POEM.

[(a)] If Noble B———m,

THE late Duke of Buckingham! who made that fine Alteration of the Tragedy of Julius Cæsar from Shakespeare, and who is said by Mr. Pope to have bestow’d the finest Praise upon Homer that he ever received, in the following Lines;

Read Homer once, and you need read no more;

For all Things else will be so mean and poor,

Verse will seem Prose: Yet often on him look,

And you will never need another Book.

D—— of B——’s Essay on Poetry.

He has also printed a Copy of Verses in Praise of Pope, which were returned by another in Praise of his Grace. There is so great a Similitude in the Stile of these Writers, that the Reader, I think, need not doubt their Sincerity in admiring each other.

’Tis great Delight to laugh at some Mens Ways;

But ’tis much greater to give Merit Praise.

D—— of B——.

Sheffield approves, consenting Phœbus bends,

And I and Malice from this Hour, am Friends.

Pope.

[(b)] Who G———n’s Dulness———

Charles Gildon, dismiss’d from the D——’s Pension and Favour, on Account of his Obstinacy in refusing to take the Oaths to P—pe’s Supremacy.

[(c)] Smooth dull Unity of Sound.

P—pe’s Reputation for versifying is a vulgar Error, founded only on discreet Theft: Half a Line from Mr. Dryden’s Conquest of Mexico, and another from his Translation of Virgil, have seemingly made tolerable Music, when join’d in his Works; but Music of the Morocco Kind, which has but one Note.

[(d)] Who taught declining Wycherley———

Mr. Wycherley subscribed to a Compliment (some say, before his Death) upon P—pe’s Pastorals, in which he says, his Arcadia speaks the Language of the Mall, but does not explain, whether he means at Noon or Night. I do not agree with what Mr. Wycherley is supposed to have writ of him, but I do with what he certainly said of him, viz. That he was not able to make a Suit of Cloaths, but could perhaps turn an old Coat.

[(e)] Which Doctor Y———

The Reverend Doctor Edward Young, who, in this Quarrel of the great contending Powers in Poesy, has been courted by all Sides: But some late Incidents give a Suspicion, that he has privately acceded to the Treaty of Twickenham.

[(f)] Poor G——, who loses most——

Mr. Gay, not thought to be the entire Author of the Beggar’s Opera, and ordered to own Three Hours after Marriage.

[(g)] By Rich* recorded———*

Gilbert Pickering Rich. A great Admirer of P—pe, eminent for his Translation of Horace, which can be equall’d by nothing but P—pe’s translating of Homer. He concludes the first Ode by giving (sublimi feriam sidera vertice) in these Words;

I’ll bound, I’ll spring, I’ll strike the weaken’d Pole,

I’ll knock so hard, I’ll knock thro’ it a Hole.

[(h)] ———Breaks all Sinai’s Laws except the Second.

Second Commandment: “Thou shalt not make the Likeness of any Thing in Heaven above, or on the Earth beneath, or the Waters under the Earth.”

[(i)] Forget awhile Belinda* and the Sun.*

In the Rape of the Lock, Belinda and the Sun are very often said to be very much alike, which occasion’d two Lines in Praise of that Poem, written by a Friend of Mr. Pope;

Here, like the Sun, Belinda strikes the Swain,

In the same Page like the same Sun again.

Monsieur Boileau, speaking of the Poetasters of his Nation, in a Poem to the King, makes this Comparison the Consummation of Dulness;

Et enfin te compare au Solœil.

And in the End he compares your Majesty to the Sun.

[(k)] ———Half-paid drudging B——me.

The Reverend Mr. B——me, who translated a great Part of Homer, and construed the Rest: N.B. A half-paid Poet is oftentimes the Occasion of an unpaid Taylor.

[(l)] Sleep, Sleep in Peace———

These Lines are a Parody of a famous Passage in the Tragedy of Phædra and Hyppolitus.

Sleep, Sleep in Peace, ye Monsters of the Wood:

No more my early Horn shall wake———

So when bright Venus yielded up her Charms,

The blest Adonis languish’d in her Arms;

His idle Horn on flagrant Myrtle hung,

His Arrows scatter’d, and his Bow unstrung;

Obscure in Covert lay his dreaming Hounds,

And bay’d the fancy’d Boar with feeble Sounds:

For nobler Sports he quits the savage Fields,

And all the Hero to the Lover yields.

FINIS.

[THE] BLATANT-BEAST. A POEM. What is that Blatant-Beast? Then he reply’d. It is a Monster bred of hellish Race, Then answered he, which often hath annoy’d Good Knights and Ladies true, and many else destroy’d. Spencer’s Fairy Queen, Book VI. Canto I. No Might, no Greatness in Mortality Can Censure ’scape: Back-wounding Calumny The whitest Virtue strikes. What King so strong, Can tye the Gall up in sland’rous Tongue? Shakespear. LONDON: Printed for J. Robinson, at the Golden Lyon in Ludgate-street.
MDCCXLII.