Chapter VIII: On Sir Godfrey Kneller

_In Westminster Abbey, 1723._

Kneller, by heav'n, and not a master, taught,
Whose art was nature, and whose pictures thought;
Now for two ages, having snatch'd from fate
Whate'er was beauteous, or whate'er was great,
Lies crown'd with princes' honours, poets' lays,
Due to his merit, and brave thirst of praise.
Living, great nature fear'd he might outvie
Her works; and dying, fears herself may die.

Of this epitaph the first couplet is good, the second not bad, the third is deformed with a broken metaphor, the word _crowned_ not being applicable to the _honours_ or the _lays_; and the fourth is not only borrowed from the epitaph on Raphael, but of very harsh construction.