Exact Racine, and Corneille's noble fire, Showed us that France had something to admire.
Not but the tragic spirit was our own, And full in Shakespeare, fair in Otway shone:
But Otway failed to polish or refine, And fluent Shakespeare scarce effaced a line.
E'en copious Dryden wanted, or forgot The last and greatest art, the art to blot.
Some doubt, if equal pains, or equal fire The humbler Muse of comedy require.
But in known images of life, I guess The labour greater, as th' indulgence less.
Observe how seldom even the best succeed:
Tell me if Congreve's fools are fools indeed?
What pert, low dialogue has Farquhar writ!
How Van wants grace, who never wanted wit!
The stage how loosely does Astraea tread, Who fairly puts all characters to bed!
And idle Cibber, how he breaks the laws, To make poor Pinky eat with vast applause!
But fill their purse, our poet's work is done, Alike to them, by pathos or by pun.
O you! whom vanity's light bark conveys On fame's mad voyage by the wind of praise, With what a shifting gale your course you ply, For ever sunk too low, or borne too high!
Who pants for glory finds but short repose, A breath revives him, or a breath o'erthrows.
Farewell the stage! if just as thrives the play, The silly bard grows fat, or falls away.
There still remains, to mortify a wit, The many-headed monster of the pit;A senseless, worthless, and unhonoured crowd;Who, to disturb their betters mighty proud, Clatt'ring their sticks before ten lines are spoke, Call for the farce, the bear, or the black-joke.
What dear delight to Britons farce affords!
Ever the taste of mobs, but now of lords;(Taste, that eternal wanderer, which flies From heads to ears, and now from ears to eyes).
The play stands still; damn action and discourse, Back fly the scenes, and enter foot and horse;Pageants on pageants, in long order drawn, Peers, Heralds, Bishops, ermine, gold, and lawn;The champion too! and, to complete the jest, Old Edward's armour beams onCibber's breast, With laughter sure Democritus had died, Had he beheld an audience gape so wide.
Let bear or elephant be e'er so white, The people, sure, the people are the sight!
Ah luckless poet! stretch thy lungs and roar, That bear or elephant shall heed thee more;While all its throats the gallery extends, And all the thunder of the pit ascends!
Loud as the wolves, on Orcas' stormy steep, Howl to the roarings of the Northern deep, Such is the shout, the long-applauding note, At Quin's high plume, or Oldfield's petticoat;Or when from court a birthday suit bestowed, Sinks the lost actor in the tawdry load.
Booth enters--hark! the universal peal!
"But has he spoken?" Not a syllable.
What shook the stage, and made the people stare?
Cato's long wig, flowered gown, and lacquered chair.
Yet lest you think I rally more than teach, Or praise malignly arts I cannot reach, Let me for once presume t' instruct the times, To know the poet from the man of rhymes:
'Tis he, who gives my breast a thousand pains, Can make me feel each passion that he feigns;Enrage, compose, with more than magic art, With pity, and with terror, tear my heart;And snatch me, o'er the earth, or through the air, To Thebes, to Athens, when he will, and where.
But not this part of the poetic state Alone, deserves the favour of the great;Think of those authors, sir, who would rely More on a reader's sense, than gazer's eye.
Or who shall wander where the Muses sing?
Who climb their mountain, or who taste their spring?
How shall we fill a library with wit, When Merlin's cave is half unfurnished yet?
My liege! why writers little claim your thought, I guess; and, with their leave, will tell the fault:
We poets are (upon a poet's word)
Of all mankind, the creatures most absurd:
The season, when to come, and when to go, To sing, or cease to sing, we never know;And if we will recite nine hours in ten, You lose your patience, just like other men.
Then too we hurt ourselves, when to defend A single verse, we quarrel with a friend;Repeat unasked; lament, the wit's too fine For vulgar eyes, and point out every line.
But most, when straining with too weak a wing, We needs will write epistles to the King;And from the moment we oblige the town, Expect a place, or pension from the Crown;Or dubbed historians, by express command, T' enrol your triumphs o'er the seas and land, Be called to Court to plan some work divine, As once for Louis, Boileau and Racine.
Yet think, great sir! (so many virtues shown)Ah think, what poet best may make them known?
Or choose at least some minister of grace, Fit to bestow the laureate's weighty place.
Charles, to late times to be transmitted fair, Assigned his figure to Bernini's care;And great Nassau to Kneller's hand decreed To fix him graceful on the bounding steed;So well in paint and stone they judged of merit:
But kings in wit may want discerning spirit.
The hero William and the martyr Charles, One knighted Blackmore, and one pensioned Quarles;Which made old Ben, and surly Dennis swear, "No Lord's anointed, but a Russian bear."Not with such majesty, such bold relief, The forms august, of king, or conquering chief, E'er swelled on marble; as in verse have shined (In polished verse) the manners and the mind.
Oh! could I mount on the Maeonian wing, Your arms, your actions, your repose to sing!
What seas you traversed, and what fields you fought!
Your country's peace, how oft, how dearly bought!
How barb'rous rage subsided at your word, And nations wondered while they dropped the sword!
How, when you nodded, o'er the land and deep, Peace stole her wing, and wrapped the world in sleep;Till earth's extremes your mediation own, And Asia's tyrants tremble at your throne--But verse, alas! your majesty disdains;
And I'm not used to panegyric strains:
The zeal of fools offends at any time, But most of all, the zeal of fools in rhyme.
Besides, a fate attends on all I write, That when I aim at praise, they say I bite.
A vile encomium doubly ridicules:
There's nothing blackens like the ink of fools.
