Mistress! dismiss that rabble from your throne:
Avaunt--is Aristarchus yet unknown?
The mighty scholiast, whose unweary'd pains
Made Horace dull, and humbled Milton's strains.
Turn what they will to verse, their toil is vain,
Critics like me shall make it prose again.
Roman and Greek grammarians! know you better;
Author of something yet more great than letter;
While tow'ring o'er your alphabet, like Saul,
Stands our Digamma, and o'ertops them all.
'Tis true, on words is still our whold debate,
Dispute of me or te, of aut or at.
To sound or sink in cano, O or A,
Or give up Cicero to C. or K.
Let friend affect to speak as Terence spoke,
And Alsop, never but like Horace joke:
v. 223, 224. Friend---Alsop.] Dr. Robert Friend, master of Westminster-school, and canon of Christchurch----Dr. Anthony Alsop, a happy imitater of the Horatian style.
v. 207. He, kingly, did but nod.]
"He, kingly, from his state
"Declin'd not."---
v. 210.---is Aristarchus yet unknown?
"Sic notus Ulysses?
"Dost thou not feel me, Rome?"
. 215. Roman and Greek grammarians, &c.] Imitated
from Propertius, speaking of the Æneid,
"Cedite, Romani scriptores, cedite Graii!
"Nescio quid majus nascitur Iliade."
For me, what Virgil, Pliny would deny,
Manilius or Solinus shall supply:
For Attic phrase in Plato let them seek,
I poach in Suidas for unlicens'd Greek.
In ancient sense if any needs will deal,
Be sure I give them fragments, not a meal;
What Gellius or Stcbæus hash'd before,
Or chew'd by blind old scholiasts o'er and o'er,
The critic eye, that microscope of wit,
Sees hairs and pores, examines bit by bit.
How parts relate to parts, or they, to whole,
The body's harmony, the beaming soul,
Are things which Kuster, Burman, Wasse shall see When man's whole frame is obvious to a flea.
Ah, think not, Mistress! more true Dulness lies
In Folly's cap, then Wisdom's grave disguise.
Like buoys, that never sink into the flood,
On Learning's surface we but lie and nod.
Thine is the genuine head of many a house,
And much divinity without a Ne
Nor could a Barrow work on ev'ry block,
Nor has one Atterbury spoil'd the flock,
v. 228. &c. Suidas, Gelius, Stobaus.] The first a dictionary-writer, a collector of impertinent facts and barbarous words: the second a minute critic; the third an author who gave his common-place book to the Public, where we happen to find much mince-meat of old books.
v. 245, 246. Barrow. --Atterbury.] Isaac Barrow, Master of Trinity, Francis Atterbury Dean of Christ-church, both great geniusses and eloquent preachers; one more
See! still thy own, the heavy canon roll,
And metaphysic smokes involve the pole.
For thee we dim the eyes, and stuff the head
With all such reading as was never read:
For thee explain a thing till all men doubt it,
And write about it, Goddess, and about it:
So spins the silk-worm small its slender store,
And labours till it clouds itself all o'er.
What though we let some better sort of fool
Thrid ev'ry science, run through ev'ry school?
Never by tumbler through the hoops was shown
Such skill in passing all, and touching none.
He may indeed (if sober all this time)
Plague with dispute, or persecute with rhyme.
We only furnish what we cannot use,
Or wed to what he must divorce, a Muse:
Full in the midst of Euclid dip at once,
And petrify a genius to a dunce:
Or set on metaphysic ground to prance,
Show all his paces, not a step adv..nce.
With the same cement, ever sure to bind,
We bring to one dead level ev'ry mind:
Then take him to develope, if you can,
And hew the block off, and get out the man.
conversant in the sublime geometry, the other in classical learning; but who equally, made it their care to advance the polite arts in their several societies.
But wherefore waste I words? I see advance
Whore, pupil, and lac'd governor from France.
Walker! our hat----nor more he deign'd to say,
But, stern as Ajax, spectre strode away.
In flow'd at once a gay embroider'd race, And titt'ring push'd the pedants off the place:
Some would have spoken, but the voice was drown'd
By the French horn, or by the op'ning hound.
The first came forwards with as easy mien,
As if he saw St. James's and the Queen.
When thus the attendant Orator begun;
Receive, great Empress! thy accomplish'd son:
Thine from the birth, and sacred from the rod,
A dauntless infant! never scar'd with God.
The sire saw, one by one, his virtues wake;
The mother begg'd the blessing of a rake.
Thou gav'st that ripeness which so soon began,
And ceas'd so soon, he ne'er was boy nor man;
Through school and college, thy kind cloud o'erçast,
Safe and unseen the young Æneas past:
Thence bursting glorious, all at once let down,
Stunn'd with his giddy larum half the town.
Intrepid then, o'er seas and lands he flew;
Europe he saw, and Europe saw him too.
There all thy gifts and graces we display,
Thou, only thou, directing all our way!
284. A dauntless infant! never scar'd with God.]
"-sine Dis animosus Infans."
To where the Seine, obsequious as she runs,
Pours out great Bourbon's feet her silken sons;
Or Tyber, now no longer Roman, rolls,
Vain of Italian arts, Italian souls:
To happy convents, bosom'd deep in vines,
Where slumber abbots, purple as their wines:
To isles of fragrance, lily-silver'd vales,
Diffusing langour in the panting gales:
To lands of singing, or of dancing slaves,
Love-whisp'ring woods, and lute-resounding waves.
But chief her shrine where naked Venus keeps,
And Cupids ride the Lion of the deeps;
Where, eas'd of fleets, the Adriatic main
Wafts the smooth eunuch and enamour'd swain. 310
Led by my hand, he saunter'd Europe round,
And gather'd ev'ry vice on Christian ground;
Saw ev'ry court, heard ev'ry king declare
His royal sense, of op'ras or the fair;
The stews and palace equally explor'd,
Intrigu'd with glory, and with spirit whor'd;
Try'd all hors d'œuvres, all liqeurs defin'd,
Judicious drank, and greatly-daring din'd;
. 307. But chief, &c.] These two lines, in their force of imagery and colouring, emulate and equal the pencil of Rubens.
v. 308. And Cupids ride the Lion of the deeps.] The winged Lion, the arms of Venice. This republic was heretofore the most considerable in Europe for her naval force, and the extent of her commerce; now illustrious for her Carnivals.
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