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Ev'n fuch small Critics fome regard may claim, Preferv'd in Milton's or in Shakespear's name.

NOTES.

His fon Jofeph, and Salmafius had indeed fuch endowments of nature and art, as might have raifed modern learning to a rivalfhip with the ancient. Yet how did they and their adverfaries tear and worry one another? The choiceft of Jofeph's flowers of fpeech were, Stercus Diaboli, and Lutum ftercore maceratum. It is true, these were lavifhed upon his enemies; for his friends he had other things in fiore. In a letter to Thuanus, fpeaking of two of them, Clavius and Lipfius, he calls the firit, a monster of ignorance; and the other, a flave to the fefuits, and an Idiot. But fo great was his love of facred amity at the fame time, that he fays, I ftill keep up my correfpondence with him, notwithstanding his Idiotry, for it is my principle to be conflant in my friendshipsJe ne refle de luy eferire, nonobftant fan Idioterie, d'autant que Je fuis conftant en amitié. The character he gives of his own Chronology, in the fame letter, is no lefs extraordinary: Vous vous pouvez affurer que noftre Eufebe fera un tréfor des merveilles de la doctrine Chronologique. But this modeft account of his own work, is nothing in comparifon of the idea the Father gives his Bookfeller of his own Perfon. Who, when he was preparing fomething of Julius Scaliger's for the Prefs, defired the Author would give him directions concerning his Picture, which was to be fet before the book. Whofe anfwer (as it ftands in his collection of Letters) is, that if the engraver could collect together the feveral graces of Maffinifla, Xenophon, and Plato, he might then be enabled to give the public fome faint and imperfect refemblance of his Peifon. Nor was Salmafius's judg ment of his own parts lefs favourable to himfelf; as Mr. Colomies tells the ftory. This Critic, on a time, meeting two of his brethren, Meff. Gaulmin and Mauffac, in the Royal Library at Paris, Gaulmin, in a virtuous confcioufnefs of their Importance, told the other two, that he believed, they three could make head against all the learned in Europe: To which the great Salmafius fiercely replied, "Do you and M. Mauffac join "yourfelves to all that are learned in the world, and you shall "find that I alone am a match for you all."

Voffius tells us, that when Laur. Valla had fnarl'd at every name of the first order in antiquity, fuch as Ariftotle, Cicero. and one

Pretty in amber to obferve the forms

153

Of hairs, or straws, or dirt, or grubs, or worms!

NOTES.

whom I should have thought this Critic the likelieft to bare, the redoubtable PRISCIAN, he impioutly postted that he had arms even against Chri himielt. But Gurus Græn went further, and actually ufed those arms the other only threatened with. This man while he was preparing fome trilling piece of Criticism for the prefs, had the misfortune to hear his papers were deftroyed by fire: On which he is reported to have broke out-"Quodnam ego tantum fcelus concepi, Chritte quem ego tuorum unquam læfi, ut ita inexorabili in me odio debar"cheris? Audi ea quæ tibi mentis compos, et ex animo ficam Se "forte, cum ad ultimum vitæ finem pervenero, Jupplex accedam ❝ad te oratum, neve audias, neve inter duos accipias oro; dum "Infernis Diis in æternum vitam agere decrev. A hereupon, fays my author, he quitted the converfe of men, threw him. felf into the thickett of a foret, and wore out the wretched remainder of his life in all the agonies of telbair.

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VER. 164. paping Beater) ais great man, ho' with all his faults, delerved to be put into better company. The bilowing words of Cicero defcribe am not amits. * Junie "natura genus quoddam acuminis, quod etiam are lima erity quod erat in reprehendendis verbis ritum et bilen - ht "fæpe ftomacholum, nonnunquam igidum, arendum eriam « facetum.”

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VER. 169. Petty? in encher to shjjera bra firme, 1910 Poet had the full pleature of this unurement on after the gul lication of his Scene fear. Nor an ais Frend seen lels tatertained fince the appearance of his edition of the lime soet, The lourd Amber of wacie At his lately licked on, and 1rolled fuch a quanting of there 2 eft, and of senes lo sporíque and maricus, is would tare puzzles Runemer to que james to Two or three of them it may not be amits to speferie and keep live. Such as the Rer. Ma j. Crom, Tumu: Lowak, žu, and, to make up the Frumvirke, their named Coadjutor, that vero reiped some perfonare, Mr. Taicranes C322** -As to the poetic imagery of this palags, & ne sem anca and why acceed, far the most detetadle tap a zati

The things we know, are neither rich nor rare, 171 But wonder how the devil they got there.

