P.SHUT, HUT, fhut the door, good John! fatigu'd I said,' The Dog-ftar rages! nay 'tis past a doubt, They stop the chariot, and they board the barge. 10 VER. I. Shut, fhut the door, good John!) John Searl, his old and faithful fervant: whom he has remembered under that character, in his Will. VER. 12. Ev'n Sunday shines no Sabbath day to me.) The beauty of this line arifes from the figurative terms of the predis cate alluding to the subject. A fecret, in elegant expreffion, which our Author often practised. AS Then from the Mint walks forth the man of rhyme, Happy to catch me, juft at Dinner - time. Is there a Parfon, much bemus'd in beer, IS A maudlin Poetefs, a rhyming Peer, A Clerk, foredoom'd his father's foul to cross, And curfes Wit, and Poetry, and Pope. 21 25 Friend to my Life! (which did not you prolong, The world had wanted many an idle fong) VARIATIONS. After v. 20. in the MS. Is there a Bard in durance? turn them free, With all their brandifh'd reams they run to me: Is there a Prentice, having feen two plays, Who would do fomething in his Semptress' praise VER. 29. in the Ift Ed. Dear Doctor, tell me, is not this a curfe? Say, is their anger, or their, friendship worse? NOTES. VER. 13. Mint.) A place to which infolvent debtors retired, to enjoy an illegal protection, which they were there fuffered to afford one another, from the perfecution of their creditors. VER. 23. Arthur,) Arthur Moore, Efq. Or which inuft end me, a Fool's wrath or love? 39 If foes, they write, if friends, they read me dead. With honeft anguish, and an aching head; 39 Nine years! cries he, who high in Drury-lane, Lull'd by foft Zephyrs thro' the broken pane, Rhymes ere he wakes, and prints before Term ends,, Oblig'd by hunger, and request of friends: The piece, you think, is incorrect? why take it, 49. ,,I'm all fubmiffion, what you'd have it, make it., Three things another's modeft wishes bound, My Friendship, and a Prologue, and ten pound. NOTES VER, 33. Seix'd and ty'd down to judge,) Alluding to the frene in the Plain-Dealer, where Oldfox gags, and ties down the Widow, to hear his well-pen'd stanzase VER. 38. honeft anguish,), i. c. undissembled. Ibid. an aching head;) Alluding to the diforder he was then fo conftantly afflicted with. VER. 43. Rhymes ere he wakes,) A pleasant allufion to those Words of Milton. F Dictates to me flumb'ring, or inspires Eafy my unpremeditated Verse. Pitholeon fends to me: ,,You know his Grace, ,,I want a Patron; afk him for a Place.,,' Pitholeon libell'd me -,, but here's a letter ,,informs you, Sir, 'twas when he knew no better. : ,,Dare you refufe him? Curl invites to dine,, ,,He'll write a Journal, or he'll turn Divine.,, Blefs me a packet. 'Tis a ftranger fues, 55 ,,A Virgin Tragedy, an Orphan Mufe.,, If I diflike it,,,Furies, death and rage! If I approve, Commend it to the Stage.,,. There (thank my ftars) my whole commiffion ends, The Play'rs and I are, luckily, no friends. Fir'd that the house reject him, 'Sdeath I'll print it, ,,And fhame the fools Your int'reft, Sir, with Lintot., دو 60 65 Lintot, dull rogue! will think your price too much: VARIATIONS. VER. 53. in the MS. If you' refuse, he goes, as fates incline. VER. 60. in the former Edd. Cibber and I are luckily no friends. NOTES. VER. 49. Pitholeon) The name taken from a foolish Poet of Rhodes, who pretended much to Greek. Schol. in Horat. 1. i. Dr. Bentley pretends, that this Pitholeon libelled Cæfar alfo. See notes on lor. Sat. 10. 1. i. P. 'Tis fung, when Midas Ears began to spring, (Midas, a facred perfon and a King) His very Minifter who spy'd them first, 76 (Some fy his Queen) was forc'd to speak, or burst. may You think this cruel? take it for a rule, No creature finarts fo little as a fool. RO Ler peals of laughter, Codrus! round thee break, 85 NOTES. VER. 69. 'Tis sung, when Midas &c.) The Poet mean fung by Perfius; and the words alluded to area is The tranfition is fine, but obfcure: for he has here imitated the manner of that myfterious writer, as well as taken up his image. Our Author had been hitherto complaining of the folly and importunity of indigent Scriblers; he now infinuates the fuffered aš much of both, from Poetasters of Quality!" 199 (831 m VER. 72. Queen) The story is told, by fome, of his Barber, bur by Chaucer of his Queen.'> See Wife of Bath's Tale in Dryden's Fables. P. b. VER. 8o. That fecret to each fool, that he's an Afs:) i. e. that his ears (his marks of folly) are visible. |