EPISTOLA I. dicte mihi, fumma dicende camena, Spectatum fatis, et donatum jam rude, quaeris, Maecenas, iterum antiquo me includere ludo. Non eadem eft aetas, non mens. Veianius, armis Herculis ad poftem fixis, latet abditus agro; Ne populum extrema toties exoret arena. 'Eft mihi purgatam crebro qui perfonet aurem; Solve fenefcentem mature fanus equum, ne Peccet ad extremum ridendus, et ilia ducat. PRIMA 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 occafional stroke of Satire on ill-placed ornaments. He has more openly ridiculed them in his Epistle on Tafte, EPISTLE İ. с To L. BOLINGBROKE. ST. JO Ꮪ T. JOHN, whofe love indulg'd my labours past, Nor fond of bleeding, ev'n in BRUNSWICK'S 'A Voice there is, that whispers in my ear, ('Tis Reafon's voice, which fometimes one can hear) 5 10 g "Friend Pope! be prudent, let your Mufe take "breath, "And never gallop Pegafus to death; NOTES. "Load fome vain Church with old theatric ftate, VER. 10. ev'n in Brunfwick's caufe.] In the former Editions it was Britain's caufe. But the terms are fynonimous. Nunc itaque et verfus, et caetera ludicra pono: Quid verum atque decens, curo et rogo, et omnis in hoc fum: *Condo, et compono, quae mox depromere poffim. Quo me cunque rapit tempeftas, deferor hofpes. Nunc agilis fio, et merfor "civilibus undis, Virtutis verae cuftos, rigidufque fatelles: m 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 ftrong; ftately and yet dull, like the fober and flow-paced Animal generally employed to mount the Lord Mayor: and therefore here humouroufly opposed to Pegasus. .P. VR. 26. And hufe with Montagne now, or now with Locke..e Chufe either an active or a contemplative life, as is moft fitted to the feafon and circumftances For he regarded thefe Writers as the best Schools to form a man for the world; or to give him a knowledge of himself: Montagne excelling in his obfervations on social and civil life; and Locke, in developing the faculties, and explaining the operations of the human mind. "Left ftiff, and stately, void of fire or force, 15 "You limp, like Blackmore on a Lord Mayor's "horfe." Farewel then "Verfe, and Love, and ev'ry Toy, The Rhymes and Rattles of the Man or Boy; What right, what true, what fit we justly call, Let this be all my care---for this is All: To lay this harvest up, and hoard with haste What ev'ry day will want, and most, the last. But afk not, to what 'Doctors I apply? 20 k Sworn to no Mafter, of no Sect am I: n Sometimes a Patriot, active in debate, m Mix with the World, and battle for the State, NOTES. VER. 30. Still true to Virtue-with Ariftippus, or St. Paul, It was the Poet's purpofe in this place to give us the picture of his own mind, not that of Horace's; who tells us, he fometimes went with Zeno, and fometimes with Ariftippus; the extremes of whofe different Systems, Tully thus juftly cenfures: Ut quoniam Ariflippus, quafi animum nullum "habeamus, corpus folum tuetur; Zeno, quafi corporis fimus But neither " expertes, animum folum complectitur." Truth nor Decency would suffer our Poet to fay, that, to fuit himself to the times, he went into either of thefe follies. To |
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