The Project Gutenberg eBook ofSelected Poems (1685-1700)

The Project Gutenberg eBook ofSelected Poems (1685-1700)This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: Selected Poems (1685-1700)Author: John TutchinEditor: Spiro PetersonRelease date: December 25, 2011 [eBook #38407]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by David Starner, Dave Morgan and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SELECTED POEMS (1685-1700) ***

This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Selected Poems (1685-1700)Author: John TutchinEditor: Spiro PetersonRelease date: December 25, 2011 [eBook #38407]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by David Starner, Dave Morgan and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

Title: Selected Poems (1685-1700)

Author: John TutchinEditor: Spiro Peterson

Author: John Tutchin

Editor: Spiro Peterson

Release date: December 25, 2011 [eBook #38407]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by David Starner, Dave Morgan and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SELECTED POEMS (1685-1700) ***

GENERAL EDITORSEarl R. Miner,University of California, Los AngelesMaximillian E. Novak,University of California, Los AngelesLawrence Clark Powell,Wm. Andrews Clark Memorial LibraryADVISORY EDITORSJohn Butt,University of EdinburghJames L. Clifford,Columbia UniversityRalph Cohen,University of California, Los AngelesVinton A. Dearing,University of California, Los AngelesArthur Friedman,University of ChicagoLouis A. Landa,Princeton UniversitySamuel H. Monk,University of MinnesotaEverett T. Moore,University of California, Los AngelesJames Sutherland,University College, LondonH. T. Swedenberg, Jr.,University of California, Los AngelesCORRESPONDING SECRETARYEdna C. Davis,Clark Memorial Library

When John Tutchin died on September 23, 1707, he had already created the image of himself which Alexander Pope has transmitted to posterity. There, in Book II ofThe Dunciad(1728), the Whig journalist appears as one of two figures in a "shaggy Tap'stry":

Earless on high, stood un-abash'd Defoe,And Tutchin flagrant from the scourge, below.

Pope, in his variorum notes on the passage, identified Tutchin as the "author of some vile verses, and of a weekly paper call'd theObservator," and revived the fiction of his sentence "to be whipp'd thro' several towns in the west ofEngland, upon which he petition'd KingJamesII. to be hanged." The "invective" against James II's memory, which Pope mentions, has now been identified in the Twickenham Edition asThe British Muse: or Tyranny Expos'd(1701).[1]By 1728, this was all the reputation that remained for Mr. John Tutchin, Gentleman—irascible journalist, pamphleteer, and writer of verses.

The truth of the matter is that Pope was no more accurate about Tutchin's being whipped than about Defoe's losing his ears. From the sparse reliable information concerning Tutchin's early years, one consistent pattern emerges: he tended to depict himself as a hero and a martyr. Born in 1661 "a Freeman" of London, he was brought up in a family of scholarly nonconformist ministers probably on the Isle of Wight[2]. Even though an enemy claimed that he had been expelled from a school at Stepney for stealing (DNB), he received some education and travelled on the continent. In defending his skill with languages against Defoe, he once told how at his school, boys translated and capped verses, and how he travelled "fromLeivardeninFriezland, thro'Hollandand theSpanish Flanders."[3]Throughout his life, he proudly designated himself a gentleman: during his trial for libel in late June of 1704, he even escaped punishment by setting forth that he was a gentleman, and not a laborer as the indictment read.

