium ducit culpæ fuga, si caret arte.
Æmilium circa ludum faber unus et ungues
Exprimet, et molies imitabitur ære capillos,

"Where pure description held the place of series ?

For galligaskins Slowshears is your man,
But. coats must claim another artisan.*
Now this to me, I own, seems much the same
As Vulcan s feet to bear Apollo's frame;
Or, with a fair complexion, to expose
Black eyes, black ringlets, but-a bottle nose!

Dear authors! suit your topics to your strength,
And ponder well your subject, and its length;
Nor lift your load, before you're quite aware
What weight your shoulders will, or will not, bear.
But lucid Order, and Wit's siren voice,
Await the poet, skilful in his choice;
With native eloquence he soars along,
Grace in his thoughts, and music in his song.
Let judgment teach him wisely to combine
With future parts the now omitted line;
This shall the author choose, or that reject,
Precise in style, and cautious to select.
Nor slight applause will candid pens afford
To him who furnishes a wanting word.
Then fear not if 'tis needful to produce
Some term unknown, or obsolete in use,
As †Pitt has furnish'd us a word`or two,
Which lexicographers declined to do ;).
So you indeed, with care,-(but be content
To take this license rarely)-may invent.
New words find credit in these latter days,
If neatly grafted on a Gallic phrase.
What Chaucer, Spenser did, we scarce refuse
To Dryden's or to Pope's maturer muse.
If you can add a little, say why not,
As well as William Pitt and Walter Scott?
Since they, by force of rhyme and force of lungs,
Enrich'd our Island's ill-united tongues;
'Tis then-and shall be-lawful to present
Reform in writing, as in parliament.

As forests shed their foliage by degrees,
So fade expressions which in season please.

Infelix operis summa, quia ponere totum
Nesciet. Hunc ego me, si quid componere curem.
Non magis esse velim, quam pravo vivere naso,
Spectandum nigris oculis nigroque capillo.

Sumite materiem vestris, qui scribitis, equam
Viribus; et versate diu quid ferre recusent
Quid valeant humeri. Cui lecta potentererit res,
Nec facundia deseret hunc nec lucidus ordo.

Ordinis hæc virtus erit et venus, aut ego fallor, Ut jam nunc dicat, jam nunc debentia dici Pleraque differat, et præsens in tempus omittat; Hoc amet, hoc spernat promissi carminis auctor. In verbis etiam tenuis cautusque serendis: Dixeris egregie, notum si callida verbum Reddiderit junctura novum. Si forte necesse est Indiciis monstrare recentibus abdita rerum, Fingere cinctutis non exaudita Cethegis Continget; dabiturque licentia sumpta pudenter; Et nova factaque nuper habebunt verba fidem, si Græco fonte cadant, parce detorta. Quid autem Cæcilio Plautoque dabit Romanus, ademptum Virgilio Varioque? ego cur, acquirere pauca Si possum, invideor; cum lingua Catonis et Enni Sermonein patrium ditaverit, et nova rerum Nomina protulerit? Licuit, semperque licebit, Signatum præsente nota producere nomen.

Út silvæ foliis pronos mutantur in annos; Prima cadunt: ita verborum vetus interit ætas, Et juvenum ritu florent modo nata, vigentque. Debemur morti nos nostraque: sive receptus

And we and ours, alas! are due to fate,
And works and words but dwindle to a date.
Though as a monarch nods, and commerce calls,
Impetuous rivers stagnate in canals;
Though swamps subdued, and marshes drain'd, sustain
The heavy ploughshare and the yellow grain,
And rising ports along the busy shore
Protect the vessel from old ocean's roar,
All, all must perish; but, surviving last,
The love of letters half preserves the past.
True, some decay, yet not a few revive ;
Though those shall sink, which now appear to thrive
As custom arbitrates, whose shifting sway
Our life and language must alike obey.

The immortal wars which gods and angels wage,
Are they not shown in Milton's sacred page?
His strain will teach what numbers best belong
To themes celestial told in epic song.

The slow, sad stanza will correctly paint
The lover's anguish or the friend's complaint.
But which deserves the laurel, rhyme or blank?
Which holds on Helicon the higher rank?
Let squabbling critics by themselves dispute
This point, as puzzling as a Chancery suit.

