his paffion like Narciffus? Would he think of inopem me copia fecit, and a dozen more of fuch expreffions, poured on the neck of one another, and fignifying all the fame thing? If this were wit, was this a time to be witty, when the poor wretch was in the agony of death! This is juft John Littlewit in Bartholomew+ Fair, who had a conceit (as he tells you) left him in his misery; a miserable conceit. On thefe occafions the poet fhould endeavour to raise pity but instead of this, Ovid is tickling you to laugh. Virgil never made use of such machines, when he was moving you to commiferate the death of Dido: he would not destroy what he was building. Chaucer makes Arcite violent in his love, and unjuft in the purfuit of it: yet when he came to die, he made him think more reasonably : he repents not of his love, for that had altered his character; but acknowledges the injustice of his proceedings, and refigns Emilia to Palamon. What would Ovid have done on this occafion? He would certainly have made Arcite witty on his death-bed. He had complained he was farther off from poffeffion, by being fo near, and a thousand fuch boyiíms, which Chaucer rejected as below the dignity of the fubject. They, who think otherwife, would by the fame reafon prefer Lucan and Ovid to Homer and Virgil, and Martial to all four of them. As for the turn of words, in which Ovid particularly excels all poets; they are fometimes a fault, and fometimes a beauty, as they are used properly or improperly; but in ftrong paffions always to be fhunned, becaufe paffions are ferious, and will admit no playing. The French have a high value for them; and I confefs, they are often what they call delicate, when they are introduced with judgment; but Chaucer writ with more fimplicity, and followed nature more closely, than to use them. have thus far, to the best of my knowledge, been an upright judge betwixt the parties in competition, not

I

meddling with the defign nor the difpofition of it; be cause the defign was not their own; and in the difpof ing of it they were equal. It remains that I fay fome what of Chaucer in particular.

. In the first place, as he is the father of English poetry, fo I hold him in the fame degree of veneration as the Grecians held Homer, or the Romans Virgil: he is a perpetual fountain of good sense; learned in all sciences; and therefore fpeaks properly on all fubjects: as he knew what to say, fo he knows also when to leave off, a continence which is practised by few writers, and fcarcely by any of the antients, excepting Virgil and Horace, One of our late great poets is funk in his reputation, because he could never forgive any conceit which came in his way; but swept like a drag-net, great and small. There was plenty enough, but the difhes were ill-forted; whole pyramids of fweet-meats, for boys and women; but little of folid meat, for men: all this proceeded not from any want of knowledge, but of judgment; neither did he want that in difcerning the beauties and faults of other poets; but only indulged himself in the luxury of writing; and perhaps knew it was a fault, but hoped the reader would not find it. Fot this reafun, though he must always be thought a great poet, he is no longer efteemed a good writer: and for ten impreflions, which his works have had in fo many fucceffive years, yet at prefent a hundred books are fcarcely purchased once a twelvemonth: for, as my laft lord Rochefter faid, tho fomewhat profanely, Not being of God, he could not stand.

Chaucer followed nature every where; but was never fo bold to go beyond her and there is a great difference of being Poeta and nimis Poeta, if we bekeve Catullus, as much as betwixt a modest behaviour and affectation. The verfe of Chaucer, I confefs, is not harmonious to us; but it is like the eloquence of

