صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

THE

POEMS

OF

DAVID MALLET Esq.

[ocr errors]

OF VERBAL CRITICISM.

10

[ocr errors]

| Pride of his own, and wonder of this age,
Who first created, and yet rules, the ftage,
Bold to defign, all-powerful to exprefs,
Shakespear each paffion drew in every drefs:50
Great above rule, and imitating none;
Rich without borrowing, Nature was his own.
Yet is his fenfe debas'd by grofs allay :
As gold in mines lies mix'd with dirt and clay.
Now, eagle-wing'd, his heavenward flight he

MONG the numerous fools, by fate defign'd Oft to disturb, and oft divert, mankind, The Reading Coxcomb is of fspecial note, By rule a Poet, and a Judge by rote: Grave fon of idle Industry aud Pride, Whom learning but perverts, and books mifguide, O fam'd for judging, as for writing well, That rare ft fcience, where fo few excel; Whofe life, feverely feann'd, tranfcends thy lays, For wit fupreme is but thy fecond praife: 'Tis thine, O Pope, who chufe the better part, To tell how falfe, how vain, the Scholiaft's art, Which nor to tafte, nor genius has pretence, And, if 'tis learning, is not common fenfe. In error obftinate, in wrangling loud, For trifles eager, pofitive, and proud; Deep in the darkness of dull authors bred, With all their refufe lumber'd in his head, What every dunce from every dunghill drew Of literary offals, old or new, Forth fteps at laft the felf-applauding wight, Of points and letters, chaff and ftraws to write : Sagely refolv'd to fwell each bulky piece With venerable toys, from Rome and Greece; How oft, in Homer, Paris curl'd his hair; If Ariftotle's cap were round or fquare; If in the cave, where Dido firft was fpel, To Tyre fhe turn'd her heels, to Troy her head. Such the choice anecdotes, profound and vain, That ftore a Bently's and a Burman's brain: Hence, Plato quoted, or the Stagyrite, To prove that flame afcends, and fnow is white : Hence much hard ftudy, without fenfe or breeding, And all the grave impertinence of reading, If Shakespeare fays, the noon-day fun is bright, His Scholiaft will remark, it then was light; Turn Caxton, Winkin, each old Goth and Hun, To rectify the reading of a pun.

Thus, nicely trifling, accurately dull,

How one may toil, and toil-to be a fool!

20

25

30:

35

40

But is there then no honour due to age? No reverence to great Shakespear's noble page? And he, who half a life has read him o'er, His mangled points and commas to restore, Meets he fuch flight regard in nameless lays, 45 Whom Bufo treats, and Lady Would-be pays? VOL. VII.

takes;

The big ftage thunders, and the foul awakes: 56
Now, low on earth, a kindred reptile creeps;
Sad Hamlet quibbles, and the hearer fleeps.

Such was the Poet: next the Scholiaft view;
Faint through the colouring, yet the features true.
Condemned to dig and dung a barren foil, 61
Where hardly tares will grow with care and toil,
He, with low induftry, goes gleaning on
From good, from bad, from mean; neglecting

none:

[ocr errors][merged small]

His brother book-worm fo, in shelf or ftally
Will feed alike on Woolfton and on Paul.
By living clients hopeless now of bread,
He pettifogs a fcrap from authors dead.
See him on Shakespeare pore, intent to fteal
Poor farce, by fragments, for a third-day meal.
Such that grave bird in northern feas is found, yo
Whofe name a Dutchman only knows to found.
Where e'er the king of fifh moves on before,
This humble friend attends from fhore to fhore;
With eye ftill earnest, and with bill inclin'd,
He picks up what his patron drops behind;
With whofe choice cates his palate to regale,
And is the careful Tibbald of a whale.

75

Bleft genius! who beflows his oil and pains On each dull paffage, each dull book contains; 8 The toil more grateful, as the task more low: So carrion is the quarry of a crow. Where his fam'd author's page is flat and poor, There, molt exact the reading to restore; By dint of plodding, and by fweat of face, A bull to change, a blunder to replace: Whate'er is refufe critically gleaning, And mending nonfenfe into doubtful meaning. For this dread Dennis (and who can forbear. Dunce or not Dunce, relating it, to ftare?)

