Itself o'er me: such men as he saw there Low fear I saw at court, and worse and more. No, no, thou which since yesterday hast been, Such as swells the bladder of our court? I Think he which made your waxen* garden, and Transported it from Italy, to stand With us at London, flouts our courtiers; for Just such gay painted things, which no sap, nor Tast have in them, ours are; and natural Some of the stocks are; their fruits bastard all. NOTES. section of the History of English Poetry; and to Mr. Hayley's elegant translation of the three cantos of the Inferno. Notwithstanding the feeble and tasteless attacks of Voltaire, real judges will ever think that it abounds in many strokes of the true sublime, and the pathetic, though mixed with the strongest traits of the satiric. With what vigour and vehemence has he justly lashed the profligacy, the tyranny, and the corruptions of the Church of Rome, being one of the very first writers that called her the Great Harlot in the Apocalypse: canto 19, of the Inferno. Nor has he been less severe on cruel and despotic princes; and in one place makes Hugh Capet confess that his father was a butcher: Figliuol d' un' Beccaio di Parigi. Purgat. canto 20: and own himself the cause and origin of much mischief to Christendom: I fui * A show of the Italian Garden in wax-work, in the time of King James the First. Pope. Base fear becomes the guilty, not the free; 195 205 O my fair mistress, Truth! shall I quit thee 200 210 No wonder some folks bow, and think them kings. NOTES. I fui radice de la mala pianta, Ché la terra Christiana tutta aduggia, Si che buon frutto rado se ne schianta. I only just add, that Mr. Addison appears not to have read Dante, from his never once referring to him in his Criticisms on Milton, who was such an admirer and imitator of this great Italian Poet. Algarotti justly laments the loss of an inestimable treasure, a copy of Dante, which Michael Angelo had enriched with designs drawn with his pen, on the margin of each leaf. Dante was justly styled, Il poeta dell' evidenza. The first stanzas of the 24th canto of the Inferno, printed in Dodsley's Museum, No. 2, page 57, are by Mr. Spence. Voltaire absurdly calls Il Inferno, "Ce Salmigondis." Warton. Ver. 206. Court in wax!] A famous show of the Court of France, in wax-work. Pope. "Tis ten a clock and past; all whom the mues, Baloun, or tennis, diet, or the stews Had all the morning held, now the second Time made ready, that day, in flocks are found In the Presence, and I (God pardon me) As fresh and sweet their apparels be, as be Their fields they sold to buy them. For a king Those hose are, cry the flatterers; and bring Them next week to the theatre to sell. Wants reach all states: me seems they do as well At stage, as courts; all are players. Whoe'er looks (For themselves dare not go) o'er Cheapside books Shall find their wardrobes' inventory. Now The ladies come. As pirates (which do know That there came weak ships fraught with Cutchanel) The men board them; and praise (as they think) well, Their beauties; they the men's wits; both are bought. Why good wits ne'er wear scarlet gowns, I thought NOTES. Ver. 213. At Fig's, at White's,] White's was a noted gaminghouse: Fig's, a prize-fighter's academy, where the young nobility received instruction in those days: it was also customary for the nobility and gentry to visit the condemned criminals in Newgate. Pope. Ver. 218. "That's velvet] Much superior to the original in brevity and elegance: the next line is a stricture on the act for licensing plays, which about this time occasioned great debates in the House of Lords, and a very spirited and remarkable speech of Lord Chesterfield in behalf of play-writers: "Wit," said he, my Lords, is the property of those who have it; and very often the See! where the British youth, engaged 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 As the fair fields they sold to look so fine. 225 Painted for sight, and essenced for the smell, Like frigates fraught with spice and cochine'l, Sail in the ladies: how each pirate eyes So weak a vessel, and so rich a prize! NOTES. the only property they have. Thank Heaven, my Lords, we are otherwise provided for." The first play that was prohibited by this act, was Gustavus Vasa, by Brooke; the next was the Edward and Eleonora of Thomson. Warton. Ver. 220. our stage give rules,] Alluding to the authority of the Lord Chamberlain. Warburton. Ver. 227. Like frigates fraught] Here is a very close resemblance to the picture of Dulilah, in Samson Agonistes: This cause, These men, men's wits for speeches buy, Great stains and holes in them, but venial As a young preacher at his first time goes 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 sent him several designs, 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 studied the antique, and copied only common nature and the forms before him. He attended not to costume. His Madonnas were dressed like German ladies, and his Jews had beards and mustachios. See a most judicious criticism on the works and talents of |