To you who live in chill degree, As map informs, of fifty-three, And do not much for cold atone, By bringing thither fifty-one, Methinks all climes should be alike, From tropic e'en to pole arctique;...
What flocks of critics hover here to-day, As vultures wait on armies for their prey, All gaping for the carcase of a play! With croaking notes they bode some dire event,...
Ask not the cause, why sullen Spring So long delays her flowers to bear; Why warbling birds forget to sing, And winter storms invert the year: Chloris is gone, and fate provides...
As Jupiter I made my court in vain; I'll now assume my native shape again. I'm weary to be so unkindly used, And would not be a god to be refused. State grows uneasy when it hinders love;...
Poets, like disputants, when reasons fail, Have one sure refuge left--and that's to rail. Fop, coxcomb, fool, are thunder'd through the pit; And this is all their equipage of wit....
You've seen a pair of faithful lovers die: And much you care; for most of you will cry, 'Twas a just judgment on their constancy. For, heaven be thank'd, we live in such an age,...
Fair, kind, and true, a treasure each alone, A wife, a mistress, and a friend in one, Rest in this tomb, raised at thy husband's cost, Here sadly summing what he had, and lost....
Must noble Hastings immaturely die, The honour of his ancient family; Beauty and learning thus together meet, To bring a winding for a wedding-sheet? Must Virtue prove Death's harbinger? must she,...
Below this marble monument is laid All that heaven wants of this celestial maid. Preserve, O sacred tomb! thy trust consign'd; The mould was made on purpose for the mind:...
So shipwreck'd passengers escape to land, So look they, when on the bare beach they stand, Dropping and cold, and their first fear scarce o'er, Expecting famine on a desert shore....
True wit has seen its best days long ago; It ne'er look'd up, since we were dipp'd in show: When sense in doggerel rhymes and clouds was lost, And dulness flourish'd at the actors' cost....
POETS, like lawful monarchs, ruled the stage, Till critics, like damn'd Whigs, debauch'd our age. Mark how they jump: critics would regulate Our theatres, and Whigs reform our state:...
If yet there be a few that take delight In that which reasonable men should write; To them alone we dedicate this night. The rest may satisfy their curious itch With city-gazettes, or some factious speech,...
'Tis much desired, you judges of the town Would pass a vote to put all prologues down: For who can show me, since they first were writ, They e'er converted one hard-hearted wit?...
Self-love, which, never rightly understood, Makes poets still conclude their plays are good, And malice in all critics reigns so high, That for small errors, they whole plays decry;...
What state of life can be so blest As love, that warms a lover's breast? Two souls in one, the same desire To grant the bliss, and to require! But if in heaven a hell we find, 'Tis all from thee,...
Now turning from the wintry signs, the sun, His course exalted, through the Ram had run, And whirling up the skies, his chariot drove Through Taurus, and the lightsome realms of love;...
A Choir of bright beauties in spring did appear, To choose a May-lady to govern the year; All the nymphs were in white, and the shepherds in green; The garland was given, and Phyllis was queen:...
The blast of common censure could I fear, Before your play my name should not appear; For 'twill be thought, and with some colour too, I pay the bribe I first received from you;...