Ff

85

His head though jealous, and his years fourscore, Ev'n Dennis praifes, who ne'er prais'd before! For this, the Scholiaft claims his fhare of fame, And, modeft, prints his own with Shakespeare's

name:

How juftly, Pope, in this fhort ftory view; 95 Which may be dull, and therefore fhould be true. A Prelate, fam'd for clearing each dark text, Who fenfe with found, and truth with rhetoric mixt,

Once, as his moving theme to rapture warm'd, Infpir'd himself, his happy hearers charm'd. 100 The fermon o'er, the croud remain'd behind, And freely, man or woman, fpoke their mind: All faid they lik'd the lecture from their foul, And cach, remembering fomething, prais'd the whole.

165

[ocr errors]

At laft an honeft fexton join'd the throng
(For as the theme was large, their talk was long);
Neighbours, he cry'd, my confcience bids me tell,
Tho' 'twas the Doctor preach'd-I toll'd the bell.
In this the Critic's folly most is shown;
Is there a Genius, all-unlike his own,
With learning elegant, with wit well bred,
And, as in booke, in men and manners read;
Himfelf with paring erudition blind,
Unknowing, as unknown of human kind?
That writer he felects, with aukward aim
His fenfe, at orce, to mimic and to maim.
So Florio is a fop, with half a nofe:
So fat Weft Indian Planters drefs as Beaux.
Thus, gay Petronius was a Dutchman's choice,
And Horace, ftrange to say, tun'd Bentley's
voice.

115

120

Horace, whom all the Graces taught to pleafe, Mix'd mirth with morals, eloquence with eafe; His genius focial, as his judgement clear; When frolic, prudent; fmiling when fevere; Secure, each temper, and each tafte to hit, His was the curious happiness of wit. Skill'd in that nobleft Science, How to live; Which Learning may direct, but Heaven muft give;

125

130

Grave with Agrippa, with Mecenas gay;
Among the Fair, but just as wife as they :
Firft in the friendships of the Great enroll'd,
The St. Johns, Boyles, and I yttletons, of old.
While Bentley, long to wrangling fchools con-
fin'd,

And, but by books, acquainted with mankind,
Dares, in the fulness of the pedant's pride, 135
Rhyne, tho' no genius; tho' no judge, decide.
Yet he, prime pattern of the captious art,
Out-tibbalding poor Tibbald, tops his part:
Holds high the fcourge o'er each fam'd author's
head;
140

Nor are their graves a refuge for the dead.
To Milton lending fenfe, to Horace wit,
He makes them write what never Poet writ:
The Roman Mufe arraigns his mangling pen;
And Paradife, by him, is loft again.
Such was his doom impos'd by Heaven's decree,
With ears that hear not, eyes that fhall not fee,
The low to fwell, to level the fublime,
To blaft all beauty, and beprofe all rhyme.

145

150

Great eldeft-born of Dullnefs, blind and bold!
Tyrant! more cruel than Procruftes old;
Who, to his iron-bed, by torture, fits,
Their nobler part, the fouls of fuffering Wits.
Such is the Man, who heaps his head with bays,
And calls on human kind to found his praise,
For points tranfplac'd with curious want of fill,
For flatter'd founds, and fenfe amended ill. 156
So wife Caligula, in days of yore,
His helmet f.ll'd with pebbles on the fhore,
Swore he had rifled ocean's rich spoils,
And claim'd a trophy for his martial toils.

160

Yet be his merits, with his faults confeft: Fair-dealing, as the plaineft, is the best. Long lay the Critic's work, with trifles ftord, Admir'd in Latin, but in Greek ador❜d. Men, fo well read, who confidently wrote, 165 Their readers could have fworn, were men of

note :

To pafs upon the croud for great or rare,
Aim not to make them knowing, make them flare.
For thefe blind votaries good Bentley griev'd,
Writ English notes-and mankind undeceiv'd:
In fuch clear light the ferious folly plac'd,
Ev'n thou, Browne Willis, thou may'ft fee the
jeft.

[ocr errors]

But what can cure our vanity of mind, Deaf to reproof, and to discovery blind? Let Crooke, a Brother-Scholiaft Shakespeare call, Tibbald, to Hefiod-Cooke returns the ball. 176 So runs the circle still: in this, we fee The lackies of the Great and Learn'd agree. If Britain's nobles mix in high debate, Whence Europe, in fufpence, attends her fate; 180 In mimic feffion their grave footmen meet, Reduce an army, or equip a fleet: And, rivaling the critic's lofty ftile, Mere Tom and Dick are Stanhope and Argyll.

