Be all thy faults, whatever faults there be,
Imputed to the times, and not to thee.
Some fcions fhot from this immortal root,
Their tops much lower, and lefs fair the fruit,
Jonfon the tribute of my verfe might claim,
Had he not ftrove to blemish Shakespeare's name.
But, like the radiant twins that gild the sphere,
Fletcher and Beaumont next in pomp appear:
The first a fruitful vine, in blooming pride,
Had been by fuperfluity destroy'd,
But that his friend, judiciously severe,
Prun'd the luxuriant boughs with artful care
On various founding harps the Mufes play'd,
And fung, and quaff'd their nectar in the shade.
Few moderns in the lifts with these may stand,
For in those days were giants in the land:
Suffice it now by lineal right to claim,
And bow with filial awe to Shakespeare's fame;
The second honours are a glorious name.
Achilles dead, they found no equal lord
To wear his armour, and to wield his fword.
An age most odious and accurs'd enfued.
Difcolour'd with a pious monarch's blood;
Whose fall when first the tragic virgin faw
She fled, and left her province to the law.
Her merry fifter ftill pursued the game,
Her garb was alter'd, but her gifts the fame.
She first reform'd the mufcles of her face,
And learnt the folemn screw for signs of grace;
Then circumcis'd her locks, and form'd her tone,
By humming to tabor and a drone;
Her eyes fhe difciplin❜d precifely right,
Both when to wink, and how to turn the white: Thus banish'd from the ftage, fhe gravely next Assum'd a cloak, and quibbled o'er a text. But when, by miracles of mercy shown, Much-fuffering Charles regain'd his father's throne; When peace and plenty overflow'd the land, She ftrait pull'd off her fatin cap and band; Bade Wycherley be bold in her defence, With pointed wit, and energy of sense, Etherege and Sedley join'd him in her cause, And all deferv'd, and all receiv'd, applause. Reftor'd with lefs fuccefs, the Tragic Muse Had quite forgot her style by long difufe: She taught her Maximins to rant in rhyme, Mistaking rattling nonfenfe for fublime; Till witty Buckingham reform'd her taste, And fneering fham'd her into fense at last: But now relaps'd, fhe dwindles to a song, And weakly warbles on an eunuch's tongue; And with her minstrelfy may ftill remain Till Southerne court her to be great again. Perhaps the beauties of thy Spartan dame, Who (long defrauded of the public fame) Shall, with fuperior majefty avow'd, Shine like a goddess breaking from a cloud : Once more may re-inftate her on the stage, Her action graceful, and divine her rage.
Arts have their empires, and, like other states,
Their rife and fall are govern'd by the fates:
They, when their period's meafur'd out by time,
Transplant their laurels to another clime.
The Grecian Mufe once fill'd with loud alarms
The court of heaven, and clad the gods in arms;
The trumpet filent, humbly the essay'd
The Doric reed, and fung beneath the shade,
Extoll'd a frugal life, and taught the fwains
T' obferve the feafons, and manure the plains;
Sometimes in warbled hymns the paid her vow
Or wove Olympic wreaths for Theron's brow;
Sometimes on flowery beds fhe lay supine,
And gave her thoughts a loose to love and wine;
Or, in her fable stole and buskins drefs'd,
Shew'd vice enthron'd, and virtuous kings opprefs'd.
The nymph ftill fair, however past her bloom,
From Greece at length was led in chains to Rome :
Whilft wars abroad and civil discord reign'd,
Silent the beauteous captive long remain'd;
That interval employ'd her timely care
To ftudy, and refine the language there.
She views with anguifh on the Roman stage
The Grecian beauties weep, the warriors rage;
But most those scenes delight th' immortal maid,
Which Scipio had revis'd, and Roscius play'd.
Thence to the pleadings of the gown fhe goes
(For Themis then could speak in polish'd prose) :
Charm'd at the bar, amid th' attentive throng
She blefs'd the Syren-power of Tully's tongue.
But when, Octavius, thy fuccessful sword
Was fheath'd, and univerfal peace restor❜d,
Fond of a monarch, to the court she came,
And chose a numerous choir to chant his fame.
First from the green retreats and lowly plains,
Her Virgil foar'd fublime in epic strains ;
His theme fo glorious, and his flight so true,
She with Mæonian garlands grac'd' his brow ;
Taught Horace then to touch the Lesbian lyre,
And Sappho's fweetness join'd with Pindar's fire.
By Cæfar's bounty all the tuneful train
Enjoy'd, and fung of Saturn's golden reign;
No genius then was left to live on praise,
Or curs'd the barren ornament of bays;
On all her fons he caft a kind regard,
Nor could they write so fast as he reward.
The Muse, industrious to record his namę
In the bright annals of eternal fame,
Profufe of favours lavish'd all her store,
And for one reign made many ages poor.
Now from the rugged North unnumber'd swarms.
Invade the Latian coafts with barbarous arms;
A race unpolish'd, but inur'd to toil,
Rough as their heaven, and barren as their soil.
These locufts every fpringing art destroy'd,
And foft Humanity before them dy'd.
Picture no more maintain'd the doubtful strife
With Nature's scenes, nor gave the canvas life;
Nor Sculpture exercis'd her skill, beneath
Her forming hand to make the marble breathe :
Struck with defpair, they stood devoid of thought,
Lefs lively than the works themselves had wrought.
On thofe twin-fifters fuch difafters came,
Though colours and proportions are the fame
In every age and clime; their beauties known
To every language, and confin'd by none.
But fate less freedom to the Muse affords,
And checks her genius with the choice of words:
To paint her thoughts, the diction must be found
Of easy grandeur, and harmonious found.
Thus when the rais'd her voice divinely great
To fing the founder of the Roman state;
The language was adapted to the song,
Sweet and fublime, with native beauty ftrong:
But when the Goths infulting troops appear'd,
Such diffonance the trembling virgin heard!
Chang'd to a fwan, from Tyber's troubled ftreams
She wing'd her flight, and fought the filver Thames.
Long in the melancholy grove she staid,
And taught the penfive Druids in the fhade;
In folemn and inftructive notes they fung
From whence the beauteous frame of nature fprung,
Who polifh'd all the radiant orbs above,
And in bright order made the planets move;
Whence thunders roar, and frightful meteors fly,
And comets roll unbounded through the sky;
Who wing'd the winds, and gave the ftreams to flow,
And rais'd the rocks, and spread the lawns below;
Whence the gay spring exults in flowery pride,
And autumn with the bleeding grape is dy'd;
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