



Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net






Transcriber's Note: Superscript characters are preceded by a caret (^).


THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY

[JAMES BRAMSTON]



THE MAN of TASTE

(1733)


_Introduction by_ F. P. LOCK


PUBLICATION NUMBER 171

WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES

1975


GENERAL EDITORS

  William E. Conway, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
  George Robert Guffey, University of California, Los Angeles
  Maximillian E. Novak, University of California, Los Angeles
  David S. Rodes, University of California, Los Angeles


ADVISORY EDITORS

  Richard C. Boys, University of Michigan
  James L. Clifford, Columbia University
  Ralph Cohen, University of Virginia
  Vinton A. Dearing, University of California, Los Angeles
  Arthur Friedman, University of Chicago
  Louis A. Landa, Princeton University
  Earl Miner, Princeton University
  Samuel H. Monk, University of Minnesota
  Everett T. Moore, University of California, Los Angeles
  Lawrence Clark Powell, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
  James Sutherland, University College, London
  H. T. Swedenberg, Jr., University of California, Los Angeles
  Robert Vosper, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library


CORRESPONDING SECRETARY

Beverly J. Onley, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library




INTRODUCTION

    For what has Virro painted, built, and planted?
    Only to show, how many Tastes he wanted.
    What brought Sir Visto's ill got wealth to waste?
    Some Daemon whisper'd, "Visto! have a Taste."

    (Pope, Epistle to Burlington)


The idea of "taste" and the ideal of the "man of taste" have fallen
considerably in critical esteem since the eighteenth century. When F.
R. Leavis calls Andrew Lang "a scholar and a man of taste, with a
feeling for language and a desire to write poetry,"[1] it is clear that
for Leavis these attributes disqualify Lang from being taken seriously
as a poet. But for the age of Pope, "taste" was a key term in its
aesthetic thinking; the meaning and application of the term was a
lively issue which engaged most of the ablest minds of the period.

Addison prefaced his series of Spectator papers on the "Pleasures of
the Imagination" with a ground-clearing essay on "taste" (No. 409). In
this classic account of the term, Addison defines "taste" as "that
Faculty of the Soul, which discerns the Beauties of an Author with
Pleasure, and the Imperfections with Dislike." Addison's "taste" is an
innate proclivity towards certain kinds of aesthetic experience that
has been consciously cultivated in the approved direction. It is not
enough to value and enjoy the right authors; they must be valued and
enjoyed for the right reasons. When he holds up to ridicule the man who
assured him that "the greatest Pleasure he took in reading Virgil, was
in examining Aeneas his Voyage by the Map," Addison clearly expects his
readers to agree that such a singular taste was in fact no taste at
all. His account implies not only a standard of "taste," but also
general agreement, at least among "men of taste," about what the
standard was. It is this circularity that makes it essential to assume
some innate faculty of "taste."

But Addison's prescription for the cultivation of taste was a
laborious one, involving prolonged reading and study. The wealthy, and
especially the newly wealthy, were tempted to confuse the correct
appreciation of the objects of taste with the mere possession of them;
so that, as with Pope's Timon in the _Epistle to Burlington_ (1731),
owning a library became a substitute for reading books. This false
taste for ostentation--especially in buildings--is a frequent target
of contemporary satire.

The social importance of "taste" as an index of wealth was reinforced
by current philosophical thinking that gave "taste" a moral dimension
too. In his _Characteristicks_ (1711), Shaftesbury postulated an innate
moral sense, just as Addison did an innate aesthetic sense. Shaftesbury
draws this analogy between the moral and the aesthetic:

    The Case is the same here [in the mental or moral Subjects], as in
    the ordinary Bodys, or common Subjects of Sense. The Shapes,
    Motions, Colours, and Proportions of these being presented to our
    Eye; there necessarily results a Beauty or Deformity, according to
    the different Measure, Arrangement and Disposition of their several
    Parts. So in _Behaviour_ and _Actions_, when presented to our
    Understanding, there must be found, of necessity, an apparent
    Difference, according to the Regularity or Irregularity of the
    Subjects.[2]

The correct training of this capacity would enable men to make the
right choices in both moral and aesthetic matters. This analogy is also
the basis of Francis Hutcheson's _Essay on the Nature and Conduct of
the Passions and Affections_ (1728).

It is against the philosophical background of the writings of Addison,
Shaftesbury, and Hutcheson that the satire on "taste" of Pope,
Bramston, and others must be seen. But by the time Pope wrote his
_Epistle to Burlington_, Addison's "Faculty of the Soul" had been
somewhat debased as a critical term, and the decline of "taste" was a
common topic. "Nothing is so common as the affectation of, nor any
thing so seldom found as Taste" was the complaint of the _Weekly
Register_ in 1731, deploring "the degeneracy of _Taste_ since Mr.
_Addison's_ time."[3]

The publication of Pope's _Epistle to Burlington_ in December 1731 was
a literary event of some importance, especially since it was his first
poem since the _Dunciad Variorum_ of 1729. The _Epistle_ gave "taste" a
renewed currency as a vogue word. "Of Taste" is found only on the
half-title of the first edition. But, significantly changed to "Of
False Taste" for the second edition, this designation found its way
onto the title-page of the third edition, and became the poem's popular
title (it is so described on the advertisement leaf of Bramston's _The
Man of Taste_).

