Praetulerim fcriptor delirus inersque videri, Dum mea delectent mala me, vel denique fallant, Quam fapere, et ringi. Fuit haud ignobilis Argis, Qui fe credebat miros audire tragoedos, In vacuo laetus-feffor plauforque theatro: Caetera qui vitae fervaret munia recto More; bonus fane vicinus, amabilis hofpes, Comis in uxorem; posset qui ignoscere servis, Et figno laefo non infanire lagenae: Poffet qui rupem, et puteum vitare patentem. Hic ubi cognatorum opibus curifque refectus, Expulit elleboro morbum bilemque meraco, NOTES. where the Poet was always on the ftrain, and labouring for expreffion, he faid pleafantly: This is a ftrange man: he feems to think with the Apothecaries, that Album Grecum is better than an ordinary ftool. He himself was never fwelling or pompous: and if ever he inclined to hardness, it was not from attempting to fay a common thing with magnificence, but from including a great deal in a little room. VER. 184. There liv'd in primo Georgii, &c.] The imitation of this ftory of the Madman is as much fuperior to his original in the fine and eafy manner of telling, as that of Lucullus's Soldier comes fhort of it. It is true, the turn Horace's madman took, agrees better with the subject of his epistle, which is Poetry; and doubtlefs there were other beauties in it, which Time has deprived us of. For it is in Poetry as in Painting, the most delicate touches go first; and, what is worse, they agree in this too, that they are laft obferved. 'If such the plague and pains to write by rule, Better (fay I) be pleas'd, and play the fool; 181 Call, if you will, bad rhyming a disease, It gives men happiness, or leaves them eafe. There liv'd in primo Georgii (they record) A worthy member, no small fool, a Lord; 185 Who, tho' the Houfe was up, delighted fate, Heard, noted, anfwer'd, as in full debate: In all but this; a man of fober life, Fond of his Friend, and civil to his Wife; Not quite a mad-man, tho' a pasty fell, And much too wife to walk into a well. Him, the damn'd Doctors and his Friends immur'd, They bled, they cupp'd, they purg'd; in short, they cur'd: NOTES. 190 So that, what between time and ill tafte, the greatest beauties are the shorteft lived. But we need not wonder that ancient Satirifts fhould feel the effects of this fatal union, when those noble ones of so modern a date as Rablais and Cervantes are fo little underfood. One of the finest strokes in the latter is in the plan of his famous Romance, which makes a Spanish Gentleman of fifty run mad with reading books of Chivalry. But we fee little of its beauty, because we do not know that a difordered imagination is a common malady amongst Spanish Gentlemen in the decline of life. A fact which Thuanus occafionally informs us of, "Mendoza étoit un fort habile homme, "il avoit été employé en de grandes Ambaffades-fur la fin | "de fes jours il devint furieux, comme d'ordinaire les Ef"pagnols." Thuana. Et redit ad fefe: Pol me occidiftis, amici, Non fervâftis, ait; cui fic extorta voluptas, Et demtus per vim mentis gratiffimus error, 'Nimirum fapere eft abjectis utile nugis, Et tempeftivum pueris concedere ludum; 'Ac non verba fequi fidibus modulanda Latinis, Sed verae numerofque modofque edifcere vitae. VER. 218. When golden Angels, &c.] This illustration is much happier than what is employed in his original; as by raifing pecuniary ideas, it prepares the mind for that morality it is brought to illustrate. Whereat the gentleman began to stare 194 My Friends! hecry'd, p-x take you for your care! That from a Patriot of diftinguish'd note, Have bled and purg'd me to a fimple Vote. Well, on the whole, plain Prose must be my fate: Wisdom (curse on it) will come foon or late. There is a time when Poets will grow dull: 200 I'll e'en leave verfes to the boys at school : To rules of Poetry no more confin’d, I'll learn to smooth and harmonize my Mind, Teach ev'ry thought within its bounds to roll, And keep the equal measure of the Soul. 205 ⚫ Soon as I enter at my country door, My mind resumes the thread it dropt before; Thoughts, which at Hyde-park-corner I forgot, Meet and rejoin me, in the penfive Grot. There all alone, and compliments apart, I afk thefe fober questions of my heart. t 210 If, when the more you drink, the more you crave, You tell the Doctor; when the more you have, The more you want, why not with equal eafe Confefs as well your Folly, as Disease? 215 The heart refolves this matter in a trice, "Men only feel the Smart, but not the Vice." "When golden Angels cease to cure the Evil, You give all royal Witchcraft to the Devil : Proficiente nihil curarier: audieras, cui Rem Dî donârint, illi decedere pravam W Si proprium eft, quod quis libra mercatus et aere eft, Quaedam (fi credis confultis) mancipat ufus: Qui te pafcit aget, tuus eft; et villicus Orbî, Cum fegetes occat tibi mox frumenta daturas, Te dominum fentit. * das nummos; accipis uvam, Pullos, ova, cadum, temeti: nempe modo isto Paulatim mercaris agrum, fortaffe trecentis, Aut etiam fupra, nummorum millibus emtum. Quid refert, vivas numerato nuper, an olim? y Emtor Aricini quondam, Veientis et arvi, Emtum coenat olus, quamvis aliter putat; emtis Sub noctem gelidam lignis calefactat ahenum. NOTES. VER. 220. When fervile Chaplains cry,] Dr. Ken-t. VER. 229. lv'd fix-pence,] Avarice, and the contempt of it, is well expreffed in thefe words. |