Nay, but of men, most sweet Sir? Beza then,
Some Jefuits, and two reverend men

Of our two academies I nam'd.

Here

He ftopt me, and faid, Nay your Apoftles were
Good pretty Linguifts; fo Panurgus was,
Yet a poor Gentleman; all these may pass
By travail. Then, as if he would have fold
His tongue, he prais'd it, and fuch wonders told,
That I was fain to fay, If you had liv'd, Sir,
Time enough to have been Interpreter

NOTES.

To

VER. 71. "Onflow,] By an affected gravity, and a folemn and important air, he prefided for many years over the House of Commons; but not with the ability, knowledge, patience, prudence, and amiable manners, of the prefent Speaker, Mr. Addington, 1795. It is a curious fact in the History of English Liberty, that the very first person who was raised by the Commons to the diguity of their Speaker, was a member who had been imprisoned by Edward the Third, for attacking his Ministers and his Mistress in Parliament. WARTON.

VER. 73. "But Hoadly for a period] Party occafioned this cenfure on a Writer, whofe ftyle, it must be confeffed, was sometimes, but not always, (as for inftance, in his Treatife on the Sacrament,) languid and diffufe: but who, having spent his life in defending the British Conftitution, the Revolution, and the Succeffion of the Houfe of Hanover, certainly did, by no means, deferve to be Ayled, as he hath lately been, "That Republican Prelate, Bishop Hoadly." The late excellent Bishop of London, Dr. Lowth thought very differently of him, and calls him, in his admirable Life of Wickham, "The great Advocate of Civil and Religious Liberty." WARTON.

No name is more obnoxious to the Roman Catholics, than that of Hoadly, whofe manly and liberal principles were as remote from Republicanifm, as from Popery and arbitrary Power.

VER. 73. a period of a mile."] A stadium of Euripides was a stand. ing joke amongst the Greeks. By the fame kind of pleasantry,

Cervantes

You mifs my aim; I mean the most acute,
And perfect Speaker?" Onflow, paft difpute."
But, Sir, of writers? "Swift for closer style,
"But Ho**y for a period of a mile."
Why yes, 'tis granted, these indeed may pass :
Good common linguifts, and fo Panurge was;
Nay troth th' Apoftles (tho' perhaps too rough)
Had once a pretty gift of Tongues enough:
Yet these were all poor Gentlemen! I dare

70

75

Affirm, 'twas Travel made them what they were.
Thus other talents having nicely fhown,
He came by fure tranfition to his own;

80

Till

NOTES.

Cervantes has called his Hero's countenance, a face of half a league long; which, because the humour, as well as the measure of the expreffion, was exceffive, all his tranflators have judiciously agreed to omit; without doubt paying due attention to that fober rule of Quintilian, licet omnes hyperbole fit ultra fidem, non tamen debet effe ultra MODUM. SCRIBL.

VER. 75. fa Panurge was ;] It is furprizing that Rabelais, whose book is the moft cutting fatire on the Pope, the Church, and the principal events of his time, fhould have escaped fevere censure and punishment. Garagantuas is decifively Francis I. and Henry II. is Pantagruel; and Charles V. Pierocole. Swift, who formed himself on Rabelais, has exactly copied the famous speech of Panurge, in the Tale of the Tub, where Lord Peter, giving to Martin and John a piece of dry bread, tells them, it contains beef, partridge, capons, and the best wine of Burgundy. Rabelais, like Swift, loved politics. See his Letters from Rome, when he accompanied the Cardinal Bellay, Embaffador of Francis I. to Pope Paul III. Rabelais imitated, in many paffages, the Litera Virorum obfcurorum. WARTON

VER. 78. Yet these were all poor Gentlemen!] Our Poet has here added to the humour of his Criginal. Donne makes his threadbare Traveller content himself under his poverty, with the reflec

tion,

To Babel's Bricklayers, fure the Tower had stood.
He adds, If of Court life you knew the good,
You would leave lonenefs. I faid, Not alone
My loneness is; but Spartanes fashion

To teach by painting drunkards doth not last
Now, Aretines pictures have made few chaste;
No more can Princes Courts (though there be few
Better pictures of vice) teach me virtue.

