Wit restor'd in several select poems not formerly publish't.

To his Worthy Friend Mr. I. S. upon his happy Innovation of Penelope and Vlysses.

IT was no idle fancie, I beheld A reall obiect, that around did gild The neighbouring vallies and the mountaine tops, That sided to Parnassus, with the drops From her disheveld hayre. I sought the cause. And loe, she had her dwelling in the jawes Of pearly Helicon, assign'd to bee Guide ore the Comick straynes of poetry. She lowr'd her flight, and soone assembled all, That since old Chaucer had tane leave to call, Upon her name in print: But O the rabble Of pamphleteers even from the court toth' stable, Knights, and dis•…•…arded Captaines, with the scrib•…•…; Famous in water-works, besides the tribe Of the true poets, they attended on The birth of this great Convocation. Sacred Thalia, in an angrie heat That well became her zeale, rose from her seat; And beckoning for silence, there disclaym'd, Protection of the poets, and then nam'd The cause of her revoke, for that (quoth she) So many panders 'long to poetry:

A crue of Scriblers that with brazen face Prostitute art and worke unto disgrace My patronage, each calling out on mee For midwife to his bastard progenie. Thus standing as •…•…rotectresse of that brood My care's ill construed by the sister-hood. With that she paused a while, and glanc'st her eye Among st the mingled pen-wrights, to descrie One to d•…•…stinguish by a different style, Dull Latmus from Diviner Pindus soyle, At length she six't on thee, and then anon Proclaym'd the her selected champion. Then was this worke presented to her care. She smiled at it, and was pleas'd to heare Dunces so well traduc'd; and by this rule, Discoverd all that nere were of the schoole Of noble poesie, and them she threw Farre from her care and her aquantance too; Thus were they found and lost, and this the test, They writ in earnest what's here meant in jest.

James Atkins.