Several attacks on Pope and his poem were published in the following
year or so. _A Miscellany on Taste_ (1732) reprinted Pope's _Epistle_
with combative critical notes. Pope himself was attacked, as "Mr.
Alexander Taste," in an anonymous pamphlet _Mr. Taste the Poetical Fop_
(1732), reissued in 1733 as _The Man of Taste_, apparently borrowing
the title of Bramston's poem.[4] Bramston's _The Man of Taste_ (1733)
is an early example of the more positive reaction to Pope's _Epistle_,
joining him rather than attempting to beat him. Bramston's poem in its
turn occasioned an anonymous _The Woman of Taste_ (1733), and suggested
some details for the character of Lord Apemode in James Miller's comedy
_The Man of Taste_ (1735). Pope himself borrowed an idea from it (see
p. 14, 11. 5-6) for a passage in the _Dunciad_ (the allusion to
Free-Masons and F.R.S.; IV, 567-71).

The cluster of works provoked by Pope's _Epistle_ is evidence of the
topicality of "taste" at the time Bramston wrote his poem, and it is
his _Man of Taste_ that retains most interest today. The later history
of "taste" in eighteenth-century aesthetics and satire can only briefly
be glanced at here. Important philosophical discussions are Hume's
essay "Of the Standard of Taste" (in Four Dissertations, 1757), Burke's
_Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and
Beautiful_ (1757; a "Discourse Concerning Taste" was prefaced to the
second edition, 1759), and Alexander Gerard's _Essay on Taste_ (1759).
Foote's farce _Taste_ (1752) exposed the sham taste for the antique.
There are numerous satiric portraits of the "Man of Taste": Mr.
Sterling in _The Clandestine Marriage_ (1766) is a good example clearly
in the tradition of Pope's Timon, as is General Tilney in _Northanger
Abbey_ (1818, but written much earlier).

By the time of Jane Austen, of course, "taste" had developed away from
the Addisonian rules, and indeed the whole tenor of the aesthetics of
the imagination had changed. What had happened can be suggested by
juxtaposing two significant statements about "taste" as metaphor. In
his _Spectator_ essay (No. 409) Addison speaks of "a very great
Conformity between that Mental Taste, which is the Subject of this
Paper, and that Sensitive Taste which gives us a Relish of every
different Flavour that affects the Palate." But in the Preface to
_Lyrical Ballads_ (1802), Wordsworth deprecates those "who will
converse with us as gravely about a _taste_ for Poetry, as they express
it, as if it were a thing indifferent as a taste for Rope-dancing, or
Frontiniac or Sherry."[5] But the breakdown of the metaphor of "taste"
is too large a subject to be explored here.

                 *       *       *       *       *

James Bramston (?1694-1743) was educated at Westminster School and at
Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his B.A. in 1717 and his M.A. in
1720. He took orders, and was for a time a military chaplain. In 1724
he obtained the living of Lurgashall, and in 1739 those of Harting and
Westhampnett.[6] He published (all anonymously) only three poems in
English:

    1. _The Art of Politicks, in Imitation of Horace's Art of Poetry._
    London: Lawton Gilliver, 1729.

    2. _The Man of Taste. Occasion'd by an Epistle of Mr. Pope's on
    that Subject._ London: Lawton Gilliver, 1733.

    3. _The Crooked Six-pence. With a Learned Preface Found among Some
    Papers Bearing Date the Same Year in which Paradise Lost Was
    Published by the Late Dr. Bently._ London: Robert Dodsley, 1743.

Bramston also wrote Latin verses, and at least two unpublished poems
survive; but his reputation rests on _The Art of Politicks_ and _The
Man of Taste_. Both poems are of interest to the political and cultural
historian, but from a literary point of view _The Man of Taste_ is
probably the better poem. This is largely because of Bramston's success
in creating the persona of a self-consciously affected Man of Taste,
who, however, exposes himself more than he intends. Joseph Warton
mistook this effect for a failure of technique when he called Bramston
"guilty of the indecorum and absurdity of making his hero laugh at
himself and his own follies."[7] The poem is deliberately the
"confessions" of a self-styled Man of Taste. It begins in a casual,
cynical tone, but as the speaker is gradually seduced by his own
rhetoric (especially when he imagines himself a nobleman) he strikes an
almost rhapsodic note, so that he is revealed as the victim, not the
exploiter, of "taste."

Both in his targets and his techniques, Bramston is a disciple of Pope.
Sometimes there is a conscious recollection of the master:

    I squal'd in Distichs, and in Triplets wept. (p. 6)

Elsewhere the imitation is less happy:

    Sure wretched _Wren_ was taught by bungling _Jones_,
    To murder mortar, and disfigure stones! (p. 10)

Here the stylistic habit of antithesis works against the meaning
instead of reinforcing it. But there are many good things in the poem;
Bramston's treatment of the idea of the stage as a "school of
morality," for example, is clever and amusing. His hero derives his
"Hereditary Taste" from being "tragi-comically got" by a player-poet
and an orange-woman (p. 6). This gives point to his later claim:

    _Oxford_ and _Cambridge_ are not worth one farthing,
    Compar'd to _Haymarket_, and _Convent-garden_:
    Quit those, ye British Youth, and follow these,
    Turn players all, and take your Squires degrees. (p. 18)

There are also a number of verbal successes, such as:

    Nor barb'rous birch e'er brush'd my brawny bum. (p. 6)

Here insistent alliteration and strong rhythm are combined to excellent
onomatopoeic effect. Another couplet:

    Tho' _Blackmore's_ works my soul with raptures fill,
    With notes by _Bently_ they'd be better still. (p. 7)

shows considerable appreciation of the Art of Sinking; the second line
especially is fine bathos.

