Page:Rudiments of Grammar for the English-Saxon Tongue (Elstob 1715).djvu/33

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xxvi
The Preface.

Again on Mira’s srnging,

The Siave that from her Wit or Beauty flies,
If she but reach him with her Voice, he dies.

In such noble Company, I magin Mr. Addison will not be ashamed to appear, thus peaking of Mr Cowley;

His Turns too clo'ely on the Reader press;
He more had pleas'd us, had he pleas'd us less.

And of Mr. Waller,

Oh had thy Muse not come an Age too soon.

And of Mr. Dryden's Muse,

Whether in Comick Sounds or Tragick Airs
She forms her Voice, she moves our Smiles or Tears.

And to his Friend Dr. Sacheverell,

I've done at length, and now, dear Friend, receive
The last poor Present that my Muse can give.
And so at once, dear Friend and Muse, fare well.

To these let me add the Testemony of that Darling of the Muses, Mr. Prior, with whom all the Poets of ancient and modern Times of other Nations, or our own, might seem to have-intrusted the chief Secrets, and greatest Treasures. of their Art. I shall speak only concerning our own Isand, where his Imitation of Chaucer, of Spencer, and of the old Scotch Poem, insciribed the Nut-Brown Maid, shew how great Masfer he is, and how much every thing is to be valued which bears the Stamp of his Approbation. And we shall certainly find a great deal to countenance the use of Monosyllables in his Writings. Take these Examples;

Me