EPISTOLA I. PRIMA dicte mihi, fumma dicende camena, b Spectatum fatis, et donatum jam rude, quæris, Mæcenas, iterum antiquo me includere ludo. Non eadem eft ætas, non mens. • Veianius armis a Herculis ad poftem fixis, latet abditus agro, Ne populum extrema toties exoret arena. NOTES. VER. 1. Whofe love] Equal to the affection which Horace in the original profeffes for Mecenas. It has been fufpeded that his affection to his friend was fo ftrong, as to make him refolve not to outlive him; and that he actually put into execution his promise of ibimus, ibimus. Od. xvii. lib. 3. Both died in the end of the year 746; Horace only three weeks after Mecenas, November 27. Nothing can be fo different as the plain and manly ftyle of the former, in comparison of what Quintilian calls the calamiftros of the latter, for which Sandorius and Macrobius, cap. 86. fav Auguftus frequently ridiculed him, though Auguftus himself was guilty of the fame fault: as when he said, vapidè fe habere for male. The learned C. G. Heyne, in his excellent edition of Virgil, after observing that the well-known verfes usually ascribed to Auguftus, on Virgil's ordering his Eneid to be burnt, are the work of fome bungling grammarian, and not of that emperor, adds, " Videas tamen Voltairium, horridos hos et ineptos verfus non modo Augufto tribuere, verum etiam magnopere probare; ils font beaux et femblent partir du cœur. Effai fur la Poélie Epique, cap. 3. Ita vides, ad verum pulchrarum fententiarum fenfum et judicium, fermonis intelligentiam aliquam effe neceffariam." P. V. Maronis Opera, tom. i. p. 131. Lipfiæ, 1767. VER. 3. Sabbath of my days?] i. e. The 49th year, the age of the Author. W. EPISTLE I. TO LORD BOLINGBROKE. ST. JOHN, whofe love indulg'd my labours past, Matures my prefent, and fhall bound my last! b Why will you break the Sabbath of my days? Now fick alike of Envy and of Praise. Public too long, ah let me hide my Age! C See modeft Cibber now has left the Stage: e 5 Nor fond of bleeding, e'en in BRUNSWICK's caufe: NOTE S. VER. 8. Hang their old Trophies o'er the Garden gales,] An occafional Aroke of Satire on ill-placed ornaments. He has more openly ridiculed them in his Epifile on Tate: Load fome vain Church with old theatric flate, "Turn Arcs of Triumph to a Garden gate." W. He is faid to have alluded to the entrance of Lord Peterborough's Lawn at Bevilmount, near Southampton. There is more pleafantry and humour in Horace's comparing himself to an old gladiator, worn out in the fervice of the public, from which he had often begged his life, and has now at laft been difmiffed with the ufual ceremonies, than for Pope to compare himself to an old ador or retired general. Pape was in his forty-ninth year, and Horace probably in his forty. feventh, when he wrote this Epifile. Bentley has arranged the writings of Horace in the following order. He compofed the first book of his Satires between the twenty-fixth and twenty-eighth year of his age; the Eft mihi purgatam crebro qui perfonet aurem ; Solve & fenefcentem mature fanus equum, ne Peccet ad extremum ridendus, et ilia ducat. Nunc itaque et verfus, et cætera ludicra pono: Quid i verum atque decens, curo et rogo, et omnis in hoc fum: Condo, et compono, quæ mox depromere poffim. Ac ne forte roges, quo me duce, quo Lare tuter: Nullius addictus jurare in verba magiftri, Quo me cumque rapit tempeftas, deferor hofpes. Nunc agilis fio, et merfor civilibus undis, MOTES. fecond book, from the year thirty-one to thirty-three; next, the Epodes, in his thirty-fourth and fifth year; next, the firft book of his Odes, in three years, from his thirty-fixth to his thirtyeighth year; the fecond book in the two next years: then, the firft book of the Epiftles, in his forty-fixth and feventh year: next to that, the fourth book of his Odes, in his forty-ninth year: laftly, the Art of Poetry, and fecond book of the Epiftles, to which an exact date cannot be affigned. VER. 10. Ev'n in BRUNSWICK's caufe.] In the former Editions it was Britain's caufe. But the terms are fynonymous. VER. 15. Left fiff,] He has excelled Boileau's imitation of thefe verfes, Ep. 10. v. 44. And indeed Boileau himself is excelled by an old French Poet, whom he has frequently imitated, that is, Le Frefoaie Vauquelin, whofe Poems were published 1612. Vauquelin fays, that he profited much by reading the Satires of Ariofto; he alfo wrote an Art of Poetry; one of his beft pieces is an imitation of Horace's Trebatius, being a dialogue between himself and the Chancellor of France. VER. 16. You limp, like Blackmore on a Lord Mayor's horfe.] The fame of this heavy Poet, however problematical elsewhere f A voice there is, that whifpers in my ear, 11 (Tis Reafon's voice, which fometimes one can hear,) Friend Pope! be prudent, let your & Mufe take " breath, "And never gallop Pegafus to death; 15 « Lest stiff, and flately, void of fire or force, You limp, like Blackmore on a Lord Mayor's horse." Farewell then h Verfe, and Love, and ev'ry Toy, The Rhymes and Rattles of the Man or Boy; What right, what true, what fit we juftly call, Let this be all my care-for this is All: i To lay this harvest up, and hoard with hafte But ask not, to what Doctors I apply? As drives the m ftorm, at any door I knock: 20 25 And house, with Montagne now, or now with Locke. Sometimes a " Patriot, active in debate, Mix with the World, and battle for the State, NOTES. was univerfally received in the City of London. His verfification is here exactly defcribed; fliff, and not ftrong; ftately, and yet dull, like the fober and flow-paced animal generally employed to mount the Lord Mayor and therefore here humorously oppofed to Pogafus. P. VER. 26. And house with Montagne now, or now with Locke.] i. e. Chufe either an active or a contemplative life, as is moft fitted to the feafon and circum Hanees. For he regarded these Writers as the beft Schools to form a man for the world; or to give him a knowledge of himself: Montegne excelling in his obfervations on focial and civil life; and Locke, sa developing the faculties, and explaining the •perations of the human mind. W. |