high in _cool inchanting Groves_,
Whose green broad Leaves the fainting _Trav'ler_ loves;
_Fair_ is the treach'rous _Fruit_, and charms your _Eye_,
But ah! beware! for if you _taste_ you _die_.
Too well alas! it _thrives_ when _planted_ here,
Its deadly Branches shade our _Theatre_.
Of _Mesures, Numbers, Pauses_ next I sing,
And rest the breathless _Muse_ with cautious _Wing_:
Of _Embryo Thoughts_, unripen'd yet by Time, 440
The Rules of _Verse_, of _Quantity_ and _Rhime_:
With trembling Steps through _Shades_ unknown I stray,
And mark a _rugged_ and a _dubious_ way;
Yet some small _glimm'ring Light_ will hence be show'd,
And future _Trav'lers_ may enlarge the _Road_.
[Sidenote: _Measure_.]
Of CHAUCER'S Verse we scarce the _Measures_ know,
So _rough_ the _Lines_, and so _unequal_ flow;
Whether by Injury of _Time_ defac'd,
Or _careless_ at the _first_, and writ in _haste_;
Or _coursly_, like old _Ennius_, he _design'd_ 450
What After-days have _polish'd_ and _refin'd_.
SPENCER more _smooth_ and _neat_, and none than He
Could better skill of _English Quantity_;
Tho by his _Stanza_ cramp'd, his _Rhimes_ less chast,
And _antique Words_ affected all disgrac'd;
Yet _vast_ his _Genius, noble_ were his _Thoughts_,
Whence equal Readers wink at _lesser_ Faults.
From _France_ their _Alexandrins_ we receive
Which more of _Liberty_ and _Compass_ give;
Hence by our dull Translators were they us'd, 460
Nor CHAPMAN nor old STERNHOLD these refus'd;
They borrow from _Hexameters_ their _Feet_,
Which with _Asclepiads_ and _Iambicks_ meet;
Yet in the midst we still a _Weakness_ see,
Their _Music_ gives us no _Variety_.
More _num'rous_ the _Pentameter_ and _strong_,
Which to our _Saxon Fathers_ did belong.
In this their antient _Edda_[1] seems to write,
_Mysterious Rhimes_, and _horrid_ to the _sight_:
Their _Runic Staves_ in this on _Rocks_ engrav'd, 470
Which long th' Assaults of _Time_ it self have brav'd.
In this our antient _British Bards_ delight; }
And, if I measure his _rough Numbers_ right, }
In this old _Taliessin_ us'd to Write[2]. }
This still _Possession_ keeps, few else we read,
And _Right_ as well as _Fact_ may justly plead;
Altho the _French Intruders_ oft pursue
Their _baffled Title_,