Not e'en the Stage; for entre nous I fear
Our Emulation is meer Envy here.
Whatever the Pursuits our Thoughts engage,
Envy's the ruling Passion of the Stage.
Yet here our Friends the Poets much surpass us;
Envy's a Weed that almost choaks Parnassus.
And what amazes most is often found
Mixt in the Harvest of the richest Ground.
While Poets railed and ruined in each Page,
We took it all for pure poetick Rage.