their fouls than I fee of Dido's, at least I have a greater concernment for them: and that convinces me, that Ovid has touched thofe tender ftrokes more delicately than Virgil could. But when action or perfons are to be described, when any fuch image is to be fet before us, how bold, how mafterly are the ftrokes of Virgil! We fee the objects he prefents us with in their native figures, in their proper motions; but fo we fee them, as our own eyes could never have beheld them fo beautiful in themselves. We fee the foul of the poet, like that univerfal one of which he speaks, informing and moving through all his pictures: -Totamque infufa per artus "Mens agitat molem, & magno fe corpore mifcet." We behold him embellishing his images, as he makes Venus breathing beauty upon her fon Æneas." "Purpureum, & lætos oculis afflârat honores : See his Tempeft, his Funeral Sports, his Combat of Turnus and Æneas: and in his Georgics, which I efteem the divineft part of all his writings, the Plague, the Country, the Battle of the Bulls, the Labour of the Bees, and thofe many other excellent images of nature, moft of which are neither great in themfelves, nor have any natural ornament to bear them up: but the words wherewith he defcribes them are fo excellent, that it might be well applied to him, which was faid by Ovid, "Ma "Materiem fuperabat opus:" the very found of his words has often fomewhat that is connatural to the subject; and while we read him, we fit, as in a play, beholding the fcenes of what he reprefents. To perform this, he made frequent ufe of tropes, which you know change the nature of a known word, by applying it to fome other fignification; and this is it which Horace means in his epistle to the Pifo's: "Dixeris egregiè, notum fi callida verbum "Reddiderit jun&tura novum But I am fenfible I have prefumed too far to entertain you with a rude difcourfe of that art which you both know so well, and put into practice with so much happiness. Yet, before I leave Virgil, I must own the vanity to tell you, and by you the world, that he has been my mafter in this poem: I have followed him every where, I know not with what fuccefs, but I am fure with diligence enough: my images are many of them copied from him, and the reft are imitations of him. My expreffions alfo are as near as the idioms of the two languages would admit of in tranflation. And this, fir, I have done with that boldnefs, for which I will stand accountable to any of our little critics, who, perhaps, are o better acquainted with him than I am. Upon your first perufal of this poem, you have taken notice of some words, which I have innovated (if it be too bold for me to fay refined) upon his Latin; which, as I offer not to introduce into English profe, fo I hope they are neither improper, nor altogether inelegant in verfe; and, in this, Horace will again defend me. "Et "Et nova fictaque nuper habebunt verba fidem, fi "Græco fonte cadant, parcè detorta The inference is exceeding plain: for if a Roman poet might have liberty to coin a word, fuppofing only that it was derived from the Greek, was put into a Latin termination, and that he ufed this liberty but feldom, and with modefty; how much more juftly may I challenge that privilege to do it with the fame prerequifites, from the best and most judicious of Latin writers! In fome places, where either the fancy or the words were his, or any other's, I have noted it in the margin, that I might not seem a plagiary; in others I have neglected it, to avoid as well tedioufness, as the affectation of doing it too often. Such defcriptions or images well wrought, which I promise not for mine, are, as I have faid, the adequate delight of heroic poefy; for they beget admiration, which is its proper object; as the images of the burlefque, which is contrary to this, by the fame reafon beget laughter; for the one shews nature beautified, as in the picture of a fair woman, which we all admire; the other fhews her deformed, as in that of a lazar, or of a fool with diftorted face and antique geftures, at which we cannot forbear to laugh, because it is a deviation from nature. But though the fame images ferve equally for the Epic poefy, and for the hiftoric and panegyric, which are branches of it, yet a feveral fort of fculpture is to be used in them. If fome of them are to be like thofe of Juvenal, "Stantes in curribus Æmi"liani," "liani," heroes drawn in their triumphal chariots, and in their full proportion; others are to be like that of Virgil, "Spirantia mollius æra :" there is somewhat more of softness and tenderness to be fhewn in them. You will foon find I write not this without concern. Some, who have seen a paper of verses, which I wrote last year to her Highnefs the Dutchefs, have accufed them of that only thing I could defend in them. They faid, I did "humi ferpere ;" that I wanted not only height of fancy, but dignity of words, to set it off. I might well answer with that of Horace, "Nunc non erat his locus;" I knew I addressed them to a lady, and accordingly I affected the foftness of expreffion, and the smoothnefs of meafure, rather than the height of thought; and in what I did endeavour, it is no vanity to fay I have fucceeded. I deteft arrogance; but there is fome difference betwixt that and a juft defence. But I will not farther bribe your candor, or the reader's. I leave them to speak for me; and, if they can, to make out that character, not pretending to a greater, which I have given them. 66 And now, fir, it is time I fhould relieve you from the tedious length of this account. You have better and more profitable employment for your hours, and I wrong the publick to detain you longer. In conclufion, I must leave my poem to you with all its faults, which I hope to find fewer in the printing by your emendations. I know you are not of the number of thofe, of whom the younger Pliny fpeaks; "Nec funt parum multi, 'qui carpere amicos fuos judicium vocant:" I am rather του too fecure of you on that fide. Your candor in pardoning my errors may make you more remifs in correcting them; if you will not withal confider that they come into the world with your approbation, and through your hands. I beg from you the greatest favour you can confer upon an abfent perfon, fince I repofe upon your management what is deareft to me, my fame and reputation; and therefore I hope it will, ftir you up to make my poem fairer by many of your blots; if not, you know the ftory of the gamester who married the rich man's daughter, and when her father denied the portion, christened all the children by his furname, that if, in conclufion, they must beg, they should do fo by one name, as well as by the other. But fince the reproach of my faults will light on you, it is but reafon I fhould do you that justice to the readers, to let them know, that, if there be any thing tolerable in this poem, they owe the argument to your choice, the writing to your encouragement, the correction to your judgment, and the care of it to your friendship, to which he must ever acknowledge himself to owe all things, who is, |