The poem as a whole provides an interesting portrait of contemporary
fashionable "taste" that supplements, at a lower social level, Pope's
portraits of such magnates of tastelessness as Timon. Bramston's Man of
Taste is an odd amalgam of the singular and the trite. He begins by
professing to despise laws, and ends by attempting to enact his own.
In drawing a character whose tastes are at one moment shamelessly
perverse, at another servilely imitative, and in depicting a wide range
of "tastes," Bramston has developed significantly the idea that he took
from the _Epistle to Burlington_, which is largely concerned with false
taste in building.

This is not to deny that most of the victims of Bramston's satire are
somewhere Pope's too. At times one even begins to suspect that
Bramston's knowledge of London derives as much from the _Dunciad
Variorum_ as from first-hand experience of the city. There is certainly
a strong traditional element in some of his themes. The ironic praise
of Sir Cloudesley Shovell's tomb, for example (p. 12), was probably
suggested by the _Spectator_ (No. 26) rather than a visit to
Westminster Abbey; the tomb had offended Addison because it portrayed
the admiral in an alien character.

But the traditional is combined with the topical. If Sir Cloudesley's
tomb had been a butt for twenty years, Sir Balaam is an allusion to
Pope's _Epistle to Bathurst_, only published in February, 1733, the
month before the _Man of Taste_. Further evidence that Bramston was
making additions to the poem as late as February 1733 (the poem was
published on 8 March) are the lines:

    Not so my mind, unsatisfied with hints,
    Knows more than _Budgel_ writes, or _Roberts_ prints. (p. 10)

These lines hit at a new readers' digest, _The Bee: or, Universal
Weekly Pamphlet. Containing Something to Hit Every Man's Taste and
Principles_, which was edited by Budgell and published by Roberts. The
first number came out in February 1733. There is a similar mixture of
past and current with the musical satire (p. 13). Handel's _Esther_ and
the novelty of oratorio were as recent as 1732; Heidegger's ugliness
("Prince _Phyz_!") was proverbial, and his renaming of the masquerade a
decade old.

This mixture is confusing, but certainly intentional, since it would
have made the _Man of Taste_ more ridiculous to a contemporary
audience. There is also a vertical mixture of the tastes of different
levels of society; the writer in the _Weekly Register_ for February
1731, already quoted above, makes this distinction: "The gaming-table,
and the royal diversion at _Newmarket_, are the ambition of the
majority; and the rest prefer _Senesino_ to _Shakespear_, as the
highest proof of modern politeness."[8] Bramston's Man of Taste is a
concertina-brow, enjoying Senesino, gaming, and Newmarket (pp. 13, 15,
17).

The usefulness of notes for a full understanding of Bramston's satire
was recognized as early as 1733, when a few were added to Faulkner's
Dublin reprint. Faulkner's notes are remarkable for their xenophobic
bias, for apart from those on Mrs. Oldfield ("_Ophelia_," p. 9), they
mostly call attention to evils of continental origin: Pasaran's
recommendation of suicide (p. 9); Heidegger's role as corrupting
entertainer (p. 13); the imposter Count D'Ughi (the "_Di'mond Count_,"
p. 16); and Misaubin (p. 17), "famous for curing the venereal
Disorders." These men were Italian, Swiss, Italian, and French
respectively. This xenophobia is a remarkably constant feature of
eighteenth-century satire on "taste."

_The Man of Taste_ (together with _The Art of Politicks_) was included
in Dodsley's _Collection_; in the 1782 edition, notes (unsigned, but by
Isaac Reed) were added, identifying many allusions which no longer
passed current. These are often helpful, but sometimes miss the
point--as they do with the Budgell-Roberts joke, discussed above. But
although notes are useful for a complete understanding of all
Bramston's satiric points, a familiarity with the world of Pope and his
victims removes most of the difficulties for a modern reader. Only
occasionally does Bramston sound a more personal note, as in the list
of doctors (p. 17), where he includes two of his contemporaries at
Christ Church; and even here, Arbuthnot is a sufficient signpost.

Bramston is a minor poet, but there is no need to apologize for
_The Man of Taste_. It is a lively and amusing poem in its own right,
and its association with Pope and its place in the corpus of
eighteenth-century satire on "taste" raise its claim to the attention
of students of the period.

University of Queensland
Brisbane




NOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION


1. _New Bearings in English Poetry_ (1932; new ed., London: Chatto &
Windus, 1950), p. 11.

2. Treatise IV: "An Inquiry Concerning Virtue, or Merit," Book I, Part
ii, Section 3, in _Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times_
(London, 1711), II, 28-29.