In later life, he romanticized himself when young as the hero who fought in the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion, received the brutal "whipping sentence" from Lord Chief-Justice Jeffreys during "the bloody assezes" of 1685, petitioned James II for "the Favour of being hang'd"to avoid the sentence, and finally freed himself by paying so burdensome a bribe that he was reduced to poverty. All these claims were first made in "The Case, Trial, and Sentence of Mr. John Tutchin, and Several Others, in Dorchester, in the County of Dorset," which Tutchin added to the fifth edition ofThe Western Martyrology; or, the Bloody Assizes, published in 1705. As J. G. Muddiman demonstrated in 1929, most of these claims are outright fabrications. Tutchin was never indicted for high treason, he could never have been challenged by Jeffreys to cap verses, and he invented the petition to be hanged.[4]InThe Observator(July 25-29, 1702), he honestly admitted that he was never tried in Devonshire, but claimed he did buy his liberty of James II; and in a later issue (Aug. 4-7, 1703) he challenged an enemy: "if he Pleases to give the World an Account,When,Where, and forWhatI was Whip'd thro' a Market-Town, he will inform Mankind of more than I or any Body else knows...." John Dunton believed in the whipping sentence; and Defoe, the story of the petition to be hanged. Throughout Tutchin's stormy career, his enemies made political capital of the flogging that never took place. He was probably twenty-four years old when, using the alias "Thomas Pitts," he was tried at Dorchester for "Spreading false news and fined five marks and sentenced to be whipped"—but he came down with smallpox and so was not whipped.[5]Lord Macaulay, who is incorrect on the facts taken fromThe Western Martyrology, certainly exaggerated in stating that Tutchin's temper was "exasperated to madness by what he had undergone."[6]That the Monmouth adventure and its aftermath mark a turning point in the young man's life, however, cannot doubted.

Tutchin may have fought with William III's army in Ireland as an officer.[7]After the Glorious Revolution and the establishment of William and Mary on the throne, Tutchin devoted himself to a succession of liberal causes. On the one hand, he persisted in identifying himself with the former commonwealth, the Monmouth cause, the Revolution, the reform movement especially in the theater, and Whig liberty. He became noted for tactless exposés of high-level misconduct in his pamphlets and inThe Observator(Apr. 1, 1702-Sept. 23, 1707). His detractors frequently paired him with Defoe as a monster or a villain. Again and again, he made himself obnoxious to important personages such as the Earl of Albemarle or the Duke of Marlborough.[8]On the other hand, his hatred for tyranny propelled him frequently into such extremes as his disgraceful complicity in William Fuller's impostures. In the years 1700-1704, he was generally reputed to be"Secretary to the abominal Society of King-Killers"—the secret Calves-Head Club made up of dissenters who met on January 30th, the anniversary of the death of Charles I, to sing prophane anthems.[9]

Dunton generously summed up the widely varied causes of "the loyal and ingeniousTutchin(aliasMaster Observator); the bold Asserter of English Liberties; the scourge of the High-flyers; the Seaman's Advocate; the Detector of the Victualling-office; the scorn and terror of Fools and Knaves; the Nation'sArgus, and the Queen's faithful Subject."[10]Even his death in Queen's Bench Prison, on September 23, 1707, was romanticized into another instance of martyrdom. "...he liv'd and dy'd," announced the Country-man ofThe Observator, "for the Service of his Country." Tutchin's followers dramatized his death as the result of a politically-inspired thrashing which "six ruffians" administered to him, in revenge for slanderous remarks made inThe Observatoragainst Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Dilkes.[11]The "Pulchrum Est Pro Patria Mori" portrait, reprinted here as the frontispiece, was circulated to attest to Tutchin's political martyrdom. However, as the autopsy-report demonstrates and as Muddiman rightly concludes, "Tutchin really died from a specific disease and not from the thrashing undergone seven months before his death."[12]

The young man of twenty four who went off to join Monmouth's forces had already published, in 1685,Poems on Several Occasions. With a Pastoral. To Which is Added, A Discourse of Life. In the preface, writing like a fashionable man-about-town, Tutchin describes the lyrics, translations, and satires of this volume as "trifles" which he had let circulate and had now secured "by promising to Print them." The book shows the variety in poetic kinds that one would expect in a young writer who had been drinking deeply of Lord Rochester, Waller, Cowley, the Earl of Roscommon, Oldham, and Dryden. Juvenalian satires reminiscent of Oldham are neatly balanced by memorial verses to Oldham and Rochester, late metaphysical lyrics ("And why in red dost thou appear"), classical dialogues ("Cleopatra to Anthony"), translations of Horace, and the well-turned "autobiographical" couplets of "A Letter to A Friend." In its variety and themes,Poems on Several Occasionsresembles Oldham'sWorks, which was published twice in 1684. Tutchin's "The Tory Catch," like Oldham's "A Dithyrambick. A Drunkard's Speech in a Mask," has a speaker who ironically brags of the social misconduct which the author satirizes. "A Letter to a Friend" is a skillfully exaggerated account of the attractions and dangers in rhyming. Although perhaps autobiographical inpart, the poem also imitates the long-standing tradition derived from Horace's first Epistle of Book I, and revived most recently in Oldham's "A Letter from the Country to a Friend in Town."[13]Both "The Tory Catch" and "A Letter to a Friend" are reprinted here fromPoems on Several Occasions.

