Page:The Triumphs of Temper.djvu/12

viii It is well known, that the favourite poems, which blend the serious and the comic, represent their principal characters in a satirical point of view: it was the intention of Tassoni (though prudence made him attempt to conceal it) to satirize a particular Italian nobleman, who happened to be the object of his resentment. Boileau ridicules the French ecclesiastics without reserve in his Lutrin; Garth, our English physicians, in his Dispensary; 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 severe; Essay on Pope: a sentence which seems to be confirmed by the poet himself, in his letter to Mrs. Fermor, where he says, "the character of Belinda, as it is now managed, resembles you in