Thou ftand't unshook amidst a bursting world. ១៦ 95 100 A. Hold; for God-fake- you'll offend, be calm learn prudence of a friend: I too could write, and I am twice as tall ; But foes like these P.One Flatt'rer's worse than all. Of all mad creatures, if the learn'd are right, 105 It is the flaver kills, and not the bite. NOTES. VER. 88 Alluding to Horacej Si fractus illabatur orbis, Impavidum ferient ruinæ P. VER. 92. The creature's at his dirty work again;) This met morphofing, as it were, the Scribler, into a spider is much more poetical than a comparison would have been. But Poets 'fhould be cautious how they employ this figure; for where the likeness is not very striking, instead of giving force, they become ob. fcure. Here, every thing concurs to make them run into one another. They both spin; not from the head (reason) but from the guts (pallions and prejudices) and, such a thread that can end tangle none but creatures weaker than themselves. ·VER. 98% fres- masons Moor?), He was of this society, and frequently headed their proceffions. 3 A fool quite angry is quite jinnocent: Alas! 'tis ten times worfe when they repent. One from all Grubstreet will my fame defend, There are, who to my perfon pay their court: 11 I cough like Horace, and, tho' lean, am fhort, Ammon's great fon one fhoulder had too high, Such Ovid's nofe, and ,,Sir! you have an Eye Go on, obliging creatures, make me fee All that difgrac'd my Betters, met in me. Say for my comfort, languishing in bed, Juft fo immortal Maro held his head: And when I die, be fure you let me know Great Homer dy'd three thousand years ago. VARIATIONS. VER. II. in the MS. For fong, for filence fome expect a bribe; NOTES. 120 VER. 118. Sir, you have an Eye) it is remarkable that amongst these compliments on his infirmisies and deformities, he mentions his eye, which was fine, fharp, and piercing. It was done to intimate, that flattery was as odious to him when there was fome ground for commendation, as when there was none. Why did I write? what fin to me unknown 125 Dipt me in ink, my parents', or my own? As yet a child, nor yet a fool to fame, I lifp'd in numbers, for the numbers came. I left no calling for this idle trade, No duty, broke, no father disobey'd. VARIATIONS. After v. 124. in the MS. 130 But, friend, this fhape, which You and Curl (a) admire, (a) Curl set up his head for a fign. ・ (b) His Father was crooked. 1. ... 0 NOTES. VER. 127. As yet a child,,) He used to fay, that he began to write verfes further back than he could remember. When he was eight years old, Ogilby's Homer fell in his way, and delighted him extremely; it was followed by Sandys' Qvid ; and the raptures these then gave him were fo ftrong, that he fpoke of them with pleasure ever after. About ten, being at fchool at Hide-park-corner, where he was much neglected, and fuffered to go to the Comedy with the greater boys, he turned the transactions of the Iliad into a play, made up of a number of speeches from Ogilby's tranflation, tacked together with verses of his own. He had the addrefs to perfuade the upper boys to ac it; he even prevailed on the Mafter's Gardener to reprefent A1ax; and contrived to have all the actors dreffed after the pictures in his favourite Ogilby. At twelve he went with his Father into the Forest and then got first acquainted with the writings of Waller, Spencer, and Dryden ; in the order I have named them. On the The Mufe but ferv'd to eafe fome friend, not Wife, But why then publifh? Granville the polite, 135 NOTES. His first fight of Dryden, he found he had what he wanted. Poems were never out of his hands; they became his model; and from them alone he learnt the whole magic of his verfification. This year he began an epic Poem, the fame which Bp. Atterbury, long afterwards, perfuaded him to burn. Befides this, he wrote, in those early days, a Comedy and Tragedy, the latter taken from a story in the Legend of St. Genevieve. They both defervedly underwent the fame fate. As he began his Paftorals foon after, he ufed to fay pleasantly, that he had literally followed the example of Virgil, who tells us, Cum tanerem reges & pralia, &c. VER. 130. no father difabey'd.) When Mr. Pope was yet a Child, his Father, though no Poet, would fer him to make English verfes. He was pretty difficult to please, and would often fend the boy back to new turn them. When they were to his mind, he Look great pleasure in them, and would fay, These are good rhymes. VER. 139. Talbot, &c.) All these were Patrons or Admirers of Mr. Dryden; though a fcandalous libel against him entitled, Dryden's Satyr to his Muse, has been printed in the name of the Lord Somers, of which he was wholly ignorant. an These are the perfons to whofe account the Author charges the publication of his first pieces: persons, with whom he was converfant (and he adds beloved) at 16 or 17 years of age; early period for fuch acquaintance. The catalogue might be made yet more illuftrious, had he not confined it to that time when he writ the Paftorals and windfor Foreft, on which he paffes a fort of Cenfure in the lines following. While pure Description held the place of Senfe? &c. P. VOL. IV. B $140 Ev'n mitred Rochefter would nod the head, Soft were my numbers; who could take offence NOTES 150 VER. 146. Burnets, &c.) Authors of fecret and fcandalous Hiftory. Ibid. Burnets, Oldmixons, and Cooks. By no means Authors of the fame clafs, though the violence of party might hurry them into the fame mistakes. But if the first offended this way, was only through an honest warmth of temper, that allowed too little, to an excellent understanding. The other two, with very bad heads, had hearts ftill worse. VER. 148. While pure Defeription held the place of Scute?) He uses pare equivocally, to fignity either chafie or empty; and has given in this line what he esteemed the true Chara&er of defcriptive poetry, as it is called. A composition, in his opinion, as abfurd as a feaft made up of fauces. The use of a pictorefque imagination is to brighten and adorn good sense; so that to employ it only in defeription, is like, childrens delighting in a prifm for the fake of its gaudy colours; which when frugally managed, and artfully disposed, might be made to represent and illuftrate the noblest obie&ts in nature. VER. 150. A painted meadow, or a purling stream. is a verfe of Mr. Addison. P. |