Page:An Essay on Translated Verse - Roscommon (1684).djvu/8

The French pursu'd their steps; and Brittain, last
In Manly sweetness all the rest surpass'd.
The Wit of Greece, the Gravity of Rome
Appear exalted in the Brittish Loome;
The Muses Empire is restor'd agen,
In Charles his Reign, and by Roscomon's Pen.
Yet modestly he does his Work survey,
And calls a finish'd Poem an ESSAY;
$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$For all the needful Rules are scatter'd here;
Truth smoothly told, and pleasantly severe;
(So well is Art disguis'd, for Nature to appeare.)
Nor need those Rules, to give Translation light;
His own example is a flame so bright;
That he, who but arrives to copy well,
Unguided will advance; unknowing will excel.
Scarce his own Horace cou'd such Rules ordain;
Or his own Virgil sing a nobler strain.
How much in him may rising Ireland boast,
How much in gaining him has Britain lost!
Their Island in revenge has ours reclaim'd,
The more instructed we, the more we still are sham'd.
'Tis well for us his generous bloud did flow
Deriv'd from British Channels long ago;
That here his conquering Ancestors was nurst;
And Ireland but translated England first:
By this Reprisal we regain our right;
Else must the two contending Nations fight,