Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A33519
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Poetæ Britannici a poem satyrical and panegyrical.
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Cobb, Samuel, 1675-1713.
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1700
(1700)
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Wing C4773; ESTC R39987
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14,940
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29
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dead Homer whom they scorn'd alive So strangely wretched is the Poet's doom To wither here and flourish in the Tomb. His Fame when living does but slowly rise But stretches like his Body when he dies Though Virgil rising under happier Stars Saw Rome succeed in Learning as in Wars When Pollio like a smiling Planet shone And Caesar darted on him like the Sun The fam'd Maecenas listen'd with desire When Tuneful Flaccus touch'd the Roman Lyre But when Maecenas will thy Star appear In our low Orb and gild the British Sphere Say art thou come and to deceive our Eyes Dissemble under D set's fair disguise If so go on Great S ckv le to regard The Poet and th' imploring Muse reward So to thy Fame a Pyramid shall rise Nor shall the Poet fix Thee in the Skies For if a Verse Eternity can claim Thy own are able to preserve thy Name This Province all is Thine o'er which in vain Octavius hover'd long and sought to Reign This Sun prevail'd upon his Eagle's sight Glar'd in their Royal Eyes and stop'd their flight Let Him his Title to such Glory bring You give as freely and more nobly sing Reason will judge when both their Claims produce He shall his Empire boast and Thou the Muse. Horace and He are in thy Nature join'd The Patron 's Bounty with the Poet's Mind O Light of England and her highest Grace Thou best and greatest of thy ancient Race Descend when I invoke thy Name to shine For 't is thy praise on each unworthy Line While to the World unprejudic'd I tell Our English Poets and who most excel Thee with the foremost thro' the Globe I send Far as the British Arms or Memory extend But 't would be vain and tedious to rehearse The meaner Crowd undignify'd for Verse On barren Ground who drag th' unwilling Plow And feel the sweat of Brain as well as Brow Yet since in Verse they covet to be known Nor feel the biting Satyr in their own Since in the Front th' Intruders will appear And leave the noblest Poets in the rere With common Souldiers let their Names be curst Plac'd foremost only to be slain the first To save the Valiant from too quick a Fate Whose Silken Threads are spun for longer Date Whose Names in Brass or Iron plough'd shall brave Oblivion and th' inexorable Grave While that vile Crew which soon as read displease May slumber in Forgetfulness and Ease Till fresher dullness wakes their sleeping Memories Some stuff'd in Garrets dream for wicked Rhyme Where nothing but their Lodging is sublime Observe their twenty Faces how they strain To void forth Nonsense from their costive Brain O'er Darby-Ale maliciously they sit And mellow rail at VVoman or at VVit The vainest labour to secure renown Tho' each could be a P tt s or a B VVho in Burlesque Mob-Poets have out-ran But what 's a dapper Pigmy to a Man Lampoon and Satyr different skill betray Much as nice Fencing and Bear-Garden-Play The Satyr's push is Artful and Polite You must a pointed Hudibras indite A Fleckno or a Dispensary write Like polish'd Steel they glitter while the worst Must in Dishonour and Oblivion rust Tho' D y may grow troublesome to Fame Resolv'd to be Immortal to his Shame Let him with Quixots cloy the sated Town And cram Jack Straws and Massanello's Down In Comedy Immodest and Prophane And Comick only in the Tragick strain Impertinent indecent hardned vain The tickl'd Rabble view him with surprize The Phantom dazles their deluded Eyes Unable the Judicious to perswade They know his Essence and despise his Shade Nor can we Ry r's Memory forget VVho only wants good Nature and good VVit A more than Scythian Heart that could presume To bite the Dead and vex the peaceful Tomb. Who talk'd to Shakespear in Heroick Tone Where lay a Genius and produc'd his own As Edgar with Othello could be read And Tom Tram's Story vy'd with Holingshead But how could W st y in Heroick Dream When N by stood by and Christ's his Theme That Patron might encourage him to sing But sure the Saviour clip'd his daring Wing Expound his Doctrine not his Life Expose Desist from Epick and exhort in Prose Next M rn suffers under Fortunes Curse Unhappy in his Judgment and his Verse Art will no Succour to the Critick bring And Nature thwarts him when he aims to sing Cautiously resolute the Heat to shun He clap'd his Waxen Wings and dar'd the Sun Like Icarus but fell not from the Skies For he was prudent and refus'd to rise Go ply Aquinas and his Words maintain There in Divisions and Distinctions Reign Or if in Nobler Sense you would succeed Herculean St fleet and S ck read Unwearied B y's Sense and Learning use To wound the Atheist and the Deist bruise Things should be suited to their proper Tribe Leave S er to plead and R ffe to prescribe Let Arthur's Critick on our Virgil sit And Covent-Garden be the Judge of Wit But if you find a Thirst of being known A Critick in no Language but your own Then let the Poets a new C l er feel Correct with Knowledge and Reprove with Zeal Say now whom next wilt thou Aonian Muse Place in this Throng place boldly next M x. Delighting to be heard as well as read He hums and languishes with Hands and Head Ne'er destitute of Friends tho' all be gone Like Scipio the best Company alone But then like Sullen Timon he 's betray'd To that dull Sollitude himself has made His soaring Muse might sometimes reach the Skies Did she not prate and flutter as she flies And who can with his Poetry dispence Who joins French Vanity with English Sense Shall we now tell how Beaus and Ladies write Beaus for Instruction Ladies for Delight Who daily flock at Will 's to be inspir'd Who at the Rose with generous Wine are fir'd Where the poor Muse pays Reck'nings with a Line And Barters her Divinity for Wine How Holy G n in mistaken Youth VVas led by T on the way to Truth How he a Christian and a VVit became How Blount and Phaeton at once Proclaim His Muse and his Religion are the same How some like D fy with much ease Indite VVhile others with much pain like S t le VVrite VVho when they 've Murder'd so much costly Time Beat the vext Anvil with continual Chime And labour'd hard to Hammer Statutable Rhyme Create a * Howard's B. P. British Prince as hard a Task As might a Cowley or a Milton ask To build a Poem of the vastest price A Davideis or â— lost Paradise So tho' a Beauty of Imperial Mien May labour with a Heroe or a Queen The Dowdie's Off-spring of the freckl'd strain Shall cause like Travail and as great a Pain Such to the Rabble shall appear inspir'd By Coxcombs envy'd and by Fools admir'd Such we except with those who make pretence Studious of Fame but negligent of Sense VVe pity Madmen who attempt to