PREFACE. It has been fo ufual among modern authors to write prefaces, that a man is thought rude to his reader, who does not give him fome account before-hand of what he is to expe& in the book. The greatest part of this collection confifts of amorous verses. Those who are converfant with the writings of the ancients, will obferve a great difference between what they and the moderns have published upon this fubject. The occafions upon which the poems of the former are written, are fuch as happen to every man almoft that is in love; and the thoughts fuch as are natural for every man in love to think. The moderns, on the other hand, have fought out for occafions that none meet with but themselves; and fill their verses with thoughts that are furprising and glittering, but not tender, paffionate, or natural to a man in love. the place of her birth. I know it is natural for a lover, in tranfports of jealoufy, to treat his mif trefs with all the violence imaginable; but I cannot think it natural for a man, who is much in love, to amufe himself with fuch trifles as the other. I am pleased with Tibullus, when he fays, he could live in a defart with his mistress, where never any human footsteps appeared, because I doubt not but he really thinks what he lays; but I confefs I ean hardly forbear laughing, when Petrarch tells us, he could live without any other fuftenance than his miftrefs's looks. I can very easily believe, a man may love a woman fo well, as to defire na company but her's; but I can never believe, a man can love a woman fo well, as to have no need of meat and drink, if he may look ups on her. The firft is a thought so natural for a lover, that there is no man really in love, but thinks the fame thing: the other is not the thought of a man in love, but of a man who would im pofe upon us with a pretended love, (and that indeed very grofsly too) while he had really none at all. To judge which of these two are in the right, we ought to confider the end that people propofe in writing love verfes; and that I take not to be the getting fame or admiration from the world, but the obtaining the love of their mistref; and the best way I conceive to make her love you, is to convince her that you love her. Now this certainly is not to be done by forced conceits, far-compare what the ancients and moderns have faid fetched fimilies, and fhining points; but by a true and lively reprefentation of the pains and thoughts attending fuch a paffion. "Si vis me flere, dolendum eft I would as foon believe a widow in great grief for her husband, because I faw her dance a corant about his coffin, as believe a man in love with his mistress for his writing fuch verfes as fome great modern wits have done upon theirs. I am fatisfied that Catullus, Tibullus, Propertius, and Ovid, were in love with their miftreffes, while they upbraid them, quarrel with them, threaten them, and forswear them; but I confefs I cannot believe Petrarch in love with his, when he writes conceits upon her name, her gloves, and It would be endlefs to purfue this point; and any man who will but give himself the trouble to upon the fame occafions, will foon perceive the advantage the former have over the others. I have chofen to mention Petrarch only, as being by much the most famous of all the moderns who have written love-verfes: and it is, indeed, the great reputation which he has gotten, that has given encouragement to this falfe fort of wit in the world for people, feeing the great credit he had, and has indeed to this day, not only in Italy, but over all Europe, have fatisfied them felves with the imitation of him, never inquiring whether the way he took was right or not. There are no modern writers, perhaps, who have fucceeded better iu love-verses than the Englith; and it is indeed juft, that the fairest ladies fhould inspire the best poets. Never was there a more copious fancy, or greater reach of wit, than what appears in Dr. Donne; nothing can be more But, it is gilant or genteel, than the poems of Mr. Wal- be ftill in fuch a manner, as if the occafion offer. ed itself, and was not fought, and proceeded ra ther from the violence of the fhepherd's paffion, than any natural pride or malice in him. There ought to be the fame difference obferved between paftorals and elegies, as between the life of the country and the court. In the first, love ought to be reprefented as among thepherds, in the other, as among gentlemen. They ought to be smooth, clear, tender, and paffionate. The thoughts may be bold, more gay, and more elevated, than in paftoral. The pailions they reprefent, either more gallant or more violent, and lea innocent than the others. The fubjects of the, prayers, praifes, expoftulations, quarrels, reconcile ments, threatenings, jealoufies, and, in fine, all the natural effects of love. Lyrics may be allowed to handle all the fame