210

Now pox on those who fhew a Court in wax!
It ought to bring all Courtiers on their backs:
Such painted puppets! fuch a varnish'd race
Of hollow gew-gaws, only drefs and face!
Such waxen nofes, ftately ftaring things-
No wonder fome folks bow, and think them Kings.
See! where the British youth, engag'd no more
At Fig's, at White's, with felons, or a whore,
Pay their last duty to the Court, and come
All fresh and fragrant to the drawing-room;
In hues as gay, and odours as divine,

215

220

As the fair fields they fold to look so fine.
"That's Velvet for a King!" the flatt'rer fwears;
'Tis true, for ten days hence 'twill be King Lear's.
Our Court may justly to our stage give rules,
That helps it both to fools-coats and to fools.
And why not players ftrut in courtiers clothes?
For these are actors too, as well as those :

Wants reach all states; they beg but better drest,
And all is fplendid poverty at best.

225

NOTES.

Painted

licenfing plays, which about this time occafioned great debates in the House of Lords, and a very spirited and remarkable speech of Lord Chesterfield in behalf of play writers: "Wit," faid he, my Lords, is the property of thofe who have it; and very often the only property they have. Thank Heaven, my Lords, we are otherwife provided for." The firft play that was prohibited by this act, was Gustavus Vafa, by Brooke; the next was the Ed. ward and Eleonora of Thomfon. WARTON.

VER. 220. our flage give rules,] Alluding to the Authority of the Lord Chamberlain. WARBURTON.

Shall find their wardrobes inventory. Now
The Ladies come. As pirates (which do know
That there came weak fhips fraught with Cutchanel)
The men board them; and praife (as they think) well,
Their beauties; they the mens wits; both are bought.
Why good wits ne'er wear fcarlet gowns, I thought
This cause, These men, mens wits for fpeeches buy,
And women buy all red which scarlets dye.
He call'd her beauty lime-twigs, her hair net:
She fears her drugs ill-lay'd, her hair loose set.
Would not Heraclitus laugh to fee Macrine
From hat to fhoe, himself at door refine,
As if the Prefence were a Mofque and lift
His fkirts and hofe, and call his clothes to fhrift,
Making them confefs not only mortal

Great ftains and holes in them, but venial
Feathers and duft, wherewith they fornicate:

And then by Durer's rules furvey the state

Of his each limb, and with ftrings the odds tries
Of his neck to his leg, and waste to thighs.

So in immaculate clothes, and Symmetry

Perfect as Circles, with fuch nicety

NOTES.

As

VER. 227. Like frigates fraught] Here is a very close refemblance to the picture of Dalilah, in Samfon Agonies :

230

Painted for fight, and effenc'd for the smell, Like frigates fraught with fpice and cochine❜l, Sail in the Ladies: how each pyrate eyes So weak a veffel, and fo rich a prize! Top-gallant he, and fhe in all her trim, He boarding her, the ftriking fail to him: "Dear Countefs! you have charms all hearts to hit!” And "Sweet Sir Fopling! you have fo much wit!” Such wits and beauties are not prais'd for nought, For both the beauty and the wit are bought. 'Twould burst ev'n Heraclitus with the spleen, To fee those anticks, Fopling and Courtin: The Prefence feems, with things fo richly odd, The mofque of Mahound, or fome queer Pa-god. See them furvey their limbs by Durer's rules, Of all beau-kind the beft proportion'd fools! Adjust their clothes, and to confeffion draw Thofe venial fins, an atom, or a straw;

235

240

But

NOTES.

VER. 240. by Durer's rules,] The best Painter Germany ever produced; he was patronized and beloved by Maximilian I. and by Charles V. and, what was of more consequence to an artist, by Raphael himself, who fent him feveral defigns, and his own portrait. He formed himself on no other painter, had a manner of his own, which indeed was hard; he wanted grace, and had not ftudied the antique, and copied only common nature and the forms before him. He attended not to Cofume. His Madonna's were dreft like German ladies, and his Jews had beards and muftacchios. See a most judicious Criticism on the Works and Talents of Albert Durer, by a living painter of great genius and learning, Mr. Fufeli, in the third volume of that entertaining publication, intitled, Anecdotes of fome diftinguished Perfons, p. 234. WARTON.

As a young

Preacher at his first time goes

To preach, he enters, and a lady which owes
Him not so much as good-will, he arrests,
And unto her protefts, protefts, protests,

So much as at Rome would ferve to have thrown
Ten Cardinals into the Inquifition;

And whispers by Jefu fo oft, that a

Pursuevant would have ravish'd him away
For faying our Lady's Pfalter. But 'tis fit

That they each other plague, they merit it.
But here comes Glorious that will plague them both,
Who in the other extreme only doth
Call a rough carelefnefs, good fashion:

Whofe cloak his fpurs tear, or whom he spits on,
He cares not, he. His ill words do no harm
To him; he rushes in, as if Arm, arm,

He meant to cry; and though his face be as ill
As theirs which in old hangings whip Christ, still
He strives to look worfe; he keeps all in awe;
Jefts like a licens'd fool, commands like law.

NOTES.

Tyr'd,

VER. 256. or Gonfon] Sir John Gonfon, the famous police magiftrate, was as celebrated in his day, in the annals of Justice, as one of his fucceffors in office, Sir John Fielding, has been fince. His portrait is introduced in Hogarth's Harlot's Progrefs.

VER. 262. The Captain's honeft,] Much resembling Noll Bluff, in Congreve's Old Batchelor, who was copied from Thrafo, and alfo from Ben Jonfon. WARTON.

But oh! what terrors must distract the foul
Convicted of that mortal crime, a hole;
Or fhould one pound of powder less bespread
Those monkey-tails that wag behind their head.
Thus finish'd, and corrected to a hair,

245

They march, to prate their hour before the Fair.
So first to preach a white-glov'd Chaplain goes, 250
With band of Lily, and with cheek of Rose,
Sweeter than Sharon, in immac❜late trim,
Neatness itself impertinent in him.

Let but the Ladies fmile, and they are bleft:
Prodigious! how the things protest, protest:
Peace, fools, or Gonfon will for Papists feize you,
If once he catch you at your Jefu! Jefu!

Nature made ev'ry Fop to plague his brother,
Just as one Beauty mortifies another.

255

259

But here's the Captain that will plague them both,
Whofe air cries Arm! whofe very look's an oath :
The Captain's honest, Sirs, and that's enough,
Tho' his foul's bullet, and his body buff.

He fpits fore-right; his haughty cheft before,

Like batt'ring rams, beats open ev'ry door:

265

And with a face as red, and as awry,
As Herod's hang-dogs in old Tapestry,
Scarecrow to boys, the breeding woman's curse,
Has yet a strange ambition to look worse;
Confounds the civil, keeps the rude in awe,
Jefts like a licens'd fool, commands like law..

270

Frighted,