The Joy has no allay of jealoufy, hope, and fear,
The folid comforts of this happy sphere;

Yet I exalted love admire,

Friendship, abhorring fordid gain,

And purify'd from luft's dishonest ftain:
Nor is it for my folitude unfit,

For I am with my friend alone,

As if we were but one;

"Tis the polluted love that multiplies,
But friendship does two fouls in one comprife.

III.

Here in a full and constant tide doth flow
All bleffings man can hope to know;

Here in a deep recefs of thought we find

Pleasures which entertain, and which exalt the mind; Pleasures which do from friendship and from knowledge

rife,

Which make us happy, as they make us wife:
Here may I always on this downy grafs,
Unknown, unfeen, my easy minutes pass;
"Till with a gentle force victorious death
My folitude invade,

And stopping for a while my breath,
With ease convey me to a better shade.

Part of the fifth Scene of the fecond Act in Guarini's Paftor Fido.

Di ripofo, e di pace alberghi veri.

O quanto volentieri

A riuederui i torno, e se le ftelle
M'haueffer dato inforte

Di viuer à me stessa, e di far vita
Conforme à le mie voglie;
Io già co campi Elifi

Fortunato giardin de semidei
La voftr'ombra gentil non cangerei.

"Che fe ben dritto miro

"Quefti beni mortali

"Altro non fon che mali:

"Men' hà, chi più n' abbonda,
"E poffeduto è più, che non poffede,
"Ricchezze nò, ma lacci

"De l'altrui libertate.

"Che val ne più verdi anni "Titolo di bellezza,

“O fama d'honestate,

"E'n mortal fangue nobiltà celefte;
"Tante grazie del cielo, e de la terra.
"Qui larghi, e lieti campi

"E là felici piagge,

"Fecondi pafchi, e più fecondo armento. "Se'n tanti benì il cor non è contento?

Felice paftorella,

"

Cui cinge à pena il fiance

Pouera sì, ma schietta.

E candida gonnella.

Ricca fol di fe fteffa,

E de le grazie di natura adorna,

Che'n dolce pouertate

Nè pouertà conofce, nè i difagi

De le ricchezze fente,

Ma tutto quel poffiede

Per cui defio d'hauer non la tormenta;

Nuda

Nuda sì, ma contenta.

Co doni di natura

I doni di natura anco nudrica;

Col latte, il latte auuiua

E col dolfe de l'api

Condifee il mel de le natie dolcezze.

Quel fonte ond'ella beue,

Quel folo anco la bagna, e la configlia;

Paga lei, pago il mondo:

Per lei di nembi il ciel s'ofcura indarno,
E di grandine s'arma,

Che la fua pouertà nulla pauenta:
Nuda sì, ma contenta.

Sola una dolce, e d'ogn' affanno fgombra
Cura le fta nel core.

Pafce le verdi herbette

La greggia à lei commeffa, ed ella pasce
De fuo'begli occhi il paftorello amante,
Non qual le deftinaro

O gli huomini, o le stelle,

Ma qual le diede amore.

E tra l'ombrofe piante

D'vn fauorito lor mirteto adorno
Vagheggiata il vagheggia, nè per lui
Sente foco d' amor, che non gli scopra,
Ned'ella scopre ardor, ch'egli non fenta,
Nuda sì, ma contenta.

O vera vita, che non sà che fia

Morire innanzi morte.

PRE

I

PREF A CE

TO THE

ART of POETRY.

Have feldom known a trick fucceed, and will put none

upon the reader; but tell him plainly that I think it could never be more seasonable than now to lay down fuch rules, as if they be obferv'd, will make men write more correctly, and judge more discreetly: but Horace must be read seriously or not at all, for elfe the reader won't be the better for him, and I fhall have loft my labour. I have kept as close as I could both to the meaning, and the words of the author, and done nothing but what I believe he would forgive if he were alive; and I have often afk'd myself that question. I know this is a field.

Per quem magnus equos Aurunca flexit alumnus.

But with all the refpect due to the name of Ben. Johnson, to which no man pays more veneration that I; it cannot be deny'd, that the constraint of rhime, and a literal translation (to which Horace in this book declares himself an enemy) has made him want a comment in many places.

My chief care has been to write intelligibly, and where the Latin was obscure, I have added a line or two to explain it.

I am below the envy of the criticks, but if I durft, I would beg them to remember, that Horace ow'd his favour and his fortune to the character given of him by Virgil and Varius, that Fundanius and Polio are ftill valued by

what

what Horace fays of them, and that in their golden age there was a good understanding among the ingenious, and those who were the most efteem'd were the best natur'd.

ROSCOMMON.

DE

ARTE POETICA

H

LIBE R,

AD PISONES.

UMANO capiti cervicem pictor equinam Jungere fi velit, & varias iuducere plumas, Undique collatis membris: ut turpiter atrum Definat in pifcem mulier formofa fuperne: Spectatum admiffi rifum teneatis amici ? Credite, Pifones, ifti tabulæ fore librum Perfimilem, cujus, velut ægri fomnia, vanæ Fingentur fpecies: ut nec pes nec caput uni Reddatur formæ. Pictoribus atque poëtis Quidlibet audendi femper fuit æqua poteftas. Scimus, & hanc veniam petimufque damufque viciffim. Sed non ut placidis coëant immitia, non ut Serpentes avibus geminentur, tigribus agni.

Inceptis gravibus plerumque & magna profeffis
Purpureus, latè qui fplendeat, unus & alter
Affuitur pannus: quam lucus, & ara Dianæ,
Et properantis aquæ per amcenos ambitus agros,

10

15

Aut