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RHYME. |
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at least, are superior in these points to the generality of former writers. The following verses of Swift, upon the ancient dramatic authors, exhibit this faculty in a remarkable degree. He had superior abilities in rhyming, and he appears to have set himself down to this piece merely for the purpose of exerting them :
I went in vain to look for Eupolis,
Down in the Strand, just where the new pole is;
For I can tell you one thing, that I can,
You will not find it in the Vatican.
He and Cratinus used, as Horace says,
To take his greatest grandees for asses.
Poets, in those days, used to venture high;
But these are lost full many a century.
Thus you may see, dear friend, ex fede hence,
My judgment of the old comedians.
Proceed to tragics : first, Euripides (An author where I sometimes dip a' days) Is rightly censured by the Stagirite, Who says his numbers do not fadge aright. A friend of mine that author despises So much, he swears the very best piece is, For aught he knows, as bad as Thespis's; And that a woman, in these tragedies, Commonly speaking, but a sad jade is. At least, I'm well assured, that no folk lays The weight on him they do on Sophocles. But, above all, I prefer Eschylus, Whose moving touches, when they please, kill us
And now I find my muse but ill able To hold out longer in trisyllable.
"To Dr. SAeridcui." |
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Here follow a few instances of whimsical combi-
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