7O MEMOIRS OF 



poet the world has produced. Shakefpeare 

 has had few more fpirited eulogifts than 

 Mr. Seward, in the following lines, written 

 about the year 1740, and publilhed, toge- 

 ther with other little poems of his, in 

 Dodfley's Mifcellany. 

 / 



Great Homer's birth feven rival cities claim, 



Too mighty fuch monopoly of fame ! 



Yet not to birth alone did Homer owe 



His wond'rous worth, what Egypt could beftow, 



With all the fchools of Greece, and Aria join'd, 



Enlarg'd th' immenfe expansion of his mind. 



Nor yet unrivall'd the Meonian ftrain, 



The Britifli Eagle and the Mantuan Swan 



Tower equal heights ; but happier, Stratford, thou 



With uncontefted laurels deck thy brow ! 



Thy Bard was thine unfchool'd, and from thee brought 



More than all Egypt, Greece, or Afia taught 5 



Not Homer's felf fuch peerlefs honours won, 



The Greek has rivals, but thy Shakefpeare none ! 



In the later editions of Dodfley's Mif- 

 cellany, the word fuoan, in the fourth 



couplet, 



