ΤΟ MR. JERVAS, WITH FRESNOY'S ART OF PAINTING, TRANSLATED BY MR. DRYDEN. THIS verse be thine, my friend, nor thou refuse Smit with the love of Sister-Arts we came And each from each contract new strength and light. * First printed in 1716. How oft review; each finding like a friend, What flatt'ring scenes our wand'ring fancy wrought, With thee, o'er Raffaelle's monument I mourn, Here thy well-study'd marbles fix our eye; This small, well-polished gem, the work of years! * Muse! at that name thy sacred sorrows shed, * Fresnoy employed above twenty years in finishing this poem. Yet still her charms in breathing paint engage: Oh! lasting as those colours may they shine, * In one of Dr. Warburton's Editions of Pope, by which copy this has been corrected, the name is changed to Worsley. If that reading be not an error of the press, I suppose the poet altered the name after he had quarrelled with lady M. W. Montague, and being offended at her wit, thus revenged himself on her beauty. M. |