The time will come, the fatal time,
When he shall dare a swan to rhyme;
The tow'ring swan comes sousing down,
And breaks his pinions, cracks his crown.
From that sad time, and sad disaster,
He'll be a lame, crack'd poetaster.
At length for stealing rhymes and triplets,
He'll be content to hang in giblets.
You see now, Gentlemen, this is fatally and literally come to pass; for
it was my misfortune to engage with that Pindar of the times, Tom
Sheridan, who did so confound me by sousing on my crown, and did so
batter my pinions, that I was forced to make use of borrowed wings,
though my false accusers have deposed that I stole my feathers from
Hopkins, Sternhold, Silvester, Ogilby, Durfey, etc., for which I now
forgive them and all the world. I die a poet; and this ladder shall be my
Gradus ad Parnassum; and I hope the critics will have mercy on my works.
Then lo, I mount as slowly as I sung,
And then I'll make a line for every rung;[2]
There's nine, I see,--the Muses, too, are nine.
Who would refuse to die a death like mine!
1. Thou first rung, Clio, celebrate my name;
2. Euterp, in tragic numbers do the same.
3. This rung, I see, Terpsichore's thy flute;
4. Erato, sing me to the Gods; ah, do't:
5.
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