Page images
PDF
EPUB

Have you not seen, at Guild-hall's narrow país,

Two Aldermen dispute it with an Afs?

105

And Peers give way, exalted as they are

Ev'n to their own S-r-v--nce in a Car?

* Go, lofty Poet! and in fuch a croud, Sing thy fonorous verse—but not aloud. Alas! to Grotto's and to Groves we run, To eafe and filence, ev'ry Mufe's fon: Blackmore himself, for any grand effort, Would drink and doze at Tooting or Earl's-Court. How fhall I rhime in this eternal roar?

[ocr errors]

How match the bards whom none e'er match'd before?
The Man, who, ftretch'd in Ifis' calm retreat, 116
To books and study gives fev'n years compleat,
See! ftrow'd with learned duft, his night-cap on,
He walks, an object new beneath the fun!

The boys flock round him, and the people ftare:
So ftiff, fo mute! fome ftatue you would fwear,
Stept from its pedestal to take the air!

And here, while town, and court, and city roars,
With mobs, and duns, and foldiers, at their doors;
NOTES.

where the intemperance of Poets is not the obvious, but the Secret meaning. For Bacchus was the patron of the Drama as well as of the Bottle; and fleep was courted for infpiration, as well as to relieve a debauch.

Ibid. Tooting-Earl's Court] Two villages within a few miles of London.

P.

VER. 124. With mobs, and duns, and foldiers at their

Verba lyrae motura fonum connectere digner?

Frater erat Romae confulti rhetor; ut alter

Alterius fermone meros audiret honores:

Gracchus ut hic illi foret, huic ut Mucius ille.

Quî minus argutos vexat furor ifte poetas?

[ocr errors]

› Carmina compono, hic elegos; mirabile vifu,

Caelatumque novem Mufis opus. afpice primum,

Quanto cum fastu, quanto molimine circum

spectemus vacuam Romanis vatibus äedem. Mox etiam (fi forte vacas) fequere, et procul audi,

Quid ferat, et quare fibi nectat uterque coronam.

Caedimur, et totidem plagis confumimus hoftem,

NOTES.

doors ;] The licence, luxury, and mutiny of an opulent city are not ill described

VER. 132. And shook his head at Murray, as a Wit.] It is the filly confolation of blockheads in all profeffions, that he, whom Nature has formed to excell, does it not by his fuperior knowledge, but his wit; and fo they keep themselves in countenance as not fairly outdone, but only out-witted.---

Shall I, in London, act this idle part?

Compofing fongs, for Fools to get by heart?

The Temple late two brother Serjeants faw,

Who deem'd each other Oracles of Law;

With equal talents, thefe congenial fouls

125

One lull'd th' Exchequer, and one stunn'd the Rolls; Each had a gravity would make you split,

And shook his head at Murray, as a Wit.

I

[ocr errors]

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

" Thus we difpofe of all poetic merit,

135

Yours Milton's genius, and mine Homer's fpirit.
Call Tibbald Shakespear, and he'll fwear the Nine,
Dear Cibber! never match'd one Ode of thine.
Lord! how we ftrut thro' Merlin's Cave, to fee
No Poets there, but Stephen, you, and me.
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:

NOTES.

140

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

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 elteemed by Mr. Pope.

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.
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 carmiņa: ve

rum

Gaudent fcribentes, et se 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:
• Obscurata diu populo bonus eruet, atque
Proferet in lucem fpeciofa vocabula rerum,
Quae prifcis memorata Catonibus atque Cethegis,
Nunc fitus informis premit et deferta vetuftas:

NOTES.

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

"Or, I'm content, allow me Dryden's ftrains, 145
"And you fhall rife up Otway for your pains."
Much do I fuffer, much, to keep in peace
This jealous, wafpifh, wrong-head, rhiming race;
And much muft flatter, if the whim fhould bite
To court applause by printing what I write :
But let the Fit pass o'er, I'm wife enough,
To ftop my ears to their confounded stuff.

150

• In vain, bad Rhimers all mankind reject, They treat themselves with most profound respect; 'Tis to small purpose that you hold your tongue, 155 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, 160
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;
Mark where a bold expreffive phrase appears,
Bright thro' the rubbifa of fome hundred years;
Command old words that long have flept, to wake,
Words, that wife Bacon, or brave Rawleigh fpake;

NOTES.

Et mugire folum, manifque exire Sepulchris. Horace has not the fame force,

Proferet in lucem Speciofa vocabula rerum.

165

« PreviousContinue »