THE

FIRST EPISTLE

OF THЕ

FIRST BOOK

OF

HORACE.

H2

4181714

EPISTOLA I.

PRIMA dicte mihi, summa dicende camena,

b

Spectatum fatis, et donatum jam rude, quaeris,

Maecenas, iterum antiquo me includere ludo.

C

Non eadem est aetas, non mens. Veianius, armis

Herculis ad postem fixis, latet abditus agro;

Ne populum extrema toties exoret arena.

Est mihi purgatam crebro qui personet aurem;

Solve & fenefcentem mature sanus equum, ne

Peccet ad extremum ridendus, et ilia ducat.

NOTES.

VER. 3. Sabbath of my days?] i. e. The 49th year, the age

of the Author.

VER. 8. Hang their old Trophies o'er the Garden gates,] An

S

EPISTLE I.

To L. BOLINGBROKE.

T. JOHN, whose love indulg'd my labours past, Matures my present, and shall bound my last! Why will you break the Sabbath of my days? Now fick alike of Envy and of Praife.

5

Public too long, ah let me hide my Age!
See Modest • Cibber now has left the Stage:
Our Gen'rals now, retir'd to their Estates,
Hang their old Trophies o'er the Garden gates,
In Life's cool Ev'ning fatiate of Applaufe,
Nor fond of bleeding, ev'n inBRUNSWICK's cause.

A voice there is, that whispers in my ear, II ('Tis Reason's voice, which sometimes one can hear) "Friend Pope! be prudent, let your & Muse take

" breath,

"And never gallop Pegasus to death;

NOTES.

occafional stroke of Satire on ill-placed ornaments. He has more openly ridiculed them in his Epistle on Tafte.

" Load fome vain Church with old theatric state,
"Turn Arcs of Triumph to a garden gate.

VER. 10. ev'n in Brunswick's caufe.] In the former Editions it was, Britain's caufe. But the terms are synonymous.

Nunc itaque et verfus, et caetera ludicra pono:

1

Quid verum atque decens, curo et rogo,

in hoc fum:

et omnis

* Condo, et compono, quae mox depromere poffim.

Ac ne forte roges, quo me duce, quo Lare tuter:

Nullius addictus jurare in verba magiftri,

Quo me cunque rapit tempeftas, deferor hofpes.

Nunc agilis fio, et merfor" civilibus undis,

Virtutis verae cuftos, rigidusque fatelles :

NOTES.

VER. 16. You limp, like Blackmore on a Lord Mayor's horse,] The fame of this heavy Poet, however problematical elfewhere, was univerfally received in the City of London. His verfification is here exactly defcribed: ftiff, and not strong; stately and yet dull, like the fober and flow-paced Animal generally employed to mount the Lord Mayor: and therefore here humouroufly oppofed to Pegafus.,

P.

VER. 26. And house with Montagne now, and now with Locke,] i. e. Chufe either an attive or a contemplative life, as is