culated, as to have demanded intelligibly a reinforce'ment of liquor, the whole affembly had been by this ⚫ time extended under the table. • The celebration of this night's folemnity was opened by the obftreperous joy of drummers, who, with their parchment thunder, gave a signal for the appearance of the mob under their feveral claffes and denominations. They were quickly joined by the melodious clank of 'marrow-bone and cleaver, whilft a chorus of bells filled up the confort. A pyramid of stack-faggots cheared the hearts of the populace with the promife of a blaze: the guns had no fooner uttered the prologue, but the heavens were brightened with artificial meteors, and stars * of our own making; and all the high-ftreet lighted up 'from one end to another, with a galaxy of candles. We 'collected a largefs for the multitude who tippled eleemofynary till they grew exceeding vociferous. There was a pafte-board pontiff, with a little fwarthy dæmon at his elbow, who, by his diabolical whispers and infinuations, tempted his holiness into the fire, and then left him to • shift for himself. The mobile were very farcastic with 'their clubs, and gave the old gentleman feveral thumps upon his triple head-piece. Tom Tyler's phiz is fomething damaged by the fall of a rocket, which hath almoft fpoiled the gnomon of his countenance. The mirth ' of the commons grew fo very outrageous, that it found work for our friend of the Quorum, who, by the help ' of his Amanuenfis, took down all their names and their crimes, with a defign to produce his manuscript at the next quarter-feffions, &c. &c. &c.' I SHALL fubjoin to the foregoing piece of a letter, the following copy of verses tranflated from an Italian poet, who was the Cleveland of his age, and had multitudes of admirers. The fubject is an accident that happened under the reign of Pope Leo, when a fire-work that had been prepared upon the caftle of St Angelo, began to play before its time, being kindled by a flash of lightning. The author hath written his poem in the fame kind of ftile, as that I have already exemplified in profe. Every line in it is a riddle, and the reader must be forced to confider it twice or thrice, before he will know that the Cynic's tenement is a tub, and Bacchus his caft-coat a hogfhead, &c. 'Twas 'Twas night, and heav'n, a Cyclops, all the day, An Argus now did countless eyes difplay: In ev'ry window Rome her joy declares, All bright, and ftudded with terrestrial stars. A blazing chain of lights her roofs entwines, And round her neck the mingled luftre fhines ; The Cynic's rolling tenement confpires, With Bacchus his caft-coat, to feed the fires. The pile, ftill big with undiscover'd fhows, Whilft now the multitude expect the time, The clouds invelop'd heav'n from human fight, Tall groves of trees the Hadrian tow'r furround, When When blazing leaves appear above their head, Bright fpears and shining Spearmen mount on high, A fer'n-fold fhield of spheres doth heav'n defend, } Pour out their fouls, their fulph'rous fouls, and groan. With joy, great Sir, we view'd this pompous show, While heav'n, that fat fpectator ftill till now, Itfelf turn'd actor, proud to pleasure you. And fo 'tis fit, when Leo's fires appear, That heav'n itfelf fhould turn an engineer; That heav'n itself should all its wonders how, And orbs above confent with orbs below. N° 618. Wednesday, November 10. -Neque enim concludere verfum Dixeris effe fatis: neque fiquis fcribat, uti nos, Hor. Sat. 4. 1. I. V. 40. 'Tis not enough the meafur'd feet to close: • Mr SPECTATOR, } 7OU having, in your two laft Spectators, given the town a couple of remarkable letters, in very different ftiles; I take this opportunity to offer to you fome remarks upon the epiftolary way of writing in verfe. This is a species of poetry by itfelf; and has not fo much as been hinted at in any of the arts of poetry, ' that have ever fallen into my hands; neither has it in any age, or any nation, been fo much cultivated, as the other feveral kinds of poefy. A man of genius may, if he pleafes, write letters in verfe upon all manner of fubjects, that are capable of being embellished with wit and language, and may render them new and agreeable by giving the proper turn to them. But in fpeaking at prefent of epiftolary poetry, I would be understood to mean only fuch writings in this kind, as have been in ufe a-" mong the ancients, and have been copied from them by fome moderns. Thefe may be reduced into two claffes : in the one I shall range love-letters, letters of friendship, and letters upon mournful occafions: in the other I shall 'place fuch epiftles in verfe, as may properly be called familiar, critical, and moral; to which may be added letters of mirth and humour. Ovid for the first, and Horace for the latter, are the belt originals we have left. 6 .6 HE that is ambitious of fucceeding in the Ovidian way, fhould first examine his heart well, and feel whether his paffions (especially thofe of the gentler kind) play eafy; fince it is not his wit, but the delicacy and tenderness of his fentiments, that will affect his readers. His verfification likewife fhould be foft, and all his numbers flowing and querulous. THE qualifications requifite for writing epiftles, after the model given us by Horace, are of a quite different nature. He that would excel in this kind must have a good fund of strong masculine fenfe: to this there must be joined a thorough knowledge of mankind, together with an infight into the bufinefs, and the prevailing humours of the age. Our author must have his mind well feasoned with the finest precepts of morality, and be filled with nice reflections upon the bright and the dark fides of human life: he must be a master of refined raillery, and understand the delicacies, as well as the abfurdities ' of converfation; he must have a lively turn of wit, with an eafy and concife manner of expreffion: every thing he fays, must be in a free and difengaged manner. He must be guilty of nothing that betrays the air of a re*clufe, but appear a man of the world throughout. His VOL. VIII. illuftrations, T 1 illustrations, his comparisons, and the greatest part of his images must be drawn from common life. Strokes of fatire and criticifm, as well as panegyric, judiciously thrown in, and as it were by the by, give a wonderful life and ornament to compofitions of this kind. But let our poet, while he writes epiftles, though never fo familiar, ftill remember, that he writes in verfe, and must for that reafon have a more than ordinary care not to fall into profe and a vulgar diction, excepting where the nature and humour of the thing does neceffarily require it. In this point Horace hath been thought by fome critics to be fometimes carelefs, as well as too negligent of his verfification; of which he feems to have been fenfible himself. 'ALL I have to add is, that both thefe manners of writing may be made as entertaining, in their way, as any other fpecies of poetry, if undertaken by perfons duly qualified; and the latter fort may be managed fo as to become in a peculiar manner instructive. I am, &c.' I SHALL add an obfervation or two to the remarks of my ingenious correfpondent, and, in the first place, take notice, that subjects of the most sublime nature are often treated in the epiftolary way with advantage, as in the famous epiftle of Horace to Auguftus. The poet furprises us with his pomp, and feems rather betrayed into his fubject, than to have aimed at it by defign. He appears, like the vifit of a king incognito, with a mixture of familiarity and grandeur. In works of this kind, when the dignity of the fubject hurries the poet into defcriptions and fentiments, feemingly unpremeditated, by a fort of infpiration, it is ufual for him to recollect himself, and fall back gracefully into the natural stile of a letter. I MIGHT here mention an epiftolary poem, just publifhed by Mr Eufden, on the king's acceffion to the throne; wherein, amongst many other noble and beautiful ftrokes of poetry, his reader may fee this rule very happily obferved. NO |