With love, and war, a heavy gale at sea,
A list of ships, and captains, and kings reign-
New characters; the episodes are three: [ing,
A panoramic view of hell's in training,
After the style of Virgil and of Homer,
So that my name of epic's no misnomer.
CCI:

All these things will be specified in time,
With strict regard to Aristotle's rules,
The Vade Mecum of the true sublime,

Which makes so many poets and some fools:
Prose poets like blank verse, I'm fond of rhyme,
Good workmen never quarrel with their tools;
I've got new mythological machinery,
And very handsome supernatural scenery.

CCII.

There's only one slight difference between Me and my epic brethren gone before; And here the advantage is my own, I ween (Not that I have not several merits more, But this will more peculiarly be seen):

They so embellish, that 'tis quite a bore Their labyrinth of fables to thread through, Whereas this story's actually true.

CCIII.

If any person doubt it, I appeal

To history, tradition, and to facts, To newspapers, whose truth all know and feel, To plays in five, and operas in three, acts; All these confirm my statement a good deal, But that which more completely faith exacts Is that myself, and several now in Seville, Saw Juan's last elopement with the devil.

CCIV.

If ever I should condescend to prose,

I'll write poetical commandments, which Shall supersede beyond all doubt all those

That went before; in these I shall enrich My text with many things that no one knows, And carry precept to the highest pitch: I'll call the work Longinus o'er a Bottle; Or, Every Poet his own Aristotle.'

CCV.

Thou shalt believe in Milton, Dryden, Pope; Thou shalt not set up Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey;

Because the first is crazed beyond all hope, The second drunk, the third so quaint and mouthey:

With Crabbe it may be difficult to cope,

And Campbell's Hippocrene is somewhat drouthy:

Thou shalt not steal from Samuel Rogers, nor Commit-flirtation with the muse of Moore.

CCVI.

Thou shalt not covet Mr Sotheby's muse, His Pegasus, nor anything that's his;

Thou shalt not bear false witness like 'the Blues'

(There's one, at least, is very fond of this); Thou shalt not write, in short, but what I choose; This is true criticism, and you may kissExactly as you please, or not-the rod; But if you don't, I'll lay it on, by G―d!

CCVII.

If any person should presume to assert
This story is not moral, first, I pray
That they will not cry out before they're hurt,
Then that they'll read it o'er again, and say
(But doubtless nobody will be so pert)

That this is not a moral tale, though gay; Besides, in Canto Twelfth, I mean to show The very place where wicked people go.

CCVIII.

If, after all, there should be some so blind
To their own good, this warning to despise,
Led by some tortuosity of mind,

Not to believe my verse and their own eyes,
And cry that they the moral cannot find.
I tell him, if a clergyman, he lies;
Should captains the remark, or critics, make,
They also lie, too-under a mistake.

CCIX.

The public approbation I expect,

And beg they'll take my word about the moral, Which I with their amusement will connect (So children cutting teeth receive a coral); Meantime they'll doubtless please to recollect My epical pretensions to the laurel ; [tish, For fear some prudish readers should grow skitI've bribed my grandmother's review the British.

CCX.

I sent it in a letter to the Editor,
Who thank'd me duly by return of post-
I'm for a handsome article his creditor;

Yet, if my gentle Muse he please to roast, And break a promise after having made it her, Denying the receipt of what it cost,

And smear his page with gall instead of honey, All I can say is-that he had the money.

CCXL.

I think that, with this holy new alliance,
I may ensure the public, and defy
All other magazines of art or science,

Daily, or monthly, or three-monthly; I
Have not essay'd to multiply their clients,

Because they tell me 'twere in vain to try, And that the Edinburgh Review and Quarterly Treat a dissenting author very martyrly.

CCXII.

'Non ego hoc ferrem calida juventa

Consule Planco,' Horace said, and so Say I; by which quotation there is meant a Hint that, some six or seven good years ago