Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/120

110 Such was the piece, his lateſt pen deſign’d, But left no traces of his plan behind. Luxurious ſcenes, unprun’d, or half contriv’d; Yet, through the maſs, his native fire ſurviv’d: Rough as rich oar, in mines the treaſure lay, Yet ſtill ’twas rich, and forms at length a play. In which the bold compiler boaſts no merit, But that his pains have ſav’d you ſcenes of ſpirit. Not ſcenes that would a noiſy joy impart, But ſuch as huſh the mind, and warm the heart. From praiſe of hands, no ſure account he draws, But fix’d attention is, ſincere applauſe. If then (for hard you’ll own the taſk) his art Can to thoſe Embrion-ſcenes new life impart; The living proudly would exclude his lays, And to the buried bard reſign the praiſe. Sir John indeed appears to have been often ſenſible of the immorality of his ſcenes; for in the year 1725 when the company of comedians was called upon, in a manner that could not be reſiſted, to revive the Provok’d Wife, the author, who was conſcious how juſtly it was expoſed to cenſure, thought proper to ſubſtitute a new ſcene in the fourth act, in place of another, in which, in the wantonneſs of his wit and humour, he had made a Rake talk like a Rake, in the habit of a Clergyman. To avoid which offence, he put the ſame Debauchee into the Undreſs of a Woman of Quality; for the character of a fine lady, it ſeems, is not reckoned ſo indelibly ſacred, as that of a Churchman. Whatever follies he expoſed in the petticoat kept him at leaſt clear of his former