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

NOTES.

Pretty!

ftripp'd the prefent race of Pedants of all the real accomplishments of their predeceffors, it has conveyed down this fpirit to them, unimpaired; it being found much easier to ape their manners, than to imitate their science. However, those earlier RIBALDS raised an appetite for the Greek language in the Weft; infomuch, that Hermolaus Barbarus, a passionate admirer of it, and a noted Critic, ufed to boat, that he had invoked and raifed the Devil, and puzzled him into the bargain, about the meaning of the Aristotelian ENTEAEXEIA. Another, whom Balzac speaks of, was as eminent for his Revelations; and was wont to say, that the meaning of fuch or fuch a verse in Perfius, no one knew but Go» and himfelf. While the celebrated Pomponius Latus, in excefs of veneration for Antiquity, became a real Pagan; raised altars to Romulus, and facrificed to the Gods of Latium; in which he was followed by our countryman Baxter, in every thing, but in the costlinefs of his facrifices.

But if the Greeks cried down Cicero, the Italian Critics knew how to fupport his credit. Every one has heard of the childish exceffes into which the ambition of being thought CICERONIANS carried the most celebrated Italians of this time. They abstained from reading the Scriptures for fear of fpoiling their ftyle: Cardinal Bembo used to call the Epiftles of St. Paul by the contemptuous name of Epiftolaccias, great overgrown Epiftles. But ERASMUS cured their frenzy by that master-piece of good sense, his Ciceronianus. For which (in the way that Lunatics treat their Physicians) the elder Scaliger infulted him with all the brutal fury peculiar to his family and profeffion.

His fons Jofeph and Salmafius had indeed fuch endowments of nature and art, as might have raised modern learning to a rivalfhip with the ancient. Yet how did they and their adversaries tear and worry one another? The choiceft of Jofeph's flowers of fpeech were Stercus Diaboli, and Lutum Stercore maceratum. It is true, these were lavished upon his enemies: for his friends he had other things in flore. In a letter to Thuanus, fpeaking of two of them, Clavius and Lipfius, he calls the first a monster of ignorance ;

and

TO THE SATIRES.

Pretty! in amber to obferve the forms

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

NOTES.

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The

and the other, a flave to the Jefuits, and an Idiot. But so great was his love of facred amity at the fame time, that he says, I ftill keep up my correspondence with him, notwithstanding his Idiotry, for it is my principle to be conftant in my friendships-Je ne reste de luy escrire, nonobftant fon 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 effurer que nôtre Eufebe fera un tréfor des marveilles de la doctrine Chronologique. But this modeft account of his own work, is nothing in comparison of the idea the Father gives his bookfeller of his own perfon. This bookfeller was preparing fomething of Julius Scaliger's for the Prefs; and defired the Author would give him directions concerning his picture, which was to be fet before the book. Julius's answer (as it ftands in his collection of letters) is, that if the engraver could collect together the feveral graces of Mafiniffa, Xenophon, and Plato, he might then be enabled to give the public fome faint and imperfect refemblance of his Perfon. Nor was Salmafius's judgment of his own parts lefs favourable to himself; as Mr. Colomies tells the ftory. This Critic, on a time, meeting two of his brethren, Meffrs. Gaulman and Mauffac, in the Royal Library at Paris, Gaulman, 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. Maussac join yourselves to all that are learned in the world, and you fhall find that I alone am a match for you all."

Voffius tells us, that when Laur. Valla had fnarled at every name of the firft order in antiquity, fuch as Ariftotle, Cicero, and one whom I should have thought this Critic the likeliest to reverence, the redoubtable PRISCIAN, he impiously boafted that he had arms even against Christ himself. But Codrus Urceus went further, and actually used thofe arms which the other only threat. ened with. This man, while he was preparing fome trifling 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, O Chrifte! quem

ego

The things, we know, are neither rich nor rare,

But wonder how the devil they got there.

NOTES.

Were

ego tuorum unquam læfi, ut ita inexpiabili in me odio debaccheris? Audi ea quæ tibi mentis compos, et ex animo dicam. Si forte, cum ad ultimum vitæ finem pervenero, fupplex accedam ad te oratum, neve audias, neve inter tuos accipias oro; cum Infernis Diis in æternum vitam agere decrevi." Whereupon, fays my author, he quited the converfe of men, threw himself into the thickeft of a foreft, and wore out the wretched remainder of his life in all the agonies of defpair. WARBURTON.