Tutchin's first book shows two impulses: the awkwardly lyrical and the directly satiric. He feels compelled, in the Preface, to defend his choice of less serious subjects. His light poems do not, "in the least, detract fromVirtue; since I have Read thePoemsofBeza,Heinsius, our ownDonne,&c." He promises to turn to "some Graver Subject." There are other equally significant comments in a Preface that reveals a great deal about changing literary taste. In "To the Memory of Mr. John Oldham," Tutchin curiously avoids the main subject of Dryden's finer elegy, namely, Oldham's achievement in rough satire. His praise is that "CrashawandCowleyboth did live in thee." However, in his "Satyr Against Vice" and "Satyr Against Whoring," Tutchin has already learned the art of declaiming, from the poet who has been called "the English Juvenal," John Oldham.

In the years between 1685 and 1707, Tutchin's separate poems were mainly occasional and satirical. Panegyric for William III dominates such an early piece asAn Heroic Poem upon the Late Expedition of His Majesty(1689), and hatred for the Stuarts possesses a later poem likeThe British Muse: or Tyranny Expos'd(1701). InCivitas Militaris(1690) Tutchin engages in city politics. The elegy on the death of Queen Mary irritated Defoe enough to have "T——n" placed among the "Pindarick Legions" inThe Pacificator(1700). Two poems, however,—The Earth-quake of Jamaica(1692) andWhitehall in Flames(1698)—differ from the others in that they are Cowleyan "Pindaricks" moralizing on disasters.The Earth-quake of Jamaicais reprinted here to illustrate Tutchin's descriptive talent. He starts with an actual event, the Jamaican disaster of June 7, 1692; and then, as the epigraph on the title page suggests, he presents a variation on Horace's rejection of "senseless Epicureanism," in Ode 34 of Book I.The Earth-quake of Jamaicamay have been worked over longer than was customary. It was published shortly before December 10, the manuscript date on Narcissus Luttrell's copy now in the Houghton Library. Some six months earlier, in the late morning of June 7, the earthquake had erupted in Port Royal, the "boom" port on the south side of the island. In three schocks lasting less than three minutes, the famed capital of the buccaneers had fallen. Newsof the disaster did not reach London until August 9. The earthquake then became one of the most widely discussed events. TheLondon Gazetteran stories on it, scientists like Sir Hans Sloane published eye-witness accounts in thePhilosophical Transactionsof the Royal Society, the moralists declared God's wrath had come upon the wickedest place in Christendom, and "the actors of the drolls" in Southwark Fair even mockingly re-enacted the event until the Lord Mayor put a stop to the performances.[14]

If contemporary accounts of the Port Royal earthquake are compared withThe Earth-quake of Jamaica, the reader becomes impressed by Tutchin's way of adapting the well-known details to a moral comment on life. His scenes are indeed graphic, but they do not have the immediacy of such eye-witness accounts as the following, preserved by Luttrell:

I cannot sufficiently represent the terrible circumstances that attended it; the earth swelled with a dismal humming noise, the houses fell, the earth opened in many places, the graves gave up some of their dead, the tomb stones ratled together; at last the earth sunk below the water, and the sea overwhelmed great numbers of people, whose shreiks and groanes made a lamentable eccho: the earth opened both behind and before me within 2 foot of my feet, and that place on which I stood trembled exceedingly; the water immediately boyled up upon the opening of the earth, but it pleased God to preserve me....[15]

Tutchin's aim is to compare vulnerable nature with vulnerable man: "Can humane Race / Stand on their / Legs when Nature Reels?" He sees in the disaster a challenge for English sinners to repent: the "Hurricane of Fate" wails on "murder'dCornish." He had not yet forgotten the Monmouth adventure. For he alludes here to the act of Parliament passed in 1689 reversing the attainder of Henry Cornish, the alderman who had been brutally executed in 1685 for high treason through participating in the Rye House Plot and attaching himself to the Duke of Monmouth. For Tutchin, politics were always relevant.

