7
With easy change, he breathes the tender sigh,
Or melts to tears, or wakes to ecstacy,
At every author's bidding[1], and repays,
With loud acclaim, e'en Bloomfield's lowly lays.
Too just to wish, that all who boast a lyre,
Thunder'd with Milton's voice, or flash'd with Shakspear's fire.
Or melts to tears, or wakes to ecstacy,
At every author's bidding[1], and repays,
With loud acclaim, e'en Bloomfield's lowly lays.
Too just to wish, that all who boast a lyre,
Thunder'd with Milton's voice, or flash'd with Shakspear's fire.
- ↑ It must be allowed that this generous determination to be pleased was not wholly unknown in former times; but it was never hailed with equal acclamation, and was soon ill naturedly laughed out of countenance.. . . . . . Ainsi qu'en sots auteurs,
Notre siècle est fertile en sots admirateurs:
Et sans ceux que fournit la ville et la province,
Tl en est chez le duc, il en est chez le prince.
L'ouvrage le plus plat a, chez les courtisans,
De tout temps rencontré de zélés partisans;
Et pour finir enfin par un trait de satire,
Un sot trouve toujours un plus sot qui l'admire.
Boileau, L'Art. Poet. ch. i.
