Preferv'd in Milton's or in Shakspeare's name. 169 NOTES. 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 Hands in bis collection of letters) is, that if the engraver could collec together the feveral graces of Maffiniff, Xenophon, and Plato, be might then be enabled to give the public fome faint and imperfe& resemblance of his Perion. Nor was Salmafius's judginent of his own parts lefs favourable to himfeif, as Mr. Colomies tells the flory. This Critic, on a time, meeting two of his brethren, Meff. Gaulman and Mauffac, in the Royal Library at Paris, Gaulman, in a virtuous confcioufnefs of their importance, told the other two, that be believed they three could make head againft all the Learned in Europe. To which the great Salmafius fiercely replied, Do you and M. Mauffac join yourfelves to all that are learned in the world, and you fhall find that I alone am a match for you all." This man, Voffius tells us, that when Laur. Valla had snarled at every name of the first order in antiquity, fuch as Ariftotle, Cicero, and one whom I should have thought this Critic the likelieft to reverence, the redoubtable PRISCIAN, he impiously boafted that he had arms even againft Chrift himfelf. But Codrus Urcaeus went further, and a&ually ufed thofe arms which the other only threatened with. while he was preparing fome trifling piece of Criticism for the prefs, bad 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 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 inter tuos accipias oro; cum Infernis Diis in æternum vitam agere decrevi." Whereupon, fays my author, he quitied 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. W. VER. 164. Slashing Bentley] This great man, with all his faults, deferved however to be put into better company. The following words of Cicero describe him not amifs: 66 Habuit à natura genus quoddam acuminis, quod etiam arte limaverat, quod erat in reprehendendis verbis verfutum et folers: fed fæpe ftomachofum, Bonnunquam frigidum, i terdum etiam facetum. WI thall add to thi note au 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 Shakspeare. Of hairs, or ftraws, or dirt, or grubs, or worms! The things, we know, are neither rich nor rare, NOTES. "My good Friend, "I am much more rejoiced to hear you have found the cause of your disease, than to find you differ from me in my opinion about Horace. Diffention in matters of opinion (let the fubje& be what it will) is natural, I may fay, even neceffary, and brings no harm. Bitterness, for that reason, is neither necessary nor natural, and what I hope neither you nor I are fufceptible of, neither with refpe& to friends nor ftrangers. "When I think of Bentley, I can't help comparing him to Virgil's Fame; .. Ingrediturque folo, et caput inter nubila condit :" An immense monfter, poffeffed of a thousand eyes and a thousand ears, to fee, and hear, and know every thing, but, at the fame time, "Tam fici pravique tenax, quam nuncia veri." The consciousnefs of his own great parts and accomplishments fur. nished bim with a pride, that, as it made him condemn the fentiments of moft others, fo it made him deify his own errours. "For Horace, there is no doubt that he colle&ed his pieces together, and fo published them as we do, now-a-days, mifcellanies. Common fenfe and pradice, on fimilar occafions, is the fame in all ages; nor is there any need of all Bentley's parade about Catullus, Propertius, Ovid, and others, to prove, what no one doubted, that the writers of fhort pieces, not long enough in themselves to make a juft volume, should bring them together for that purpose, with a dedication or preface. This, bowever, is all that this critic has done (and a work, indeed, it is that a much lefs fcholar than he was well equal to) in order to refute the far fuperior labours of Dacier and others, in fixing the dates of each particular piece. The whole of the difpute comes to this: The time of writing each particular Satire, Ode, or Epiftle has nothing farther to do with the time of the volume's publication, which contains it, than that the piece muft neceffarily have been written firft: but every piece had undoubtedly its own date diftin&t from all the reft, according as joy or grief, health or fickness, fummer or winter, and a thousand other incidents, afforded the occafion. When it was thus written, was it shut up (think you) and concealed, never fhewn to the polite world with whom he lived, nor even to the friend to whom it was addreffed, till he had compofed enough of other pieces to make up a volume? Did Cæfar, for example, know nothing of that fine and fublime ode (the 37th of Booki.) made on his grand victory at A&tium, till be faw it in the fame fcroll or volume with thirty-feven others, many on trifling a But wonder how the devil they got there, 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 Cafling-weight pride adds to emptinefs, This, who can gratify? for who can guess? The Bard whom pilfer'd Paftorals renown, Who turns a Perfian tale for half a Crown, 180 NOTES. and