3. Reprinted in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1 (1731), 55-56.

4. These attacks are described in J. V. Guerinot, _Pamphlet Attacks on
Alexander Pope_ 1711-1744 (New York: New York Univ. Press, 1969), pp.
204-21.

5. _Literary Criticism of William Wordsworth_, ed. Paul M. Zall
(Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1966), p. 50.

6. I owe these details (which correct the _DNB_ account) to Mr. Michael
Hunter of Worcester College, Oxford.

7. In his edition of Pope's _Works_ (London, 1797), V, 285 (note on
_The Dunciad_, IV, 570).

8. _Gentleman's Magazine_, I (1731), 55-56.




A Note on the Text


_The Man of Taste_ was published on 8 March 1733 by Lawton Gilliver
in a handsome folio format. A second folio edition (although not so
called) was published later in the same month; this was followed within
the year by octavo editions in London[1] and Dublin.

Using the evidence of advertisements in the two folios and contemporary
newspapers, W. B. Todd argues for the priority of the edition he calls
"A,"[2] reversing the order previously suggested by Iolo A. Williams on
internal evidence.[3] The textual variants are slight and are confined
to accidentals, except that on p. 5, line 9, "A" reads "Strife still
persists" and "B" has "Strife still subsists." A copy of Todd's edition
"A" is reproduced here.

      [1] Although the imprint on the title page reads "London," this
      edition was probably printed in Edinburgh. For a reassessment of
      the number and order of editions of _The Man of Taste_, see
      D. F. Foxon, _English Verse_ 1701-1750 (Cambridge: Cambridge
      Univ. Press, forthcoming 1975), I, 78 (B396-401).

      [2] _The Library_, 5th series, VIII (1953), 186-87. Todd here
      summarizes the evidence about publication.

      [3] _Points in Eighteenth-Century Verse_ (London: Constable,
      1934), pp. 67-69.




BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE


The facsimile of Bramston's _The Man of Taste_ (1733) is reproduced by
permission from a copy (Shelf Mark: *fPR3627/E663b/copy 2) in the
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. The total type-page (p. 7)
measures 243 x 144 mm.




THE MAN of TASTE.

OCCASION'D by an

EPISTLE

_Of Mr._ POPE'_s_

On that Subject.

_By the Author of the_ ART OF POLITICKS.


_LONDON_:

Printed by _J. Wright_, for LAWTON GILLIVER at _Homer's Head_ against
_St. Dunstan's Church_ in _Fleet Street_, 1733.


Price 1 _s._

    Where may be had the _Art of Politicks_, In Imitation of _Horace_'s
    Art of Poetry. Price 1 _s._




The Man of Taste.


