Cuftom alone their rank and date can teach,
Custom, the fov'reign, law, and rule of speech.

For deeds of kings and chiefs, and battles fought, What numbers are moft fitting, Homer taught:

Couplets unequal were at firft confin'd

To speak in broken verfe the mourner's mind.
Profperity at length, and free content,

1

In the fame numbers gave their raptures vent; 115 But who first fram'd the Elegy's small song, Grammarians fquabble, and will fquabble long.

Archilochus, refentment's bitter rage

Arm'd with his own lambicks to engage:

With these the humble Sock, and Bufkin proud, 120 Shap'd dialogue; and ftill'd the noify croud; Embrac'd the measure, prov'd its eafe and force, And found it apt for business or discourse.

Gods, and the fons of Gods, in Odes to fing, The Mufe attunes her Lyre, and ftrikes the ftring; 125 Victorious Boxers, Racers, mark the line, The cares of youthful love, and joys of wine.

The various outline of each work to fill, If nature gives no pow'r, and art no skill;

VOL. III.

D

If

Cur ego, fi nequeo ignoroque, poëta falutor!
Cur nefcire, pudens pravè, quàm difcere malo?

Verfibus exponi tragicis res comica non vult.
Indignatur item privatis ac prope focco
Dignis carminibus narrari cœna Thyestæ.
Singula quæque locum teneant fortita decenter.
Interdum tamen et vocem comœdia tollit;
Iratufque Chremes tumido delitigat ore;

90

Et tragicus plerumque dolet fermone pedeftri. 95 Telephus aut Peleus, cum pauper er exul uterque, Projicit ampullas et fefquipedalia verba,

Si curat cor fpectantis tetigiffe querelâ.

Non fatis eft pulchra effe poëmata; dulcia funto, Et quocunque volent, animum auditoris agunto. 100 Ut ridentibus arrident, ita flentibus adflent

Humani vultus;

If, marking nicer fhades, I miss my aim,
Why am I greeted with a Poet's name?
Or if, thro' ignorance, I can't discern,
Why, from falfe modefty, forbear to learn?

A comick incident loaths tragick ftrains :
Thy feaft, Thyeftes, lowly verfe difdains;
Familiar diction fcorns, as bafe and mean,
Touching too nearly on the comick scene.
Each style allotted to its proper place,
Let each appear with its peculiar grace!
Yet Comedy at times exalts her ftrain,

130

135

140

And angry Chremes ftorms in fwelling vein :
The tragick hero, plung'd in deep diftrefs,
Sinks with his fate, and makes his language less.
Peleus and Telephus, poor, banish'd! each
Drops his foot-half-foot words, and founding
fpeech;

145

Or elfe, what bosom in his grief takes part, Which cracks the ear, but cannot touch the heart!

150

'Tis not enough that Plays are polish'd, chaste, Or trickt in all the harlotry of tafte, They must have passion too; beyond controul Transporting where they please the hearer's foul. With those that smile, our face in fmiles appears; With those that weep, our cheeks are bath'd in tears:

II. The main body of the Epiftle [from 1. 89 to 295] is laid out in regulating the Roman ftage; but chiefly in giving rules for Tragedy; "not only as that was the fublimer fpecies of the "Drama, but, as it fhould feem, lefs cultivated " and understood.

III. The laft part [from 1. 295 to the end] ex"horts to correctnefs in writing; yet still with an "eye, principally, to the dramatick fpecies: and is "taken up partly in removing the causes, that pre

vented it; and partly in directing to the use of fuch means, as might ferve to promote it. Such "is the general plan of the Epiftle."

In this general fummary, with which the Critick introduces his particular Commentary, a very material circumftance is acknowledged, which perhaps tends to render the fyftem on which it proceeds, extremely doubtful, if not wholly untenable. The original Epiftle confifts of four hundred and feventyfix lines; and it appears, from the above numerical analyfis, that not half of thofe lines, only two hundred and fix verfes [from v. 89 to 295] are employed on the fubject of the Roman Stage. The first of the three parts above delineated [from v. 1 to 89] cer

furely the main re£ L aumit Gr

to deter thole, wIG HE HE. DET VIL