the mercer and tailor.

Sometimes he indulges himself in a digression, always conceived with
his natural exuberance, and commonly, even where it is not long,
continued till it is tedious:


I' th' library a few choice authors stood,
Yet 'twas well stored, for that small store was good;
Writing, man's spiritual physic, was not then
Itself, as now, grown a disease of men.
Learning (young virgin) but few suitors knew;
The common prostitute she lately grew,
And with the spurious brood loads now the press;
Laborious effects of idleness.


As the "Davideis" affords only four books, though intended to
consist of twelve, there is no opportunity for such criticism as
Epic poems commonly supply. The plan of the whole work is very
imperfectly shown by the third part. The duration of an unfinished
action cannot be known. Of characters either not yet introduced, or
shown but upon few occasions, the full extent and the nice
discriminations cannot be ascertained. The fable is plainly implex,
formed rather from the "Odyssey" than the "Iliad;" and many
artifices of diversification are employed, with the skill of a man
acquainted with the beet models. The past is recalled by narration,
and the future anticipated by vision: but he has been so lavish of
his poetical art, that it is difficult to imagine how he could fill
eight books more without practising again the same modes of