Page:An Essay of Dramatic Poesy.djvu/23

was an honour which seemed to wait for you, to lead out a new colony of writers from the mother nation: and upon the first spreading of your ensigns, there had been many in a readiness to have followed so fortunate a leader; if not all, yet the better part of poets^[1]: ⁿ

—pars, indocili melior grege; mollis et exspes^[2]
Inominata perprimat cubilia. ⁿ

I am almost of opinion, that we should force you to accept of the command, as sometimes the Praetorian bands have compelled their captains to receive the empire. The court, which is the best and surest judge of writing, has generally allowed ⁿ of verse; and in the town it has found favourers of wit and quality. As for your own particular, my lord, you have yet youth and time enough to give part of them^[3] to the divertisement of the public, before you enter into the serious and more unpleasant business of the world. That which the French poet said of the temple of Love, may be as well applied to the temple of the Muses. The words, as near as I can remember them, were these:

Le jeune homme à mauvaise grace,
N'ayant pas adoré dans le Temple d'Amour;
Il faut qu'il entre; et pour le sage,
Si ce n'est pas son vrai^[4] sejour,
C'est un gîte^[5] sur son passage. ⁿ

I leave the words to work their effect upon your lordship in their own language, because no other can so well express the nobleness of the thought; and wish you may be soon called to bear a part in the

1. Writers, A.
2. expes, A.
3. of it, A.
4. Si ce nest son vray, A.
5. Ce'st un giste, A.