I

THE

NNERS

Of the A G E.

Authors, Wits, Poets, Criticks, Will's Coffee-Houfe, Play-Houfe, &c.

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UBULUS fancying himfelf Infpir'd, "ftands up for the Honour of Poetry, is

and NameVok'd to hear the

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Sacred Name of Poet, turn'd into Scandal and Ridicule; He tells "what a profound. Veneration the "Athenians had for their Dramatick Writers; how greatly Terence and Virgil were Honour'd in Rome; "the firft, by Scipio and Lalius, the other by 4ઠંડ guftus and Mecenas, how much Francis the First, and Cardinal Richelieu, encouraged the Wits of "France, and drawing his Argument more home, "he relates to you, how in this Ifland the Bucking"bams, the Orrerys, the Rofcommons, the Normanbys, "the Dorfets,the Hallifaxs, and feveral other Illuftri"ous Perfons have not only encouraged Poetry, but "ennobled the Art it felt by their Performances. B

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"True,

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"True Eubulus; we allow Poetry to be a Divine Art, and the name of Poet to be Sacred and Honourable, when a Sophocles, a Terence, a Virgil, a Corneille, a Boileau, a Shakespear, a Waller, a Dryden, a Wycherly, a Congreve, or a Garth bears "it: But then we intend it as a Scandal, when we give it to Mavius, Chapelain, Ogilby, W “D, D, S, and your felf. "D

"I queftion whether fome Poets allow any other "Poets to have Perform'd better than themselves, in that kind of Poetry which they profefs. Sir “ R----- B-----, I fuppofe, tho' he has declaim'd againft Wit, yet is not fo conceited, as to Vie "with Horace and Juvenal for Satyr; but as to "Heroick Poetry, methinks he Reasons thus with

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himfelf, Homer has writ the Ilias and the Odyfeis, "and Virgil only the Eneid, I have writ Prince "Arthur, and King Arthur; am I not then equal "to Homer, and Superior to Virgil? No, B-----re, "we judge of Poetry as we do of Metals, not by "the Lump, but the intrinfick Value. New caft your Poems, purge 'em of their Drofs, reduce "em to the Bulk of the Difpenfary, and if then that, we will "they weigh in the Balance with "allow you a Place among the Firft-Rate Heroick « Poets.

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"The Wits of mean Defcent and fcanty Fortune, are generally apt to reflect on Perfons of "Quality and Eftates, whom they rafhly tax with "Dullness and Ignorance, a Normanby, a Dorfet, a

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Spencer, a Hallifax, aBoyle, a Stanhope, and a Cod"rington, (to pafs over abundance more) are fuffi"cient to convince the World, that either an Ilu"ftrious Birth, or vaft Riches, are not incompati"ble with deep Learning, and Sterling-Wit.