Page:The Poetical Works of Thomas Parnell (1833).djvu/281

Rh afterwards repeated with pleasure, for the number of disgraces which happened in it to the pretenders in poetry; though his envy made him still careful not to name Aristophanes, but a judge in general.

However, criticism had only a short triumph over poetry, when he made the next turn his own, by stepping forward into the place of reciting. Here he immediately raised the curiosity, and drew the attention of both king and people: but, as it happened, neither the one nor the other lasted; for the first sentence where he had registered his own name, satisfied their curiosity; and the next, where he offered to prove to a court so devoted to Homer, that he was ridiculous in every thing, went near to finish his audience. He was nevertheless heard quietly for some time, till the king, seeing no end of his abusing the prince of philological learning (as Vitruvius words it), departed in disdain. The judges followed, deriding his attempt as an extravagance which could not demand their gravity; and the people taking a license from the precedent, hooted him away with obloquy and indignation. Thus Zoilus failed at his first appearance, and was forced to retire, stung with a most impatient sense of public contempt.

Yet notwithstanding all this, he did not omit his attendance at court on the day following, with a petition that he might be put upon the establishment of learning, and allowed a pension. This the king read, but returned no answer: so great