1

But gentle Simkin 1 just reception finds
Amidst this monument of vanish'd minds:
Pure clinches the suburban muse affords,
And Panton 2 waging harmless war with words.
Here Flecknoe, as a place to fame well known,
Ambitiously design'd his Shadwell's throne.
For ancient Decker 3 prophesied long since,
That in this pile should reign a mighty prince,
Born for a scourge of wit, and flail of sense :
To whom true dulness should some Psyches owe,
But worlds of Misers from his pen should flow;
Humourists and hypocrites it should produce,
Whole Raymond families, and tribes of Bruce.5
Now Empress Fame had publish'd the renown
Of Shadwell's coronation through the town.
Roused by report of fame, the nations meet,
From near Bunhill, and distant Watling Street.
No Persian carpets spread the imperial way,
But scatter'd limbs of mangled poets lay:
From dusty shops neglected authors come,
Martyrs of pies, and reliques of the bum.
Much Heywood, Shirley, Ogleby there lay,
But loads of Shadwell almost choked the way.
Bilk'd stationers for yeomen stood prepared,
And Herringman 7 was captain of the guard.
The hoary prince in majesty appear'd,
High on a throne of his own labours rear'd.
At his right hand our young Ascanius sate,
Rome's other hope, and pillar of the state.

81

90

100

1 'Simkin:' a character of a cobbler, in an interlude. -Panton:' a famous punster. —3 'Decker:' Thomas Decker, a dramatic poet of James I.'s reign.-Worlds of Misers: 'The Miser' and The Humourists' were two of Shadwell's comedies.- Raymond' and 'Bruce:' the first of these is an insipid character in The Humourists; the second, in The Virtuoso.' Ogleby' translator of Virgil. -' 'Herringman:' Henry Herringman, a bookseller; see 'Life.'

His brows thick fogs, instead of glories, grace,
And lambent dulness play'd around his face.
As Hannibal did to the altars come,
Sworn by his fire, a mortal foe to Rome;
So Shadwell swore, nor should his vow be vain,
That he till death true dulness would maintain;
And, in his father's right, and realm's defence,
Ne'er to have peace with wit, nor truce with sense.
The king himself the sacred unction made,

As king by office, and as priest by trade.
In his sinister hand, instead of ball,

1

He placed a mighty mug of potent ale;
Love's Kingdom 1 to his right he did convey,
At once his sceptre and his rule of sway;
Whose righteous lore the prince had practised young,
And from whose loins recorded Psyche sprung.
His temples, last, with poppies were o'erspread,
That nodding seem'd to consecrate his head.
Just at the point of time, if fame not lie,
On his left hand twelve reverend owls did fly.
So Romulus, 'tis sung, by Tiber's brook,
Presage of sway from twice six vultures took.
The admiring throng loud acclamations make,
And omens of his future empire take.

The sire then shook the honours of his head,
And from his brows damps of oblivion shed,
Full on the filial dulness: long he stood,
Repelling from his breast the raging god ;
At length burst out in this prophetic mood:

Heavens bless my son, from Ireland let him reign

To far Barbadoes on the western main;

110

120

130

140

'Love's Kingdom' this is the name of the only play of Flecknoe's,

which was acted, but miscarried in the representation.

Of his dominion may no end be known,
And greater than his father's be his throne;
Beyond Love's kingdom let him stretch his pen !---
He paused, and all the people cried, Amen.
Then thus continued he: My son, advance
Still in new impudence, new ignorance.
Success let others teach, learn thou from me
Pangs without birth, and fruitless industry.
Let Virtuosos 1 in five years be writ;
Yet not one thought accuse thy toil of wit. --
Let gentle George 2 in triumph tread the stage,
Make Dorimant betray, and Loveit rage;
Let Cully, Cockwood, Fopling, charm the pit,
And in their folly show the writer's wit.
Yet still thy fools shall stand in thy defence,
And justify their author's want of sense.
Let them be all by thy own model made
Of dulness, and desire no foreign aid;
That they to future ages may be known,
Not copies drawn, but issue of thy own.
Nay, let thy men of wit too be the same,
All full of thee, and differing but in name.
But let no alien Sedley 3 interpose,

To lard with wit thy hungry Epsom prose.

And when false flowers of rhetoric thou wouldst cull,

Trust nature, do not labour to be dull;

But write thy best, and top; and, in each line,

Sir Formal's 5 oratory will be thine:

Sir Formal, though unsought, attends thy quill,
And does thy northern dedications fill.

141

150

160

170

1 'Virtuoso:' a play of Shadwell's. — 2 Gentle George: Sir George Etheredge. - Alien Sedley:' Sir Charles Sedley was supposed to assist Shadwell in writing his plays. - Epsom prose:'allading to Shadwell's play of Epsom Wells.'. Formal:' a character in The Virtuoso.'

·

Nor let false friends seduce thy mind to fame,
By arrogating Jonson's hostile name.

Let Father Flecknoe fire thy mind with praise,
And uncle Ogleby thy envy raise.

Thou art my blood, where Jonson has no part:
What share have we in nature, or in art?
Where did his wit on learning fix a brand,
And rail at arts he did not understand?
Where made he love in prince Nicander's 1 vein,
Or swept the dust in Psyche's humble strain?
Where sold he bargains, whip-stitch, kiss my a―e,
Promised a play, and dwindled to a farce?
When did his muse from Fletcher scenes purloin,
As thou whole Etheridge dost transfuse to thine?
But so transfused, as oil and waters flow,
His always floats above, thine sinks below.
This is thy province, this thy wondrous way,
New humours to invent for each new play:
This is that boasted bias of thy mind,
By which one way to dulness 'tis inclined:
Which makes thy writings lean on one side still,
And, in all changes, that way bends thy will.
Nor let thy mountain-belly make pretence
Of likeness; thine's a tympany of sense.
A tun of man in thy large bulk is writ,
But sure thou 'rt but a kilderkin of wit.
Like mine, thy gentle numbers feebly creep;
Thy tragic muse gives smiles thy comic sleep.
With whate'er gall thou sett'st thyself to write,
Thy inoffensive satires never bite.

In thy felonious heart though venom lies,

It does but touch thy Irish pen, and dies.

Nicander: a character of a lover in Shadwell's opera of Psyche.'

171

180

190

200

Thy genius calls thee not to purchase fame
In keen Iambics, but mild Anagram.

1

Leave writing plays, and choose for thy command,
Some peaceful province in Acrostic land.
There thou mayst wings display and altars 1 raise,
And torture one poor word ten thousand ways.
Or, if thou wouldst thy different talents suit,
Set thy own songs, and sing them to thy lute.

He said; but his last words were scarcely heard:
For Bruce and Longville 2 had a trap prepared,
And down they sent the yet declaiming bard.
Sinking he left his drugget robe behind,
Borne upwards by a subterranean wind.
The mantle fell to the young prophet's part,
With double portion of his father's art.

203

210

BRITANNIA REDIVIVA:

A POEM ON THE PRINCE, BORN JUNE 10, 1688.

OUR vows are heard betimes! and Heaven takes care To grant, before we can conclude the prayer:

Preventing angels met it half the way,

And sent us back to praise, who came to pray.

Just on the day, when the high-mounted Sun
Did furthest in his northern progress run,
He bended forward, and even stretch'd the sphere
Beyond the limits of the lengthen'd year,

To view a brighter sun in Britain born;
That was the business of his longest morn; -

The glorious object seen, 'twas time to turn.

10

1 'Wings and altars:' forms in which old acrostics were cast. See Herbert's 'Temple.'-2 Bruce and Longville:' two characters in Shadwell's 'Virtuoso.'