"
Pope at first praised Ambrose Philips, and said he was "a man who could
write very nobly," but afterwards they became rivals, and things went so
far between them that Pope called Philips "a rascal," and Philips hung
up a rod with which he said he would chastise Pope. He probably had
recourse to this kind of argument, because he felt that he was worsted
by his adversary in wordy warfare, having little talent in satire. In
fact, his attempts in this direction were particularly clumsy as--"On a
company of bad dancers to good music."
"How ill the motion with the music suits!
So Orpheus fiddled, and so danced the brutes."
Still there is a gaiety and lightness about many of his pieces. The
following is a specimen of his favourite style. Italian singers, lately
introduced, seem to have been regarded by many with disfavour and alarm.
TO SIGNORA CUZZONI.
"Little syren of the stage,
Charmer of an idle age,
Empty warbler, breathing lyre,
Wanton gale of fond desire,
Bane of every manly art,
Sweet enfeebler of the heart;
O! too pleasing is thy strain,
Hence, to southern climes again,
Tuneful mischief, vocal spell,
To this island bid farewell,
Leave us, as we ought to be,
Leave the Britons rough and free."
To parody a work is to pay it a compliment, though perhaps
unintentionally, for if it were not well known the point of the
imitation would be lost.
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