250 LIFE OF COTTON. 



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from the French of Monsieur de Vaix, president of (lie Parliament of 

 Provence, in obedience, as the Preface informs us, to a command of 

 his father; doubtless with a view to his improvement in the science 

 of morality: and this, notwithstanding the book had been translated 

 by Dr. James, the first keeper of the Bodleian Library, above three- 

 score years before. 



His next publication was Scarronidfg, or Vkrrjil Trarestie, being 

 the first book of Virgil's .Etam, in English burlesque, 8vo. 1664. 

 Concerning which, and also the fourth book, tr;m-'."' I by him, and 

 afterwards published, it may be sufficient to say, that, lor degrading 

 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 Hud if. nix, 

 cannot but be disgusted at the low buffoonery, the forced wit, and the 

 coarseness and obscenity of the F<r/yi/ Trarestie ; and yet the poem 

 has its admirers, is commended by Sir John Suckling, in his Session 

 of the Poeti, 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, 

 feat never been sufficiently noticed. In the instance before us, how is 

 the poet embarrassed, when he describes Dido as exercising regal au- 

 thority, and at the same time employed in the meanest of domestic 

 office* ; and yttneas. a person of royal descent, as a clown, a comman- 

 der, and a common sailor! In the other kind of burlesque, viz. 

 where the characters are e/etated, no such difficulty interposes : grant 

 but to Don Quixote and Sancho, to Hudibras and Ralpho, the stations 

 which Cervantes and Butler have respectively assigned them, and all 

 their actions are consistent with their several characters. 



Soon after, be engaged in a more commendable employment; a 

 translation of the Hutory of the Life of the Duke d'Etpernon, from 

 1598, where D'Avila's history ends, to 1642, in twelve books: in 

 which undertaking 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 delayed 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 recorded, with some particular circumstances touching the 

 coarse of his life, in a burlesque poem, called A Voyage to Ireland, 

 carelessly written, but abounding in humorous description, as will 

 appear by the following extract therefrom : 



A guide I had got, who demanded great vails 

 For conducting me over the mountains of Wales; 

 Twenty good shillings, which sure very large is ; 

 Yet that would not serve, bat I must !x;ar his charges: 

 4 nd yet, for all that, rode astride on a >>eat 

 The worst that e'er went on three legs, 1 protest ; 

 It certainly was the most ugly of jades; 

 His hips and his rump made a right ace of spades ; 

 His sides were two ladders, well spur-gal I'd withal ; 

 His neck was a helve, and his head was a mall : 



