Gulliveriana or, a fourth volume of miscellanies. Being a Sequel of the Three Volumes published by Pope and Swift. To which is added, Alexanderiana; or, A Comparison between the Ecclesiastical and Poetical Pope. And many Things, in Verse and Prose, relating to the latter. With an ample Preface; and a Critique on the Third Volume of Miscellanies lately publish'd by those two facetious Writers [by Jonathan Smedley] |
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On one of the Admirers of Pope's Translation,
who said, There was a great deal of Wit in Homer.
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On one of the Admirers of Pope's Translation, who said, There was a great deal of Wit in Homer.
Homer is full of Wit: There is not moreIn the Old Batchelor, or in Jane Shore.
Right; very Right; why don't you go the Round,
And Idyl, Ode, and Elegy confound?
The main Mistake is there; and which is which
You know no more than of the Parts of Speech.
In Homer d'ye admire the Grand Design,
The Marvellous, the Moving, the Divine?
Is it the Fable or the Moral charms,
The Kings in Quarrels, or the Gods in Arms?
Is it the sounding Words and Thoughts sublime,
Or the smooth Verse, the pretty Turns and Rhime?
For what are you in Love with Homer? speak,
And own the Wit is English, and not Greek.
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To know how P--- or you cou'd find it out.
A hundred Comments are on Homer writ,
A hundred Versions which those Comments fit.
And he who such an Author can't command,
Must neither Greek nor English understand.
Some will observe that Ladies have admir'd
His Epic Strain, and been, like P---, inspir'd.
And why not Ladies, pray, as well as Beaus?
Their Favour farther than their Money goes.
When Homer was the Fashion, who I pray
To be first in't had more Pretence than they?
Urge not that Beaus, and Men of Beauish Parts,
Know more than Ladies of the finer Arts.
'Tis rude; if Phœbus was to judge the Case,
He'd give the Question to the fairest Face.
Both Beaus and Belles the fav'rite Poet bribe,
And never lack much Learning to subscribe, &c.
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