He like to a high-ftretcht Luteftring fqueaks, O Sir,
'Tis sweet to talk of Kings. At Westminster,
Said I, the man that keeps the Abbey-tombs,
And for his price, doth with whoever comes
Of all our Harrys and our Edwards talk,
From King to King, and all their kin can walk :

NOTES.

Your

tion, that even Panurge himself (the great Traveller and Linguist in Rabelais) went a begging. There is infinite wit in this paf fage of Donne, yet very licentious, in coupling the Apofiles and Panurge in this buffoon manner. WARBURTON.

By adding the words, "a pretty gift of Tongues," Pope has made it ftill more licentious. WARTON.

VIR. 95. Aretine has made ;] Alluding to the infamous Sonnets which this celebrated Italian wit compofed to accompany the Sixteen obfcene Figures that were defigned by Julio Romano, who, as well as Titian, was his friend; and engraved by Marc Antonio Raimondi By writing which, Aretine loft the favour and countenance of Leo the Tenth, and Clement VII. but was afterwards reftored to the favour of the Medici Family, and wrote fome books of devotion. The lines written for his epitaph fhew his character fufficiently:

Qui giace l'Aretin poeta Tosco,
Che diffe mal d'ogn'un fuor che dio,
Scufandofi col dir non lo conofco.

Mazzuchelli, vol. i. p. 1012.

WARTON.

Till I cry'd out, You prove yourself so able,
Pity! you was not Druggerman at Babel;

For had they found a linguist half so good,

85

I make no queftion but the Tow'r had stood.

"Obliging Sir! for Courts you fure were made: Why then for ever bury'd in the shade? "Spirits like you, fhould fee and should be feen,

"The King would fmile on you-at least the

Queen.".

Ah gentle Sir! you Courtiers fo cajole us

But Tully has it, Nunquam minus folus :

90

And as for Courts, forgive me, if I fay

No leffons now are taught the Spartan way:
'Tho' in his pictures Luft be full difplay'd,
Few are the Converts Aretine has made;

And tho' the Court fhow Vice exceeding clear,
None should, by my advice, learn Virtue there.

95

At-this entranc'd, he lifts his hands and eyes, Squeaks like a high-stretch'd luteftring, and replies; "Oh, 'tis the sweetest of all earthly things

"To gaze on Princes, and to talk of Kings !"
Then, happy Man who fhows the Tombs! faid I,
He dwells amidst the Royal Family;

He ev'ry day, from King to King can walk,
Of all our Harries, all our Edwards talk,

100

105

NOTES.

And

VER. 104. from King to King] Much fuperior to the Original,

where is a vile conceit.

"The way to it is King's- ftreet."

WARTON.

Your ears fhall hear nought but Kings; your eyes meet
Kings only: The way to it is King's-street.
He fmack'd, and cry'd, He's base, mechanique, coarse,
So are all your Englishmen in their difcourfe.
Are not your Frenchmen neat? Mine, as you fee,
I have but one, Sir, look, he follows me.

Certes, they are neatly cloath'd. I of this mind am,
Your only wearing is your Grogaram.

Under this pitch

Not fo, Sir, I have more.
He would not fly; I chaff'd him; but as Itch
Scratch'd into smart, and as blunt Iron ground
Into an edge, hurts worfe: So, I (fool), found,
Croffing hurt me. To fit my fullennefs,
He to another key his ftyle doth drefs;

And asks what news; I tell him of new playes,
He takes my hand, and as a Still, which stayes
A Sembrief 'twixt each drop, he niggardly,
As loth to inrich me, fo tells many a ly.
More than ten Hollenfheads, or Halls, or Stows,
Of trivial houfhold trash: He knows, he knows
When the Queen frown'd or fmil'd, and he knows what
A fubtle Statesman may gather of that;

He knows who loves whom; and who by poison
Hafts to an Offices reverfion;

NOTES.

Who

VER. 116. Wild to get loofe.] Donne in this Satire imitates the Impertinent of Horace. Sat. ix b. 1. And Horace copied the character from Theophraftus. There was an edition in folio, 1737, with this title, The Impertinent, or a Vifit to the Court, a Satire, by Mr. Pope. And no mention is made of Donne in this Edition, WARTON,