'Tis nothing-P. Nothing? if they bite and kick? Out with it, DUNCIAD! let the fècret pafs, That fecret to each fool, that he's an Afs: 80 The truth once told (and wherefore fhould we lie?) The Queen of Midas flept, and fo may I. You think this cruel? take it for a rule, No creature fmarts fo little as a fool. 84 Let peals of laughter, Codrus! round thee break, VARIATIONS. VER, 60. in the former Ed. Cibber and I are, luckily, no friends. ALLUSION. VER. 88, "Si fra&tus illabatur orbis, Impavidum ferient ruinæ." NOTES. go Hor. P. VER. 79. Out with it, DUNCIAD !] "Had Mr. Pope," fays Mr. Mason, fat as easy to the farcafms of the many writers that endeavoured to eclipfe his poetical fame, as Mr. Gray appears to have done with refped to the parodies on his Odes, the world would not have been poffeffed of a Dunciad; but it would have beep impreffed with a more amiable idea of its author's temper." W. VER. 80. That fecret to each fool, that he's an Afs:] i. e. that his ears (his marks of folly) are visible. VER. 86. The mighty crack:] of Horace, Ode iii. b. 3. A parody on Addilon's tranflation "Should the whole frame of Nature round him break In ruin and confufion hurl'd, She unconcern'd would hear the mighty crack, And ftand fecure amid a falling world." On which lines ke obferves, in the Bathos, Sometimes a fingle word (as crack) will vulgarize a poetical idea." VER. 90. He pins the flight,] Berkley, who had a brilliant fancy, has employed an image of this fort on a more ferious fubje& in his Destroy his fib, or sophistry, in vain, Still to one Bishop Philips feem a wit? 100 Still Sappho-A. Hold! for God-fake-you'll offend. No Names-be calm-learn prudence of a friend: I too could write, and I am twice as tall ; NOTES: Alciphron: "To tax or frike at a divine do&rine, on account of things foreign and adventitious, the fpeculations and difputes of curious men, is, in my mind, an abfurdity of the fame kind as it would be to cut down a fine tree yielding fruit and fhade, because its leaves afforded nourishment to caterpillars, or because spiders may weave cobwebs among the branches." The metaphor in our Author is moft happily carried on through a variety of correfponding particulars that exadly hit the nature of the two infects in queftion. It is not purfued too far, nor jaded out, fo as to become quaint and affe&ted, as in the cafe of many in Congreve's too witty comedies, particularly in the Way of the World, and in Young's Satires. For inftance: Critics on verfe, as fquibs on triumphs, wait, Hot, envious, noify, proud, the scribbling fry Burn, hifs, and bounce, wafte paper, flink, and die; The epithets, envious and proud, have nothing to do with squibs. The laft line is brilliant and ingenious, but perhaps too much fo. VER. 98. Free-mafons Moore? He was of this fociety, and frequently headed their proceffions. W. But foes like thefe-P. One Flatt'rer's worse than all. Of all mad creatures, if the learn'd are right, 105 It is the flaver kills, and not the bite. 110 A fool quite angry is quite innocent: VARIATIONS. VER, III. in the MS. For fong, for filence fome exped a bribe; And others roar aloud, "Subfcribe, subscribe." NOTES. VER. 115. There are, who to my perfon] The smalleft perfonal particularities, notwithstanding fome faftidious writers may think them trifling, are interefting in eminent men. Hence is Montaigne fo pleafing; hence is Plutarch in his Lives fo interefting as well as inftru&ive. What Addison fays in jeft, and with his ufual humour, is true in fa&: "I have obferved that a reader feldom perufes a book with pleasure till he knows whether the writer of it be a black or fair man, of a mild or choleric difpofition, married or a bachelor." What paffages in Horace are more agreea ble than when he tells us he was fat and fleek, "præcanum, folibus aptum," prone to anger, but foon appealed. And again, how pleafing the detail he gives of his way of life, the defcriptions of his mule, his dinner, his fupper, his furniture, his amusements, his walks, his time of bathing and fleeping, from the 105th line to the end of the fixth fatire of the firft book. And Boileau, in his tenth epiftle, has done the fame in giving many amufing particulars of his father, family, and fortunes. VER. 118. Sir! you have an Eye. ] It is remarkable, that, amongst There are, who to my perfon pay their court: 120 Juft fo immortal Maro held his head:" VARIATIONS, After Ver. 124. in the MS. But, Friend, this shape, which You and Curl * admire, And for my head, if you'll the truth excufe, Curl fet up his head for a fign. + His Father was crooked. tt His mother was much afflicted with head-achs. NOTES. the compliments on his infirmities and deformities, he mentions his eye, which was fine, sharp, and piercing. It was done to intimate, that flattery was as odious to him when there was fome ground for commendation, as when there was none. W. VER. 127. As yet a child, &c.] He used to say, that he began to write verses further back than he could remember. When he was eight years old, Ogilby's Homer fell in his way, and delighted bim extremely; it was followed by Sandys' Ovid; and the raptures these then gave him were fo ftrong, that he spoke of them with pleasure ever after. About ten, being at school at Hyde-park-corner, where 1 I left no calling for this idle trade, No duty broke, no father difobey'd. NOTES. 130 he was much negle&ed, and suffered to go to the comedy with the greater boys, he turned the tranfa&tions of the Iliad into a play, made up of a number of speeches from Ogilby's tranflation, tacked together with verfes of his own He had the addrefs to perfuade the upper boys to a&t it; he even prevailed on the Mafter's Gardener to reprefent Ajax, and contrived to have all the Actors dreffed after the pictures in his favourite Ogilby. At twelve he went with his father into the Foreft: and then got firft acquainted with the Writings of Waller, Spenfer, and Dryden; in the order I have named them. On the first fight of Dryden, he found he had what he wanted. His poems were never out of his hands; they became his model; and from them alone he learnt the whole magic of his verfification. This year he began an epic Poem; the fame which Bp. Atterbury, long afterwards, perfuaded him to burn. Befides this, he wrote, in thofe early days, a Comedy and Tragedy, the latter taken from a flory in the legend of St. Genevieve. They both defervedly underwent the fame fate. As he began his Paftorals foon after, he used to fay pleafantly, that he bad literally followed the example of Virgil, who tells us, Cum caxerem reges et prælia, &c. W. All the circumftances of our Author's early life mentioned in this Note, were communicated by Mr. Spence to Dr. Warburton. The account of this matter, as it was delivered to me by Mr. Spence, was as follows: As they returned in the fame carriage together from Twickenham, foon after the death of our Author, and joined in lamenting his death and celebrating his praises, Dr. Warburton faid he intended to write his life; on which Mr. Spence, with his usual modefty and condefcenfion, said, that he also had the fame intentions; and bad, from time to time, collected from Pope's own mouth, various particulars of his life, purfuits, and ftudies; but would readily give up to Dr. Warburton all his colle&tions on this fubje&, and accordingly communicated them to him immediately. VER. 128. I lifp'd in numbers,] From Ovid, Sponte fua carmen numeros veniebat ad aptos, Et quod conabar fcribere, verfus erat." VER. 130. No, father difobey' d.] When Mr. Pope was yet a child, his father, though no Poet, would fet him to make English verfes. He was pretty difficult to please, and would often fend the boy back to new-turn them. When they were to his mind, he took great pleasure in them, and would say, Thefe are good rhymes. From Mr. Spence. W. The |