  Whoe'er he be that to a _Taste_ aspires,
  Let him read this, and be what he desires.
  In men and manners vers'd from life I write,
  Not what was once but what is now polite.
  Those who of courtly _France_ have made the tour,
  Can scarce our _English_ awkwardness endure.
  But honest men who never were abroad,
  Like _England_ only, and its _Taste_ applaud.
  Strife still persists, which yields the better _gout_;
  Books or the world, the many or the few.
    True _Taste_ to me is by this touchstone known,
  That's always best that's nearest to my own.
  To shew that my pretensions are not vain,
  My Father was a play'r in _Drury-lane_.
  Pears and Pistachio-nuts my Mother sold,
  He a Dramatick-poet, She a Scold.
  His tragick muse could Countesses affright,
  Her wit in boxes was my Lord's delight.
  No mercenary _Priest_ e'er join'd their hands,
  Uncramp'd by wedlock's unpoetick bands.
  _Laws_ my Pindarick parents matter'd not,
  So I was tragi-comically got.
  My infant tears a sort of measure kept,
  I squal'd in Distichs, and in Triplets wept.
  No youth did in I education waste,
  Happy in an _Hereditary Taste_.
  Writing ne'er cramp'd the sinews of my thumb,
  Nor barb'rous birch e'er brush'd my brawny bum.
  My guts ne'er suffer'd from a college-cook,
  My name ne'er enter'd in a buttery-book.
  _Grammar_ in vain the sons of _Priscian_ teach,
  Good Parts are better than _Eight Parts of Speech_:
  Since these declin'd those undeclin'd they call,
  I thank my Stars, that I declin'd 'em all.
  To _Greek_ or _Latin Tongues_ without pretence,
  I trust to mother Wit, and father Sense.
  _Nature_'s my guide, all Sciences I scorn,
  Pains I abhor, I was a _Poet born_.
    Yet is my _gout_ for criticism such,
  I've got some _French_, and know a little _Dutch_.
  Huge commentators grace my learned shelves,
  Notes upon books out-do the books themselves.
  Criticks indeed are valuable men,
  But hyper-criticks are as good agen.
  Tho' _Blackmore_'s works my soul with raptures fill,
  With notes by _Bently_ they'd be better still.
  The _Boghouse-Miscellany_'s well design'd,
  To ease the body, and improve the mind.
  _Swift_'s whims and jokes for my resentment call,
  For he displeases me, that pleases all.
  Verse without rhyme I never could endure,
  Uncouth in numbers, and in sense obscure.
  To him as Nature, when he ceas'd to see,
  _Milton_'s an _universal Blank_ to me.
  Confirm'd and settled by the Nations voice,
  Rhyme is the poet's pride, and peoples choice.
  Always upheld by national Support,
  Of Market, University, and Court:
  _Thompson_, write blank; but know that for that reason,
  These lines shall live, when thine are out of season.
  Rhyme binds and beautifies the Poet's lays,
  As _London_ Ladies owe their shape to stays.
    Had _Cibber_'s self the _Careless Husband_ wrote,
  He for the Laurel ne'er had had my Vote:
  But for his Epilogues and other Plays,
  He thoroughly deserves the _Modern Bays_.
  It pleases me, that _Pope_ unlaurell'd goes,
  While _Cibber_ wears the Bays for Playhouse Prose.
  So _Britain_'s Monarch once uncover'd fate,
  While _Bradshaw_ bully'd in a broad-brimm'd hat.
    Long live old _Curl!_ he ne'er to publish fears,
  The speeches, verses, and last wills of Peers.
  How oft has he a publick spirit shewn,
  And pleas'd our ears regardless of his own?
  But to give Merit due, though _Curl_'s the same?
  Are not his Brother-booksellers the same?
  Can Statutes keep the _British_ Press in awe,
  While that sells best, that's most against the Law?
    _Lives_ of dead _Play'rs_ my leisure hours beguile,
  And _Sessions-Papers_ tragedize my stile.
  'Tis charming reading in _Ophelia_'s life,
  So oft a Mother, and not once a Wife:
  She could with just propriety behave,
  Alive with Peers, with Monarchs in her grave:
  Her lot how oft have envious harlots wept,
  By Prebends bury'd and by Generals kept.
    T'improve in Morals _Mandevil_ I read,
  And _Tyndal_'s Scruples are my settled Creed.
  I travell'd early, and I soon saw through
  Religion all, e'er I was twenty-two.
  Shame, Pain, or Poverty shall I endure,
  When ropes or opium can my ease procure?
  When money's gone, and I no debts can pay,
  Self-murder is an honourable way.
  As _Pasaran_ directs I'd end my life,
  And kill myself, my daughter, and my wife.
  Burn but that _Bible_ which the Parson quotes,
  And men of spirit all shall cut their throats.
    But not to writings I confine my pen,
  I have a taste for buildings, musick, men.
  Young travell'd coxcombs mighty knowledge boast,
  With superficial Smatterings at Most.
  Not so my mind, unsatisfied with hints,
  Knows more than _Budgel_ writes, or _Roberts_ prints.
  I know the town, all houses I have seen,
  From _High-Park_ corner down to _Bednal-Green_.
  Sure wretched _Wren_ was taught by bungling _Jones_,
  To murder mortar, and disfigure stones!
  Who in _Whitehall_ can symmetry discern?
  I reckon _Convent-garden_ Church a _Barn_.
  Nor hate I less thy vile Cathedral, _Paul_!
  The choir's too big, the cupola's too small:
  Substantial walls and heavy roofs I like,
  'Tis _Vanbrug_'s structures that my fancy strike:
  Such noble ruins ev'ry pile wou'd make,
  I wish they'd tumble for the prospect's sake.
  To lofty _Chelsea_ or to _Greenwich_ Dome,
  Soldiers and sailors all are welcom'd home.
  Her poor to palaces _Britannia_ brings,
  St. _James_'s hospital may serve for kings.
  Building so happily I understand,
  That for one house I'd mortgage all my land.
  _Dorick_, _Ionick_, shall not there be found,
  But it shall cost me threescore thousand pound.
  From out my honest workmen, I'll select
  A _Bricklay'r_, and proclaim him architect;
  First bid him build me a stupendous Dome,
  Which _having finish'd_, we set out for _Rome_;
  Take a weeks view of _Venice_ and the _Brent_,
  Stare round, see nothing, and come home content.
  I'll have my _Villa_ too, a sweet abode,
  Its situation shall be _London_ road:
  _Pots_ o'er the door I'll place like Cits balconies,
  Which[1] _Bently_ calls the _Gardens of Adonis_.
    I'll have my Gardens in the fashion too,
  For what is beautiful that is not new?
  Fair four-legg'd temples, theatres that vye,
  With all the angles of a _Christmas_-pye.
  Does it not merit the beholder's praise,
  What's high to sink? and what is low to raise?
  <DW72>s shall ascend where once a green-house stood,
  And in my horse-pond I will plant a wood.
  Let misers dread the hoarded gold to waste,
  Expence and alteration shew a _Taste_.
    In curious paintings I'm exceeding nice,
  And know their several beauties by their _Price_.
  _Auctions_ and _Sales_ I constantly attend,
  But chuse my pictures by a _skilful friend_.
  Originals and copies much the same,
  The picture's value is the _painter's name_.
    My taste in Sculpture from my choice is seen,
  I buy no statues that are not obscene.
  In spite of _Addison_ and ancient _Rome_,
  Sir _Cloudesly Shovel_'s is my fav'rite tomb.
