ABSTRACT
Poetry has had its Crisis in these Nations, as well as in other Countries. It was during the reign of king Charles II that Learning in general flourished, and the Muses, like other fair Ladies, met with the civillest sort of Entertainment. The Immoralities the English learn’d from the court of France, during the unhappy Exile of that Prince, and the luxurious Idleness which succeeded the long fatigues of our Civil Wars, frequently gave Birth to Lampoons and Satires; but as the first of these were perfectly Malicious, and the last pointed too much at great Men, lashing the Persons more than the Vices; they escaped the Censure of Posterity, and are interr’d in the Tombs of Forgetfulness. Those Embrio’s of Satire were succeeded by three great Wits, all Contemporaries, with little difference in their Age, and great Similitude in their Writings. Satire was the principal Talent of them all: In which way of Writing, my Lord Rochester and my Lord Dorset exceeded all the Modern Poets, and perchance were not inferior to the best of the Antients. Oldham indeed has not imitated Juvenal so well as my lord Rochester has Paraphrased upon Boileau: But then, as there is no comparison betwixt Boileau and Juvenal; so there’s no conclusion to be made from my lord Rochester’s exceeding his Original, and Mr. Oldham’s not coming up to the Genius, Beauty and Fire, of his Roman example.
