Quî minus argutos vexat furor ifte poetas ?

*Carmina compono, hic elegos; mirabile visu,

Caelatumque novem Mufis opus. afpice primum,

Quanto cum fastu, quanto molimine circumspectemus vacuam Romanis vatibus aedem.

Mox etiam (fi forte vacas) fequere, et procul audi, Quid ferat, et quare fibi nectat uterque coronam.

Caedimur, et totidem plagis confumimus hoftem, Lento Samnites ad lumina prima duello.

Difcedo Alcaeus puncto illius; ille meo quis?

Quis, nifi Callimachus? fi plus adpofcere vifus ;

Fit Mimnermus, et optivo cognomine crefcit.

NOTES.

"auftéres Magistrats consommez comme lui dans l'etude des "Loix, fe delaffoient des fatigues de leur état, dans les travaux “de la literature. Que ceux qui meprisent ces travaux aima❝bles; que ceux qui mettent je ne fai quelle miferable grandeur "à fe renfermer dans le cercle étroit de leurs emplois, font à plaindre! ignorent ils que Cicéron, après avoir rempli la prémiere place du monde, plaidoit encore les caufes des Cito. << yens, ecrivoit fur la nature des Dieux, conféroit avec des Phi “lofophes ; qu'il alloit au Théatre; qu'il daignoit cultiver l'ami-,

"'Twas, Sir, your law"--and "Sir, your eloquence" "Yours, Cowper's manner-and yours, Talbot's "fense.

"Thus we difpofe of all poetic merit,

155

Yours Milton's genius, and mine Homer's fpirit.
Call Tibbald Shakespear, and he'll swear the Nine,
Dear Cibber! never match'd one Ode of thine,
Lord! how we strut thro' Merlin's Cave, to fee
No Poets there, but Stephen, you, and me. 140
Walk with respect behind, while we at ease

Weave laurel Crowns, and take what names we

please.,

"My dear Tibullus!" if that will not do,

"Let me be Horace, and be Ovid you :

Or, I'm content, allow me Dryden's strains, 145 And you shall rise up Otway for your pains." Much do I fuffer, much, to keep in

peace

This jealous, wafpish, wrong-head, rhiming race;

"tié d'Efopus et de Rofcius, et laifoit aux petits efprits, leur "conftante gravité, qui n'eft que la mafque de la mediocrité ?

VER. 139. Merlin's Cave,] In the Royal Gardens at Richmond. By this it fhould feem as if the collection of poetry, in that place, was not to our Author's taste.

VER. 140. But Stephen] Mr. Stephen Duck, a modest and worthy man, who had the honour (which many, who thought themselves his betters in poetry, had not) of being efteemed by Mr. Pope.

Multa fero, ut placem genus irritabile vatum,

Cum fcribo, et fupplex populi fuffragia capto:
Idem, finitis ftudiis, et mente recepta,

Obturem patulas impune legentibus aures.

• Ridentur mala qui componunt carmina: verum Gaudent fcribentes, et fe venerantur, et ultro,

Si taceas, laudant; quidquid fcripfere, beati.
At qui legitimum cupiet feciffe

poema,

Cum tabulis animum cenforis fumet honefti :
Audebit quaecunque parem fplendoris habebunt,
Et fine pondere erunt, et honore indigna ferentur,
Verba movere loco; quamvis invita recedant,
Et verfentur adhuc intra penetralia Vestae:

P Obfcurata diu populo bonus eruet, atque

NOTES,

VER. 159. not a word they spare, That wants or force, or light, or weight, or care,] Force and light refpect figurative expreffion; and fignify, that it be fuch as ftrikes the imagination, and be taken from obvious fubjects; for without the first quality it will want force; without the other, light.

Weight and care respect literal expreffion, the firft marking out the character of the verb; the other of the noun; and fignify, that, in every propofition, the attribute should be important, and the fubject precife.

VER.164. In downright charity revive the dead;] This is very happily expreffed, and means, that it is the Poet's office to re

And much muft flatter, if the whim should bite

To court applaufe by printing what I write :
But let the Fit pafs o'er, I'm wife enough,
To stop my ears to their confounded stuff.

150

They treat themselves with most profound respect;

156

'Tis to fmall purpose that you hold your tongue,
Each prais'd within, is happy all day long,
But how feverely with themselves proceed
The men, who write fuch Verse as we can read?
Their own ftrict Judges, not a word they spare
That wants or force, or light, or weight, or care,
Howe'er unwillingly it quits its place,
Nay tho' at Court (perhaps) it may find grace:
Such they'll degrade; and fometimes, in its stead,
In downright charity revive the dead;

NOTES.

161

lieve the poverty of the prefent language with the useless stores of the paft; not out of charity to the dead but to the living. "The riches of a language (fays a very fine writer and most "judicious critic) are actually increased by retaining its old "words; and befides they have often a greater real weight and "dignity than those of a more fashionable caft, which fucceed "to them. This needs no proof to fuch as are verfed in the "earlier writings of any language." And again, "From thefe "teftimonies we learn, the extreme value which these great "mafters of compofition fet upon their old writers; and as the reafon of the thing juftifies their opinions, we may further fee

Proferet in lucem fpeciofa vocabula rerum,

Quae prifcis memorata Catonibus atque Cethegis,
Nunc fitus informis premit et deferta vetuftas:
Adsciscet nova, quae genitor produxerit ufus :

Vehemens et liquidus, puroque fimillimus amni,
Fundet opes, Latiumque beabit divite lingua:
Luxuriantia compefcet: nimis afpera fano

Levabit cultu, virtute carentia tollet:

NOTES.

"the important use of some late attempts to restore a better "knowledge of our own. Which I obferve with pleasure, as "the growing prevalency of a different humour, firft catched, 66 as it fhould feem, from our commerce with the French mo"dels, and countenanced by the too fcrupulous delicacy of some good writers amongst ourselves, had gone far towards unnerv"ing the nobleft modern language, and effeminating the pub"lic tafte. This was not a little forwarded by what gene

rally makes its appearance at the fame time, a kind of femi"nine curiofity in the choice of words; cautiously avoiding and "reprobating all fuch (which were not seldom the most expref"five) as had been prophaned by a too vulgar ufe, or had suf"fered the touch of fome other accidental taint. This ran us "into periphrafis and general expreffion; the peculiar bane of << every polished language." Eng. Commentary and Notes on the Ars poetica of Horace, p. 43, 44.

VER. 167. Command old words, that long have sept, to wake] The imagery is here very fublime. It turns the Poet to a Magician evoking the dead from their fepulchres,