352 LIFE OF COTTON. 



ing sublime poetry into doggrel, Scarron's example is 

 no authority; and that, were the merit of this practice 

 greater than many men think it, those who admire the 

 wit, the humour, and the learning of ffudibras, cannot 

 but be disgusted at the low buffoonery, the forced wit, 

 and the coarseness and obscenity of the Virgil trarestie, 

 and yet the poem has its admirers ; is commended by 

 Sir John Suckling, in his Session of the Poets / and has 

 passed fourteen editions. 



To say the truth, the ABSURDITY of that species of 

 the mock epic, which gives to princes the manners of 

 the lowest of their inferiors ; has never been sufficiently 

 noticed. In the instance before us, how is the poet 

 embarrassed, when he describes Dido as exercising regal 

 authority, and at the same time employed in the mean- 

 est of domestic offices ! and ^Eneas, a person of royal 

 descent, as a clown, a commander, and a common 

 sailor! In the other kind of burlesque, viz. where the 

 characters are elevated, no such difficulty interposes : 

 grant but to Don Quixote and Sancho, to Hudibras 

 and Ralpho, the stations which Cervantes, and But- 

 ler, have respectively assigned them; and all their 

 actions are consistent with their several characters. 



Soon after, he engaged in a more commendable em- 

 ployment ; a translation of the History of the Life of 

 the Duke tfEspernon from 1598, where D'Avihi's 

 history ends, to 1642 in twelve books : in which un- 

 dertaking, he was interrupted by an appointment to 

 some place or post, which he hints at in the Preface, 

 but did not hold long ; as also by a sickness that delay- 

 ed the publication until 1670, when the book came out 

 in a folio volume, with a handsome Dedication to Dr. 

 Gilbert Sheldon, archbishop of Canterbury. 



In the same year, being the fortieth of his age, and, 

 having been honoured with a captain's commission, in 

 the army, he was drawn by some occasion, of business 

 or interest, to visit Ireland: which event he has re- 

 corded, with some particular circumstances touching 

 the course of his life, in a burlesque poem, called A 

 Voyage to Ireland; carelessly written^ but abounding 