  How oft have I with admiration stood,
  To view some City-magistrate in wood?
  I gaze with pleasure on a Lord May'r's head,
  Cast with propriety in gilded lead.
  Oh could I view through _London_ as I pass,
  Some broad Sir _Balaam_ in _Corinthian_ brass;
  High on a pedestal, ye Freemen, place
  His magisterial Paunch and griping Face;
  _Letter'd and Gilt_, let him adorn _Cheapside_,
  And grant the _Tradesman_, what a _King_'s deny'd.
    Old Coins and Medals I collect, 'tis true,
  Sir _Andrew_ has 'em, and I'll have 'em too.
  But among friends if I the truth might speak,
  I like the modern, and despise th' antique.
  Tho' in the draw'rs of my japan _Bureau_,
  To Lady _Gripeall_ I the _Caesars_ shew,
  'Tis equal to her Ladyship or me,
  A copper _Otho_, or a _Scotch Baubee_.
    Without _Italian_, or without an ear,
  To _Bononcini_'s musick I adhere:
  Musick has charms to sooth a savage beast,
  And therefore proper at a Sheriff's feast.
  My soul has oft a secret pleasure found,
  In the harmonious Bagpipe's lofty sound.
  Bagpipes for men, shrill _German-flutes_ for boys,
  I'm _English_ born, and love a grumbling noise.
  The Stage should yield the solemn Organ's note,
  And Scripture tremble in the Eunuch's throat.
  Let _Senesino_ sing, what _David_ writ,
  And _Hallelujahs_ charm the pious pit.
  Eager in throngs the town to _Hester_ came,
  And _Oratorio_ was a lucky name.
  Thou, _Heeideggre!_ the _English_ taste has found,
  And rul'st the mob of quality with sound.
  In _Lent_, if Masquerades displease the town,
  Call 'em _Ridotto_'s, and they still go down:
  Go on, Prince _Phyz_! to please the British nation,
  Call thy next _Masquerade_ a _Convocation_.
    Bears, Lyons, Wolves, and Elephants I breed,
  And _Philosophical Transactions_ read.
  Next Lodge I'll be _Free-Mason_, nothing less,
  Unless I happen to be _F.R.S._
    I have a _Palate_, and (as yet) _two Ears_,
  Fit company for _Porters_, or for _Peers_.
  Of ev'ry useful knowledge I've a share,
  But my top talent is a bill of fare.
  Sir Loins and rumps of beef offend my eyes,
  Pleas'd with frogs fricasseed, and coxcomb-pies.
  Dishes I chuse though little, yet genteel,
  _Snails_ the first course, and _Peepers_ crown the meal.
  Pigs heads with hair on, much my fancy please,
  I love young colly-flow'rs if stew'd in cheese,
  And give ten guineas for a pint of peas.
  No tatling servants to my table come,
  My Grace is _Silence_, and my waiter _Dumb_.
  Queer Country-puts extol Queen _Bess_'s reign,
  And of lost hospitality complain.
  Say thou that do'st thy father's table praise,
  Was there _Mahogena_ in former days?
    Oh! could a British Barony be sold!
  I would bright honour buy with dazling gold.
  Could I the _privilege_ of _Peer_ procure,
  The rich I'd bully, and oppress the poor.
  To _give_ is wrong, but it is wronger still,
  On any terms to _pay_ a tradesman's bill.
  I'd make the insolent Mechanicks stay,
  And keep my ready money all for _play_.
  I'd try if any pleasure could be found,
  In _tossing-up_ for twenty thousand pound.
  Had I whole Counties, I to _White_'s would go,
  And set lands, woods, and rivers, at a throw.
  But should I meet with an unlucky run,
  And at a throw be gloriously undone;
  My _debts of honour_ I'd discharge the first,
  Let all my _lawful creditors_ be curst:
  My _Title_ would preserve me from arrest,
  And seising _hired horses_ is a jest.
  I'd walk the mornings with an _oaken stick_,
  With gloves and hat, like my own _footman, Dick_.
  A footman I wou'd be, in outward show,
  In sense, and education, _truly so_.
  As for my _head_, it should ambiguous wear
  _At once_ a periwig, _and_ its own hair.
  My hair I'd powder in the women's way,
  And _dress_, and _talk of dressing_, more than they.
  I'll please the maids of honour, if I can;
  Without black-velvet-britches, what is man?
  I will my skill in _button-holes_ display,
  And brag how oft I shift me ev'ry day.
  Shall I wear cloaths, in _awkward England_ made?
  And sweat in cloth, to help the _woollen trade_?
  In _French_ embroid'ry and in _Flanders_ lace
  I'll spend the income of a treasurer's place.
  _Deard_'s bill for baubles shall to thousands mount,
  And I'd out-di'mond ev'n the _Di'mond Count_.
  I would convince the world by taudry cloa's,
  That _Belles_ are less effeminate than beaux,
  And Doctor _Lamb_ should pare my Lordship's toes.
    To boon companions I my time would give,
  With players, pimps, and parasites I'd live.
  I would with _Jockeys_ from _Newmarket_ dine,
  And to _Rough-riders_ give my choicest wine.
  I would caress some _Stableman_ of note,
  And imitate his language, and his _coat_.
  My ev'nings all I would with _sharpers_ spend,
  And make the _Thief-catcher_ my bosom friend.
  In _Fig_ the Prize-fighter by day delight,
  And sup with _Colly Cibber_ ev'ry night.
    Should I perchance be fashionably ill,
  I'd send for _Misaubin_, and take his pill.
  I should abhor, though in the utmost need,
  _Arbuthnot_, _Hollins_, _Wigan_, _Lee_, or _Mead_:
  But if I found that I grew worse and worse,
  I'd turn off _Misaubin_ and take a Nurse.
  How oft, when eminent physicians fail,
  Do good old womens remedies prevail?
  When beauty's gone, and _Chloe_'s struck with years,
  Eyes she can couch, or she can syringe ears.
  Of Graduates I dislike the learned rout,
  And chuse a _female Doctor_ for the gout.
    Thus would I live, with no dull _pedants_ curs'd,
  Sure, of all blockheads, _Scholars_ are the worst.
  Back to your _Universitys_, ye fools,
  And dangle Arguments on strings in schools:
  Those schools which _Universitys_ they call,
  'Twere well for _England_ were there none at all.
  With ease that loss the nation might sustain,
  Supply'd by _Goodman's Fields_ and _Drury-lane_.
  _Oxford_ and _Cambridge_ are not worth one farthing,
  Compar'd to _Haymarket_, and _Convent-garden_:
  Quit those, ye British Youth, and follow these,
  Turn players all, and take your 'Squires degrees.
  Boast not your incomes now, as heretofore,
  Ye book-learn'd Seats! the Theatres have more:
  Ye stiff-rump'd heads of Colleges be dumb,
  A singing Eunuch gets a larger Sum.
  Have some of you three hundred by the Year,
  _Booth_, _Rich_, and _Cibber_, twice three thousand clear.
  Should _Oxford_ to her sister _Cambridge_ join
  A Year's _Rack-rent_, and _Arbitrary fine_:
  Thence not one winter's charge would be defray'd,
  For Playhouse, Opera, Ball, and Masquerade.
  Glad I congratulate the judging Age,
  The players are the world, the world the stage.
    I am a Politician too, and hate
  Of any party, ministers of state:
  I'm for an _Act_, that he, who sev'n whole Years
  Has serv'd his _King_ and _Country_, lose his ears.
    Thus from my birth I'm qualified you find,
  To give the laws of _Taste_ to humane kind.
  Mine are the gallant Schemes of Politesse,
  For books, and buildings, politicks, and dress.
  This is _True Taste_, and whoso likes it not,
  Is blockhead, coxcomb, puppy, fool, and sot.

