THE

PREFACE.

HEN I firft thought of writing upon this

W occafion, I found the ideas fo great and

numerous, that I judged them more proper for the warmth of an ode, than for any other fort of poetry; I therefore fet HORACE before me for a pattern, and particularly his famous ode, the fourth of the fourth book,

Qualem miniftrum fulminis alitem, &c.

which he wrote in praise of DRURSUS after his expedition into GERMANY, and of AUGUSTUS upon his happy choice of that general. And in the following poem, though I have endeavoured to imitate all the great ftrokes of that ode, I have taken the liberty to go off from it, and to add varioufly, as the fubject and my own imagination carried me. As to the ftyle, the choice I made of following the ode in latin, determined me in English to the stanza; and herein it was impoffible not to have a mind to

follow our great countryman SPENSER; which I have done (as well as I could) in the manner of my expreffion, and the turn of my number; having only added one verfe to his ftanza, which I thought made the number more harmonious; and avoided fuch of his words, as I found too obfolete. I have however retained fome few of them, to make the colouring look more like SPENSER'S. Beheft, command; band, army; prowess, ftrength; I weet, I know; Iween, I think; whilom, heretofore; and two or three more of that kind, which I hope the ladies will pardon me, and not judge my MUSE lefs handfome, though for once the appears in a farthingale. I have alfo in SPENSER'S manner, ufed Cæfar for the Emperor, Boya for Bavaria, Bavar for that Prince, Ifter for Danube, Iberia for Spain, &c.

That noble part of the ode which I just now mentioned,

Gens, quae cremato fortis ab Ilio

Jactata Tufcis aequoribus, &c.

where HORACE praises the Romans, as being defcended from Eneas, I have turned to the honour of the BRITISH nation, defcended from BRUTE, likewife a TROJAN. That this BRUTE, fourth or fifth from Æneas, fettled in ENGLAND, and built LONDON, which he called Troja Nova or Troynovante, is a story which (I think) owes its original if not to GEOFFRY of Monmouth, at least to the Monkish writers, yet is not rejected by our great CAM

DEN, and is told by MILTON, as if (at leaff) he was pleased with it; though poffibly he does not believe it; however it carries a poetical authority, which is fufficient for our purpofe. It is as certain that BRUTE came into ENGLAND, as that AENEAS went into ITALY; and upon the fuppofition of thefe facts, VIRGIL wrote the best poem that the world ever read, and SPENSER paid Queen ELIZARETH the greatest compliment.

I NEED not obviate one piece of criticism, that I bring my hero

From burning Troy, and Xanthus red with blood

whereas he was not born, when that city was detroyed. VIRGIL in the case of his own AENEAS relating to DIDO, will ftand as a fufficient proof, that a man in his poetical capacity is not accountable for a little fault in chronology.

My two great examples, HORACE and SPENSER, in many things refemble each other: both have a height of imagination, and a majesty of expreffion in defcribing the fublime; and both know how to temper thofe talents, and fweeten the defcription, fo as to make it lovely as well as pompous; both have equally that agreeable manner of mixing mo. rality with their ftory, and that curiosa felicitas in the choice of their diction, which every writer aims at, and fo very few have reached; both are particularly fine in their images, and knowing in their num

Ber. Leaving therefore our two mafters to the confideration and study of those who defign to excel in poetry, Lonly beg leave to add, that it is long fince I have (or at leaft ought to have) quitted PARNAS sus, and all the flowery roads on that fide of the country; though I thought myself indifpenfably: obliged, upon the prefent occafion, to take a little journey into those parts.