For 'twill be thought, and with fome colour too, I pay the bribe I first receiv'd from you; cure: 10 For ill men, confcious of their inward guilt, 15 many candidates there stand for wit, A place at court is scarce fo hard to get : In vain they crowd each other at the door; For e'en reverfions are all begg'd before: Defert, how known foe'er, is long delay'd; And then too fools and knaves are better pay'd. 20 Yet, as fome actions bear fo great a name, That courts themselves are juft, for fear of fhame; So has the mighty merit of your play away. 25 "Tis here as 'tis at fea; who fartheft goes, Or dares the moft, makes all the reft his foes. Yet when fome virtue much outgrows the reft, 30. It shoots too faft, and high, to be exprest; boom. Such praise is your's, while you the paffions move, That 'tis no longer feign'd, 'tis real love, With too much fire, who are themfelves an phlegm. Prizes would be for lags of flowest pace, Were cripples made the judges of the race. Defpife thofe drones, who praife, while they accufe 45 The too much vigour of your youthful mufe. That humble style which they your virtue make, Is in your power; you need but stoop and take. Your beauteous images must be allow'd Hard features every bungler can command; 50 EPISTLE THE FIFTH. TO THE EARL OF ROSCOMMON, ON HIS EXCELLENT ESSAY ON TRANSLATED VERSE. WHETHER the fruitful Nile, or Tyrian shore, The feeds of arts and infant fcience bore, tongue 5 Made nature first, and nature's God their fong. Nor ftopt tranflation here: for conqu'ring Rome, With Grecian fpoils, brought Grecian numbers home; Enrich'd by thofe Athenian muses more, fore. 10 "Till barbarous nations, and more barbarous times, 15 Debas'd the majesty of verse to rhimes ; 20 Ver. 12, Debas'd the majesty of verfe to rhimes;] The advocates for rhyme feem not to advert to what Servius fays, that rhyme was used in the time of the Saturnalia by the Roman populace in their rude fongs, and by the foldiers in their acclamations, and at their feafts in honour of their victorious generals. We may apply to rhyme what Seneca fays of the fubtleties of logic, "Comminuitur et debilitatur generofa indoles in istas auguftias conjecta." JOHN WARTON. Ver. 14. and tinkled in the clofe.] Dryden adopts the contemptuous defcription of rhyme from preceding authors, and those of no mean note. Thus in Ben Jonfon's Maík of The Fortunate Ifles, Skogan, the jetter, is represented as a writer "in rime, fine tinckling rime!" And Andrew Marvell, in his fpirited verfes to Milton on his Paradife Loft, thus exclaims: "Well might'ft thou fcorn thy readers to allure "With tinkling rhime, pf thy own fenfe fecure." TODD. Ver. 19. Dante's polish'd page] There is a very ancient Italian poem, entitled, Afpramonte, containing an account of the war of King Guarnieri and Agolante against Rome |