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his furious Engins, and bring Your Empire* hors de Page.'

IT were endless to recount the several Methods of Tyranny and Destruction, which Your Governour is pleased to practise upon this Occasion. His inveterate Malice is such to the Writings of our Age, that of several Thousands produced yearly from this renowned City, before the next Revolution of the Sun, there is not one to be heard of: Unhappy Infants, many of them barbarously destroyed, before they have so much as learnt their Mother-Tongue to beg for Pity. Some he stifles in their Cradles, others he frights into Convulsions, whereof they suddenly die; Some he flays alive, others he tears Limb from Limb. Great Numbers are offered to Moloch, and the rest tainted by his Breath, die of a languishing Consumption.

BUT the Concern I have most at Heart, is for our Corporation of Poets, from whom I am preparing a Petition to Your Highness, to be subscribed with the Names of one hundred thirty six of the first Rate, but whose immortal Productions are never likely to reach your Eyes, tho' each of them is now an humble and an earnest Appellant for the Laurel,3 and has large comely Volumes ready to shew for a Support to his Pretensions. The never-dying Works of these illustrious Persons, Your Governour, Sir, has devoted to unavoidable Death, and Your Highness is to be made believe, that our Age has never arrived at the Honor to produce one single Poet. WE confess Immortality to be a great and powerful * Out of Guardianship.

1 Cf. Algernon Sidney, Discourses concerning Government (1698), p. 233.,

2 Cf. Jeremiah xxxii. 35. 3 The appointment as PoetLaureate lapsed on the death of the sovereign. Does this sentence

refer to the vacancy on the accession of Anne (in which case it is an insertion, the dedication being dated Decemb. 1697'); or is its application general? Cf. p. 36,

note 2.

Goddess, but in vain we offer up to her our Devotions and our Sacrifices, if Your Highness's Governour, who has usurped the Priesthood, must by an unparallel'd Ambition and Avarice, wholly intercept and devour them.

TO affirm that our Age is altogether Unlearned, and devoid of Writers in any kind, seems to be an Assertion so bold and so false, that I have been sometime thinking, the contrary may almost be proved by uncontroulable Demonstration." 'Tis true indeed, that altho' their Numbers be vast, and their Productions numerous in proportion, yet are they hurryed so hastily off the Scene, that they escape our Memory, and delude our Sight. When I first thought of this Address, I had prepared a copious List of Titles to present Your Highness as an undisputed Argument for what I affirm. The Originals were posted fresh upon all Gates and Corners of Streets; but returning in a very few Hours to take a Review, they were all torn down, and fresh ones in their Places I enquired after them among Readers and Booksellers, but I enquired in vain, the Memorial of them was lost among Men, their Place was no more to be

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found and I was laughed to scorn, for a Clown and a Pedant, without all Taste and Refinement, little versed in the Course of present Affairs, and that knew nothing of what had pass'd in the best Companies of Court and Town. So that I can only avow in general to Your Highness, that we do3 abound in Learning and Wit; but to fix upon Particulars, is a Task too slippery for my slender Abilities. If I should venture in a windy Day, to affirm to Your Highness, that there is a large Cloud near the Horizon in the Form of a Bear, another in the Zenith with the Head of an Ass, a third to the Westward with Claws like a Dragon; and Your Highness should in a few Minutes think fit to examine the Truth, 'tis certain, they would all be changed in Figure and Position, new ones would arise, and all we could agree ́upon would be, that Clouds there were, but that I was grossly mistaken in the Zoography and Topography of

them.

BUT Your Governour, perhaps, may still insist, and put the Question: What is then become of those immense Bales of Paper, which must needs have been employ'd in such Numbers of Books? Can these also be wholly annihilate, and so of a sudden as I pretend? What shall I say in return of so

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invidious an Objection? It ill befits the Distance between Your Highness and Me, to send You for ocular Conviction to a Jakes, or an Oven; to the Windows of a Bawdy-house, or to a sordid Lanthorn. Books, like Men their Authors, have no more than one Way of coming into the World, but there are ten Thousand to go out of it, and return no more.

my

I profess to Your Highness, in the Integrity of Heart, that what I am going to say is literally true this Minute I am writing: What Revolutions may happen before it shall be ready for your Perusal, I can by no means warrant: However I beg You to accept it as a Specimen of our Learning, our Politeness and our Wit. I do therefore affirm upon the Word of a sincere Man, that there is now actually in being, a certain Poet called John Dryden, whose Translation of Virgil was lately printed' in a large Folio, well bound, and if diligent search were made, for ought I know, is yet to be seen. There is another call'd Nahum Tate, who is ready to make Oath that he has caused many Rheams of Verse to be published, whereof both himself and his Bookseller (if lawfully required) can still produce authentick Copies, and therefore wonders why the World is pleased to make such a Secret of it. There is a Third, known by the Name of Tom Durfey,3 a Poet of a vast Comprehen

Published in July 1697. It was 'seen' by the writer of the notes of 1710; see p. 55, note 2.

2 Nahum Tate was PoetLaureate; he succeeded Shadwell in 1692, and was reappointed by Anne.

3 Among the works of Tom Durfey is a burlesque of John Norris's Theory of the Intelligible World (1700-4), entitled An Essay Towards the Theory of

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the Intelligible World. Intuitively Considered. Designed for Fortynine Parts. Part III. Consisting of a Preface, a Post-script, and a little something between. By Gabriel John. Enriched with a Faithful Account of his Ideal Voyage, and Illustrated with Poems by several Hands, as likewise with other strange things not insufferably Clever, nor furiously to the Purpose. The Arche

sion, an universal Genius, and most profound Learning There are also one Mr. Rymer, and one Mr. Dennis, most profound Criticks. There is a Person styl'd Dr. B--tl-y, who has written near a thousand Pages of immense Erudition,' giving a full and true Account of a certain Squable of wonderful Importance between himself and a Bookseller: He is a Writer of infinite Wit and Humour; no Man raillyes with a better Grace, and in more sprightly Turns. Farther, I avow to Your Highness, that with these Eyes I have beheld the Person of William W--tt--n, B.D. who has written a good sizeable volume 3 against a Friend of Your Governor,* (from whom, alas! he must therefore look for little Favour) in a most gentlemanly Style, adorned with utmost Politeness and Civility; replete with Discoveries equally valuable for their Novelty and Use: and em

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book, and its use of 'chasms', are partly imitated from the Tale.

I Bentley's Pieces concerning Phalaris' Epistles, &c. [1720].

The reference is not to Bentley's 'Pieces' in general, but to the long preface to the Dissertation of 1699. The Bookseller' was Thomas Bennet, the publisher of Boyle's Examination.

2 Cf. the title-page of the Battle of the Books.

3 Reflexions on ancient and modern Learning [1720].

The second edition of Wotton's

Reflexions, with Bentley's Dissertation, contains over six hundred pages. It contrasted in size with Temple's 'essay'.

Antiquity [1720]. Swift refers to Temple, the champion of the ancients, and therefore the friend of Time.

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