Hunting, but I have took indefatigable Pains to
consult all the _Manuscripts_ in _Europe_ concerning this Matter, and I
find it an _Interpolation_. I have also an _Arabick Copy_ by me, which I
got a _Friend_ to translate, being unacquainted with the Language, and
it is plain by the Translation that 'tis there also _interpolated_.

Now after that the King wou'd not
Abroad for Pleasure go,
But still _Tom Thumb_ must go with him
Plac'd on his Saddle Bow.

----Ipse Uno graditur comitatus Achate.

There is scarcely any Scene more moving than this that follows, and is
_such an one as wou'd have shined in *Homer* or *Virgil*_. When he was
favour'd with his Prince's Ear, and might have ask'd the most profitable
and important Posts in the Government, and been indemnified if guilty of
a _Peculatus_; He only used his Interest to relieve the Necessities of
his Parents, when another _Person_ wou'd have scarcely own'd 'em for his
_Relations_. This discovers such a Generosity of Soul, such an Humility
in the greatest Prosperity, such a tender Affection for his Parents, as
is hardly to be met with, but in our Author.

And being near his Highness Heart
He crav'd a wealthy Boon,
A noble Gift, the which the King
Commanded to be done;
To relieve his Father's Wants,
And Mother being old.

The rest of this Canto relates the Visit to his Father, in which there
is something very soft and tender, something _that may move the Mind of
the most polite Reader, with the inward Meltings of Humanity and
Compassion_.

The Next Canto of the Tilts and Tournaments, is much like the Fifth Book
of _Virgil_, and tho' we can't suppose our Poet ever saw that Author,
yet we may believe he was directed to almost the same Passages, _by the
same kind of Poetical Genius, and the same Copyings after Nature_.

Now he with Tilts and Tournaments,
Was entertained so,
That all the rest of _Arthur_'s Knights
Did him much Pleasure show;
And good Sir _Lancelot_ of _Lake_,
Sir _Tristram_, and Sir _Guy_;
But none like to _Tom Thumb_
For Acts of Chivalry.

Longeque ante omnia Corpora Nisus
Emicat----

And agen,

Post Elymus subit, & nunc tertia palma Diores.

In Honour of which noble Day,
And for his Lady's Sake,
A Challenge in King _Arthur_'s Court,
_Tom Thumb_ did bravely make.

Talis prima Dares caput altum in praelia tollit,
Ostendit[que] humeros latos, alterna[que] Iacta