⚫teors and stars of our own making; and all the High-ftreet lighted up from one end to another, with a galaxy of candles. We collected a largefs for the multitude, who tippled elemofynary until they grew exceedingly vociferous. There was a pafteboard pontiff, with a little fwarthy demon at his elbow, who by his diabolical whifpers and infinuations, tempted his holinefs into the fire, and then left him to fhift for himself. The mobile 6 6 6 nance. 6 were very farcaftic with their clubs, and gave the old gentleman feveral thumps upon his triple head-piece+. Tom Tyler's phiz is fomething damaged by the fall of a rocket, which hath almost spoiled the gnomon of his counteThe mirth of the commons grew fo very outrageous, that it found work for our friend of the quorum, who, by the help ' of his amanuenfis, took down all their names ' and their crimes, with a design to produce his manufcript at the next quarter-feffions, &c. • &c. &c.' I fhall fubjoin to the foregoing piece of a letter the following copy of veries tranflated from an Italian poet, who was the CLEIVELAND of his age, and had multitudes of admirers. The fubject is an accident that happened under the reign of Pope Leo, when a fire-work, that had been prepared upon the caftle of St. Angelo, began to play before its time, being kindled by a flash of lightning. The author has written a poem in the fame kind of ftyle as that I have already ex + The Pope's Tiara, or triple Mitre. emplified emplified in profe. Every line in it is a riddle, and the reader must be forced to confider it twice or thrice, before he will know that the Cynic's tenement is a tub, and Bacchus's caft-coat a hogfhead, &c. 'Twas night, and Heaven, a Cyclops all day, And Argus now did countless eyes difplay; In every window Rome her joy declares, All bright and ftudded with terrestrial stars. A blazing chain of lights her roofs entwines, And round her neck the mingled luftre fhines: The Cynic's rolling tenement confpires, • With Bacchus his caft-coat to feed the fires. The pile, ftill big with undifcover'd fhows, The Tuscan pile did laft its freight disclose, Where the proud tops of Rome's new Etna rife, Whence giants fally and invade the fkies. Whilft now the multitude expect the time, And their tir'd eyes the lofty mountain climb, As thousand iron mouths their voices try, And thunder out a dreadful harmony; • In treble notes the fmall artillery plays, The deep mouth'd cannon bellows in the bafs, The lab'ring pile now heaves, and, having given Proofs of its travail, fighs in flames to Heaven. *The following copy of verfes is a tranflation from the Latin in STRADA's Prolufiones Academicæ, &c. and an imitation originally of the ftyle and manner of Camello Querno, furnamed the Arch-poet. His character and his writings were equally fingular; he was poet and buffoon to Leo X, and the common butt of that facetious pontiff and his courtiers. See STRADA "Prolufiones," Oxon. 1745, p. 244; and BAYLE'S "Dictionary," Art. LEO X. The < The clouds envelop'd Heav'n from human fight, Quench'd ev'ry ftar, and put out ev'ry light; Now real thunder grumbles in the fkies, And in difdainful murmurs Rome defies; Nor doth its anfwer'd challenge Rome decline; But, whilft both parties in full concert join, 'While heav'n and earth in rival peals refound, The doleful cracks the hearer's fenfe confound; Whether the claps of thunderbolts they hear, 'Or elfe the burst of cannon wounds their ear; • Whether clouds rag'd by ftruggling metals rent, 'Or ftruggling clouds in Roman metals bent: But O, my Mufe, the whole adventure tell, 'As ev'ry accident in order fell. Tall groves of trees the Hadrian tower furround, Fictitious trees with paper garlands crown'd. These know no fpring, but when their bodies fprout In fire, and fhoot their gilded bloffoms out; When blazing leaves appear above their head, And into branching flames their bodies fpread. • Whilft real thunder fplits the firmament, And heav'n's whole roof in one vaft cleft is rent, The three-fork'd tongue amidst the rapture lolls, Then drops, and on the airy turrets falls. The tices now kindle, and the garland burns, A thousand thunderbolts for one returns: Brigades of burning archers upward fly, Bright fpears and fhining fpearmen mount on high,} Flash in the clouds, and glitter in the fky. A feven-fold fhield of fpheres doth heaven defend, VOL. VIII. Y • With With joy, great fir, we view'd this pompous' 6 thow, While Heaven, that fat SPECTATOR ftill till now, And orbs above confent with orbs below.' N° 618. Wednesday, November 10, 1714. Neque enim concludere verfum Dixeris effe fatis: neque fiquis fcribat, uti nos, HOR. 1. Sat. iv. 40. "Tis not enough the meafur'd feet to clofe; • Mr. SPECTATOR, You having, OU having, in your two laft SPECT ATORS, given the town a couple of re⚫markable letters in different ftyles, I take this opportunity to offer to you fome remarks upon the epiftolary way of writing in verfe. This is a fpecies of poetry by itself; and has not fo • much as been hinted at in any of the Arts of Poetry, that have ever fallen into my hands: neither has it in any age, or in any nation, been fo much cultivated, as the other feveral • kinds of poefy. A man of genius may, if he pleafes, write letters in verfe upon all manner · of of fubjects, that are capable of being embellifhed with wit and language, and may render them new and agreeable by giving the proper turn to them. But, in fpeaking at prefent of epiftolary poetry, I would be understood to 'mean only fuch writings in this kind as have been in ufe among the ancients, and have been copied from them by fome moderns. • These may be reduced into two claffes: in the one I fhall range love-letters, letters of friendfhip, and letters upon mournful occafions: in the other I fhall place fuch epiftles in verse as may properly be called familiar, critical, and 'moral; to which may be added letters of mirth • and humour. Ovid for the first, and Horace for the latter, are the best originals we have • left. 6 He, that is ambitious of fucceeding in the • Ovidian way, fhould firft examine his heart well, and feel whether his paffions (efpecially thofe of the gentler kind) play eafy; fince it is not his wit, but the delicacy and tenderness ' of his fentiments, that will affect his readers. His verfification likewife fhould be foft, and all • his numbers flowing and querulous. The qualifications requifite for writing epiftles, after the model given us by Horace, are of a quite different nature. He that would excel in this kind muft have a good fund of ftrong mafculine fenfe: to this there must be joined a thorough knowledge of mankind, together with an infight into the business and the prevailing humours of the age. age. Our author must have his mind well feafoned with |