Tutchin's true forte is not the descriptive poem, but satire. Poems published in the years 1696 to 1705—fromA Pindarick OdetoThe Tackers—exploit the satirical impulse that had been latent inPoems on Several Occasions. Increasingly he turns to general denunciation and thinly disguised lampoon. Of the two main Augustan traditions in satire—the "fine raillery" that Dryden perfected and the rough satire that reached back to Donne, Cleveland, and Oldham—Tutchin belongs to the latter. Defoe found him to be "so woundy touchy, and so willing to quarrel," and noted that "Want of Temper was his capital Error."[16]The specific circumstance that producedA Pindarick Ode, in the Praise of Folly and Knavery(1696), reprinted here, is generally said to be his dismissal from the victualling office because he failed to establish his case that the commissioners mismanaged public funds. Such corruption in the administration would soon transform a deep admiration for William III into the disenchantment ofThe Foreigners(1700). That Tutchin was uneasy in his effort to write satire in the mode of Dryden is suggested by his abandonment of irony after the first part ofA Pindarick Ode. In his introductory verses, Benjamin Bridgwater accurately observes that Erasmus'Ironiano longer suffices:

This hard'ned Age do's rougher Means require,We must beCupp'dandCauteriz'dwithFire.

Echoing Dryden'sMac Flecknoe, Tutchin invites Dullness and "ImmortalNonsence" to inspire his ironic praise of the folly and knavery that now ride roughshod over such traditional values as learning, love, wit, and patriotism. A few of the lines have the moving quality of Augustan satire at its best:

Did e'er the old or new Philosophy,Make a Man splendid live, or wealthy die?

The irony ofA Pindarick Odedoes not adequately mask the denunciation. In Stanza X, it is even replaced by the antiquated Hero's diatribe against "our modern Knavish Arts"—never to return to the rest of the poem. Doubtless, the indictment of the "nefarious Brood at Home" that grows rich in wartime was the heart of the satire. Defoe hinted at this motive in the satirical vignette of Tutchin as Shamwhig, which appeared in the first edition ofThe True-Born Englishman(1700):

As Proud as Poor, his Masters he'll defy;And writes aPiteous *Satyrupon Honesty.Some think the Poem had been pretty good,If he the Subject had but understood.He got Five hundred Pence by this, and more,As sure as he had ne're a Groat before.[17]

Tutchin's satire would be henceforth the rough variety. InThe Foreignershe would also resort to fierce lampoons of William III's court favorites.

