Page:Lives of Poets-Laureate.djvu/122

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108
BEN JONSON.

the best judge and fittest to prescribe rules to poetry and poets of any man who had lived with or before him."

We conclude with an extract from Churchill's "Rosciad:"

"Next, Jonson sat, in ancient learning train'd;
His rigid judgment Fancy's flights restrain'd,
Correctly prun'd each wild luxuriant thought,
Mark'd out her course, nor spar'd a glorious fault.
The book of Man he read with nicest art,
And ransack'd all the secrets of the heart;
Excited Penetration's utmost force,
And trac'd each passion to its proper source;
Then, strongly marked, in liveliest colours drew,
And brought each foible forth to public view.
The coxcomb felt a lash in every word,
And fools hung out, their brother fools deterr'd;
His comic humour kept the world in awe
And laughter frighten'd folly more than law."