Satiric rhyme first sprang from selfish spleen.
You doubt-see Dryden, Pope, St. Patrick's dean.§
Blank verse is now, with one consent, allied
To Tragedy, and rarely quits her side.
Though mad Almanzor rhymed in Dryden's days,
No sing-song hero rants in modern plays;
While modest Comedy her verse foregoes
For jest and pun in very middling prose.
Not that our Bens or Beaumonts show the worse,
Or lose one point, because they wrote in verse.
But so Thalia pleases to appear,

Poor virgin! damn'd some twenty times a year!
Whate'er the scene, let this advice have weight
Adapt your language to your hero's state.

Terra Neptunus classes aquilonibus arcet,
Regis opus; sterilisve diu palus, aptaque remis
Vicinas urbes alit, et grave sentit aratrum:
Seu cursum mutavit iniquum frugibus amnis,
Doctus iter melius; mortalia facta peribunt:
Nedum sermonum stet honos, et gratia vivax.
Multa renascentur, quæ jam cecidere; cadentque,
Quæ nunc sunt in honore vocabula, si volet usus;
Quem penes arbitrium est, et jus, et norma loquendi
Res gestæ regumque ducumque et tristia bella,
Quo scribi possent numero monstravit Homerus.
Versibus impariter junctis querimonia primum;
Post etiam inclusa est voti sententia compos.
Quis tamen exiguos elegos emiserit auctor,
Grammatici certant, et adhuc sub judice lis est.
Archilocum proprio rabies armavit iambo;
Hunc socci cepere pedem grandesque cothurni,
Alternis aptum sermonibus, et populares
Vincentem strepitus, et natum rebus agendis.
Musa dedit fidibus divos, puerosque deorum
Et pugilem victorem, et equum certamine primum
Et juvenum curas et libera vina referre.

Descriptas servare vices operumque colores,
Cur ego, si nequeo ignoroque, poeta salutor?
Cur nescire pudens prave, quam discere malo?
Versibus exponi tragicis res comica non vult
Indignatur item privatis, ac prope socco

Old ballads, old plays, and old women's stories, are at present in as much request as old wine or new speeches. In fact, this is the millenniumI of black-letter: thanks to our Hebers, Webers, and Scotts!

+ Mr. Pitt was liberal in his additions to our parliamentary tongue, as may be seen in many publications, particularly the Edinburgh Review.

|| With all the vulgar applause and critical abhorrence of puns, they have Aristotle on their side, who permits them to orators, and gives them conse quence by a grave disquisition.

At times Melpomene forgets to groan,
And brisk Thalia takes a serious tone;
Nor unregarded will the act pass by

Where angry Townly lifts his voice on high.
Again, our Shakspeare limits verse to kings,
When common prose will serve for common things;
And lively Hal resigns heroic ire,

To hollowing Hotspur" and the sceptred sire.

'Tis not enough, ye bards, with all your art,
To polish poems; they must touch the heart:
Where'er the scene be laid, whate'er the song,
Still let it bear the hearer's soul along;
Command your audience or to smile or weep,
Whiche'er may please you-anything but sleep,
The poet claims our tears; but, by his leave,
Before I shed them, let me see him grieve.

If banish'd Romeo feign'd nor ́sigh nor tear,
Lull'd by his languor, I should sleep or sneer.
Sad words, no doubt, become a serious face,
And men look angry in the proper place.
At double meanings folks seem wondrous sly,
And sentiment prescribes a pensive eye;
For nature form'd at first the inward man,
And actors copy nature-when they can.
She bids the beating heart with rapture bound,
Raised to the stars, or levell'd with the ground;
And for expression's aid, 't is said or sung,
She gave our mind's interpreter the tongue,
Who, worn with use, of late would fain dispense
At least in theatres) with common sense;
J'erwhelm with sound the boxes, gallery, pit,
And raise a laugh with anything but wit.

Dignis carminibus narrari cœna Thyeste.
Singula quæque locum teneant sortita decenter.
Interdum tamen et vocem comedia tollit,
Iratusque Chremes tumido delitigat ore:
Et tragicus plerumque dolet sermone pedestri.
Telephus et Peleus, cum pauper et exul, uterque
Projicit ampullas, et sesquipedalia verba;
Si curat cor spectantis tetigisse querela.

