a8 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1797. 
Held a debate !—On politics, no doubt. 
Not fo ;—they car’d not who was in, 
Not of a pin, 
Nor who was out. © . 
All their difcourfe on modern poets ran, 
For in the mufes was their fole delight. , 
They ftalk’d of fuch, and fuch, and. fuch a man; 
Of thofe who could and thofe who could not write. 
Tt coft them very little pains 
To count the modern poets who had brains; _ 
*Twas a {mall difficulty :—’twasn’t any, 
They were fo few. 
But to caft up the fcores of men 
Who wield a ftump they call a pen, 
Lord! they had much to do! 
They were fo many. 
Buoy’d on a fea of fancy, genius rifes, 
And, like the rare Leviathan, furprizes : ‘Gi 
But the Jmall fry of {cribblers !—tiny fouls !—« 
They wriggle through the mud in flioals, 
It would have rais’d a {mile to fee the faces Ss 
They made, and the ridiculous grimaces, 
At many an author as they overhaul’d him, 
They gave no quarter toacalf, © 
Blown up with puff and paragraph 
But if they found him bad, they maul’d him. 
On modern dramatifts they fell 
Pounce vi & armis—tooth and nail—pell mell. 
They call’d them carpenters and {mugglers ; 
Filching their incidents from ancient hoards, 
And knocking them together like deal boards; and rupees 
Who all the town’s attention fix 
By making—Plays? No, fir, by making tricks. 
The verfifiers—Heav'n defend us! 
They. play’d the very devil with their rhimes: 
They hop’d Apollo a new fet would fend us ; 
And then invidioufly enough, 
Plac’d modifh verfe, which they cali’d ftuff, 
Againft the writings of the elder times. 
To fay the truth, 2 modern verfifier 
Clap’d check by jowl 
With Pope, with Dryden, and with Prior, 
Would look damn’d fcurvily, upon my foul! 
For novels, fhould their cfitic hints {ucceed, 
The Miffes might fare better when they took ’ em; 
But it would fare éxtremély ill indeed 
With gentle Mefficurs Bell and Hookham. 
& A novel 