      [1] Bently's Milton, Book 9. Ver. 439.




_BOOKS printed for_ LAWTON GILLIVER _at_ Homer'_s_ _Head over-against
St._ Dunitan's _Church in_ Fleetstreet.


Of _False Taste_. An Epistle to the Earl of _Burlington_. By Mr. POPE.

_The Use of Riches_, an Epistle to the Right Honourable _Allen_ Lord
_Bathurst_. By the same Author.

The first Satire of the Second Book of _Horace_, Imitated in a Dialogue
between _Alexander Pope_, Esq; on the one Part, and his Learned Council
on the other.

The _Dunciad_: A New Edition with some additional Epigrams.

_A Collection of Pieces_ in Prose and Verse; occasioned by the Dunciad.
Dedicated to the Earl of _Middlesex_, by _Richard Savage_, Esq;

_An Essay on Satyre_; particularly the Dunciad. By _Walter Hart_, A. M.

_Harlequin-Horace_: Or, the Art of Modern Poetry.

Two _Epistles_ to Mr. _Pope_, concerning the Authors of the Age. By Dr.
_Young_.

_Imperium Pelagi_: A Naval Lyrick in Imitation of _Pindar_.

_Athelwold_: A Tragedy. By _Aaron Hill_, Esq;

An _Epistle_ from a young Gentleman at _Rome_ to Mr. _Pope_.

The Progress of Love, 8^o

_Stowe_: The Gardens of Lord _Cobham_, 8^o

The Works of the Right Honourable the Lord _Lansdowne_.

M. Hieronimi Vidae Opera Omnia Poetica, quibus nunc primum adjiciuntur
Dialogi de Rei-publicae Dignitate ex Recensione. R. Russel, A. M. 2 Toms
12^o

[GREEK: ANAKPE'ONTOS TEI'OU ME'LE]: Anacreontis Teii Carmina acurate
Edita cum Notis perpetuis & Versione Latina Numeris Elegiacis
Paraphrastice expressa. Accedunt ejusdem, ut perhibentur, Fragmenta; &
Poetriae Sapphus quae Supersunt.




WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES

The Augustan Reprint Society

PUBLICATIONS IN PRINT




The Augustan Reprint Society

PUBLICATIONS IN PRINT

1948-1949

 16. Henry Nevil Payne, _The Fatal Jealousie_ (1673).

 18. "Of Genius," in _The Occasional Paper_, Vol. III, No. 10 (1719),
and Aaron Hill, Preface to _The Creation_ (1720).