In the rash of satires that followedThe ForeignersandThe True-Born Englishman, the anonymous author ofThe Fable of the Cuckoo(1701) pointed to the common tradition shared by both poems. For he attacked Defoe's "hatchet muse" as having been inspired by such "Modern Sharpers of the Town" as Tutchin and "Old[ha]m the Bell-weather of Tory Faction," who first horned Defoe's satire, "And ever since perverted all good Nature." Advertised inThe Flying Postfor July 31-Aug. 1, 1700,The Foreignerswas published shortly thereafter by the ardent Whig Anne Baldwin. The "vile abhor'd Pamphlet, in very ill Verse, written by oneMr. Tutchin, and call'dThe Foreigners"—Defoe recalled years later inAn Appeal to Honour and Justice(1715)—filled him "with a kind of Rage." Tutchin's irascible temper had again taken hold. Scurrilously, he assailed foreigners in high office, especially William III's Dutch favorites, for their monopolizing preferments and usurping command, under such transparent aliases as "Bentir" for William Bentinck, first Earl of Portland, and "Keppech" for Arnold Joost van Keppel, first Earl of Albemarle. The manner was Dryden's inAbsalom and Achitophel; the venom was Tutchin's own. Official reaction toThe Foreignerscame quickly. The untrustworthy William Fuller spread the gossip that Tutchin fled from his Majesty's messengers, and found refuge "in a blind Ale-house, at the Windmill, by Mr. Bowyers, at Camberwel." On August 10th, he was taken "into custody of a messenger"; and at the grand inquest for the city of London, held on August 28th, there was presented "a Poem calledThe Foreigners."[18]A mystery envelops the rest of the legal proceedings. There may even be some truth in the allegation that the parry would long since have "ruffled" Tutchin, except that he pleased them with his "railing at KingWilliam'sFriends sometimes."[19]The Foreignersalso aroused such ephemeral rejoinders asThe Reverse: or, the Tables Turn'dandThe Nations: An Answer to the Foreigners.both published in 1700. Finally, in January of 1701, there was published a satire of more lasting worth, Defoe'sThe True-Born Englishman. Side by side, inPoems on Affairs of State(1703), were reprintedThe ForeignersandThe True-Born Englishmanamong verses "Written by the Greatest Wits of this Age."[20]Altogether, the two satirists had three poems apiece in the volume. One of Tutchin's poems, "The Tribe of Levi" (1691), was anonymously reprinted; the other two,The ForeignersandThe British Muse, were identified as "by Mr.T——n." These were the achievements of Tutchin's "hatchet muse."

The poems are reprinted from copies in libraries of the U.S. and Great Britain. I am obligated to The Houghton Library forPoems on Several OccasionsandThe Earth-quake of Jamaica, to Yale University Library forThe Foreigners, and to the British Museum forA Pindarick Ode, in the Praise of Folly and Knavery. For permission to reproduce the "Pulchrum Est Pro Patria Mori" portrait of John Tutchin as the frontispiece, I wish to express my thanks to the Trustees of the British Museum.

Spiro PetersonMiami UniversityOxford, Ohio

[1]The Dunciad, ed. James Sutherland (The Twickenham Edition, Methuen & Co., Ltd., 1943), pp. 115-18.

[2]Tutchin's birth-year is variously given. The Van der Gucht engraving and the authenticElegyof Tutchin's death state that he died "Aged 44"; but the mockElegy, falsely claiming to be "Written by the Author of the Review," gives his age to be 47. InThe Observator(Oct. 20-23, 1703), Tutchin implied that he was "Born some years after the Restoration of KingCharlesthe 2d." His certificate of marriage to Elizabeth Hicks on Sept. 30, 1686 places his age then at twenty-five, and supports the birth-year 1661, as given in theDNB. See alsoThe Observator, May 17-20, 1704; July 8-12, 1704; and July 24-28, 1703. One of Tutchin's enemies charged that he was born in the north of England (An Account of the Birth, Education, Life and Conversation of ... the Observator, 1705); and another, that his father was "a Scot, canting Presbyterian Sot" (The Picture of the Observator, 1704).

[3]The Observator, June 2-6, 1705. Tutchin stated, inThe Case, Trial, and Sentence, that Judge Jeffreys had "a true Account" of his activities in Holland. See J. G. Muddiman, ed.,The Bloody Assizes(Toronto, [1929]), p. 137.

[4]Muddiman, pp. 136-37.The Case, Trial, and Sentenceis reprinted as a true record in T. B. Howell'sA Complete Collection of State Trials(London, 1812), XIV, 1195-200, but as a highly questionable document in Muddiman, pp. 137-46.

[5]Muddiman, p. 219.

[6]The History of England, ed. C. H. Firth (London, 1914), II, 639. Insofar as theDNBarticle on Tutchin relies on Macaulay, it is erroneous.

[7]Shortly after Tutchin's death, the Country-man ofThe Observatorlauded his beloved master as "an Officer in the Army," and addressed him "Captain Tutchin," as did the mockElegyand the friendly Dunton.

