WELL then; the promis'd hour is come at last;
The present Age of Wit obscures the past:
Strong were our Syres; and as they Fought they Writ,
Conqu'ring with force of Arms, and dint of Wit;
Theirs was the Gyant Race, before the Flood;
And thus, when Charles Return'd, our Empire stood.
Like Janus he the stubborn Soil manur'd,
With Rules of Husbandry the rankness cur'd:
Tam'd us to manners, when the Stage was rude;
And boistrous English Wit, with Art indu'd.
Our Age was cultivated thus at length;
But what we gain'd in skill we lost in strength.
Our Builders were, with want of Genius, curst;
The second Temple was not like the first:
Till You, the best Vitruvius, come at length;
Our Beauties equal; but excel our strength.
Firm Dorique Pillars found your solid Base:
The Fair Corinthian Crowns the higher Space;
Thus all below is Strength, and all above is Grace.
In easie Dialogue is Fletcher's Praise:
He movd the mind, but had not power to raise.
Great Johnson did by strength of Judgment please:
Yet doubling Fletcher's Force, he wants his Ease.
In differing Tallents both adorn'd their Age;
One for the Study, t'other for the Stage.
But both to Congreve justly shall submit,
One matchd in Judgment, both o'er-match'd in Wit,
In Him all Beauties of this Age we see;
Etherege his Courtship, Southern's Purity;
The Satire, Wit, and Strength of Manly Witcherly.
All this in blooming Youth you have Atchiev'd;
Now are your foil'd Contemporaries griev'd;
So much the sweetness of your manners move,
We cannot envy you because we Love.
Fabius might joy in Scipio, when he saw
A Beardless Consul made against the Law,
And joyn his Suffrage to the Votes of Rome;
Though He with Hannibal was overcome.
Thus old Romano bow'd to Raphael's Fame;
And Scholar to the Youth he taught, became.

(ll. 1-40; sig. a2)