IT may look like Presumption, perhaps, to appear again in publick, after such ill success, such a fearful Engagement, and such dangerous Enemies, who resolve to draw upon an Author, whatever he be, and fly at him open-mouthed, like a Pack of Irish Wolves barking at the Moon; who think that Man happiest that strikes deepest; who, because they have no Wit themselves, will not allow any in others. This, one would think, were enough to deterr a young Scribler, from ever after engaging himself in a Poetical Quarrel. But our Authors for the most the part, hav [...] Hydra's Heads, cut one off, another presently rises in the roo [...] of it; these, like Benito in the Play, tho' kick'd and cuff'd, ar [...] resolv'd to scrape on, and suffer heroically. They are not now- [...] ­days aw'd formidine fustis; when they are once in the humour writing, their Natures are invincible, and can no more be expell than the English can leave Fighting after the first Engagement, than an unlucky Gamester can forbear Playing, when he has lost round sum of Money. Since then this wicked Custom has gain [...] so much strength upon the World; since Fools and Blockheads, like, Logs, will Swim uppermost; since every paltry Apprentice that has read a few Plays, sets up for an Author; since these, I say, take the Priviledge of writing, I am resolv'd not to stand out, but make one for Company's sake; if I am laugh'd at, it will be a comfort to have Companions; for tho' some good natur'd Persons (I can't tell what to call them) have snapp'd at me once already, yet I can­not give over for my Life, I must on: Ecce iterum Crispinus, I am come once more to furnish matter for their senseless Lampoons: [Page] make bold to use the Impudence of a Player, who will appear up­ [...] the Stage, though hist first off an hundred times. But I must [...]eg the Favour of them not to debarr me the liberty of Prefacing, [...]r that is the Colours which our Company is known by; and 'tis as great a rarity now-a-days to see a Poet without a Preface, as a Spaniard without his Cloak and Sword: With this he covers his Faults, and defends them at the same time.

Here I must digress a little from my purpose (for it is grown a modern Vice to amuse the Reader with Chriticisms upon the Anci­ents, and tell him strange things, nothing to the Subject that lies before him: And when one has made a few Poems, to write in the Preface how far we've out-gone the French and Italian in advan­ [...]ing Tragedies and Comedies:) I must hamour the Age, and [...]se these digressions for Custom's sake; but more particularly by [...]eason of a late Ode of mine upon the Queen's death, which came [...]ut under the name of J. D. Gent. which made such a Noise [...]road, and which an ingenious Gentleman bestow'd a few Reflecti­ [...]s upon: I am not in the least asham'd of what he says, but slight [...]im more than the Mastiff did a little barking Cur, when he [...]ew'd him his Teeth, and pist upon him. However I think my [...]f oblig'd in a manner by the Laws of Nature to say something [...] it; for there is no Man so inhumane who will not speak in de­ [...]ce of his own Off-spring, when he finds it abus'd.

