I left no calling for this idle trade, No duty broke, no father disobey'd. 130 The Muse but ferv'd to eafe fome friend, not Wife, But why then publish? Granville the polite, 135 Ev'n mitred Rochester would nod the head, NOTES. 140 his Father into the Foreft: and then got firft acquainted with the writings of Waller, Spencer, and Dryden; in the order I have named them. On the first fight of Dryden, he found he had what he wanted. His 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 thofe 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 used to fay pleafantly, that he had literally followed the example of Virgil, who tells us, Cum canerem reges & prælia, Sc. VER. 130. no father difobey'd.] When Mr. Pope was yet a Child, his Father, though no Poet, would fet him to make English verfes. He was pretty difficult to pleafe, and would often fend the boy back to new turn them. When they were to his mind, he took great pleasure in them, and would fay, Thefe are good rhymes. VER. 139. Talbot, &c.] All these were Patrons or Admirers of Mr. Dryden; though a scandalous libel against him, entitled, And St. John's felf (great Dryden's friends before) Soft were my numbers; who could take offence While pure Description held the place of Sense? NOTES. Dryden's Satyr to his Mufe, has been printed in the name of the Lord Somers, of which he was wholly ignorant. These are the perfons to whofe account the Author charges the publication of his firft pieces: perfons, with whom he was converfant (and he adds beloved) at 16 or 17 years of age; an 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, P. While pure Defcription held the place of Senfe? &c. VER. 146. Burnets, &c.] Authors of fecret and fcandalous History. P. Ibid. Burnets, Oldmixons, and Cooks.] By no means Au-. thors of the fame clafs, though the violence of party might. hurry them into the fame mistakes. But if the first offended this way, it was only through an honeft 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 Defcription held the place of Sense?] He uses pure equivocally, to fignify either chafte or empty; and has given in this line what he efteemed the true Character of defcriptive poetry, as it is called. A compofition, in his opinion, as abfurd as a feast made up of fauces. The use of a pictorefque imagination is to brighten and adorn good fenfe; so that to employ it only in defcription, is like childrens delighting in a prifm for the fake of its gaudy colours; which when frugally Like gentle Fanny's was my flow'ry theme, 150 If want provok'd, or madness made them print,155 I.wag'd no war with Bedlam or the Mint. Did fome more fober Critic come abroad; If wrong, I fmil'd; if right, I kifs'd the rod. Pains, reading, ftudy, are their just pretence, And all they want is spirit, taste, and sense. Comma's and points they fet exactly right, And 'twere a fin to rob them of their mite. 160 Yet ne'er one sprig of laurel grac'd these ribalds, From flashing Bentley down to pidling Tibalds: NOTES. managed, and artfully difpofed, might be made to represent and illustrate the nobleft objects in nature. VER. 150. A painted meadow, or a purling ftream. is a verfe of Mr. Addifon. P. VER. 163. thefe rilalds,] How defervedly this title is given to the genius of PHILOLOGY, may be feen by a fhort account of the manners of the modern Scholiafts. When in these latter ages, human learning raised its head in the West, and its tail, verbal criticism, was, of course, to rise with it; the madnefs of Critics foon became fo offenfive, that the fober ftupidity of the monks might appear the more tolerable evil. 7. Argyropylus, a mercenary Greek, who came to teach fchool in Italy, after the facking of Conftantinople by the Turks, Each wight, who reads not, and but scans and spells, Each Word-catcher, that lives on fyllables, NOTES. 