If on your harrow’d souls impress’d you feel

The stamp of nature’s uncontested seal;—

Demand no other proof, nor idly pore

O’er mouldy manuscripts of ancient lore,

To see if every tawny line display

The genuine ink of fam’d Eliza’s day:

Nor strive with curious industry to know

How poets spelt two centuries ago.

But if these proofs should fail; if in the strain

You seek the drama’s awful sire in vain,