Virtue may chuse the high or low Degree, 'Tis juft alike to Virtue, and to me; NOTES. indeed, if fairly given, would bear hard upon the Author, who believed the perfon here celebrated to be one of the greatest characters in private life that ever was; and known by him to be, in fact, all, and much more than he had feigned in the imaginary virtues of the man of Rofs. One, who, whether he be confidered in his civil, focial, domeftic, or religious character, is, in all these views, an ornament to human nature. And, indeed, we shall fee, that what is here faid of him agrees only with such a Character. But as both the thought and the expreffion have been cenfured, we fhall confider them in their order. Let humble ALLEN, with an aukward Shame, Do good by Stealth This encomium has been called obfcure (as well as penurious.) It may be fo; not from any defect in the conception, but from the deepness of the fenfe; and, what may feem more strange, (as we shall fee afterwards) from the elegance of phrase, and exactness of expreffion. We are fo abfolutely governed by cuftom, that to act contrary to it, creates even in virtuous men, who are ever modeft, a kind of diffidence, which is the parent of Shame. But when, to this, there is joined a consciousness that, in forfaking cuftom, you follow truth and reason, the indignation arifing from fuch a confcious virtue, mixing with Shame, produces that amiable aukwardness, in going out of the fashion, which the Poet, here, celebrates. and blush to find it Fame. i. e. He blushed at the degeneracy of his times, which, at best, gave his goodness its due commendation (the thing he never aimed at) instead of following and imitating his example, which was the reason why fome acts of it were not done by stealth, but more openly. So far as to the thought: but it will be faid, tantamne rem tam negligenter? And this will lead us to fay fomething concerning the expreffion, which will clear up what remains of the difficulty. In Dwell in a Monk, or light upon a King, She's still the fame, belov'd, contented thing. 140 Vice is undone, if the forgets her Birth, And stoops from Angels to the Dregs of Earth: But 'tis the Fall degrades her to a Whore ; Let Greatness own her, and she's mean no more, NOTES. these lines, and in those which precede and follow them, are contained an ironical neglect of Virtue, and an ironical concern and care for Vice. So that the Poet's elegant correctness of compofition required, that his language, in the firft cafe, fhould prefent fomething of negligence and cenfure; which is admirably implied in the expreffion of the thought. VER. 138. 'Tis just alike to Virtue, and to me ;] He gives the reafon for it, in the line that prefently follows, She's fill the fame, belov'd, contented thing. So that the fenfe of the text is this, "It is all one to Virtue on "whom her influence falls, whether on high or low, because it "ftill produces the fame effect, their content; and it is all one "to me, because it still produces the fame effect, my love." VER. 144. Let Greatness own her, and she's mean no more,] The Poet, in this whole paffage, would be understood to allude to a very extraordinary ftory told by Procopius in his Secret hiftory: the fum of which is as follows. The Emprefs THEODORA was the daughter of one Acaces, who had the care of the wild beafts, which the Green faction kept for the entertainment of the people. For the Empire was, at that time, divided between the two Factions of the Green and Blue. But Acaces dying in the infancy of Theodora, and her two Sifters, his place of Master of the Bears was disposed of to a stranger; and his widow had no other way of fupporting herself than by proftituting her three Daughters, who were very pretty, on the public Theatre. Thither the brought them in their turns as they came to years of puberty. Theodora firft attended her Sifters in the habit and quality of a all Her Birth, her Beauty, Crowds and Courts confefs, Chafte Matrons praise her, and grave Bishops bless; NOTES. Dave. And when it came to her turn to mount the stage, as she could neither dance, nor play on the flute, fhe was put into the lowest class of Buffoons to make diverfion for the Rabble; which she did in fo arch a manner, and complained of the indignities fhe suffered in fo ridiculous a tone, that she became the abfolute favourite of the people. After a complete course of infamy and proftitution, the next place we hear of her is at Alexandria, in great poverty and distress: from whence (as it was no wonder) fhe was willing to remove. And to Conftantinople fhe came, but after a large circuit thro' the East, where fhe worked her way, by a free course of proftitution. JUSTINIAN was at this time confort in the Empire with his Uncle Justin, and the management of affairs entirely in his hands. He no fooner faw Theodora than he fell defperately in love with her, and would have married her immediately, but that the Empress Euphemia, a barbarian, and unpolite, but not illiberal in her nature, was then alive. And fhe, altho' fhe refused him nothing elfe, yet obftinately refufed giving him this inftance of her complaisance. But he did not live long: and then, nothing but the ancient Laws, which forbad a fenator to marry with a common prostitute, hindered Juftinian from executing this extraordinary project. Thefe, he obliged Justin to revoke; and then, in the face of the fun, married his dear Theodora. A terrible example (fays the Hiftorian) and an encouragement to the moft fhameless licence. And now no fooner was THEODORA (in the Poet's phrase) owned by Greatness, than fhe, whom not long before it was thought unlucky to meet, and a pollution to touch, became the idol of the Court. There was not a fingle Magiftrate (fays Procopius) that expreffed the least indignation at the shame and dishonour brought upon the ftate; not a fingle Prelate that shewed the least desolation for the public fcandal. They all drove to court fo precipitately, as if they were ftriving to prevent one another in her good graces. Nay, the very foldiers were emulous of the honour of becoming the Champions of her Virtue. As for the common people, who had fo long been the fpectators of her fervility, her Buffoonry, 150 In golden Chains the willing World the draws, NOTES. and her Prostitution, they all in a body threw themselves at her feet, as flaves at the footftool of their Miftrefs. In a word, there was no man, of what condition foever, that fhewed the leaft diflike of fo monftrous an elevation. In the mean time, Theodora's first care was to fill her Coffers, which fhe foon did, with immense wealth. To this end, Juftinian and the pretended to differ in their principles. The one protected the blue, and the other, the green faction; till in a long courfe of intrigue, by fometimes giving up the one to plunder and confiscation, and fometimes the other, they left nothing to either party. See Procop. Anec. c. ix.-x. VER. 148. And her's the Gospel is, and hers the Laws] i. e. She difpofed of the honours of both. VER. 149. fcarlet head] Alluding to the fcarlet Whore of the Apocalypfe. In Soldier, Churchman, Patriot, Man in Pow'r, See, all our Fools afpiring to be Knaves! The Wit of Cheats, the Courage of a Whore, 165 Are what ten thousand envy and adore: All, all look up, with reverential Awe, At Crimes that 'scape, or triumph o'er the Law: While Truth, Worth, Wisdom, daily they decryNothing is Sacred now but Villainy." Yet may this Verse (if fuch a Verse remain) Show, there was one who held it in difdain. NOTES. 170 VER. 164. See all our fools afpiring to be Knaves !] This will always be the cafe when knavery is in fafhion, becaufe fools always dread the being unfashionable; and with good reason, because nothing but the fashion could make them supportable. VER. 165. The Wit of Cheats, the Courage of a Whore, Are what ten thousand envy and adore :] And no wonder, for the wit of Cheats being the evafion of Juftice, and the Courage of a Whore the contempt for reputation; these emancipate men from the two tyrannical reftraints upon free fpirits, fear of punishment, and dread of shame. SCRIBL. |