As clam'rous o'er his joys as fifty cats;
_"Music has charms to sooth a savage breast,
To soften rocks, and oaks"_--and all the rest: 100
_"I've heard"_--Bless these long ears!--"Heav'ns what a strain!
Good God! What thunders burst in this _Campaign_!
Hark Waller warbles! Ah! how sweetly killing!
Then that inimitable Splendid Shilling!
Rowe breathes all Shakespear here!--That ode of Prior 105
Is Spencer quite! egad his very fire!--
As like"--Yes faith! as gum-flowers to the rose,
Or as to Claret flat Minorca's dose;
As like as (if I am not grosly wrong)
Erle Robert's Mice to aught e'er Chaucer sung. 110

Read boldly, and unprejudic'd peruse
Each fav'rite modern, ev'n each ancient muse.
With all the comic salt and tragic rage
The great stupendous genius of our stage,
Boast of our island, pride of human-kind, 115
Had faults to which the boxes are not blind.
His frailties are to ev'ry gossip known:
Yet Milton's pedantries not shock the town.
Ne'er be the dupe of Names, however high;
For some outlive good parts, some misapply. 120
Each elegant Spectator you admire;
But must you therefore swear by Cato's fire?
Masques for the court, and oft a clumsey jest,
Disgrac'd the muse that wrought the Alchemist.
"But to the ancients."--Faith! I am not clear, 125
For all the smooth round type of Elzevir,