Come, nimphs and faunes, that haunt those shady groves, Or whether list me sing so personate, To chide the world, that did my thoughts offend. At Colin's feet I throw my yeelding reed. Expressive of his reluctance and inability to write Pastorals after Spenser. DE SUIS SATIRIS. DUM Satyræ dixi, videor dixisse Sat iræ Ira facit Satyram, reliquum Sat temperat iram; Ecce novam Satyram: Satyrum sine cornibus! Euge PROLOGUE. I FIRST adventure', with fool-hardy might, To claw the back of him that beastly lives, Ordain'd of old on looser life to sue; The world's eye bleared with those shameless lyes, Go, daring Muse, on with thy thanklesse taske, And do the ugly face of vice unmaske : And if thou canst not thine high flight remit, So as it mought a lowly Satyre fit, Let lowly Satyres rise aloft to thee: Truth be thy speed, and truth thy patron bee. 1 I first adventure-Book ii. Sat. 7, our author implies the previous existence of other Satirists. -Thou brain-sick tale Of old astrology: where didst thou vaile Thy cursed head thus long, that so it mist The black bronds of SOME SHARPER SATYRIST? That he introduced Genuine Satire among us, may be readily granted; but not that he was the First Satirist. E. It appears, however, from his Postscript, that he had seen no English Satires; and only those of Ariosto and "one base French Satire," of modern writers. 2 Pranck-Dress out. SATIRES. BOOK I. SATIRE IL NOR ladie's wanton love, nor wand'ring knight, 1 From this Satire we learn what kind of pieces were then most in fashion, and in what manner they were written. They seem to have been Tales of Love and Chivalry, Amatorial Sonnets, Tragedies, Comedies, and Pastorals. W. Legend-To write fabulously. Of mightie Mahound, and great Termagaunt. Warton, in his commentary on the Fairy Queen, was persuaded that our author had here a passage of that poem in view The whiles the carle did fret And fume in his disdainful mind the more, And oftentimes by TERMAGAUNT and MAHOUND swore. F. Q. B. vi. C. 7. St. 47. These were, however, common Saracen oaths; and introduced in many parts of the Fairy Queen. E. See Todd's Spenser, vol. vii. p. 27. * To paint some Blowesse with a borrow'd grace. In modern ballads, Blousilinda, or Blousibella. Johnson interprets Blowze, a ruddy fat-faced wench. W. Hungrie-Perhaps the true reading is angrie: that is, impassioned. W. • Avayle-Advantage. 6 7 Such hunger-starven, trencher-poetry. Poetry written by hirelings for bread. W. |