TESTIMONIES OF AUTHORS CONCERNING HIS GRACE AND HIS WRITINGS. Earl of ROSCOMMON, Effay on Tranflated Verfe. HAPPY that author! whofe correct effay ** Repairs fo well our old Horatian way. DRYDEN, Abfalom and Achitophel. DRYDEN, Verfes to Lord Rofcommon. DRYDEN, Preface to Virgil's Æneis. "Your Effay on Poetry, which was published without a name, and of which I was not honoured with the confidence, I read over and over with much delight, and as much inftruction; and, without flattering you, or making myself more moral than I am, not without *Effay on Poetry.. B 3 fcme "fome envy, I was loth to be informed how an epic poem should be written, or how a tragedy fhould be " contrived and managed in better verfe, and with more "judgment, than I could teach others. I gave the unknown author his due commendation, "I must confefs; but who can answer for me, and for "the reft of the poets who heard me read the poem, "whether we should not have been better pleased to have "feen our own names at the bottom of the title-page? "Perhaps we commended it the more, that we might "seem to be above the cenfure, &c." DRYDEN, Ibid. "This is but doing juftice to my country, part of "which honour will reflect on your lordship, whofe thoughts are always juft, your numbers harmonious, your words chofen, your expreffions ftrong and manly, your verfe flowing, and your turns as happy as they are easy. If you would fet us more copies, your example would make all precepts needlefs. In the meantime, that little you have writ is owned, and "that particularly by the poets (who are a nation not "over-lavifh of praise to their contemporaries) as a par❝ticular ornament of our language: but the fweetest "effences are always confined in the fmallest glaffes." ་་ DRYDEN, Dedication to Aurengzebe. How great and manly in your lordship is your contempt of popular applause, and your retired virtue, which fhines only to a few, with whom you live fo eafily and freely, freely, that you make it evident you have a foul which is capable of all the tenderness of friendship, and that you only retire yourself from those who are not capable of returning it! Your kindnefs, where you have once placed it, is inviolable; and it is to that only I attribute my happiness in your love. This makes me more easily forfake an argument on which I could otherwife delight to dwell; I mean your judgment in your choice of friends, because I have the honour to be one. After which, I am fure, you will more eafily permit me to be filent in the care you have taken of my fortune, which you have rescued, not only from the power of others, but from my worft of enemies, my own modefty and lazinefs which favour, had it been employed on a more deferving fubject, had been an effect of justice in your nature; but as placed on me, is only charity. Yet withal it is conferred on fuch a man, as prefers your kindness itfelf before any of its confequences; and who values,. as the greatest of your favours, thofe of your love, and of your converfation. From this conftancy to your friends I might reasonably affume, that your refentments would be as ftrong and lafting if they were not reftrained by a nobler principle of good-nature and generofity; for certainly it is the fame compofition of mind, the fame refolution and courage, which makes the greatest friendships and the greatest enmities. To this firmness in all your actions (though you are wanting in no other ornaments of mind and body, yet to this) I principally afcribe the intereft your merits have acquired you in the royal family. A prince who is conftant to himself, and fteady B 4 [S] fteady in all his undertakings; one with whom the character of Horace will agree : Such a one cannot but place an efteem, and repofe a confidence on him whom no adverfity, no change of courts, no bribery of intereft, or cabal of factions, or advantages of fortune, can remove from the folid foundations of honour and fidelity. "Ille meos, primus qui me fibi junxit, amores How well your lordship will deferve that praise, I need no inspiration to foretel. You have already left no room for prophecy: your early undertakings have been fuch, in the fervice of your king and country, when you offered yourfelf to the moft dangerous employment, that of the fea; when you chofe to abandon thofe delights to which your youth and fortune did invite you, to undergo the hazards, and which was worfe, the company of common feamen; that you have made it evident you will refufe no opportunity of rendering yourfelf useful to the nation, when either your courage or conduct fhall be required. Bishop BURNET, Preface to Sir T. More's Utopia. Our language is now certainly properer and more natural than it was formerly, chiefly fince the correction that was given by the Rehearsal; and it is to be hoped that the Effay on Poetry, which may be well matched with the best pieces of its kind that even Auguftus's age produced, will have a more powerful operation, if clear› ́ fenfe, joined with home but gentle reproofs, can work more on our writers than that unmerciful expofing of them has done. ADDISON, Spectator, N° 253. We have three poems in our tongue, which are of the fame nature, and each of them a mafter-piece in its kind: the Effay on Tranflated Verfe, the Effay on Poetry, and the Effay on Criticism. Lord LANSDOWNE, Effay on Unnatural Flights, &c. Rofcommon firft, then Mulgrave rofe, like light, To clear our darknefs, and to guide our flight: With feady judgment, and in lofty sounds, They gave us patterns, and they fet us bounds. The stagyrite and Horace laid aside, Inform'd by them we need no foreign guide; Who feek from poetry a lafting name, May from their leffons learn the road to fame. PRIOR, Alma, Cant. 2. Happy the poet! blet the lays! Which Buckingham has deign'd to praife. GARTH, Difpenfary. Now Tyber's ftreams no courtly Gallus fee, POPE, |
