Epigram 60. To my noble Friend, Mr. Marmaduke Wivel

After so many in the English tongue,
Whose happy Muses, Epigrams have sung,
I have too boldly done, and writ in vain
To get repute by following that strain.
When I bethink me that great Johnson (he
Who all the ancient wit of Italy
And learned Greece (by his industrious Pen)
Transplanted hath for his own Countreymen,
And made our English tongue so swell, that now
We scarce an equal unto it allow)
Writ Epigrams, I tremble, and (instead
Of praise) beseech a pardon when I'm read.