The Old Bachelor (Congreve)/Poem by Bevil Higgons

Wit, like true gold, refined from all allay, Immortal is, and never can decay: ’Tis in all times and languages the same, Nor can an ill translation quench the flame: For, though the form and fashion don’t remain, The intrinsic value still it will retain. Then let each studied scene be writ with art, And judgment sweat to form the laboured part. Each character be just, and nature seem: Without th’ ingredient, wit, ’tis all but phlegm: For that’s the soul, which all the mass must move, And wake our passions into grief or love. But you, too bounteous, sow your wit so thick, We are surprised, and know not where to pick; And while with clapping we are just to you, Ourselves we injure, and lose something new. What mayn’t we then, great youth, of thee presage, Whose art and wit so much transcend thy age? How wilt thou shine at thy meridian height, Who, at thy rising, giv’st so vast a light? When Dryden dying shall the world deceive, Whom we immortal, as his works, believe, Thou shalt succeed, the glory of the stage, Adorn and entertain the coming age.

BEVIL. HIGGONS.