[8]Narcissus Luttrell,A Brief Historical Relation of State Affairs(Oxford, 1857), V, 257;Manuscripts of the Marquis of Bath(H.M.C., London, 1904), I, 105-06.

[9]The authorship of the Calves-Head anthems is assigned to Tutchin inThe Reverse: or, the Tables Turn'd(1700), p. 7, and to both Tutchin and Benjamin Bridgwater inThe Examination, Tryal, and Condemnation of Rebellion Observator(1703), p. 17. See also Howard William Troyer,Ned Ward of Grubstreet(Harvard University Press, 1946), pp. 110, 117.

[10]The Life and Errors of John Dunton(London, 1818), I, 356.

[11]SeeThe Observator, Jan. 4-8, 1707, and "Postscript"; Jan. 12-15, 1707; and Sept. 20-24, 1707.

[12]Pp. 12-13. See alsoThe Observator, Sept. 27-Oct. 1, 1707, and William Bragg Ewald,Rogues, Royalty, and Reporters(Boston, [1954]), p. 14.

[13]For the two Oldham pieces, seePoems of John Oldham, introd. Bonamy Dobrée (Southern Illinois University Press, [c. 1960]) pp. 50-54, 72-79.

[14]The Diary of John Evelyn, ed. E. S. de Beer, 6 vols. (Oxford, 1955), V, 115; Luttrell, II, 565; W. Adolphe Roberts,Jamaica: the Portrait of an Island(New York, [c. 1955]), pp. 44-45; and Mary Manning Carley,Jamaica: the Old and the New(London, [c. 1963]), pp. 34-36, 157-58.

[15]Luttrell's entry for Aug. 13, 1692 (II, 539).

[16]Review, IV (Sept. 7, 1706) and IV (Nov. 20, 1707).

[17]Defoe's gloss on "Piteous Satyr" is "Satyr in Praise of Folly and Knavery." (The True-Born Englishman, 1700, p. 37.) Since he regards this as the title of the "SatyruponHonesty," Defoe may be confusingA Pindarick Odewith Tutchin's next satire,A Search after Honesty(1697).

[18]Mr. William Fuller's Letter to Mr. John Tutchin(1703), p. 7; Luttrell, V, 676, 683;The Proceedings of the King's Commission of the Peace, and Oyer and Terminer and Goal Delivery of Newgate ... the 28th, 29th, 30th and 31st Days of August 1700.

[19]"A Dialogue between a Dissenter and the Observator," inA Collection of the Writings of the Author of the True-Born Englishman(1703), p. 227.

[20]II, 1-6, 7-46.

John TutchinMr.John TutchinDy'd Septber23d1707. Aged 44.

Dy'd Septber23d1707. Aged 44.

POEMSONSeveral Occasions.WITH APASTORALTo which is Added, ADISCOURSEOFLIFEByJOHN TUTCHIN.LONDON,Printed by J. L. forJonathan Greenwood, at theBlack Ravenin thePoultry, near theOld Jury. MDCLXXXV.

A Friend of mine, and I did followA Cart and Six, with Brandy fraught;We sate us down, and up did swallowEach a Gallon at a draught:The sober Sot can't drink with us,May kiss coy Wine withTantalus.

II.

With Musick fit for Serenading,We did ramble to and fro;Then to Drink and Masquerading,'Till we cannot stand nor go;One Leg byBacchuswas quite lamed,'TotherVenushad defamed.

III.

At the Tavern we did whisk it,And full Pipes did empty drain:We eat Pint-Pots instead of Bisket,And piss'd 'em melted out again:We beat the Vintner, kiss'd his Wife,And kill'd three Drawers in the strife.

IV.

In the Street we found some Bullies,And to make our valour known,We call'd 'em Fops, and silly Cullies,And knock'd the foremost of 'em down:And with praise to end the Fray,We, like good Souldiers, ran away.

To the Play-House we descended,For to get a grain of Wit,Our own with Wine was so defended.We sate spuing in the Pit,'Mongst Drunken Lords and Whoring Ladies,To see such sights whose only Trade is.

