то THE READER. POETA nascitur, non fit, is a sentence of as great truth as antiquity; it being most certain, that all the acquired learning imaginable is infufficient to complete a poet, without a natural genius and propenfity to fo noble and sublime an art. And we may without offence obferve, that many very learned men, who have been ambitious to be thought poets, have only rendered themselves obnoxious to that fatirical inspiration our author wittily invokes, "Which made them, tho' it were in spite Of nature and their ftats, to write." very On the other fide, fome who have had little human learning, but were endued with a large fhare of natural wit and parts, have become the most celebrated poets of the age they lived in. But as these last are rare aves in terris, fo, when the muses have not disdained the affiftances of other arts and fciences, we are then bleffed with those lasting monuments VOL. I. * Shakespeare, D'Avenant, &c. a of of wit and learning which may justly claim a kind of eternity upon earth; and our author, had his modefty permitted him, might with Horace have faid, 66 Exegi monumentum ære perennius." Or with Ovid, 66 Jamque opus exegi, quod nec Jovis ira, nec ignis, The author of this celebrated poem was of this last compofition; for, although he had not the happiness of an academical education, as fome affirm, it may be perceived, throughout his whole poem, that he had read much, and was very well accomplished in the most ufeful parts of human learning. Rapin (in his reflections), fpeaking of the neceffary qualities belonging to a poet, tells us, he must have a genius extraordinary; great natural gifts, wit:juft, fruitful, piercing, solid, and univerfal; an understanding clear and diftinct; an imagination neat and pleasant; an elevation of foul that depends not only on art or study, but is purely a gift of Heaven, which must be sustained by a lively sense and vivacity, judgment to confider wifely of things, and vivacity for the beautiful expreffion of them, &c. Now, Now, how justly this character is due to our author, I leave to the impartial reader, and thofe of nicer judgments, who had the happiness to be more intimately acquainted with him. The reputation of this incomparable poem is fo thoroughly established in the world, that it would be fuperfluous, if not impertinent, to endeavour any panegyric upon it. However, fince most men have a curiofity to have some account of fuch anonymous authors, whose compofitions have been eminent for wit or learning, I have been defired to oblige them with fuch informations as I could receive from those who had the happiness to be acquainted with him, and also to rectify the mistakes of the Oxford Antiquary, in his Athenæ Oxonienfes, concerning him. 2 2 |