of Parliament, fpake of the fame to other members of Parliament; who fpake thereof unto the Peers of the Realm. Lo! thus did our counfels enter into the hearts of our Generals and our Law-givers; and from henceforth, even as we devised, thus did they. After this, the whole book is turned on a fudden, from his own Life, to a Hiftory of all the publick I ranfaciions f Europe, compiled from the News-papers of thofe times. I could not comprehend the meaning of this, till I perceived at laft (to my no small Aftonishment) that all the Measures of the four last years of the Queen, together with the peace at Utrecht which have been usually attributed to the E- of O—, D. of O " and other great men ; do here moft plainly appear, to have been wholly owing to Robert Jenkins, Amos Turner, George Pilcocks, Thomas White, but above all, to P. P. Lords H and B The reader may be fure I was very inquifitive after this extraordinary writer, whofe work I have here abftracted. I took a journey into the Country on purpose; but could not find the leaft trace of him: till by accident I met an old Clergyman, who faid he could not be pofitive, but thought it might be one Paul Philips, who had been dead about twelve years. And upon enquiry, all he could learn of that perfon from the neighbourhood, was, That he had been taken notice of for fwallowing Loaches, and remembered by fome people by a black and white Cur with one Ear, that confiantly followed him. In the Church-yard, I read his Epitaph, faid to be written by himself. O Reader, if that thou canst read, OF THE POET LAUREATE. T November 19, 1729. HE time of the election of Poet Laureate be ing now at hand, it may be proper to give fome account of the rites and ceremonies anciently used at that Solemnity, and only discontinued through the neglect and degeneracy of later times. These we have extracted from an hiftorian of undoubted credit, a reverend bishop, the learned Paulus Jovius; and are the fame that were practised under the pontificate of Leo X. the great restorer of learning. As we now fee an age and a court, that for the encouragement of poetry rivals, if not exceeds, that of this famous Pope, we cannot but wish a restoration of all its honours to poefy; the rather, fince there are fo many parallel circumstances in the person who was then honoured with the laurel, and in him, who (in all probability) is now to wear it. I shall translate my author exactly as I find it in the 82d chapter of his Elogia Vir. Doct. He begins with the character of the poet himself, who was the original and father of all Laureates, and called Camillo. He was a plain country-man of Apulia, (whether a shepherd or thresher, is not material.) "This man (fays Jovius) excited by the fame of the "great encouragement given to poets at court, and "the high honour in which they were held, came to "the city, bringing with him a strange kind of lyre "in his hand, and at least some twenty thousand of verfes. All the wits and critics of the court flocked "about him, delighted to see a clown, with a ruddy, "hale complexion, and in his own long hair, so top "full of poetry; and at the first fight of him all aཔ་ greed he was born to be Poet Laureate. He had a most hearty welcome in an island of the river "Tiber (an agreeable place, not unlike our Richmond) where he was firft made to eat and drink plentifully, and to repeat his verfes to every body. "Then they adorned him with a new and elegant garland, compofed of vine-leaves, laurel, and braf fica (a fort of cabbage) fo compofed, fays my au"thor, emblematically, Ut tam fales quam lepide ejus "temulentia, brafficæ remedio cohibenda, notaretur. "He was then faluted by common confent with the "title of archi-poeta, or arch. poet, in the style of those "days, in ours, Poet Laureate. This honour the poor man received with the moft fenfible demon a Apulus præpingui vultu alacer, et prolixe comatus, omnino dignus fefta laurea videretur. "ftrations of joy, his eyes drunk with tears and glad"nefs". Next, the public acclamation was ex preffed in a canticle, which is tranfmitted to us, as "follows: Salve, brafficea virens corona, Et lauro, archipoeta, pampinoque ! All hail, arch-poet, without peer! From hence he was conducted in pomp to the Capitol of Rome, mounted on an elephant, thro' the fhouts of the populace, where the ceremony ended. The hiftorian tells us further, "That at his in"troduction to Leo, he not only poured forth ver 64 fes, innumerable, like a torrent, but alfo fung them "with open mouth. Nor was he only once introdu"ced, or on fated days (like our Laureates) but "made a companion to his master, and entertained as "one of the inftruments of his most elegant pleasures. "When the prince was at table, the poet had his "place at the window. When the prince had half "eaten his meat, he gave with his own hands the ""reft to the poet. When the poet drank, it was Manantibus præ gaudio oculis. VOL. VII. P < Semefis opfoniis, |