Thanks for your Praises! were they due, I wou'dPamper my self with Joy, and think 'em Good.Loaden with Laurels for mine unknown Art,You paint me Great, although beneath Desert.But ifMacenashad a lasting Fame,Because the best of Poets us'd his Name;Then Merit justly may to me belong,Because 'tis sung by your all-skilful Tongue.Oft have I blam'd my Stars, that I should bePlagu'd with this soft deludingPoetry:This CharmingMistressthat has kept my Heart,Quite from a Child, by her bewitching Art.From her glad Fountain I can always findA pleasing Philtre to makePhilliskind:For tell me that coyMaidcould ever beCruel, when urg'd by CharmingPoesie?Verseis thePoet'sBeauty, Wealth and Wit;And what softVirginwon't be won by it?But, wearied with Delight, I always tryAgainst this Spell to find a Remedy.By goodDivinityI think to findA Soveraign Remedy for Soul and Mind:But then, with Holy Flame, I strait do burn,And all toHymns, andSacred Anthemsturn.Nay, when the Night does waking Thoughts redress,And Guardian Angels with our Souls converse,To busie Mortals is the sleeping Time;I dream and slumber all the Night in Rhyme.Then puzlingLogicknext I take in hand;But this, Alas! can'tPoesiewithstand.Barbara,Celarent, I with Ease express,And yoke roughErgo'sinto well-madeVerse:My Faithless Lover'sSyllogismtries;I by stoutLogickfind theirFallacies.ThenScheibler,Suarez,BellarmineI get,And sound the depth ofMetaphysickwit:Streight, in a fret, I damn 'em all at once,And vow they are as dull asZabarelorDunce.Credit me,Sir, no greater plague can be,Than to be poison'd with madPoetrie:Like Pocky Letchers, who have got a Clap,And paid theDoctorfor the dear mishap;But newly eased of their nausceous pain,Return unto their wanton Sin again.So Poets be they plague'd with naughty Verse,They never value good nor bad success:Or be they trebly damn'd, they will preferTheir next vile scribling to theTheater.Well might the Audience, with their hisses, damnThe Bawdy Sot that late wroteLimberham:But yet you see, the Stage he will command,And hold the Laurel in's polluted Hand.In slothful ease, a while I took delight,And thought all Poets mad that us'd to write.So long I kept from Verse, I thought I'd lostMy Versing Vein, and of my Fortune boast:But having tryal made, I quickly foundMy store renew'd, in numbers strong and soundWith ease my happy fancies come and go,As Rivulets do fromParnassusflow.Then finding that in vain I long had try'dThePoetfrom theTutchinto divide;I charmingPoesiemake my delight,And propagate the humor still to Write.Our new Divines do alter not one jot,From what their Tribe in older times have wrot;Except, likeParker, to have something new,They broach new Doctrines, either false or true:A Publick Conscience, which for nought does pass,But proves the Writer is a publick Ass;Who the new Philosophick world have told,Have for a new but varnish'd o're the old.But all Poetick Phancy can't draw dry,Th' unfathom'd Wells of deepest Poesie.TheBifront Hillis always stout and strong;TheMusesstill are handsome, always young.The clearest streams of ChrystalHeliconDo o're the Pebles in sweet Rhymings run.Why then should you,Dear Sir, (that have pretenceTo the extreamest bounds of Wit and Sense)Lay by your Quills and hold your Tune-ful Tongue,While all the witty want your pleasing Song?Once more renew those Lays that gave delight,That chear the Day, and glad the gloomy Night:May with your dying breath your Verses end;Thus prays your constant, and

Your truest Friend,J. T.

——namq; DiespiterIgni corusco nubila dividensPlerumq; per purum tonantesEgit Equos volucremq; currum,Quo bruta Tellus & vaga flumina,Quo Styx, & invisi horrida TænariSedes, Atlanteusq; finisConcutitur. Valet ima summisMutare,——Horat. lib. I. Ode 34.

Horat. lib. I. Ode 34.

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