Yet thofe, whom pride and dulnefs join to blind, To narrow cares and narrow space confin'd, 186 Though with big titles each his fellow greets, Are but to wits, as fcavengers to streets: The humble black-guards of a Pope or Gay, To brush off duft, and wipe their spots away. 190 Or, if not trivial, harmful is their art; Fume to the head, or poifon to the heart. Where ancient Authors hint at things obfcene, The Scholiaft fpeaks out broadly what they mean. Difclong each dark vice, well loft to fame, And adding fuel to redundant flame, He, fober pimp to lechery, explains, What Capra's Ifle, or V's Alcove contains: Why Paulus, for his fordid temper known, Was lavish, to his father's wife alone: Why thofe fond female vifits duly paid To tuneful Incuba; and what her trade: How modern love has made fo many martyrs, And which keeps ofteneft, Lady €, or Chartres.

195

200

But who their various follies can explain? 205 The tale is infinite, the taik were vain. 'Twere to read new-year odes in fearch of thought; To fum the libels Pryn or Withers wrote; To guess, ere one epiftle faw the light, How many dunces met, and club'd their mite; 210 To vouch for truth what Welfted prints of Pope, Or from the brother-boobies fteal a trope.

[blocks in formation]

220

Too doubtful to direct, to poor to please.
Yet, Critic's, would your tribe deferve a name,
And, fairly ufeful, rife to honeft fame ;
First, from the head, a !cad of lumber move,
And, from the volume, all yourselves approve :
For patch'd and pilfer'd fragments, give us fenfe,
Or learning, clear from learn'd impertinence,
Where moral meaning, or where taste prefides,
And wit enlivens but what reason guides:
Great without fwelling, without meanness plan,
Serious, not lly; fportive, but not vain,
On trifles flight, on things of ufe profound,
In quoting fober, and in judging found.

VERSES

226

PRESENTED TO THE PRINCE OF ORANGE,

1

ON HIS VISITING OXFORD,

IN THE YEAR M,DCC,XXXIV.

[ocr errors]

Ch, born to glad and animate our Isle! For thee, our heavens look pleas'd, our feafons fmile :

For thee, late object of our tender fears,
When thy life droop'd, and Britain was in tears,
All-chearing Health, the goddess rofy-fair,
Attended by foft funs, and vernal air,

Sought thofe * fam'd fprings, where, each affiictive bour,

Difeafe, and age, and pain, invoke her power: She came; and, while to thee the current flows, Pour'd all herself, and in thy cup arofe.

Hence, to thy cheek, that inftant bloom deriv'd: Hence, with thy health, the weeping world reviv'd!

Proceed to emulate thy race divine:
A life of action, and of praise, be thine.
Affert the titles genuine to thy blood,
By Nature, daring; but by reason, good.
So great, fo glorious thy forefathers fhone,
No fon of theirs muft hope to live unknown:
Their deeds will place thy virtue full in fight;
Thy vice, if vice thou haft, in ftronger light.
If to thy fair beginnings nobly true,

Think what the world may claim, and thou muit

do:

The honours, that already grace thy name,
Have fix'd thy choice, aud force thee unto fame.
Ev'n fhe, bright Anna, whom thy worth has won,

RECEIVE, lov'd prince, the tribute of our Infpires thee what to feek and what to fhun:

praife,

This hafty welcome, in unfinish'd lays.

At beft, the pomp of fong, the paint of art,
Difplay the genius, but not speak the heart;
And oft, as ornament muft truth fupply,
Are but the fplendid colouring of a lie.
Thefe need not here; for to a foul like thine,
Truth, plain and fimple, will more lovely fhine.
The truly good but with the verse fincere :
They court no flattery, who no cenfure fear.

Such Naffau is, the faireft, gentleft mind,
In blooming youth the Titus of mankind,
Crouds, who to hail thy with'd appearance ran,
Forgot the prince, to praise and love the man.
Such fenfe with fweetness, grandeur mix'd with
eafe!

Our nobler youth will learn of thee to please:
Thy bright example all our world adorn,
And charm, in gracious princes, yet unborn.

