the last Canto; but in forming the general plan of the work, it feemed to me abfolutely neceffary to introduce both the agency and the abode of SPLEEN, notwithftanding the difficulty and the hazard of attempting a fubject fo happily executed by the masterly pencil of Pope. I confidered his Cave of Spleen as a most exquifite cabinet picture; and, to avoid the fervility of imitation, I determined to fketch the manfion of this gloomy Power on a much wider canvafs: Happy, indeed, if the judgment of the Public may enable me to exclaim, with the honeft vanity of the Painter, who compared his own works to the divine productions of Raphael,

"E fon Pittore anch' Io !"

The celebrated Alejandro Taffoni, who is generally confidered as the inventor of the modern Heroi-comic Poetry, was fo proud of having extended the limits of his art by a new kind of compofition, that he not only Spoke of it with infinite exultation in one of his private letters, but even gave a MS. copy of his work to his native city of Modena, with an infcription, in which he filed it a new species of Poetry, invented by bimfelf.

A few

A few partial friends have afferted, that the present performance has fome degree of fimilar merit ; but as I apprehend all the novelty it possesses, may rather require an apology, than entitle its Author to challenge commendation, I shall explain how far the conduct of the Poem differs from the most approved models in this mode of writing, and flightly mention the poetical effects, which fuch a variation appeared likely to produce.

It is well known, that the favourite Poems, which blend the serious and the comic, represent their principal characters in a fatirical point of view: It was the intention of Taffoni (though prudence made him attempt to conceal it) to fatirize a particular Italian Nobleman, who happened to be the object of his resentment. Boileau openly ridicules the French Ecclefiaftics in his Lutrin; Garth, our English Phyficians, in his Difpenfary; and the Rape of the Lock itself, that most excellent and enchanting Poem, which I never contemplate but with new idolatry, is denominated the best Satire extant, by the learned Dr. Warton, in his very elegant and ingenious, but fevere Efay on Pope: A fentence which feems to be confirmed by the Poet himself, in his letter to Mrs. Fermor, where he fays, "the cha

"racter of Belinda, as it is now managed, refembles

you in nothing but in beauty." Though I think, that
no compofition can surpass, or perhaps ever equal this
most happy effort of Genius, as a sportive Satire, I ima-
gined it might be poffible to give a new Character to this
mixed fpecies of Poetry, and to render it by its Object,
though not in its Execution, more noble than the most
beautiful and refined Satire can be. We have seen it
carried to inimitable perfection, in the most delicate
raillery on Female Foibles :-It remained to be tried, if
it might not alfo afpire to delineate the more engaging
features of Female Excellence. The idea appeared to
me worth the experiment; for, if it fucceeded, it seemed
to promise a double advantage; first, it would give an
air of novelty to the Poem; and, fecondly, what I
thought of much greater importance, it would render it
more interesting to the heart. On these principles, I
have endeavoured to paint SERENA as a moft lovely, en-
gaging, and accomplished character; yet I hope the co-
louring is fo faithfully copied from general Nature,
that every man, who reads the Poem, may be happy
enough to know many Fair ones, who refemble my
Heroine:

There

There is another point, in which I have also attempted to give this Poem an air of novelty: I mean, the manner of connecting the real and the visionary fcenes, which compose it; by shifting thefe in alternate Cantos, I hoped to make familiar Incident and allegorical Picture afford a strong relief to each other, and keep the attention of the Reader alive, by an appearance particularly diverfified. I wished, indeed (but I fear most ineffectually) for powers to unite fome touches of the fportive wildness of Ariofto, and the more ferious fublime painting of Dante, with fome portion of the enchanting elegance, the refined imagination, and the moral graces of Pope; and to do this, if possible, without violating those rules of propriety, which Mr. Cambridge has illuftrated, by example as well as precept, in The Scribleriad, and in his fenfible Preface to that elegant and learned Poem.

I have now very frankly informed my Reader of the extent, or rather of the extravagance of my defire; for I will not give it the ferious name of defign: They, whom an enlightened tafte has rendered thoroughly fenfible how very difficult it must be to accomplish fuch an idea, will not only be the first to difcern, but the most

ready to pardon those errors, into which fo hazardous an attempt may perhaps have betrayed me. I had thoughts of introducing this performance to the Public, by a Differtation of confiderable length on this fpecies of Poetry; but I forbear to indulge myself any farther in fuch preliminary remarks, as the anxiety of authors is fo apt to produce, from the reflection, that, however ingeniously written, they add little or nothing to the fuccefs of a good Poem, and are utterly infufficient to prevent that neglect, or oblivion, which is the inevitable fate of a bad one.

In difmiffing a work to my Fair Readers, which is intended principally for their perufal, I fhall only recommend it to their attention; and bid them farewell, in the words of the pleasant and courteous Taffoni

"Vaglia il buon voler, s'altro non lice,
"E chi la leggera, viva felice !"

EARTHAM, Jan. 31, 1781.

THE