Had I been the first that try'd the severity of ignorant and en­ [...]us Men, I might with all justice imaginable have murmur'd [...]t my misfortune; but since others, and those of extraordinary [...]ote, have run through the same hazards, the same critical per­ [...]ecutions, I willingly submit my self, like a poetical Martyr, to [...]heir tyrannick Fury, but with the constancy of an unjust Sufferer an laugh at their vain, insignificant, and harmless Blows, There are three things, I confess, which are to be utterly banish'd [...]ur Commonwealth (for I will pretend to be a small Member of it) Blasphemy, Prophaneness, and Obscenity. Wherever any of these meet in a Poem, we may call the sense Diseas'd, it can in no manner be Wit, however cleanly it be cover'd. For Obscenity [Page] Ovid was banish'd Rome, as appears by his own account in his second Book de Tristibus: His Elegies are somewhat Lascivious; [...]or is his Imperial Poem free from those extravagant stories of Pasiphae and Myrrha; where the Subjects are so unaptly chosen, that they would not allow him to write chastly. Horace, whom we have [...]n so great esteem, is licentious in this kind to an extremity, [...]hiefly in his Satyrs, which he wrote not with an intention to [...]ash Vice (as Juvenal did) but purposely to please himself. Ho­mer we find leading his Women to Bed, but he says no more of them. Virgil, the best of all the others, wrote Love-passions with admirable Softness and Purity; considering that Poets are com­monly too Luxuriant on those occasions. I need not name Cor­nelius Gallus, and many others: I will only descend to our Times: Mr. Cowley has some small taste of it in his Mistress, which he seems to be sensible of in his Preface. Much excess is to be allow'd in Love, and even more in Poetry, so we avoid those two unpar­donable Vices, Prophaneness and Obscenity, which (says he) if I am Guilty of, they have ill represented my thoughts and inten­tions. Prophaneness and Blasphemy commonly go together, and the Author of the Satyrs against the Jesuits seems to me, to be Guilty of all those three Vices. I don't mean to detract from the honour of the dead; but, as the most vulgar Persons are allow'd to give their Vote, so I only speak my opinion, which, I am per­swaded in this case no body will go about to contradict. As for Blasphemy, of which I was accus'd, I cannot but allow with Mr. Dryden, that the using of it is a kind of applying Pidgeons to the Soles of the Feet, it proclaims their Fancy as well as Judg­ment to be in a desperate condition. This I say, because I have found the same immoderate liberty of Verse in others, as well as my self; and if the Supercilious Readers had examined them with the like strictness and impartiality, I am sure very few of them would have escap'd the fire. I do not mean to tread in their steps; for the Ode was snatch'd from me so abruptly and unfortunately, that I could not gather time enough to consider what I had wrote. I found J. D. Gent. join'd to it, of which I [Page] was wholly ignorant; for I scorn to do that injustice to another, in cloaking my Faults under his name; and on the other side I am so vain, that I would not let any one claim my Excellencies, (if I had any) but my self.

Nevertheless those Men (who pretend to understand much) would certainly have been more mild and favourable, had they but consi­der'd the Licentiousness of Pindarique Poetry, which is a more exalted sort of Lyrick, to which we are to allow more Digressions, more bold Metaphors and Allegories, than to any other Verse be­sides; which as few can understand, so few can write it well: Hear what Pindar speaks himself concerning it (for (as the Plain Dealer says) Authors love to shew in the Preface that they understand Greek and Latin, for fear the Reader should not find it out by the Poem.)

[...]: He writes to the Learned and Wise, and not to the Vulgar, who commonly correct what they cannot com­prehend, therefore he compares them to Crows, (shadowing by that name, Bacchilides, (Schmidius says,) who was one of the same Wit and Learning as our pretended Criticks are) [...]. But lest I should be guilty of Pinda­rical Digression, I will return to the Argument that lies before me, though, I hope, I may stand excusable for what I've said, it being the Zeal of a Parent to it's Children.

Dorotheus, Bishop of Tyrus, (who lived in the Year 401,) and Epiphanius, relate the Story of David and Bathsheba after this manner; They tell us that Nathan (who lived in Gabaon a City near Rama) foresaw that David would Sin with Beer­sabea, (for so they call her,) and as he was coming to sore­warn David, Belial laid a dead Corps in the way: Now it was counted a great part of Charity amongst the Jews to bury the Dead, as appears by the Book of Tobit: Nathan therefore fear­ing lest the Body should be unreverently torn by wild Beasts, bu­ried it; in the mean time David lay with Bathsheba; Nathan two or three days after was sent to warn him of it. Whether it be true, or no, [Page] I will not dispute now, but it seems impoetical: Therefore Th [...] ­dorus Beza has rejected it; and though I took the hint of [...] Fancy from him, yet, I think, I may with as great Justice claim the whole Poem to be my own, as a Poet does a Play when he has taken the Plot from a Novel, or with more dexterity changes the Scene, by turning the French and Italian Comedies into Eng­lish, and throws them upon the Stage for his own peculiar Wit and Invention. I have not followed my Author word for word, nei­ther have I Paraphras'd him in his Sense, but have taken out what was too grave for Poetry, and have added some Fancies of my own; as at the latter end, where the Angel appears to Nathan in the shape of Samuel; and where Nathan tells the King a short story of Solomon and Christ. This way of Writing we took from Virgil; but, if I am not mistaken, we have improv'd the Thought. For some Learned Men think that Virgil is in a Fault, when he brings in Anchises relating to Aeneas the Chronicle of those that were yet unborn, who should proceed from his Son. They wonder how he should come to the knowledge of Futurity. They must either allow that he was a Prophet, when he was alive, and thou it wil [...] be probable; for the Ancients thought that Men do the same thing below, as they did above. See Horace, who makes mention [...] Sappho and Alcaeus, as if they were the same Poets in Hell, a [...] they were on Earth.

