Page:The Poetical Works of Thomas Parnell (1833).djvu/298

170 frenzy. In the one instance you still see a mouse before, you, however, the poet raises it to a man; in the other, you shall see a man before you; however, the poet raises him to a demi-god. But some call that low, which others call natural. Every thing has two handles, and the critic who sets himself to censure all he meets, is under an obligation still to lay hold on the worst of them.

P. 49. v. 26. But me, nor stalks.]In this place Zoilus laughs at the ridiculousness of the poet, who (according to his representation) makes a prince refuse an invitation in heroicks, because he did not like the meat he was invited to. And, that the ridicule may appear in as strong a light to others as to himself, he puts as much of the speech as concerns it into burlesque airs and expressions. This is indeed a common trick with remarkers, which they either practise by precedent from their master Zoilus, or are beholden for it to the same turn of temper. We acknowledge it a fine piece of satire, when there is folly in a passage, to lay it open in the way by which it naturally requires to be exposed: do this handsomely, and the author is deservedly a jest. If, on the contrary, you dress a passage which was not originally foolish, in the highest humour of ridicule, you only frame something which the author himself might laugh at, without being more nearly concerned than another reader.

P. 50. v. 25. So pass'd Europa.]This simile makes Zoilus, who sets up for a professed enemy