one whom Tacitus commends, it was auribus iftius temporis accommodata: they who lived with him, and fome time after him, thought it mufical; and it continues fo even in our judgment, if compared with the numbers of Lidgate and Gower, his contemporaries: there is the rude fweetnefs of a Scotch tune in it, which is natural and pleafing, though not perfect. It is true, I cannot go fo far as he who published the last edition of him; for he would make us believe the fault is in our ears, and that there were really ten fyllables in a verfe where we find but nine: but this opinion is not worth confuting; it is fo grofs and obvious an error, that common fenfe (which is a rule in every thing but matters of faith and revelation) muft convince the reader, that equality of numbers in every verse which we call Heroic, was either not known, or not always practised in Chaucer's age. It were an easy matter to produce fome thousands of his verses, which are lame for want of half a foot, and sometimes a whole one, and which no pronunciation can make otherwife. We can only fay, that he lived in the infancy of our poetry, and that nothing is brought to perfection at the first. We must be children before we grow men. There was an Ennius, and in process of time a Lucilius, and a Lucretius, before Virgil and Horace; even after Chaucer there was a Spenfer, a Harrington, a Fairfax, before Waller and Denham were in being: and our numbers were in their nonage till these last appeared. I need fay little of his parentage, life, and fortunes: they are to be found at large in all the editions of his works. He was employed abroad and favoured by Edward the Third, Richard the Second, and Henry the Fourth, and was poet, as I suppose, to all three of them. In Richard's time, I doubt, he was a little dipt in the rebellion of the commons; and being brotherin-law to John of Gaunt, it was no wonder if he followed the fortunes of that family; and was well with

Henry the Fourth when he had depofed his predeceffor. Neither is it to be admired, that Henry, who was a wife as well as a valiant prince, who claimed by fucceffion, and was fenfible that his title was not found, but was rightfully in Mortimer, who had married the heir of York; it was not to be admired, I fay, if that great politician fhould be pleafed to have the greatest wit of thofe times in his interefts, and to be the trumpet of his praises. Auguftus had given him the example, by the advice of Mæcenas, who recommended Virgil and Horace to him; whofe praises helped to make him popular while he was alive, and after his death have made him precious to pofterity. As for the religion of our poet, he feems to have fome little bias rowards the opinions of Wickliff, after John of Gaunt his patron; fomewhat of which appears in the tale of Piers Plowman: yet I cannot blame him for inveighing fo fharply against the vices of the clergy in his age their pride, their ambition, their pomp, their avarice, their worldly interest, deserved the lashes which he gave them, both in that, and to most of his Canterbury tales: neither has his contemporary Boccace fpared them. Yet both those poets lived in much efteem with good and holy men in orders: for the fcandal which is given by particular priefts, reflects not on the facred function. Chaucer's Monk, his Chanon, and his Fryer, took not from the character of his Good Parfon. A fatyrical poet is the check of the laymen, on bad priests. We are only to take care, that we involve not the innocent with the guilty in the fame condemnation. The good cannot be too much honoured, nor the bad too coarsely used: for the corruption of the best becomes the worft. When a clergyman is whipped, his gown is first taken off, by which the dignity of his order is fecured: if he be wrongfully accuted, he has his action of flander; and it is at the poet's peril, if he tranfgrefs the law. But

they will tell us, that all kind of fatire, though never fo well deferved by particular priefts, yet brings the whole order into contempt. Is then the peerage of England any thing difhonoured, when a peer fuffers for his treafon? If he be libelled, or any way defamed, he has his Scandalum Magnatum to punish the offender. They, who use this kind of argument, feem to be confcious to themselves of fomewhat which has deferved the poet's lafh; and are lefs concerned for their public capacity, than for their private; at leaft there is pride at the bottom of their reafoning. If the faults of men in orders are only to be judged among themselves, they are all in fome fort parties for, fince they fay the honour of their order is concerned in every member of it, how can we be fure, that they will be impartial judges? How far I may be allowed to speak my opinion in this cafe, I know not but I am fure a difpute of this nature caufed mischief in abundance betwixt a king of England and an archbishop of Canterbury; ftanding up for the Laws of his land, and the other for the honour (as he called it) of God's Church; which ended in the murther of the prelate, and in the whipping of his majefty from poft to pillar for his penance. The learned and ingenious Dr. Drake has faved me the labour of inquiring into the esteem and reverence which the priests have had of old; and I would rather extend than diminish any part of it: yet I must needs fay, that when a prieft provokes me without any occafion given him, I have no reason, unless it be the charity of a Chriftian, to forgive him? Prior lafit is juftification fufficient in the Civil Law. If I anfwer him in his own language, felf-defence, I am fure, must be allowed me; and if I carry it farther, even to a sharp recrimination, fomewhat may be indulged to human frailty. Yet my refentment has not wrought fo far, but that I have followed Chaucer