Stultifera Navis :: :: University of Virginia Library

O how can I with any prudence dress
A theme that checks the freedom of the press,
The great palladium which we all rely on?
Far better, Caxton , had this land been stinted
Of lives of saints, and all that thou hast printed,
Than e'er thine art produc'd what I say fye on.

Hadst thou ne'er usher'd in this baleful art,
Full many a damsel had ensur'd her heart
'Gainst subtle Jean Jaques' nouvelle Heloise:
From French finesse and all les petites ruses,
And to les Liasons tres dangereuses,
Our damsels ne'er had had recourse to please.

But in their boudoirs ladies now display
Nugæ canoræ of the present day;
Or Little poems for the fleeting hour:
Effusions which our modern belles adore,
Who only languish as they read for More;
Of dulcet trifles such the magic pow'r.

Nay, still the dear illusion to enhance,
Indecency is coupled with romance ,
To curtain modesty with crimson shame;
As if discarding chastity from hence,
Was the criterion of all common sense,
And the sure beacon of the road to fame.

But poems and romances, what are they,
When new philosophy illumes the way?
Sages of Greece and Rome are naught, I ween;
Friends of the Bonnet Rouge can all o'ertop,
And not with tongue alone their logic chop,
Witness the annals of the Guillotine.

L'ENVOY OF THE POET.

Hold, hold, my Muse, deceitful books, farewell;
Till human nature cons your page no more:

Degraded man each virtue shall expel,
And robes of modesty bedeck the whore.

THE POET'S CHORUS TO FOOLS.

Come, trim the boat, row on each Rara Avis ,
Crowds flock to man my Stŭltifēra Navis.

William Caxton was the first printer in England; he established his press at Westminster, and produced a work entitled, The Lives of the Saints, which may very justly be styled the heavenly Maundeville, being replete with so many marvellous histories. The first book printed by Caxton was The Game of Chess, and the second, The Dictes and sayinges of Philosophers, by Earl Rivers, dated 1477.

The new Heloise of J. J. Rousseau is famed for the fallacious principles with which it abounds, and the fascination of the language, rendering sophistry plausible at the expense of our reason.

A very celebrated French work, entitled in English, Dangerous Connexions, which is calculated to mislead the senses, and implant in the mind the most erroneous sentiments and opinions.

Hæ nugæ seria ducunt in mala.

Small chambers appropriated for retirement, and fitted up in a luxurious style, which is in every respect calculated to inflame the desires of a voluptuary.

Many poetic effusions of this nature have, of late, issued from the press, whose rapid sale has but too evidently indicated the taste of the present times. Of some productions of this nature, concerning which we may exclaim with Horace,

Versus inopes rerum, nugæque canoræ,

it hath been confidently asserted, that ladies of ton, not satisfied with a single copy, have purchased separate impressions for the carriage, the boudoir, and the dressing room, while a fourth has not unfrequently been deposited under the pillow at night, to serve as a gentle lullaby.

Some famous, or rather infamous, works of this nature, have met the public eye, to the disgrace of the writers, whose labours are well calculated to adorn an index expurgatorius; but this is not all, for our literary gentlemen (as they term themselves) not contented with their own dereliction, must needs ransack the productions of Parisian irreligion, false philosophy, and immorality, in order to give them publicity in this country, by means of translation, witness the Delphine of Mad. Stael, together with an hundred et cæteras. And as if the mania was never to end; nothing had such a run for a period, as the trash that was advertised as coming piping-hot from the German school; in short, we have been inundated with Gallic philosophy, morality, &c. and the German extravaganza, both literary and dramatic.

Li matti hanno bolletta di dir ciò the vogliano.

It would be needless to dilate upon this topic, as the fanatics of a neighbouring country, not to lay any stress upon those gentlemen who have figured on this side of the water, have given incontrovertible testimony of the fallacy of their opinions, by the overthrow of those systems, or castles in the air, with which they amused themselves, to the destruction of all social order, and the consequent butchery of thousands of their fellow citizens.

As the above word is made use of in the translation of Alexander Barclay, from whose publication the poet took his idea of the present work; it appears evident that he did not think fit to alter the same, as throughout all his sections no other word is applied to denote that he sends his advice to the several classes of fools, concerning whom he treats in this book.

As these words are usually adverted to in speaking of any individual pre-eminent in wisdom or excellence, the poet has, it is conjectured, conceived himself licensed in using them, while treating of those who are equally prominent in folly.

It is hoped that the poetic licence of the bard, in having lengthened the syllable fe as above will be forgiven, as the word should certainly be pronounced thus, stūltifĕra. Even the great and classic Mr. Pope has not scrupled to take a liberty more unclassical in abbreviating the pronunciation of the English word satellites, which, if properly read, would render his line short and inharmonious; but if regarded as Latin, even then the poet is wrong, as it should be, according to grammatical rules, satellita.

“------Jove's satellites are less than Jove.”

This, however, is not the only instance, as similar liberties have been taken by most of our poetical writers, and on that plea the annotator grounds his hope, that the public will excuse the license taken by the present bard.