(6) The Roman wit*, who impiously divides His hero and his gods to different fides," I would condemn, but that, in fpite of sense, Th' admiring world still stands in his defence. How oft', alas! the best of men in vain Contend for bleffings which the worst obtain !

(6) Victrix caufa Deis placuit, fed victa Catoni..

The confent of fo many ages having established the reputation of this line, it may perhaps be prefumption to attack it; but it is not to be fuppofed that Cato, who is defcribed to have been a man of rigid morals and strict devotion, more refembling the gods, than men, would have chofen any party in oppofition to those gods whom he profeffed to adore. The poet would give us to underfland, that his hero was too righteous a person to accompany the divinities themselves in an unjust caufe; but to reprefent a mortal man to be either wifer or jufter than the Deity, may fhew the impiety of the writer, but add nothing to the merit of the hero; neither reason nor religion will allow it; and it is impoffible for a corrupt being to be more excellent than a divine; fuccefs implies permission, and not approbation; to place the gods always on the thriving fide, is to make them partakers of all fuccefsful wickednefs to judge right, we muft wait for the conclufion of the action; the catastrophe will beft decide on which fide is Providence; and the violent death of Cæfar acquits the gods from being companions of his ufurpation.

Lucan was a determined Republican, no wonder he was a Free-thinker.

*Lucan.

The

The gods, permitting traitors to fucceed,
Become not parties in an impious deed;
And by the tyrant's murder we may find,
That Cato and the gods were of a mind.
Thus forcing truth with fuch prepofterous
praise,

Our characters we leffen when we'd raise ;
Like caftles built by magic art in air,

That vanish at approach, fuch thoughts appear;
But rais'd on truth by fome judicious hand,
As on a rock, they fhall for ages stand.

(7) Our King return'd*, and banish'd Peace
reftor'd,

The Mufe ran mad to fee her exil❜d lord;

(7) Mr. Dryden in one of his prologues has these two lines: He's bound to please, not to write well, and knows

There is a mode in plays as well as clothes.

From whence it is plain, where he has expofed himself to the critics, he was forced to follow the fashion to humour an audience, and not to please himfelf: a hard facrifice to make for prefent fubfiftence, efpecially for fuch as would have their writings live as well as themfelves. Nor can the poet whofe labours are his daily bread be delivered from this cruel neceffity, unlefs fome more certain encouragement can be provided than the bare uncertain profits of a third day, and the theatre be put under fome more impartial management than the jurifdiction of players. Who write to live must unavoidKing Charles II.

ably

On the crack'd ftage the bedlamn heroes roar'd,
And fcarce could speak one reasonable word:
Dryden himself, to please a frantic age,
Was forc'd to let his judgment ftoop to rage;
To a wild audience he conform'd his voice,
Comply'd to custom, but not err'd by choice..

ably comply with their tafte by whofe approbation they subfit; fome generous prince, or prime minifter like Richlieu, can only find a remedy. In his epiftle dedicatory to The Spanith Friar, this incomparable poet thus cenfures himself:

"I remember fome verfes of my own Maximin and Al"manzor which cry vengeance upon me for their extrava

gance, &c. All I can fay for thofe paffages, which are, I "hope, not many, is, that I knew they were bad enough to "please even when I wrote them; but I repent of them +66 among my fins; and if any of their fellows intrude by chance "into my prefent writings, I draw a ftroke over thofe Dali"lahs of the theatre, and am resolved I will settle myself no "6 reputation by the applaufe of fools: it is not that I am mortified to all ambition, but I fcorn as much to take it from half-witted judges as I fhould to raise an estate by cheating "of bubbles: neither do I difcommend the lofty ftyle in tra"gedy, which is pompous and magnificent; but nothing is truly fublime that is not just and proper."

This may ftand as an unanswerable apology for Mr. Dryden against his critics; and likewife for an unquestionable authority to confirm thofe principles which the foregoing poem pretends to lay down; for nothing can be just and proper but what is built upon truth.

Deem

Deem then the people's, not the writer's, fin
Almanzor's rage and rants of Maximin :
That fury spent, in each elaborate piece

He vies for fame with ancient Rome and Greece.
First Mulgrave rofe, Rofcommon next *, like

light,

To clear our darkness, and to guide our flight;
With steady judgment, and in lofty founds,
"They gave us patterns, and they fet us bounds.
The Stagyrite and Horace laid afide,

Inform'd by them we need no foreign guide:
Who feek from poetry a lasting name,
May in their leffons learn the road to fame
But let the bold adventurer be sure

That every line the teft ef truth endure:
On this foundation may the fabric rife,
Firm and unfhaken, till it touch the fkies.

From pulpits banish'd, from the court, from

love,

Forfaken Truth feeks fhelter in the grove :
Cherish, ye Mufes! the neglected fair,

And take into your train th'abandon'd wanderer.

Earl of Mulgrave's Effay upon Poetry, and Lord Refcommon's upon Tranflated Verfe.

[1]

ROW E.

[ICHOLAS ROWE was born

NICH

at Little Beckford in Bedford

fhire in 1673. His family had long poffeffed a confiderable eftate, with a good house, at Lambertoun in Devonfhire. The ancestor from whom he defcended in a direct line, received the arms borne by his defcendants for his bravery in the Holy War. His father John Rowe, who was the firft that quitted his paternal acres to practife any art of profit, profeffed the law, and

*In the Villare, Lamerton,