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THE HISTORY OF POETRY.
IN A LETTER TO A FRIEND[1].
SIR,
IN obedience to your commands, I here send you the following short essay toward a History of Poetry in England and Ireland. At first it was a science we only began to chaw sir. A hundred years after, we attempted to translate out of the Psalms, but could not our stern-hold. In queen Elizabeth's reign, I think, there was but one di-spenser of good verses; for his patron, though a great man, is hid nigh by the length of time. Yet, a little before her death, we attempted to deal in tragedy, and began to shake spears; which was pursued under king James the First by three great poets, in one of them many a line so strong, that you might make a beam ont; the second, indeed, gives us sometimes but flat cheer, and the third is ben-ding a little to stiffness.
In the reign of king Charles the First, there was a new succession of poets; one of them, though seldom read, I am very fond of; he has so much salt in his compositions, that you would think he had been used to suck-ling: as to his friend the
- ↑ This has been printed as the Dean's, and is likely to be genuine. See the letters to lord Pembroke, &c. vol. XVI, p. 243—249.
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