第31章 A VERY PRETTY POET.(1)

Will's Coffee-house,April 24.

I yesterday came hither about two hours before the company generally make their appearance,with a design to read over all the newspapers;but,upon my sitting down,I was accosted by Ned Softly,who saw me from a corner in the other end of the room,where I found he had been writing something."Mr.Bickerstaff,"says he,"Iobserve by a late paper of yours,that you and I are just of a humour;for you must know,of all impertinences,there is nothing which I so much hate as news.I never read a gazette in my life;and never trouble my head about our armies,whether they win or lose,or in what part of the world they lie encamped."Without giving me time to reply,he drew a paper of verses out of his pocket,telling me,"that he had something which would entertain me more agreeably,and that he would desire my judgment upon every line,for that we had time enough before us till the company came in."Ned Softly is a very pretty poet,and a great admirer of easy lines.

Waller is his favourite:and as that admirable writer has the best and worst verses of any among our great English poets,Ned Softly has got all the bad ones without book,which he repeats upon occasion,to show his reading,and garnish his conversation.Ned is indeed a true English reader,incapable of relishing the great and masterly strokes of this art;but wonderfully pleased with the little Gothic ornaments of epigrammatical conceits,turns,points,and quibbles,which are so frequent in the most admired of our English poets,and practised by those who want genius and strength to represent,after the manner of the ancients,simplicity in its natural beauty and perfection.

Finding myself unavoidably engaged in such a conversation,I was resolved to turn my pain into a pleasure and to divert myself as well as I could with so very odd a fellow."You must understand,"says Ned,"that the sonnet I am going to read to you was written upon a lady,who showed me some verses of her own making,and is,perhaps,the best poet of our age.But you shall hear it."Upon which he began to read as follows:

"TO MIRA,ON HER INCOMPARABLE POEMS.

1.

"When dressed in laurel wreaths you shine,And tune your soft melodious notes,You seem a sister of the Nine,Or Phoebus'self in petticoats.

2.

"I fancy,when your song you sing,Your song you sing with so much art,Your pen was plucked from Cupid's wing;For,ah!it wounds me like his dart."