Note 58 — Chapter VII
Reading edition
There is little humour in Shadwell's works; he succeeded Dryden as Poet Laureate, which was perhaps the cause of the above lines.
Rochester said, "If Shadwell had burnt all he wrote, and printed all he spoke, he would have had more wit and humour than any poet." Probably his wit would have been like Rochester's. Whether Shadwell were himself a good poet or not, he made a hit at the poetasters of his day, in which he showed some genius.
Poet.O, very loftily! The winged vallance of your eyes advance Shake off your canopied and downie trance: Phœbus already quaffs the morning dew, Each does his daily lease of life renew. Now you shall hear description, 'tis the very life of poetry. He darts his beams on the lark's mossy house, And from his quiet tenement doth rouse The little charming and harmonious fowl Which sings its lump of body to a soul. Swiftly it clambers up in the steep air With warbling notes, and makes each note a stair.