166 used to maintain that Cicero understood neither Philosophy nor Greek while another of his Countrymen, J. Lafcaris by name, threatened to demonftrate that Virgil was no Poet. Countenanced by fuch great examples, a French Critic afterwards undertook to prove that Ariftotle did not understand Greek, nor Titus Livius, Latin. It was the fame difcernment of spirit, which has fince discovered that Jofephus was ignorant of Hebrew; and Erafmus fo pitiful a Linguift, that, Burman affures us, were he now alive, he would not deferve to be put at the head of a country school. For though time has strip'd the prefent race of Pedants of all the real accomplishments of their predeceffors, it has conveyed down this spirit to them, unimpaired; it being found much easier to ape their manners, than to imitate their fcience. However, those earlier Ribalds raised an appetite for the Greek language in the Weft: infomuch, that Hermolaus Barbarus, a paffionate admirer of it, and a noted Critic, used to boast, that he had invoked and raised the Devil, and puzzled him into the bargain, about the meaning of the Ariftotelian ENTEAEXEIA. Another, whom Balzac fpeaks of, was as eminent for his Revelations and was wont to say, that the meaning of fuch or such a verse, in Perfius, no one knew but GOD and himself. While the celebrated Pomponius Latus, in excefs of Veneration for Antiquity, became a real Pagan, raised altars to Romulus, and facrificed to the Gods of Latium: in which he was followed by our countryman, Baxter, in every thing, but in the expence of his facrifices. But if the Greeks cried down Cicero, the Italian Critics knew how to fupport his credit. Every one has heard of the childish exceffes into which the ambition of being thought CICERONIANS carried the most celebrated Italians of this time. They abftained from reading the Scriptures for fear of spoiling their ftyle: Cardinal Bembo ufed to call the Epiftles of St. Paul by the contemptuous name of Epiftolaccias, great overgrown Epifles. But ERASMUS cured their frenzy in that masterpiece of good fenfe, his Ciceronianus. For which (in the way Lunatics treat their Phyficians) the elder Scaliger infulted him with all the brutal fury peculiar to his family and profeffion. Ev'n fuch fmall Critics fome regard may claim, Preferv'd in Milton's or in Shakespear's name. NOTES. His fon Jofeph, and Salmafius had indeed fuch endowments of nature and art, as might have raised modern learning to a rivalfhip with the ancient? Yet how did they and their adverfaries tear and worry one another. The choiceft of Jofeph's flowers of fpeech were, Stercus Diaboli, and Lutum ftercore maceratum. It is true, these were lavished upon his enemies: for his friends he had other things in ftore. In a letter to Thuanus, fpeaking of two of them, Clavius and Lipfius, he calls the first, a monster of ignorance; and the other, a flave to the Jefuits, and an Idiot. But fo great was his love of facred amity at the same time, that he fays, I still keep up my correspondence with him, notwithstanding his Idiatry, for it is my principle to be conftant in my friendShips-Je ne reste de luy eferire, nonobftant fon Idioterie, d'autant que je fuis conftant en amitié. The character he gives of his Chronology, in the fame letter, is no lefs extraordinary: Vous vous pouvez affurer que noftre Eufebe fera un tréfor des merveilles de la doctrine Chronologique. But this modeft account of his own work, is nothing in comparison of the idea the Father gives his Bookfeller of his own Perfon. Who, when he was preparing fomething of Julius Scaliger's for the Prefs, defired the Author would give him directions concerning his Picture, which was to be fet before the book. Whofe anfwer (as it ftands in his collection of Letters) is, that if the engraver could collect together the feveral graces of Maffiniffa, Xenophon, and Plato, he might then be enabled to give the public fome faint and imperfect refemblance of his Perfon. Nor was Salmafius's judgment of his own parts lefs favourable to himfelf; as M. Colomies tells the ftory. This Critic, on a time, meeting two of his brethren, Meff. Gaulin and Mauffac, in the Royal Library at Paris, Gaulmin, in a virtuous confcioufnefs of their importance, told the other two, that he believed, they three could make head againft all the learned in Europe: To which the great Salmafius fiercely replied. "Do you and M. Mauffac join yourfelves to all that are learned in the world, and you fhall find that I alone am a "" match for you ail." 66 Voffius tells us, that when Laur. Valla had fnarl'd at every name of the first order in antiquity, fuch as Ariftotle, Cicero, and one |