ments; to Horace, Montaigne, and sir William Temple, for an elegant vanity that maketh them for ever read and admired; to two lord chancellors for law, from whom, when confederate against him at the bar, he carried away the prize of eloquence; and, to say all in a word, to the right reverend the lord bishop of London himself, in the art of writing pastoral letters.

Nor did his actions fall short of the sublimity of his conceit. In his early youth he met the revolution face to face in Nottingham, at a time when other patriots contented themselves to follow her. It was here he got acquainted with old Battle-array, of whom he hath made so honourable mention in one of his immortal odes*. But he shone in courts as well as camps: he was called up when the nation fell in labour of this revolution, and was a gossip at her christening with the bishop and the ladies.

As to his birth, it is true he pretendeth no relation either to heathen god or goddess; but, what is as good, he was descended from a maker of both. And that he did not pass himself on the world for a hero, as well by birth as education, was his own fault; for his lineage he bringeth into his life as an anecdote,

* "Old battle-array in confusion is fled,

"And olive-rob'd peace is come in his stead," &c.

Cibber's Birth, or New Year's Day Ode.

and is sensible he had it in his power to be thought no body's son at all: and what is that, I pray you, but coming into the world a hero?

But be it (the punctilious laws of epic poesy so requiring) that a hero of more than mortal birth must needs be procured for this achievement, even for this we have a resource. We can easily derive our hero's pedigree from a goddess of no small power and authority amongst men, and legitimate and instal him after the right classical and authentic fashion: for, like as the ancient sages found a son of Mars in a mighty warrior, a son of Neptune in a skilful seaman, a son of Phoebus in a harmonious poet; so have we here, if need be, a son of Fortune in an artful gamester..... And who, I pray you, fitter than the offspring of Chance to assist in restoring the empire of Night and Chaos?

There is, in truth, another objection, of greater weight, namely, "That this hero still existeth, and "hath not yet finished his earthly course. "Solon said well,

86

-ultima semper

Expectanda dies homini: diesque beatus

"Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet :

For if

"That no man could be called happy till his death, "surely much less can any one, till then, be pro

"nounced a hero; this species of men being far more "subject than others to the caprices of fortune and "humour." But to this also we have an answer, which will, we hope, be deemed decisive. It cometh from himself, who, to cut this matter short, hath solemnly protested that he will never change or amend.

With regard to his vanity, he declareth that nothing shall ever part them. "Nature," saith he, "hath "amply supplied me in vanity; a pleasure which "neither the pertness of wit, nor the gravity of wis"dom, will ever persuade me to part with." Our poet had charitably endeavoured to administer a cure to it; but he telleth us plainly, "My superiors, per"haps, may be mended by him; but, for my part, I own myself incorrigible. I look upon my follies as "the best part of my fortune." And with good reason; we see to what they have brought him!

Secondly, as to Buffoonery, "Is it," saith he," a time "of day for me to leave off these fooleries, and set 66 up a new character? I can no more put off my fol. "lies than my skin: I have often tried, but they stick "too close to me; nor am I sure my friends are dis"pleased with them, for in this light I afford them "frequent matter of mirth," &c. &c. Having then so publicly declared himself incorrigible, he is be come dead in law, I mean the law Epopaian, and

devolveth upon the poet; is now his property; and may be taken and dealt with like an old Egyptian hero, that is to say, embowelled and embalmed for posterity.

Nothing therefore, we conceive, remaineth to hinder his own prophesy of himself from taking immediate effect. A rare felicity! and what few prophets have had the satisfaction to see alive! Nor can we conclude better than with that extraordinary one of his, which is conceived in these oraculous words, "My dulness will find somebody to do it right.”

"Tandem Phoebus adest, morsusque inferre parentem "Congelat, et patulos, ut erant, indurat hiatus.”

D 2

BY virtue of the authority in Us vested by the Act for subjecting Poets to the Power of a Licenser, We have revised this piece; where, finding the style and appellation of KING to have been given to a certain pretender, pseudo-poet, or phantom, of the name of TIBBALD; and apprehending the same may be deemed in some sort a reflection on majesty, or at least an insult on that legal authority which has bestowed on another person the crown of poesy: We have ordered the said pretender, pseudo-poet, or phantom utterly to vanish and evaporate out of this work; and do declare the said throne of poesy from henceforth to be abdicated and vacant, unless duly and lawfully supplied by the LAUREATE himself. And it is hereby enacted, that no other person do presume to fill the same,