(Tho' but, perhaps, a muster-roll of Names 1) 125 130 135 What then was new, what had been ancient now? Or what remain'd, so worthy to be read In Days of Fase, when now the weary Sword 140 145 The sleepy Eye, that spoke the melting soul. 150 155 Now all for Pleasure, now for Church and State; Now for Prerogative, and now for Laws; Effects unhappy from a Noble Cause. 160 Time was, a sober Englishman would knock A muster-roll of Names] An absurd custom of several Actors, to pronounce with emphasis the mere Proper Names of Greeks or Romans, which (as they call it) fill the mouth of the Player. P. [Like the Bombomachides Clutomestoridysarchides' of Plautus.] 2 A verse of the Lord Lansdown. P. 3 in Horsemanship t'excel, And ev'ry flow'ry Courtier writ Romance.] The Duke of Newcastle's book of Horsemanship: the Romance of Parthenissa, by the Earl of Örrery, and most of the French Romances translated by Persons of Quality. P. 4 [Newmarket, which became popular with the rise of horse-racing under James I., was a favourite resort of Charles II., whose palace there still stands.] 5 [The two most eminent sculptors of the Restoration period were Cibber, a Dane, and Gibbons, a Dutchman.] 6 [Sir Peter Lely, by birth a Westphalian, died in 1680, after accumulating a large fortune. Warton compares for the delightful expression, the sleepy eye,' an epigram of Antipater, 'which it is not probable Pope could have seen.'] 7 On each enervate string, etc.] The Siege of Rhodes by Sir William Davenant, the first Opera sung in England. P. [It was brought out in 1656.] Instruct his Family in ev'ry rule, And send his Wife to church, his Son to school. And place, on good Security, his Gold. 165 Now times are chang'd, and one Poetic Itch 170 Sons, Sires, and Grandsires, all will wear the bays, Our Wives read Milton, and our Daughters Plays, I, who so oft renounce the Muses, lie, 175 Not's self e'er tells more Fibs than I; And promise our best Friends to rhyme no more; 180 He serv'd a 'Prenticeship, who sets up shop; 185 190 195 To cheat a Friend, or Ward, he leaves to Peter5; The good man heaps up nothing but mere metre, Of little use the Man you may suppose, 1 Ward.] A famous Empiric, whose Pill and Drop had several surprizing effects, and were one of the principal subjects of writing and conversation at this time. P. 2 Ev'n Radcliff's Doctors travel first to France, Nor dare to practise till they've learn'd to dance.] By no means an insinuation as if these travelling Doctors had misspent their time. Radcliff had sent them on a medicinal mission, to examine the produce of each Country, and see at it might be made subservient to the art 200 of healing. The native commodity of France is DANCING. SCRIBL. 3 [Cf. Pope's note to Moral Essays, Ep. IV. v. 18.] 5 [Conjectured by Bowles to refer to the cheating of Mr George Pitt, in the management of his estates, by Peter Walter.] 6 And (tho no Soldier)] Horace had not What will a Child learn sooner than a Song? Hopkins and Sternhold glad the heart with Psalms": acquitted himself much to his credit in this capacity (non bene relicta parmula) in the battle of Philippi. It is manifest he alludes to himself, in this whole account of a Poet's character; but with an intermixture of irony: Vivit siliquis et pane secundo has a relation to his Epicurism; Os tenerum pueri, is ridicule: The nobler office of a Poet follows, Torquet ab obscænis-Mox etiam pectus Recte facta refert, etc. which the Imitator has apply'd where he thinks it more due than to himself. He hopes to be pardon'd, if, as he is sincerely inclined to praise what deserves to be praised, he arraigns what deserves to be arraigned, in the 210, 211, and 212th 205 210 215 220 225 230 235 1720; the Drapier's Letters (written to oppose the patent of coining copper halfpence to be current in Ireland, granted to William Wood through the influence of the Duchess of Kendal, favourite of George I.) appeared in 1723. Swift thus writes to Pope (May 31st, 1737), after reading the above tribute: Your admirers here, I mean every man of taste, affect to be certain that the profession of friendship to me will not suffer you to be thought a flatterer. My happiness is that you are too far engaged, and in spite of you the ages to come will celebrate me, and know you were a friend who loved and esteemed me, although I died the object of Court and Party hatred.'] 