" been wholly owing to Robert Jenkins, Amos Turner, George Pilcocks, Thomas White, but above all, P. P. The reader may be fure I was very inquifitive after this extraordinary writer, whofe work I have here abstracted. I took a journey into the Country on purpofe; but could not find the leaft trace of him: till by accident I met an old Clergyman, who faid he could not be pofitive, but thought it might be one Paul Philips, who had been dead about twelve years. And upon enquiry, all he could learn of that person from the neighbourhood, was, That he had been taken notice of for fwallowing Loaches, and remembered by Some people by a black and white Cur with one Ear, that conftantly followed him. In the Church-yard, I read his Epitaph, said to be written by himfeif. O Reader, if that thou canft read, Do all we can, Death is a man, OF OF THE POET LAUREATE. November 19, 1729. HE time of the election of a Poet Laureate Tbeing now at hand, it may be proper to give fome accout of the rites and ceremonies anciently used at that Solemnity, and only discontinued through the neglect and degeneracy of later times. These we have extracted from an hiftorian of undoubted credit, a reverend bishop, the learned Paulus Jovius; and are the fame that were practifed under the pontificate of Leo X, the great reftorer of learning. As we now fee an age and a court, that for the encouragement of poetry rivals, if not exceeds, that of this famous Pope, we cannot but wifh a restoration of all its honours to pofy; the rather, fince there are fo many parallel circumstances in the perfon who was then honoured with the laurel, and in him, who (in all probability) is now to wear it. I fhall translate my author exactly as I find it in the 82d chapter of his Elogia Vir. Doct. He begins with the character of the poet himself, who was the original and father of all Laureates, and called Camillo. He was a plain country-man of Apulia, (whether a fhepherd or thresher, is not material.) This man (fays Jovius) excited by the fame of the great encouragement given to poets "at court, and the high honour in which they 66 were held, came to the city, bringing with him "a ftrange kind of lyre in his hand, and at leaft "fome twenty thousand of verfes. All the wits "and critics of the court flocked about him, de"lighted to fee a clown, with a ruddy, hale com"plexion, and in his own long hair, fo top full of "poetry; and at the first fight of him all agreed "he was born to be Poet Laureate *. He had a "moft hearty welcome in an island of the river "Tiber (an agreeable place, not unlike our Rich"mond) where he was firft made to eat and "drink plentifully, and to repeat his verses to every body. Then they adorned him with a new and "elegant garland, compofed of vine-leaves, lau"rel, and braffica (a fort of cabbage) fo compofed, fays my author, emblematically, Ut tam fales quam "lepide ejus temulentia, braffica remedio cohibenda, "notaretur. He was then faluted by common "confent with the title of archipoeta, or arch"poet, in the ftyle of thofe days, in ours, Poet "Laureate. This honour the poor man received "with the most fenfible demonftrations of joy, his C eyes drunk with tears and gladness +. Next, the "public acclamation was expreffed in a canticle, "which is transmitted to us, as follows: Salve, brafficea virens corona, Et lauro, archipoeta, pampinoque! All hail, arch-poet without peer! From hence, he was conducted in pomp to the * Apulus præpingui vultu alacer, et prolixe comatus, omnino dignus fefta laurea videretur. + Manantibus præ gaudio oculis. the the fhouts of the populace, where the ceremony ended. The hiftorian tells us further, "That at his in"troduction to Leo, he not only poured forth verfes innumerable, like a torrent, but alfo fung "them with open mouth. Nor was he only once "introduced, or on stated days (like our Lau"reates) but made a companion to his mafter, and "entertained as one of the inftruments of his most elegant pleasures. When the prince was at ta"ble, the poet had his place at the window. "When the prince had half eaten his meat, he 66 gave with his own hands the reft to the poet. "When the poet drank, it was out of the prince's "own flaggon, infomuch (fays the historian) that "thro' fo great good eating and drinking he con"tracted a moft terrible gout." Sorry I am to relate what follows, but that I cannot leave my reader's curiofity unfatisfied in the catastrophe of this extraordinary man. To use my author's words, which are remarkable, mortuo Leone, profligatifque poetis, etc. "When Leo died, and 66 poets were no more" (for I would not underftand profligatis literally, as if poets then were profligate) this unhappy Laureate was forthwith reduced to return to his country, where, oppreffed with old age and want, he miferably perished in a common hofpital. We fee from this fad conclufion (which may be of example to the poets of our time) that it were happier to meet with no encouragement at all, to remain at the plough, or other lawful occupation, than to be elevated above their condition, and taken out of the common means of life, without a furer fupport than the temporary, or at best, mortal favours of the great. It was doubt *Semefis opfoniis. lefs |