EPISTOLA VII. QUINQUE dies tibi pollicitus me rure futurum, Dum pueris omnis pater, et matercula pallet; Non, quo more pyris vesci Calaber jubet hospes, Tu me fecisti locupletem. Vescere sodes. EPISTLE VII. IMITATED IN THE MANNER OF DR. SWIFT. "TIS is true, my Lord, I gave my word, "The Dog-days are no more the case." 'Tis true, but winter comes apace: My Lord, your favours, well I know, Jam satis est. At tu quantumvis tolle. Benignè. NOTES. Ver. 45. the lively eye,] It is said, that Pope's eyes were remarkably expressive. He seems often in his writings to keep this in mind; but the passage is very unequal to the closeness and pleasing painting of the original. Perhaps four lines never were so well expressed, as forming a delineation or accurate portrait of the Roman bard. We see-the "forte latus," "nigros angustá fronte capillos;" the "dulce loqui," and "ridere decorum." The words of the first line set the person of Horace immediately before us, and nothing can be so characteristic of his style in his Epistles, as the words DULCE LOQUI; RIDERE DECORUM. Bowles. The lines of Pope are perhaps in no respect inferior to those of Horace; and the "laugh'd down many a summer sun, And kept you up so oft till one," is more sprightly, as well as more decent than the Inter vina fugam Cynaræ, &c. Ver. 50. As when Belinda] A compliment he pays himself and the public on his Rape of the Lock. Warburton. 66 Pray take them, Sir.-Enough's a feast: Ingratitude's the certain crop; And 'tis but just, I'll tell ye wherefore, You give the things you never care for. Be mighty ready to do good; But makes a difference in his thought Now this I'll say, you'll find in me, That laugh'd down many a summer sun, And all that voluntary vein, 25 30 35 40 45 As when Belinda raised my strain. 50 A weasel once made shift to slink In at a corn-loft through a chink; NOTES. Ver. 51. A weasel once] Horace shines particularly in these short fables which he was so fond of introducing; as he does in Repserat in cumeram frumenti; pastaque, rursus Sæpe verecundum laudâsti; Rexque, Paterque Parvum parva decent. Mihi jam non regia Roma, Sed vacuum Tibur placet, aut imbelle Tarentum. Strenuus et fortis, causisque Philippus agendis Clarus, &c. NOTES. deed in that difficult art of telling a story well, of which the story of Philippus," Strenuus et fortis," &c. is a master-piece. We are in no one respect so very inferior to the French as in our fables; we have no La Fontaine. The fables of Gay, esteemed our best, are written in a pure and neat style, but have not much nature or humour. Horace's mice are inimitable. The long introductions to the fables of Gay's second volume of fables read like political pamphlets. Warton. Ver. 67. Craggs and Child,] Mr. Craggs gave him some SouthSea subscriptions. He was so indifferent about them as to neglect making any benefit of them. He used to say, it was a satisfaction to him that he did not grow rich, as he might have done, by the public calamity. Warburton. |