4 the Idiot and the Poor.] A foundation for the maintenance of Idiots, and a Fund for assisting the Poor, by lending small sums of money on demand. P. 5 [The time-honoured version of the Psalms by Thomas Sternhold, a courtier of King Edward VI., and John Hopkins, a Suffolk schoolmaster, in which they were assisted by others, was first published as a complete collection in 1562. The germ of this amusing passage will be found in Pope's letter to Swift of Oct. 15, 1725.1 Verse prays for Peace, or sings down Pope and Turk. And feels that grace his pray'r besought in vain; 240 245 250 Who felt the wrong, or fear'd it, took th' alarm, 255 At length, by wholesome dread of statutes bound1, The Poets learn'd to please, and not to wound: Most warp'd to Flatt'ry's side; but some, more nice, 250 We conquer'd France, but felt our Captive's charms; 255 Wit grew polite, and Numbers learn'd to flow. [There is no direct historical allusion in this; the law of libel was still very indefinite even in Pope's times.] 2 Waller was smooth;] Mr. Waller, about this time with the Earl of Dorset, Mr. Godolphin, and others, translated the Pompey of Corneille; and the more correct French Poets began to be in reputation. P. 3 [Cf. Essay on Criticism, vv. 358-384.] 4 [Racine, the younger of the two great French tragedians, was more frequently translated by 270 275 the English dramatists of the Restoration than Corneille; although Hallam is doubtless right in agreeing with Sir Walter Scott that the unnatural dialogue which prevailed in the English tragedies of that age was derived from baser models than these, viz. the French romances referred to ante, v. 145. The pathetic Otway (1651-1685) was indeed among the translators and adapters of Racine; but his Venice Preserved and Orphan, on which his fame rests, were, as dramatic pieces, original.] But Otway fail'd to polish or refine, O you! whom Vanity's light bark conveys There still remains, to mortify a Wit, ' [I remember the players often mentioned it as an honour to S., that in his writings, whatsoever he penned, he never blotted out a line. My answer hath been, 'Would he had blotted out a thousand.' Ben Jonson's Discoveries.] 2 Ev'n copious Dryden] copious aggravated the fault. For when a writer has great stores, he is inexcusable not to discharge the easy task of choosing from the best. Warburton. 3 ['Another fault which often may befal, Is, when the wit of some great poet shall So overflow, that is, be none at all That ev'n his fools speak sense, as if possessed, And each by inspiration breaks his jest.' Sheffield, Duke of Buckinghamshire, Essay on Poetry.] 4 [George Farquhar (1678-1707), the author of Sir Harry Wildair and the Beaux' Stratagem.] [John Vanbrugh (1672-1726), author of the Relapse, and architect of Blenheim. His come 280 285 290 295 300 305 310 dies, though offensive on the ground mentioned by Pope, are perhaps healthier in feeling than those of any of his contemporaries.] P. 6 Astræa] A Name taken by Mrs. Behn, Authoress of several obscene Plays, etc. [Mrs Aphra Behn owed her popularity not only to her sins, but to a wonderful knack of contriving ingenious stage-situations which must arouse the envy of modern sensational playwrights. Astræa is the title of a French romance by Honoré d'Urfé, published in 1610.] 7 [Poor Pinky is the popular low comedian, William Pinkethman, of whose face some writers, according to Cibber, made a livelihood; and concerning whom the Tatler informs posterity,' among other things, that 'he devours a cold chicken with great applause' (in the character of Harlequin). See Geneste's History of the Stage, . 136-9.] III. e. the black-pudding.] |