fubjects with elegy, but to do it, however, in a different manner. An elegy ought to be fo entirely one thing, and every verse ought so to de pend upon the other, that they should not be able to fubfift alone; or, to make use of the words of a great modern critic, there must be a juft coherence made "So right, that every step may higher rife, za ought to make up a complete fenfe, without running into the other. Frequent fentences, which are accounted faults in elegies, are beauties here. Betides this, Malherbe, and the French poets after him, have made it a rule in the flanzus of fix lines, to make a pause at the third; and in thofe of ten lines, at the third and the feventh. And, it must be confeffed, that this exactes renders them much more mufical and harmenious; though they have not always been is mer. There are three forts of poems that are proper for love paftorals, elegies, and lyric verfes; un- Lyrics, on the other hand, though they ought der which laft, I comprehend all fongs, odes, fon- to make one body as well as the other, yet may nets, madigrals, and stanzas. Of all these, paf-confist of parts that are entire of themselves. It toral is the lowest, and, upon that account, per-being a rule in modern languages, that every fanhaps moit proper for love; Gince it is the nature of that paflion, to render the foul foft and humble. These three forts of poems ought to differ, not only in their numbers, but in the defigns, and in every thought of them. Though we have no difference between the verfes of paftoral and elegy in the modern languages, yet the numbers of the first ought to be loofer, and not fo fonorous as the other; the thoughts more fimple, more eafy, and more humble. The defign ought to be the reprefenting the life of a shepherd, not only by talk-religious in obferving the latter rule as the furing of theep and fields, but by fhewing us the truth, fincerity, and innocence, that accompanies that fort of life; for though I know our masters, Theocritus and Virgil, have not always conform ed in this point of innocence, Theocritus, in his Daphnis, having made his love too wanton, and Virgil, in his Alexis, placed his paffion upen a boy, yet if we may be allowed to cenfure thofe whom we must always reverence) I take both thofe things to be fauits in their poems, and should have been better pleased with the Alexis, if it had been made to a woman; au with the Daphnis, if he had made his thepherds more modcft. When I give humility and modefty as the character of paftoral, it is not, however, but that a fhepherd may be allowed to boast of his pipe, his fongs, his flocks, and to fhew a contempt of his rival, as we fee both Theocritus aud Virgil do. But this must But I am engaged in a very vain, or a very foolish defign: thofe who are critics, it would be a prefumption in me to pretend I could inftrud; and to inftruct those who are not, at the fame time I write myself, is (if I may be allowed to apply another man's fimile) like felling arms to an enemy in time of war: though there ought, perhaps, to be more indulgence fhewn to things of love and gallantry than any others, beczule they are generally written when people are young, and intended for ladies who are not supposed to be very old; and all young people, especially of the fair fex, are more taken with the livelinels of fancy, than the correctnefs of judgment. It may be alfo obferved, that to write of love weh, a Lord Mulgrave. 2 man must be really in love; and to correct his writings well, he must be out of love again. I am well enough fatisfied I may be in circumftances of writing of love, but I am almost in despair of ever being in circumstances of correcting it. This I hope may be a reafon for the fair and the young to pass over fome of the faults; and as for the grave and wife, all the favour I fhall beg of them is, that they would not read them. Things of this nature are calculated only for the former. If love-verses work upon the ladies, a man will not trouble himself with what the critics fay of them; ૐ and if they do not, all the commendations the critics can give them will make but very little amends. All I fhall fay for these trifles is, that I pretend not to vie with any man whatsoever. I doubt not but there are feveral now living who are able to write better on all fubjects than I am upon any one: but I will take the boldnefs to fay, that there is no one man among them all, who fhall be readier to acknowledge his own faults, or to do juftice to the merits of other people. Nn iiij POEM S. TO HIS BOOK. Go, little book, and to the world impart May in my fatal stories read their own. Thofe who have liv'd from all its torments free, ELEGY. THE UNREWARDED LOVER. LET the dull merchant curfe his angry fate, I wage no war; I plead no caufe, but Love's; Preferv'd, like bees within an amber tomb. With pity then the Muses' friends survey, |