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Broadside entitled 'A Reply to the Scots Answer to the British Vision'

Transcription

A

Reply to the Scots Answer to the British

Vision

HAIL noble Lord of Parts immense,
Mighty in Language and profound in Sense;
How shall an humble Muse thy Glory raise,
And in her meaner Songs attempt thy Praise.

See in the Senate how th' Illustrious Throng,
Sit listning to the Musick of thy Tongue;
And when abroad thy weighty Lines arc read,
What pop'lar Triumphs soon adorn thy Head;
Thy flowing Language and affecting Mein,
Moving in Phrase, in pointed Satyr keen
What floods of Tears from nobler Eyes it drew
When Cesar's Words as thus apply'd by you,         

Were read by those the Story never knew ;         

Thus for thy Profe the Crowd thy Praise rehearse,
But who shall rate the wonders of thy Verse;
For when thou stoop'st to Poesie and Rhime
Tis all incomprehensibly Sublime;
Supream in Thought, to Grammar unconfin'd;
Thy losty Genius soars above the wind.
So just the Numbers, so polite the Stile,
So clear the Sense, and so exact the Pile;
The wondring world like Trees in Orphens wood;
adinire those Strains they never understood.

No wonder mighty Bard thus doubly Arm'd,
by two edg'd Tongue has all thy Foes allarm'd ;
Whole Squadrons by, thy dreadful Language slain,
Under th' arnazement of thy Sense remain ;
And certain Conquest shall thy Force attend,
For all must fly what none can understand.
What tho in mighty Parable 'twas spoke,
The listning Crowd thy Oracles inve e;
Charm'd with thy Ciceronian Eloquence,
They view the Language, thou alone the Sense,
Nor is it fit th' uncomprehending Age,
Should in abstrusest Meanings far engage.

So Latine Prayers implicitely thought Good
May Edifie, tho never understood.

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Probable date published: 1706   shelfmark: S.302.b.2(130)
Broadside entitled 'A Reply to the Scots Answer to the British Vision'
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