If this cannot be prov'd of Anchises, we must run to Pythago­ras his Transmigration, and Plato' s Phaedo, who thought that the Souls of Men inform'd several Bodies, and went out of one into another: Then it will be no wonder if Anchisos tells his Son what Persons shall come after, since their Souls were predestinate [...] for them below. But we never follow this. Mr. Dryden [...]s more exact in the Conquest of Granada, where, in the Second Part, he brings in the Ghost of Almansor' s Mother, warning [Page] him of his future Love; yet she knew not this as her being a Ghoct, but an Angel bids her go and forewarn her Son, who wander'd about ignorant, of his Parentage.

Spenser, who first led us the way in English, supposes Merlin to tell Britomart, his Virgin-Hero, the Progeny of the Kings and Princes which should spring from her and Arthegal. Mil­ton follows his footsteps; but he could not bring in a Prophet since there were but two Persons upon Earth; therefore an Angel appears to Adam, and comforts him with the Promis'd Seed. Cowley makes David dream of his Race, and an Angel confirm the truth of it, when he awakes. Though Dreams were held of old a kind of Prophesy, though God was sometimes pleas'd to re­veal his. Will in that manner, and foreshew the Fates of King­doms, the various Changes of Empires, and things to come, as is manifested from Pharaoh, Joseph, and Daniel; yet it would not have been according to the Rules of Poetry, to have made David dream of all his Successors, and his Race for a thousand Years together, had not some Diviner Being order'd the Vision wisely, and appear'd afterward to persuade him in the certainty of it; for in those days the Jews began to disbelieve the Sacred­ness of Dreams, thinking them to proceed from the multitude of Business: David himself thought so at first,

But the Poet shew'd his Skill by making Gabriel satisfie him. The Reason why we commonly bring in Angels or Prophets, when Futurity is to be mention'd, is this; we are to make improbabili­ties [Page] seem probable; for should we tell such strange things in our own Persons, without bringing a Muse, or the like to help us off, no body would believe us, notwithstanding our boasted Inspirati­on: For, says Homer, on such an occasion,

Which Virgil (Aen. 7.) follows, by invoking the Muses to tell him,

This Rule is constantly to be observ'd in an Epick Poem, when­ever we have need for it. And we must likewise take notice, that if we have occasion for Angels, Devils, Furies, to forewarn, perswade, or counsel any one what to do, they must not appear in their proper shape, but in form of them, who are either lov'd, honour'd or reverenc'd by those to whom they appear. Homer' s [...] appears to Agamemnon in his sleep, drest in the like­ness of Nestor, the chief and wisest of his Counsellors. But in his Third Iliad he seems to be inexcusable, where he brings in Ve­nus like an old Spinning Woman of Lacedaemon, whom Helen lov'd: No sooner had this old Dame spoke, but Helen knew her to be Venus by her Eyes, her Neck, her Breast and every thing, which, in my Opinion, is a very odd kind of Change: We must nevertheless Reverence him as our Father, and give him leave aliquando dormitare, to sleep a little now and then. There are some such Changes in Virgil and Statius, which, seeing Mr. Cowley has taken notice of before, I will not meddle with.

As for the Poem that lies before us, I suppose the Reader will find as smooth a run of Verse, as the Subject would allow, and [Page] very few Synalaepha' s, which I endeavour'd to avoid; for what grates the Ear more than the Sounding of one Vowel upon ano­ther? There might be more said concerning this, but we will rest a little, since the Author of the Dedicatory Preface to Examen Poeticum has discoursed enough of it. Now if after all, I find but a few Friends, I shall, like the Spartan, scorn an innume­rable Army of Enemies; who if they are offended at my wretch­ed Stuff now, I can tell no way to be reveng'd of them, than (as Sir John Denham has said before) by writing worse and worse the next time, which, I hope, will prove such a Punish­ment to them, that they will not dare to take up Arms against an Author, for fear of being knock'd on the head with Nonsense and inhumane Dulness.