VER. 164. flabing Bentley] This great man, with all his faults, deserved however to be put into better company. The following words of Cicero defcribe him not amifs: "Habuit à natura genus quoddam acuminis, quod etiam arte limaverat, quod erat in reprehendendis verbis verfutum et folers: fed fæpe ftomachofum, nonnunquam frigidum, interdum etiam facetum." WARBURTON. I fhall add to this note "part of an unpublished letter from my learned and excellent friend Mr. James Harris of Salisbury, addreffed to Mr. John Upton, the editor of Spenfer, and author of Obfervations on Shakespear.

"When I think of Bentley, I can't help comparing him to Virgil's Fame;

"Ingrediturque folo, et caput inter nubila condit :"

An immense monster, poffeffed of a thousand eyes and a thousand ears, to see, and hear, and know every thing; but, at the fame time,

"Tam ficti pravique tenax, quam nuncia veri.”

The confcioufnefs of his own great parts and accomplishments furnished him with a pride, that, as it made him condemn the fenti. ments of moft others, fo it made him deify his own errors.

WARTON.

VER. 164. flashing Bentley] The following Epigram by Pope, on Bentley's edition of Milton, to which the epithet " flashing" alludes, I have found in his hand-writing:

"Did Milton's profe, O Charles! thy death defend?

A furious Foe unconfcious proves a Friend,

On

175

Were others angry: I excus'd them too;
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,
Juft writes to make his barrenness appear,
And strains, from hard-bound brains, eight lines a

year;

He, who still wanting, tho' he lives on theft,

180

Steals much, fpends little, yet has nothing left: 184

NOTES.

On Milton's verfe, did Milton comment?- Know,

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A weak officious Friend becomes a Foe,
While he but fought his Author's fame to further,
The murd'rous Critic has aveng'd thy murder."
VER. 180. a Perfian tale] Amb. Philips tranflated a Book
called the Perfian Tales, a book full of fancy and imagination.

POPE.

Philips, certainly not a very animated or first-rate writer, yet appears not to deferve quite fo much contempt, if we look at his first and fifth paftoral, his epistle from Copenhagen, his ode on the Death of Earl Cowper, his translations of the two first Olympic odes of Pindar, the two odes of Sappho, and, above all, his pleafing tragedy of the Diftrefs'd Mother. The fecret grounds of Philip's malignity to Pope, are faid to be the ridicule and laughter he met with from all the Hanover Club, of which he was fecretary, for miftaking the incomparable ironical paper in the Guardian, No. 40. which was written by Pope, for a ferious criticism on paftoral poetry.

WARTON.

Philips, it is faid in Cibber's letter, hung up a rod at Button's, which he faid was for Pope, who on that account left the fociety.

VOL. IV.

And He, who now to fenfe, now nonfenfe leaning, Means not, but blunders round about a meaning: And he, whofe fuftian's fo fublimely bad,

It is not Poetry, but profe run mad:

All these, my modeft Satire bade tranflate,

And own'd that nine fuch Poets made a Tate.

NOTES.

190

How

VER. 189. All these, my modeft Satire bade translate,] See their works, in the Tranflations of claffical books by feveral hands.

POPE.

VER. 190. And own'd that nine fuch Poets] Before this piece was published, Dr. Young had addreffed two Epiftles to our Author, in the year 1730, concerning the Authors of the age; in which are many paffages that bear a great resemblance to many of Pope's; though Pope has heightened, improved, and condenfed the hints, images, and fentiments of Young.

Shall we not cenfure all the motley train,
Whether with ale irriguous or Champain?
Whether they tread the vale of profe, or climb
And whet their appetite on cliffs of rhyme;
The college floven, or embroider'd spark,
The purple prelate, or the parish clerk,
The quiet quidnunc, or demanding prig,
The plaintiff Tory, or defendant Whig ;

Rich, poor, male, female, young, old, gay, or fad,
Whether extremely witty, or quite mad;
Profoundly dull, or fhallowly polite,
Men that read well, or men that only write;
Whether peers, porters, taylors, tune their reeds,
And measuring words to measuring fhapes fucceeds?
For bankrupts write, when ruin'd fhops are fhut,
As maggots crawl from out a perish'd nut;
His hammer this, and that his trowel quits,
And, wanting fenfe for tradesmen, serve for wits;
Thus his material, paper, takes its birth,
From tatter'd rags of all the ftuff on earth.

WARTON.

VER. 190. a Tate] There is great humour in this idea. Tate. was poet laureat, and translated or rather paraphrased the Pfalms in conjunction with Brady.

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