Shine through th' infipid dulness of the rest;
Here they defcribe a temple, or a wood,
Or streams that through delightful meadows run,
And there the rainbow, or the rapid Rhine;
But they misplace them all, and crowd them in,
And are as much to feek in other things,
As he that only can defign a tree,

Would be to draw a fhipwreck or a storm.
When you begin with so much pomp and fhow,
Why is the end fo little and fo low?

Be what you will, fo you be ftill the fame.
Moft poets fall into the grossest faults,
Deluded by a feeming excellence :

By ftriving to be fhort, they grow obscure,

And when they would write fmoothly, they want ftrength, Their fprits fink; while others, that affect

A lofty ftyle, fwell to a tympany;

Some timorous wretches ftart at every blast,

And, fearing tempefts, dare not leave the fhore;
Others, in love with wild variety,

Draw boars in waves, and dolphins in a wood;
Thus fear of erring, join'd with want of skill,
Is a most certain way of erring still.

The meaneft workman in th' Æmilian square,
May grave the nails, or imitate the hair,
But cannot finish what he hath begun;
What can be more ridiculous than he?
For one or two good features in a face,
Where all the rest are fcandalously ill,
Make it but more remarkably deform'd.

Let

Let poets match their subject to their strength, And often try what weight they can fupport, And what their fhoulders are too weak to bear. After a ferious and judicious choice,

Method and eloquence will never fail.

As well the force as ornament of verfe
Confist in choofing a fit time for things,
And knowing when a Mufe may be indulg'd
In her full flight, and when she should be curb'd.
Words must be chofen, and be plac'd with skill:
You gain your point, when by the noble art
Of good connexion, an unusual word

Is made at firft familiar to our ear.

But if you write of things abftrufe or new,
Some of your own inventing may be us'd,
So it be feldom and difcreetly done :
But he that hopes to have new words allow'd,
Muft fo derive them from the Grecian fpring,
As they may feem to flow without constraint.
Can an impartial reader discommend

In Varius, or in Virgil, what he likes
In Plautus or Cæcilius? Why should I
Be envy'd for the little I invent,
When Ennius and Cato's copious style
Have fo enrich'd, and fo adorn'd our tongue ?
Men ever had, and ever will have, leave
To coin new words well fuited to the age.
Words are like leaves, fome wither every year,
And every year a younger race fucceeds.
Death is a tribute all things owe to fate;

The Lucrine mole (Cæfar's ftupendous work)
Protects our navies from the raging north;
And (fince Cethegus drain'd the Pontine lake)
We plow and reap where former ages row'd.
See how the Tiber (whofe licentious waves
So often overflow'd the neighbouring fields)
Now runs a smooth and inoffenfive course,
Confin'd by our great Emperor's command:
Yet this, and they, and all, will be forgot;
Why then should words challenge eternity,
When greatest men and greatest actions die?
Ufe may revive the obsoletest words,

And banish those that now are most in vogue;
Ufe is the judge, the law, and rule of speech.
Homer first taught the world in epick verfe
To write of great commanders, and of kings.
Elegies were at first design'd for grief,
Though now we use them to express our joy :
But to whofe Mufe we owe that fort of verfe,
Is undecided by the men of skill.

Rage with Tambicks arm'd Archilochus,
Numbers for dialogue and action fit,

And favourites of the Dramatic Mufe.
Fierce, lofty, rapid, whofe commanding found
Awes the tumultuous noifes of the pit,
And whofe peculiar province is the stage.

Gods, heroes, conquerors, Olympic crowns,
Love's pleasing cares, and the free joys of wine,
Are proper fubjects for the Lyric fong.

Why is he honour'd with a poet's name,

Who

Who neither knows nor would obferve a rule;
And chooses to be ignorant and proud,
Rather than own his ignorance, and learn?
Let every thing have its due place and time.
A comic fubject loves an humble verse,
Thyeftes fcorns a low and comic style.
Yet comedy fometimes may raise her voice,
And Chremes be allow'd to foam and rail:
Tragedians too lay by their state too grieve;
Peleus and Telephus exil'd and poor,
Forget their fwelling and gigantic words.
He that would have fpectators fhare his grief,
Muft write not only well, but movingly,
And raise men's paffions to what height he will.
We weep and laugh, as we fee others do:
He only makes me fad who fhews the
And first is fad himself; then, Telephus,
I feel the weight of your calamities,
And fancy all your miseries my own :
But, if you act them ill, I fleep or laugh;
Your looks muft alter, as your fubject does,
From kind to fierce, from wanton to severe :
For nature forms, and foftens us within,
And writes our fortune's changes in our face.
Pleasure inchants, impetuous rage transports,
And grief dejects, and wrings the tortur'd foul,
And these are all interpreted by speech;
But he whose words and fortunes difagree,
Abfurd, unpity'd, grows a public jeft.
Obferve the characters of those that speak,

$ 4

way,

Whether

Whether an honeft fervant, or a cheat,

Or one whofe blood boils in his youthful veins,
Or a grave matron, or a bufy nurfe,
Extorting merchants, careful husbandmen,
Argives or Thebans, Afians or Greeks.

Follow report, or feign coherent things;
Defcribe Achilles, as Achilles was,
Impatient, rafh, inexorable, proud,
Scorning all judges, and all law but arms;
Medea must be all revenge and blood,
Ino all tears, Ixion all deceit,

Io muft wander, and Oreftes mourn.

If your bold Muse dare tread unbeaten paths,
And bring new characters upon the stage,
Be fure you keep them up to their first height,
New fubjects are not easily explain'd,

And you had better choose a well-known theme,
Than trust to an invention of your own:

For what originally others writ,

May be fo well difguis'd, and fo improv'd,
That with fome juftice it may pafs for yours;
But then you must not copy trivial things,
Nor word for word too faithfully tranflate,
Nor (as fome fervile imitators do)
Prefcribe at first fuch ftrict uneafy rules,
As you must ever flavifhly obferve,
Or all the laws of decency renounce.

Begin not as th' old poetafter did,
"Troy's famous war, and Priam's fate, I fing.”

In