Non satis est pulchra esse poemata; dulcia sunto,
Et quocunque volent, animum auditoris agunto.
Ut ridentibus arrident, ita flentibus adflent
Humani vultus; si vis me flere dolendum est
Primum ipsi tibi; tunc tua me infortunia lædent.
Telephe, vel Peleu, male si mandata loquêris,
Aut dormitabo, aut ridebo: tristia mæstum
Vultum verba decent; iratum, plena minarum;
Ludentem, lasciva; severum, seria dictu.
Format-enim natura prius non intus ad omnem
Fortunarum habitum; juvat, aut impellit ad iram!
Aut ad humum mærore gravi deducit, et angit;
Post effert animi motus interprete lingua.
Si dicentis erunt fortunis absona dicta,
Romani tollent equites, peditesque cachinnum.

Intererit multum, Davusne loquatur an heros; Maturusne senex, an adhuc florente juventa Fervidus; an matrona potens, and sedula nutrix; Mercatorne vagus, cultorne virentis agelli; Colchus an Assyrius; Thebis nutritus, an Argis. Aut famam cequere, aut sibi convenientia finge. Scriptor honoratum si forte repònis Achillem; Impiger, iracundus, inexorabilis, acer, Jura neget sibi nata, nihil non arroget armis. Sit Medea ferox invictaque, flebilis Ino; Perfidus Ixion; Io vaga; tristis Orestes; Si quid inexpertum scenæ committis, et audes Personam formare novam; servetur ad imum Qualis ab incepto processerit, et sibi constet. Difficile est proprie communia dicere; tuque Rectius Iliacum carmen deducis in actus, Quam si proferres ignota indictaque primus. Publica materies privati juris erit, si Nec circa vilem patulumque moraberis orbem; Nec verbum verbo curabis reddere fidus lutérpres, nec desilies imitator in arctum

* “ And in his ear I'll hollow, Mortimer "—1_ Henry IV.

Of all the monstrous things I'd fain forbid,
I loathe an opera worse than Dennis did;
Where good and evil persons, right or wrong,
Rage, love, and aught but moralize, in song.
Hail, last memorial of our foreign friends
Which Gaul allows, and still Hesperia lends!
Napoleon's edicts no embargo lay

On whores, spies singers, wisely shipp'd away.
Our giant capital, whose squares are spread
Where rustics earn'd, and now may beg, their bread;
In all, iniquity is grown so nice,

It scorns amusements which are not of price.
Hence the pert shopkeeper, whose throbbing ear
Aches with the orchestras he pays to hear,
Whom shame, not sympathy, forbids to snore,
His anguish doubling by his own "encore ;"
Squeezed in "Fop's Alley," jostled by the beaux,
Teased with his hat, and trembling for his toes;
Scarce wrestles through the night, nor taste of ease
Till the dropp'd curtain gives a glad release;
Why this, and more, he suffers-can ye guess?—
Because it costs him dear, and makes him dress!
So prosper eunuchs from Etruscan schools
Give us but fiddlers, and they're sure of fools!
Ere scenes were play'd by many a reverend clerk*
(What harm, if David danced before the ark?)
In Christmas revels, simple country folks
Were pleas'd with morrice-mumm'ry and coarse jokes.
Improving years, with things no longer known,
Produced blithe Punch and merry Madame Joan.
Who still frisk on with feats so lewdly low,
"Tis strange Benvolio suffers such a show;†
Suppressing peer! to whom each vice gives place,
Oaths, boxing, begging,-all, save rout and race!

}

Farce follow'd Comedy, and reach'd her prime In ever-laughing Foote's fantastic time: Mad wag! who pardon'd none, nor spared the best, And turn'd some very serious things to jest. Nor church nor state escaped his public sneers, Arms nor the gown, priests, lawyers, volunteers: "Alas, poor Yorick!" now for ever mute! Whoever loves a laugh must sigh for Foote.

We smile, perforce, when histrionic scenes Ape the swoln dialogue of kings and queens, When " Chrononhotonthologos must die,". And Author struts in mimic majesty.

Moschus! with whom once more I hope to sit
And smile at folly, if we can't at wit;

Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem
Quam quæ sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus, et quæ
Ipse sibi tradit spectator. Non tamen intus
Digna geri, promes in scenam; multaque tolles
Ex oculis, quæ mox narret facundia præsens.
Ne pueros coram populo Medea trucidet;
Aut humana palam coquat exta nefarius Atreus;
Aut in avem Progne vertatur, Cadmus in anguem.
Quodcunque ostendis mihi sic, incredulus odi.