Were others angry: I excus'd them too;

175

Well might they rage, I gave them but their due.
A man's true merit 'tis not hard to find;
But each man's fecret ftandard in his mind,
That Cafting-weight pride adds to emptiness,
This, who can gratify? for who can guess?
The Bard whom pilfer'd Paftorals renown,
Who turns a Perfian tale for half a Crown, 180
Juft writes to make his barrennefs appear,

And strains from hard-bound brains, eight lines a

year;

He, who ftill wanting, tho' he lives on theft, Steals much, spends little, yet has nothing left:184 And He, who now to fenfe, now nonfenfe leaning, Means not, but blunders round about a meaning: NOTES.

as a toad, or a beetle, become pleafing when well represented in a work of Art. But it is no lefs eminent for the beauty of the thought. For though a fcribler exifls by being thus incorporated, yet he exifls intombed, a lafting monument of the wrath of the Mufes.

VER. 173. Were others angry:] The Poets.

I

VER. 174. gave them but their due.] Our Author always found thofe he commended lefs fenfible than thofe he reproved. The reafon is plain. He gave the latter but their due; and the other thought they had no more.

VER. 180.a Perfian tale.] Amb. Philips tranflated a Book called the Perfian tales.

And He, whose fuftian's fo fublimely bad,
It is not Poetry, but profe run mad:

All these, my modeft Satire bad tranflate,

And own'd that nine fuch Poets made a Tate. 190 How did they fume, and stamp, and roar, and chafe! And fwear, not ADDISON himself was fafe.

Peace to all fuch! but were there One whofe fires True Genius kindles, and fair Fame infpires;

NOTES.

VER. 186. Means not, but blunders round about a meaning:] A cafe common both to Poets and Critics of a certain order; only with this difference, that the Poet writes himself out of his own meaning; and the Critic never gets into another man's. Yet both keep going on, and blundering round about their fubject, as benighted people are wont to do, who seek for an entrance which they cannot find.

VER. 189. All thefe, my modeft Satire bad tranflate,] See their works, in the Tranflations of claffical books by feveral hands. VER. 190.-nine fuch Poets, &c.] Alluding, not to the nine Mufes, but to nine Taylors.

VER. 192. And fwear, not ADDISON himself was fafe.] This is an artful preparative for the following tranfition; and finely obviates what might be thought unfavourably of the Severity of the fatire, by those who were ftrangers to the provocation.

It was

VER. 193. But were there One whofe fires &c.] Our Poet's friendship with Mr. Addifon began in the year 1713. cultivated, on both fides, with all the marks of mutual esteem and affection, and conftant intercourfe of good offices. Mr. Addison was always commending moderation, warned his friend against a blind attachment to party, and blamed Steele for his indifcreet zeal. The tranflation of the Iliad being now on foot, he recommended it to the public, and joined with the Tories in pushing the fubfcription; but at the fame time advised Mr. Pope not to be content with the applause of one half of the nation. On the other hand, Mr. Pope made his friend's Interest his own (fce note on 215. 1 Ep. B. ii. of Hor.) and, when

Of all mad creatures, if the learn'd are right, 105

It is the flaver kills, and not the bite.

A fool quite angry is quite innocent:

Alas! 'tis ten times worfe when they repent.

One dedicates in high heroic profe,

And ridicules beyond a hundred foes:

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One from all Grubstreet will my fame defend, And more abufive, calls himself my friend. This prints my Letters, that expects a bribe, And others roar aloud, " Subscribe, fubfcribe."

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There are, who to my perfon pay their court: 115 I cough like Horace, and, tho' lean, am short, Ammon's great fon one shoulder had too high, Such Ovid's nofe, and "Sir! you have an Eye--Go on, obliging creatures, make me fee All that disgrac'd my Betters, met in me.

VARIATIONS.

VER. III. in the MS.

For fong, for filence fome expect a bribe;
And other roar aloud, "Subfcribe, fubfcribe."
Time, praise, or money, is the least they crave;
Yet each declares the other fool or knave.

NOTES.

120

VER. 118. Sir, you have an Eye] It is remarkable that amongst these compliments on his infirmities and deformities, he mentions his eye, which was fine, fharp, and piercing. It was done to intimate, that flattery was as odious to him when there was fome ground for commendation, as when there was none.

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