Nor deem this verfe from venal art proceeds,
That vice of courts, the foil for baneful weeds.
Here candor dwells; here honeft truths are taught,
To guide and govern, not difguife, the thought.
See thefe enlighten'd Sages, who prefide
O'er learning's empire; fee the youth they guide:
Behold, all faces are in tranfport dreft!
But thofe moft wonder, who difcern thee best.
At fight of thee, each free-born heart receives
A joy, the fight of princes rarely gives;
From tyrants fprung, and oft themfelves defign'd,
By Fate, the future Neroes of their kind :
For though thy blood, we know, tranfmitted
fprings

From laurel'd heroes, and from warrior-kings, Terough that high feries, we, delighted, trace The friends of liberty, and human race!

Rich in all outward grace, th' exalted fair
Makes the foul's beauty her peculiar care.
O, be your nuptials crown'd with glad encrease
Of fons, in war renown'd, and great in peace;
Of daughters, fair and faithful, to fupply
The patriot-race, till Nature's felf fhall die!

VERSE S

OCCASIONED BY DR. FRASER'S REBUILDING PART OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN.

IN

times long paft, ere Wealth was Learning's
foe,

And dar'd defpife the worth he would not know;
Ere mitred pride, which arts alone had rais'd,
Thofe very arts, in others faw, unprais'd;
Friend to mankind, † a prelate, good and great,
The Mufes courted to this fale retreat;
Fix'd each fair virgin, decent, in her cell,
The fabric finish'd, to the fovereign's fame.
With learned leifure, and with peace to dwell.
His own neglecting, he transferr'd his claim.
Here, by fucceffive worthies, well was taught
Whate'er enlightens, or exalts the thought.
With labour planted, and improv'd with care,
The various tree of knowledge flourish'd fair:
Soft and ferene the kindly feafons roll'd,
And Science long enjoy'd her age of gold.

Now, dire reverfe! impair'd by lapse of years, A falling wafte the Mufes' feat appears.

*Bath.

[blocks in formation]

O'er her grey roofs, with baneful ivy bound,
Time, fure deftroyer, walks his hoftile round:
Silent, and flow, and ceafelefs in his toil,
He mines each wall, he moulders every pile!
Ruin hangs hovering o'er the fated place:
And dumb Oblivion comes with mended pace.
Sad Learning's genius, with a father's fear,
Beheld the total defolation near :

Beheld the Mufes ftretch the wing to fly;
And fix'd on heaven his forrow-ftreaming eye!
From heaven, in that dark hour, commiffion'd

came

Mild Charity, ev'n there the foremost name. Swift Pity flew before her, foftly bright; At whofe felt influence, Nature fmil'd with light. "Hear, and rejoice!—the gracious Power "begun

"Already, fir'd by me thy favourite fon, "This ruin'd feene remarks with filial eyes; "And, from its fall, bids fairer fabrics rife. "Ev'n now, behold! where crumbling frag❝ments grey,

"In duft deep-bury'd, loft te memory lay, "The column fwells, the well-knit arches bend, "The round dome widens, and the roofs afcend! "Nor ends the bounty thus: by him bettow'd, "Here, Science fhall her richeft ftores unload.

[blocks in formation]

"To wits unborn the wanted fuccours give, "And fire the Bard, whom Genius means to << live.

"But, teach thy fons the gentle laws of peace; "Let low Self-love and pedant-Difcord ceafe: "Their object Truth, Utility their aim,

One focjal fpirit reign, in all the fame. "Thus aided arts fhall with fresh vigour hoot; "Thei ltur'd bloffoms ripen into fruit; "Thy faded ftar difpenfe a brighter ray, "And each glad Mufe renew her nobleft lay,"

PROLOGUE

TO THE

SEIGE OF DAMASCUS

SPOKEN BY LORD SANDWICH.

Or to the laurel'd grove, at times, retire, There, woo the Mufe, and wake the moving lyre.

As fair examples, like afcending morn,
The world at once enlighten and adorn ;
From them diffusd, the gentle arts of peace
Shot brightening o'er the land, with fwift en-
creafe :

Rough nature foften'd into grace and eafe;
Senfe grew polite, and fcience fought to please.
Reliev'd from yor rude fcene of party-din,
Where open Bafonefs vies with fecret Sin,
And fafe embower'd in Woburn's airy groves,
Let us recall the times our tafte approves;
Awaken to our aid the mourning Mufe;
Through every bofom tender thought infuse;
Melt angry Fation into moral fenfe,
And to his guefts a Bedford's foul difpenfe.