Neve minor, neu sit quinto productior actu
Fabula, quæ posci vult, et spectata reponi.
Nec deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus
Inciderit.

*

Ex noto fictum carmen sequar, ut sibi quivis Speret idem: sudet multum, frustraque laboret Ausus idem: tantum series juncturaque pollet; Tantum de medio sumtis accedit honoris.

*"The first theatrical representatious, entitled 'Mysteries and Morali. ties,' were generally enacted at Christmas, by monks (as the only persons who could read), and latterly by the clergy and students of the universities. The dramatis personæ were usually Adam, Pater, Cœlestis, Faith, Vice," &c. &c.-Vide Warton's History of English Poetry.

† Benvolio does not bet; but every man who maintains race-horses is a promoter of all the concomitant evils of the turf. Avoiding to bet is a lit the pharisaical. Is it an exculpation? I think not. I never yet heard a bawd praised for chastity because she herself did not commit forvication.

Yes, friend! for thee I'll quit my cynic cell,
And bear Swift's motto, "Vive la bagatelle !"
Which charm'd our days in each gean clime,
As oft at home, with revelry and rhyme.
Then may Euphrosyne, who sped the past,
Soothe thy life's scenes, nor leave thee in the last
But find in thine, like pagan Plato's‡ bed,
Some merry manuscript of mimes, when dead.

Now to the Drama let s bend our eyes,
Where fetter'd by whig Walpole low she lies;
Corruption foil'd her, for she fear'd her glance;
Decorum left her for an opera dance!

Yet §Chesterfield, whose polish'd pen inveighs
'Gainst laughter, fought for freedom to our plays;
Uncheck'd by megrims of patrician brains,
And damning dullness of lord chamberlains.
Repeal that act! again let Humour roam
Wild o'er the stage-we've time for tears at home i
Let "
Archer" plant the horns on "Sullen's" brows
And "Estifania" gull her "Copper" spouse;
The moral's scant-but that may be excused,
Men go not to be lectured, but amused.
He whom our plays dispose to good or ill
Must wear a head in want of Willis' skill;
Ay, but Mackheath's example-psha !-no more!
It form'd no thieves-the thief was form'd before;
And spite of puritans and Collier's curse, T
Plays make mankind no better, and no worse.
Then spare our stage, ye methodistic men!
Nor burn damn'd Drury if it rise again.
But why to brain-scorch'd bigots thus appeal!
Can heavenly mercy dwell with earthly zeal?
For times of fire and fagot let them hope;
Times dear alike to puritan or pope.

As pious Calvin saw Servetus blaze,

So would new sects on newer victims gaze.
E'en now the songs of Solyma begin;
Faith cants, erplex'd apologist of sin!
While the Lord's servant chastens whom he loves,
And Simeon kicks where **Baxter only "shoves."

Whom nature guides, so writes, that every dunce, Enraptured, thinks to do the same at once;

But after inky thumbs and bitten nails,
And twenty scatter'd quires, the coxcomb fails.

Let pastoral be dumb; for who can hope
To match the youthful eclogues of our Pope?
Yet his and Philips' faults, of different kind,
For art too rude, for nature too refined,

Silvis deducti caveant, me judice, Fauni, Ne velut innati triviis, ac pene forenses, Aut nimium teneris juvenentur versibus unquam, Aut immunda crepent, ignominiosaque dicta. Offenduntur enim, quibus est equus, et pater, et res : Nec, si quid fricti ciceris probat et nucis emtor, Equis accipiunt animis, donantve corona.

Syllaba longa brevi subjecta, vocatur iambus, Pes citus: unde etiam trimetris accrescerc jussit Nomen iambeis, cum senos redderet ictus, Primus ad extremum similis sibi: non ita pridem,

Under Plato's pillow a volume of the Mimes of Sophron was found the day he died.-Vide Barthelemi, De Pauw, or Diogenes Lærtius, if agree able. De Pauw calls it a jest book.-Cumberland, in his Observer, terms it moral, like the savings of "Publius Cyrus."

§ His speech on the licensing act is one of his most eloquent efforts. Michael Perez, the "Copper Captain," in Rule a Wife and have a Wife."

în