University of Virginia Library

Vpon the Incomparable Poems of the Learned Mr Cartvvright.

Though some low men by others Verse be rays'd,
Who dully write, and will in Wit be prays'd;
To usher in his Muse Cartvvright needs none,
Panegyrist and Author here are One:
Who send him Verses run on score, as some
Debtors, by giving to a King, become.
Bare Poets think their Title doth high sound
Though they doe only own Parnassus ground:
Yet you a Poet their whole Picture call,
In Cartvvright 'tis but as a nose of th' all.
'Twas he that taught the Passions, which he mov'd,
And by him Metaphysicks sense were prov'd.
Pulpit and School he reconcil'd, a Man
Calvin he made, Stagirit a Christian.
Carmenta did her name to Verse impart,
In Cartvvright ev'ry letter is an Art.
'Tis true, who gives him but a Poet's Fame,
Leaves out above three parts of Cartwright's name;
Yet he writes so, that but a piece of's skill.
May dub another Knight of th' Muses hill;
His winged Fancy was both full and swift,
Did fill the Mind, the Passions up lift.
There rul'd his Pegasus a ballanc'd head,
To run it suffer'd, but to rove forbid.
Sufficient Reading Pegasus preserv'd,
Not chok'd with much, nor with too little starv'd;
Swift but with pomp, and stately in his course,
Both like god Neptune's and Apollo's Horse.
He not Pyreneus-like did force the Nine,
As if his Quill was part of Porcupine,
(For Phœbus loves no Wit cut out, though he
Of Cæsar's birth the great Protector be)
Nor writes he in the Clouds, and a dark Dress,
That him you cannot understand, but ghesse;
Though he had not much more than Homer's sight,
In Verse hee'd Homer's and Eustathius light.
Nor writes he venom, as if now again
Python return'd and did Parnassus stain.
But to their Temple Muses did restore,
And thought th' good man, than the good Scholar, more.
Who e'r the totall Beauty did once limme,
Paints Cartwright; who writes best, has part like him;
Below whom all his Imitators fall,
That we no Copy, but a Rule him call.