DR. KING informed me, that these were two of the rhymes to which Swift, who was scrupulously exact in this respect, used to object, as he did to some others in Pope; particularly to two in the Essay on Criticism, v. 237, where delight is made to rhyme to wit. 42. Per mare pauperiem fugiens, per saxa, per ignes.* Scar'd at the spectre of pale POVERTY!† POPE has given life to the image, and added terror to the simple expression pauperiem. 43. At pueri ludentes, Rex eris, aiunt, Si recte facies.‡ Yet ev'ry child another song will sing, Some commentators think Horace alluded to an old Greek play among children, called, Barida. But Lambinus observes, that the sport alluded to is * Ver. 46. + Ver. 70. * Ver. 59. § Ver. 91. is mentioned in the Theatetus of Plato; where Socrates says, he that fails in his pursuit will be reckoned an ass, as the children say of him who cannot catch the ball; and he that catches it is called their king. 44. Ut propius spectes lacrymosa* poemata Pupi! † For what? to have a box when eunuchs sing, Our author is so perpetually expressing an affected contempt for kings, that it becomes almost a nauseous cant; HAWKINS BROWNE laughed at him for this affectation, in the pleasant Imitations of English poets, on Tobacco. The epithet lacrymosa is ironical. + Ver. 67. Ver. 105. Come, Come, let me taste thee, unexcis'd by kings! 45. Olim quod vulpes ægroto cauta leoni Respondit, referam: Quia me vestigia terrent, Faith, I shall give the answer Reynard gave: Full many a beast goes in, but none comes out.† Both Ver. 73. + Ver. 114. Conciseness was the quality, for which Babrius, if we may judge from the fragments, seems to have been so excellent. See Dissertat. de Babrio, Fab. 97, 50, 242; and, above all, the exquisite fable of the Swallow and Nightingale, Fable 149, and the last in this curious and elegant dissertation. In the Fabularum Æsopicarum Delectus, a book not sufficiently known, and now out of print, published at Oxford, 1698, are sixty fables exquisitely written, versibus senariis, by Ant. Alsop. The best life of Æsop is by M. Mezeriac, the learned editor of Diophantus: a book so scarce, that Bentley complained he could never get a sight of it; and Bayle had never seen it, when he first published his Dictionary. It was reprinted in the Memoires de Litterature of M. de Sallengre, 1717, tom. i. p. 87. This was the author, whom Malherbe asked, when he shewed him the edition of Diophantus, " if it would lessen the price of bread?" Both poets have told the fable with an elegant brevity. Why did Pope omit ægroto? Dread Sir, and Royal cave, are good additions. Plato was also fond of this fable. He has put it into the mouth of Socrates, in the first Alcibiades.* 46. Excipiantque senes quos in vivaria mittant.† Some with fat bucks on childless dotards fawn.‡ The legacy-hunters, the Hæredipetæ, were a more common character among the ancients than with us. The ridicule, therefore, is not now so striking. Lucian has five pleasant Dialogues on the subject, VOL. II. Y * Αλλ' ατέχνως, κατά τον Αίσωπο μυθον, οὐ η Αλόπηξ προς τον Λεοντα είπε, και τε εις Λαικεδαίμονα νομισματος εισιόντος μεν τα ίχνη τα εκείσε τετραμμενα δηλα, εξιοντος δε, εδαμη αν τις ιδοι. Tom. ii. p. 122. Serrani. Ed. H. Steph. 1578. Pope has connected the passage that immediately follows in a forced and quaint manner, which Horace never thought of ; Well, if a king's a lion, at the least The people are a many-headed beast. V. 120. as if the word bellua had any relation to the lion before-mentioned. + Ver. 79. Ver. 130. subject, from page 343 to 363, in the 4to edition of Hemsterhusius. Horace himself appears to have failed more in exposing this folly, than in any other of his satires; and principally so, by mixing ancient with modern manners, and making Tiresias instruct Ulysses in petty frauds, and artifices too subtle for the old prophet and hero to dictate and to practise. Sat. 5. lib. 2. 47. Multis occulto crescit res fœnore,* is far excelled in force and spirit by, While with the silent growth of ten per cent. 48. Nullus in orbe sinus Baiis prælucet amoenis, Si dixit dives; lacus & mare sentit amorem Festinantis heri. Sir Job sail'd forth, the evening bright and still; Slopes at its foot, the woods its sides embrace, } Superior * Ver. 80. + Ver. 132. Ver. 83. § More lively than the general word, dives. Ver. 138. |