And now, while Spring extends her fmiling

reign,

Green on the mountain, flowery in the plain;
While genial Nature breathes, from hill and dale,
Health, fragrance, gladnefs, in the living gale;
The various foftnefs, ftealing through the heart,
Impreffions fweetly focial, will impart,
When fad Eudocia pours her hopeless woe,
The tear of pity will unbidden flow!
When erring Phocyas, whom wild paffions blind,
Holds up himself, a mirror for mankind;
An equal eye on our own hearts we turn,
Where frailties lurk, where fond affections burn:
And, confcious, Nature is in all the fame,
We mourn the guilty, while the guilt we blame!

T

EPILOGUE

TO THE

BROTHERS,

A TRAGEDY, BY DR. YOUNG.
woman, fure, the most fevere affliction
Is, from thefe fellows, point-blank con-
tradiction.

Our Bard, without-I wish he would appear-
Ud! I would give it him-but you fhall hear

Good Sir! quoth I-and curtfey'd'as I fpokeOur pit, you know, expects and loves a joke'Twere fit to humour them: for, right or wrong, True Britons never like the fame thing long. To-day is fair-they ftrut, huff, fwear, harangue; To-morrow's foul--they fneak afide, and hang. Isere a war-peace! peace! is all their cry:

WHEN arts and arms, beneath Eliza's fimile, The peace is made then, blood! they'll fight

Spread wide their influence o'er this happy

ifle;

[blocks in formation]

and die.

Gallants, in talking thus, I meant no treason; I would have brought, you fee, the man to reafon.

But with fome folks, 'tis labour loft to ftrive:
A reafoning mule will neither lead nor drive,
He hum'd, and haw'd; then, waking from his
dream,

Cry'd, I muft preach to you his moral scheme.

[blocks in formation]

1

ON A LADY, WHO HAD PASSED SOME

TIME IN PLAYING WITH A VERY

YOUNG CHILD.

THY, on this leaft of little Miffes,

WHY

Did Celia wafte fo many kiffes? Quoth Love, who stood behind and fmil'd, She kifs'd the father in the child.

PROLOGUE

EPIGRAM,

ON SEEING TWO PERSONS PASS BY IN

[ocr errors]

то

MR. THOMSON's AGAMEMNON.

WHEN

WHEN this decifive night, at length, ap-
pears,

The night of every author's hopes and fears,
What fhifts to bribe applause, poor poets try!
In all the forms of wit they court and lye :
Thefe meanly beg it, as an alms; and thofe,
By boastful bluiter dazzle and impofe.

Nor poorly fearful, nor fecurely vain, Ours would, by honeft ways, that grace obtain ; Would, as a free-born wit, be fairly try'd: And then let candor, fairly too, decide. He courts no friend, who blindly comes to praise;

He dreads no foe-but whom his faults may raife.
Indulge a generous pride, that bids him own,
He aims to pleafe, by noble means alone;
By what may win the judgment, wake the heart,
Infpiring nature, and directing art;

By fcenes, fo wrought, as may applaufe com

mand

[blocks in formation]

Important is the moral we would teachOh may this inland practife what we preachVice in its firft approach with care to fhun; The wretch, who once engages, is undone.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

A SIMILE IN PRIOR,

APPLIED TO THE SAME PERSON.

EAR Thomas, didft thou never pop

Crimes lead to greater crimes, and link fo ftraight, Dy head into a tin-man's fhop!

What first was accident, at laft is fate :
Guilt haplefs fervant finks into a slave;
And Virtue's laft fad ftrugglings cannot fave.
"As fuch our fair attempt, we hope to fee

"Our judges, here at leaf-from influence

free:

"One place, unbias'd yet by party-rage, "Where only honour votes-the British ftage. "We ask for juftice, for indulgence fue : "Our laft beit licence muft proceed from you."

There, Thomas, didft thou never fee'Tis but by way of fimile

A fquirrel fpend its little rage,

In jumping round a rolling cage?
Mov'd in the orb, pleas'd with the chimes,
The foolish creature thinks it climbs;
But here or there, turn wood or wire,
It never gets two inches higher.
So fares it with this little Peer,
So busy and so huflling here;
For ever flirting up and down,
And friking round his cage, the town.

« السابقةمتابعة »