As good as a play.
* * * * *
SHEFFIELD, DUKE OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.
1649-1721.
_Essay on Poetry_.
Of all those arts in which the wise excel,
Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well.
There's no such thing in nature, and you'll draw
A faultless monster, which the world ne'er saw.
* * * * *
Read Homer once, and you can read no more,
For all books else appear so mean, so poor;
Verse will seem prose; but still persist to read,
And Homer will be all the books you need.
* * * * *
THOMAS OTWAY.
1651-1685.
_Venice Preserved_.
Act i. Sc. 1.
O woman! lovely woman! Nature made thee
To temper man; we had been brutes without you.
Angels are painted fair to look like you.
* * * * *
JOHN NORRIS.
1657-1711.
_The Parting_.
How fading are the joys we dote upon!
Like apparitions seen and gone;
But those which soonest take their flight
Are the most exquisite and strong;
Like angel's visits, short and bright,
Mortality's too weak to bear them long.
* * * * *
NATHANIEL LEE.
1655-1692.
_Alexander the Great_.
Act i. Sc. 3.
Then he will talk--ye gods, how he will talk!
Act iv.
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