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After this, the whole book is turned on a fudden, from his own Life, to a History of all the publick Tranfactions of Europe, compiled from the Newspapers of thofe times. I could not comprehend the meaning of this, till I perceived at laft (to my no small Aftonishment) that all the Meafures of the four laft years of the Queen, together with the peace at Utrecht which have been ufually attributed to the E---of O‒‒‒, D‒‒‒ of O---, Lords H--- and B---, and other great men; do here most plainly appear, to have been wholly owing to Robert Jenkins, Amos Turner, George Pilcocks, Thomas White, but above all, to P. P.

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The reader may be fure I was very inquifitive after this extraordinary writer, whofe work I have here abstracted. I took a journey into the Country on purpose; but could not find the least 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 conftantly followed him.

In the Church-yard, I read his Epitaph, faid to be written by himself,

O Reader, if that thou canft read, Look down upon this Stone; Do all we can, Death is a man,

That never fpareth none.

OF THE

POET LAUREATE.

T

November 19, 1729.

HE time of the election of Poet Laureate being 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. Thefe 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 reftorer 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 so 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 S2d chapter of his Elogia Vir. Doct. He be

gins 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 ftrange kind of lyre in his hand, and at least "fome twenty thousand of verfes. All the wits "and critics of the court flocked about him, delighted to fee 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 agreed " he was born to be Poet Laureate. He had a "moft hearty welcome in an ifland of the river "Tiber (an agreeable place, not unlike our Rich

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mond) where he was first 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 braffica (a fort of cabbage) fo compofed, fays my author, emblematically, Ut tam fales quam lepide ejus temulentic, broffice remedio cohibenda, notaretur. He was then faluted by common "confent with the title of archi-poeta, or arch

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poet, in the style of thofe days, in ours, Peet "Laureate. This honour the poor man received

Apulus præpingui vultu alacer, et prolixe comatus, omnino dignus fefta laurea videretur.

"with the most fenfible demonstrations of joy, his

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eyes drunk with tears and gladness". Next, the

public acclamation was expreffed in a canticle, "which is tranfmitted to us, as follows:

Salve, brafficea virens corona,
Et lauro, archipoeta, pampinoque!
Dignus principis auribus Leonis.
All hail, arch-poet without peer!
Vine, bay, or cabbage, fit to wear,
And worthy of the prince's ear.

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 "verses innumerable, like a torrent, but also fung "them with open mouth. Nor was he only once

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introduced, or on flated 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 out of the prince's own flaggon, infomuch (fays the hiftorian) that

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Manantibus præ gaudio oculis.

< Semefis opfonis.

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