private fubje&? Had Horace fo little regard for so choice a piece, or was he even fo bad a courtier, as to fupprefs it fo lang, and for no better a reafon? To publish, now-a-days, means to print; but, in those days, it was a publication to communicate a MS.; and it is not to be doubted, that, immediately on the vidory and death of Cleopatra, the ode was in the hands of every man of tafte in Rome. It was the pra&ice (fays Bentley) to publish their pieces femel fimulque. But I fay neither femel nor fimul. The 4th Sat. 1. i. was published moft evidently before the 10th of the fame book, for the 10th vindicates it from the exceptions taken to it by the admirers of Lucilius. They were not, therefore, published originally fimul. Again, the 4th Satire certainly made its appearance along with the roth, when they compofed one book or volume. It was therefore published twice, and not femel. "The ode upon Virgil's Voyage to Athens (according to Bentley's Chronology) was written at least eight years before Virgil wade it. The ode, that fo chearfully invites Virgil to a feaft, according to the fame great Critic's chronology, was addreffed to him two or three years after his death. Are these things probable? "As to philofophy (which is your own province) I have much the fame to fay as I have said already about the publication. It is no proof he did not publish his pieces feparately, because at times he published them together; and no proof that he was never a Stoic or Old Academic, because at times he was an Epicurean. Nunc agilis fio, et merfor civilibus undis, Thefe lines (fay) can never be tortured into Epicureanifm, as the editor of Arrian well koows And what did Horace ftudy in his youth, when at Athens, inter fylvas Academi? Was it the doctrine of Epicurus? He might as well have ftudied the doârine of Calvin at St. Juft writes to make his barrennefs appear, year; He, who ftill wanting, tho' he lives on theft, All these, my modeft Satire bade tranflate, And own'd that nine fuch Poets made a Tate. 190 NOTES. Omer's. It is hard not to take a man's own word in matters merely relative to himself." VFR. 180. A Perfian tale] Amb. Philips tranflated a Book called the Perfian Tales, a book full of fancy and imagination. P. Philips, certainly not a very animated or first-rate writer, yet appears not to deferve quite fo much contempt, if we look at his fiift and fifth paftoral, his epiftle from Copenhagen, his ode on the Death of Earl Cowper, his tranflations of the two firft 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 raiftaking the incomparable ironical paper in the Guardian, No. 40. which was written by Pope, for a ferious criticism on paftoral poetry. The learned Heyne alfo miftook this irony, as appears by p. 202. v. 1. of his Virgil. VER 189. All thefe, my modeft Satire bade tranflate,] See their works, in the Trauflations of claffical books by feveral hands. P. VER. 190. And own'd that nine fuch Poets] Before this piece was published, Dr. Young had addreffed two Epiftles to our Author, ia the year 1730, concerning the Authors of the age; in which are many paffages that bear a great refemblance to many of Pope's, though Pope has heightened, improved, and condensed the hints, images, and fentiments of Young. Shall we not cenfure all the motley train, How did they fame, and stamp, and roar, and chafe! And swear, not ADDISON himself was safe. Peace to all fuch! but were there One whofe fires True Genius kindles, and fair Fame inspires; NOTES. And whet their appetite on cliffs of rhyme; Rich, poor, male, female, young, old, gay, or fad, Men that read well, or men that only write; From tatter'd rags of all the ftuff on earth. VER. 192. And fwear, not ADDISON himself was fafe.] This is an artful preparative for the following tranfitions and finely obviates what might be thought unfavourable of the feverity of the fatire, by those who were ftrangers to the provocation. VER. 193. But were there One whofe fires, &c.] Our Poet's friendfhip with Mr. Addifon began in the year 1713. It was cultivated on both fides with all the marks of mutual efteem and affe&ion, and a conftant intercourse of good offices. Mr. Addison was always commending moderation; warned his friend against a blind attachment to party; and blamed Steele for his indifcreet zeal. The tranflation of the Iliad being now on foot, he recommended it to the public, and joined with the Tories in pufhing the fubfcription; but at the fame time advised Mr. Pope not to be content with the applause of one half of the nation. On the other hand, Mr. Pope made his friend's intereft his own. fee note on Ver. 215. 1 Ep. B. ii. of Hor.) and, when Dennis fo brutally attacked the Tragedy of Cato, he wrote the piece called A narrative of his madness. Thus things continued till Mr. Pope's growing reputation, and fuperior genius ia Poetry, gave umbrage to his friend's falfe delicacy: and then it was he encouraged Philips and others (fee his Letters) in their clamours against him as a Tory and Jacobite, who had affifted |