could produce an allusion whenever it was wanted. Perhaps there never was a long work supported with equal spirit; for though the polemical discussions between the knight and squire may appear tedious to us at a period so remote from the date of the poem, yet they are equally witty with the more lively parts which depict the character and actions of the hero, and afford a most admirable picture of the absurd controversies of the times. What an admirable episode is that of Sidrophel, and where can a scene be found so witty and so comic as the dialogue between the knight and the lawyer? The outline of Hudibras is undoubtedly taken from Don Quixote, but it is a very bare outline, or rather a hint; for both the subject, and the manner of treating it, are essentially different. Mr. Prior's Alma may be classed among the Hudibrastic satires; at least it has the same measure. Most of the satirical pieces of Swift are in what is called Hudibrastic verse, for this extraordinary poem has even given a name to one of our English measures, the eight syllable verse, with occasionally the double rhymes. Of Swift's satirical pieces in verse, the poem on his own death is by far the best. The Legion Club might more properly rank in the second class, as, though satirical, it is of a serious cast; but the mind of the incomparable writer was evidently on the decline when it was composed. Boileau's Lutrin, Garth's Dispensary, Dryden's M'Flecnoe, and Mr. Pope's Dunciad, the hint of which is taken from the M'Flecnoe, but which is as much superior as every thing of Pope is to every thing of Dryden, may be classed among the serious satires. In all of these, however, there is something of a plot or story, in which they (as well as Hudibras) differ from the specimens we have of the Roman satire. Dr. Young's Love of Fame is also methodical, though methodical in a didactic sense. The satires of Horace, Juvenal and Perseus are more desultory, and miscellaneous, though Juvenal has in general more of method than Horace. I cannot give you better specimens of this description of satiric poetry than the following extracts from the 3d Satire of Juvenal, as imitated by Dr. Johnson "Tho' grief and fondness in my breast rebel, "When injur'd Thales bids the town farewel, "Yet still my calmer thoughts his choice commend, "I praise the hermit, but regret the friend, "Who now resolves, from vice and London far, "To breathe in distant fields à purer air, "And, fix'd on Cambria's solitary shore, "Give to St. David one true Briton more. "For who would leave, unbrib'd, Hibernia's land, "Or change the rocks of Scotland for the Strand? "There none are swept by sudden fate away, "But all, whom hunger spares, with age decay: "Here malice, rapine, accident, conspire, "And now a rabble rages, now a fire; «Their ambush here relentless ruffians lay, "And here the fell attorney prowls for prey; "Here falling houses thunder on your head, "And here a female atheist talks you dead. "While Thales waits the wherry that contains "Of dissipated wealth the small remains, "On Thames's banks, in silent thought we stood, "Where Greenwich smiles upon the silver flood: "Struck with the seat that gave * Eliza birth, "We kneel, and kiss the consecrated earth; "In pleasing dreams the blissful age renew, "And call Britannia's glories back to view; "Behold her cross triumphant on the main, "The guard of commerce, and the dread of Spain, "Ere masquerades debauch'd, excise oppress❜d, "Or English honour grew a standing jest. *Queen Elizabeth, born at Greenwich, "A transient calm the happy scenes bestow, "And for a moment lull the sense of woe. "At length, awaking with contemptuous frown, 66 Indignant Thales eyes the neighb'ring town." Let live here, for has learn'd to live. "Here let those reign, whom pensions can incite "To vote a patriot black, a courtier white; Explain their country's dear-bought rights away, "And plead for pirates in the face of day; "With slavish tenets taint our poison'd youth, "And lend a lie the confidence of truth. “Let such raise palaces, and manors buy, “Collect a tax, or farm a lottery, "With warbling eunuchs fill a licens'd stage, “ And lull to servitude a thoughtless age." "But what, my friend, what hopes remain for me, "Who start at theft, and blush at perjury? "Who scarce forbear, tho' Britain's court he sing, "To pluck a titled poet's borrow'd wing; “A statesman's logic unconvinc'd can hear, "And dare to slumber o'er the Gazetteer; Despise a fool in half his pension drest, "And strive in vain to laugh at H———y's jest, "Others with softer smiles, and subtler art, "Can sap the principles, or taint the heart; "With more address a lover's note convey, "Or bribe a virgin's innocence away, "Well may they rise, while I, whose rustic tongue "Ne'er knew to puzzle right, or varnish wrong, Spurn'd as a beggar, dreaded as a spy, "Live unregarded, unlamented die.” "The cheated nation's happy fav'rites see! "Mark whom the great caress, who frown on me! "London! the needy villain's general home, "The common-sewer of Paris and of Rome; "With eager thirst, by folly or by fate, "Sucks in the dregs of each corrupted state. "Forgive my transports on a theme like this, "I cannot bear a French metropolis." "By numbers here from shame or censure free, "All crimes are safe, but hated poverty. "This, only this, the rigid Jaw pursues, "This, only this, provokes the snarling muse. "The sober trader at a tatter'd cloak, "Wakes from his dream, and labours for a joke; "With brisker air the silken courtiers gaze, "And turn the varied taunt a thousand ways. "Of all the griefs that harass the distress'd, "Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest: "Fate never wounds more deep the gen'rous heart, "No pathless waste, or undiscover'd shore? |
