rally loved; he was in times of contest and turbulence steady to his party, and obtained that esteem, which is always conferred upon firmness and consistency. With those advantages, having learned the art of versifying, he declared himself a poet; and his claim to the laurel was allowed.

But by a critic of a later generation, who takes up his book without any favourable prejudices, the praise already received will be thought sufficient; for his works do not show him to have had much comprehension from nature, or illumination from learning. He seems to have had no ambition above the imitation of Waller, of whom he has copied the faults, and very little more. He is for ever amusing himself with the puerilities of mythology; his king is Jupiter, who, if the queen brings no children, has a barren Juno. The queen is compounded of Juno, Venus, and Minerva. His poem on the dutchess of Grafton's law-suit, after having rattled awhile with Juno and Pallas, Mars and Alcides, Cassiope, Niobe, and the Propetides, Hercules, Minos, and Rhadamanthus, at last concludes its folly with profaneness.

His verses to Myra, which are most frequently mentioned, have little in them of either art or nature, of the sentiments of a lover, or the language of a poet: there may be found, now and then, a happier effort; but they are commonly feeble and unaffecting, or forced and extravagant.

His little pieces are seldom either sprightly or elegant, either keen or weighty. They are trifles written by idleness, and published by vanity. But his Prologues and Epilogues have a jùst claim to praise.

The Progress of Beauty seems one of his most elaborate pieces, and is not deficient in splendour and gaiety; but the merit of original thought is wanting. Its highest praise is the spirit with which he celebrates king James's consort, when she was a queen no longer.

The Essay on unnatural Flights in Poetry is not inelegant nor injudicious, and has something of vigour beyond most of his other performances: his precepts are just, and his cautions proper; they are indeed not new, but in a didactic poem novelty is to be expected only in the ornaments and illustrations. His poetical precepts are accompanied with agreeable and instructive notes.

The masque of Peleus and Thetis has here and there a pretty line; but it is not always melodious, and the conclusion is wretched.

In his British Enchanters he has bidden defiance to all chronology, by confounding the inconsistent manners of different ages; but the dialogue has often the air of Dryden's rhyming plays; and his songs are lively, though not very correct. This is, I think, far the best of his works; for, if it has many faults, it has likewise passages which are at least pretty, though they do not rise to any high degree of excellence.

PREFACE.

Ar my return, after near ten years absence, I found several editions had been published of Verses and

Poems, &c. under my name, but so maimed and imperfect as would have put me out of countenance, had not the public received them with such distinguishing candour, even under all those disadvantages. As it is plain, from their several subjects, that they were composed for the most part in the earliest time of my appearance in the world, I can attribute that indulgence to no other consideration but a generous connivance at youthful follies.

So favourable a reception, however, led me, in this time of leisure and retirement, to examine upon what foundation I had been so much obliged to the public; and in that examination I have discovered such strange variations from the original writing, as can no way be accounted for but from the negligence, ignorance, or conceitedness of different transcribers from surreptitious copies: many things attributed to myself, of which, by not belonging to me, it would be unjust to assume the merit; and as many attributed to others, which, by belonging to me, would be as much unjust to leave them to the

censure.

To rectify therefore all past mistakes, and to prevent all future impositions, I have been prevailed upon to give way to this present publication; disowning whatever has been, or may hereafter be published in my name, but what has the sanction of being printed by Mr. Jacob Tonson and Mr. Lawton Gilliver; excepting two comedies, entitled, Once a Lover and always a Lover; and, The Jew of Venice, altered from Shakespear.

As these poems seem to begin where Mr. Waller left off, though far unequal and short of so inimitable an original; they may, however, be permitted to remain to posterity as a faithful register of the reigning beauties in the succeeding age.

Upon that merit alone the author presumes to recommend them to the patronage of the fair sex.

LANSDOWNE.

1

POEMS

OF

GEORGE GRANVILLE, LORD LANSDOWNE.

H'S Juno barren in unfruitful jours employs: radiant Este gives the royal prize brings,