Read by PETER TREVELYAN
The eighteenth century had its characteristic wit, as will be shown in various epigrams and epitaphs and in Dean Swift 's obituary of himself in verse : My female friends, whose tender hearts Have better learned to act their parts, Kotcive the news in doleful dumps;
The Dean is dead: (Pray what are trumps?)...
It had beauty too: for instance,
Congreve's songs at its beginning, and Blake's towards its close; and it had charm, as is apparent in Ambrose Philips's delightful verses to a little child. Other items to be read by Peter Trevelvan will be an extract from Pope's 'Essay on Criticism' and Gray's 'Ode to Spring'.