the more
lively heroic. Some of Prior's _bon mots_ are the best that are
recorded.--His serious poetry, as his _Solomon_, is as heavy as his
familiar style was light and agreeable. His moral Muse is a Magdalen,
and should not have obtruded herself on public view. Henry and Emma is a
paraphrase of the old ballad of the Nut-brown Maid, and not so good as
the original. In short, as we often see in other cases, where men thwart
their own genius, Prior's sentimental and romantic productions are mere
affectation, the result not of powerful impulse or real feeling, but of
a consciousness of his deficiencies, and a wish to supply their place by
labour and art.

Gay was sometimes grosser than Prior, not systematically, but
inadvertently--from not being so well aware of what he was about; nor
was there the same necessity for caution, for his grossness is by no
means so seductive or inviting.

Gay's Fables are certainly a work of great merit, both as to the
quantity of invention implied, and as to the elegance and facility of
the execution. They are, however, spun out too long; the descriptions
and narrative are too diffuse and desultory; and the moral is sometimes
without point. They are more like Tales than Fables. The best are,
perhaps, the Hare with Many Friends, the Monkeys, and the Fox at the
Point of Death. His Pastorals are pleasing and poetical. But his capital
work is his Beggar's Opera. It is indeed a masterpiece of wit and
genius, not to say of morality. In composing it, he chose a very
unpromising ground to work upon, and he has prided himself in adorning
it with all the graces, the precision, and brilliancy of style. It is a
vulgar error to call this a vulgar play. So far from it, that I do not
scruple to say that it appears to me one of the most refined productions
in the language. The elegance of the composition is in exact proportion
to the coarseness of the materials: by "happy alchemy of mind," the
author has extracted an essence of refinement from the dregs of human
life, and turns its very dross into gold. The scenes, characters, and
incidents are, in themselves, of the lowest and most disgusting kind:
but, by the sentiments and reflections which are put into the mouths of
highwaymen, turnkeys, their mistresses, wives, or daughters, he has
converted this motley group into a set of fine gentlemen and ladies,
satirists and philosophers. He has also effected this transformation
without once viol