1949-1950

 19. Susanna Centlivre, _The Busie Body_ (1709).

 20. Lewis Theobald, _Preface to the Works of Shakespeare_ (1734).

 22. Samuel Johnson, _The Vanity of Human Wishes_ (1749), and Two
_Rambler_ papers (1750).

 23. John Dryden, _His Majesties Declaration Defended_ (1681).


1951-1952

 26. Charles Macklin, _The Man of the World_ (1792).

 31. Thomas Gray, _An Elegy Wrote in a Country Churchyard_ (1751), and
_The Eton College Manuscript_.


1952-1953

 41. Bernard Mandeville, _A Letter to Dion_ (1732).


1964-1965

110. John Tutchin, _Selected Poems_ (1685-1700).

111. _Political Justice_ (1736).

113. T. R., _An Essay Concerning Critical and Curious Learning_ (1698).


1965-1966

115. Daniel Defoe and others, _Accounts of the Apparition of Mrs. Veal_
(1705, 1706, 1720, 1722).

116. Charles Macklin, _The Convent Garden Theatre_ (1752).

117. Sir Roger L'Estrange, _Citt and Bumpkin_ (1680).

118. Henry More, _Enthusiasmus Triumphatus_ (1662).

120. Bernard Mandeville, _Aesop Dress'd or a Collection of Fables_
(1740).


1966-1967

124. _The Female Wits_ (1704).


1968-1969

133. John Courtenay, _A Poetical Review of the Literary and Moral
Character of the Late Samuel Johnson_ (1786).

134. John Downes, _Roscius Anglicanus_ (1708).

135. John Hill, _Hypochondriasis, a Practical Treatise_ (1766).

136. Thomas Sheridan, _A Discourse Being Introductory to His Course of
Lectures on Elocution and the English Language_ (1759).

137. Arthur Murphy, _The Englishman from Paris_ (1756).


1969-1970

138. [Catherine Trotter] _Olinda's Adventures_ (1718).

139. John Ogilvie, _An Essay on the Lyric Poetry of the Ancients_
(1762).

140. _A Learned Dissertation on Dumpling_ (1726) and _Pudding and
Dumpling Burnt to Pot or a Compleat Key to the Dissertation on
Dumpling_ (1727).

141. Sir Roger L'Estrange, Selections from _The Observator_
(1681-1687).

142. Anthony Collins, _A Discourse Concerning Ridicule and Irony in
Writing_ (1729).

143. _A Letter From a Clergyman to His Friend, with an Account of the
Travels of Captain Lemuel Gulliver_ (1726).

144. _The Art of Architecture, A Poem_ (1742).


1970-1971

145-146. Thomas Shelton, _A Tutor to Tachygraphy, or Short-writing_
(1642) and _Tachygraphy_ (1647).

147-148. _Deformities of Dr. Samuel Johnson_ (1782).

149. _Poeta de Tristibus: or the Poet's Complaint_ (1682).

150. Gerard Langbaine, _Momus Triumphans: or the Plagiaries of the
English Stage_ (1687).


1971-1972

151-152. Evan Lloyd, _The Methodist. A Poem_ (1766).

153. _Are These Things So?_ (1740), and _The Great Man's Answer to Are
These Things So?_ (1740).

154. Arbuthnotiana: _The Story of the St. Alb-ns Ghost_ (1712), and _A
Catalogue of Dr. Arbuthnot's Library_ (1779).

155-156. A Selection of Emblems from Herman Hugo's _Pia Desideria_
(1624), with English Adaptations by Francis Quarles and Edmund Arwaker.


1972-1973

157. William Mountfort, _The Life and Death of Doctor Faustus_ (1697).

158. Colley Cibber, _A Letter from Mr. Cibber to Mr. Pope_ (1742).

159. [Catherine Clive], _The Case of Mrs. Clive_ (1744).

160. [Thomas Tryon], _A Discourse ... of Phrensie, Madness or
Distraction_ from _A Treatise of Dreams and Visions_ [1689].

161. Robert Blair, _The Grave. A Poem_ (1743).

162. [Bernard Mandeville], _A Modest Defence of Publick Stews_ (1724).


1973-1974

163. [William Rider], _An Historical and Critical Account of the Lives
and Writings of the Living Authors of Great Britain_ (1762).

164. Thomas Edwards, _The Sonnets of Thomas Edwards_ (1765, 1780).

165. Hildebrand Jacob, _Of the Sister Arts; An Essay_ (1734).

166. _Poems on the Reign of William III_ [1690, 1696, 1699, 1702].

167. Kane O'Hara, _Midas: An English Burletta_ (1766).

168. [Daniel Defoe], _A Short Narrative History of the Life and Actions
of His Grace John, D. of Marlborough_ (1711).

                 *       *       *       *       *

Publications of the first fifteen years of the Society (numbers 1-90)
are available in paperbound units of six issues at $16.00 per unit,
from Kraus Reprint Company, 16 East 46th Street, New York, N.Y. 10017.


Publications in print are available at the regular membership rate of
$5.00 for individuals and $8.00 for institutions per year. Prices of
single issues may be obtained upon request. Subsequent publications may
be checked in the annual prospectus.


_Make check or money order payable to_

THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

_and send to_

The William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
2520 Cimarron Street, Los Angeles, California 90018






End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Man of Taste, by James Bramston

*** 