Yon stars, yon suns, he rears at pleasure higher, On grinning dragons thou shalt mount the wind. REMARKS. 260 265 Ver. 261. Immortal Rich!] Mr. John Rich, Master of the Theatre Royal in Covent-Garden, was the first that excelled this way.-P. Ver. 261. Immortal Rich!] To this gentleman's wonder-working exhibitions Fenton thus refers in his Prologue to Southerne's Spartan Dame : "We hop'd that Art and Genius had secur'd you; But soon facetious Harlequin allur'd you : The Muses blush'd to see their friends exalting "Whilst we were acting (says Cibber somewhere in his Life) the best Plays in the language to empty houses, Rich, with his raree-shows, was drawing the whole town after him."-Wakefield. Ver. 265. to dark encounter in mid air] 66 Mingle the dark encounter in mid air." Milton.-Bowles. Ver. 266. New wizards] Yet it is plain from many passages in Cibber's Life, that he despised these fooleries and abuses of the stage; and there are many other passages in his Life strongly written to the same purpose. Neither Booth nor Cibber ever degraded themselves to the appearances mentioned in the two next lines.-Warton. Ver. 266. I see my Cibber there! The history of the foregoing absurdities is verified by himself, in these words, (Life, chap. xv.) "Then sprung forth that succession of monstrous medleys that have so long infested the stage, which arose upon one another alternately at both houses, out-vying each other in expense." He then proceeds to excuse his own part in them, as follows. "If I am asked, why I assented? I have no better excuse for my error than to confess I did it against my conscience, and had not virtue enough to starve. Had Henry IV. of France, a better reason for changing his religion? I was still in my heart, as much as he could be, on the side of truth and sense; but with this difference, that I had their leave to quit them when they could not support me. But let the question go which way it will, Harry IV. has always been allowed a great man." This must be confessed a full answer; only the question still seems to be, first, How the doing a thing against one's conscience is an excuse for it? and secondly, It will be hard to prove how he got the leave of truth and sense to quit their service, unless he can produce a certificate that he ever was in it.-P.† Ver. 266, 267.] Booth and Cibber were joint managers of the Theatre in Drury Lane.-P. Ver. 267. Booth in his cloudy tabernacle shrin'd ;] Alluding to Exodus, xl. 38, as Milton, Par. Lost, viii. 248. ["she Dire is the conflict, dismal is the din, Here shouts all Drury, there all Lincoln's-inn; Contending theatres our empire raise, 270 Alike their labours, and alike their praise. "And are these wonders, Son, to thee unknown? REMARKS. she in a cloudy tabernacle Sojourn'd the while."-Wakefield. 275 280 We Ver. 268. On grinning dragons thou shalt mount the wind.] In his Letter to Mr. P., Mr. C. solemnly declares this not to be literally true. hope therefore the reader will understand it allegorically only.-P.t Ver. 269. Dire is the conflict, dismal is the din,] From Paradise Lost, vi. 66 --dire was the noise Of conflict; over head the dismal hiss Of fiery darts in flaming volleys flew."-Wakefield. Ver. 282. Annual trophics, on the Lord-mayor's Day; and monthly wars, in the Artillery ground.-P. Ver. 283. Tho' long my party] Settle, like most party-writers, was very uncertain in his political principles. He was employed to hold the pen in the Character of a Popish successor, but afterwards printed his Narrative on the other side. He had managed the ceremony of a famous Pope-burning on Nov. 17, 1680; then became a trooper in King James's army, at Hounslow-heath. After the Revolution he kept a booth at Bartholomew VARIATIONS. After ver. 274, in the former Edd. followed, "For works like these let deathless Journals tell, After ver. 284, in the former Edd. followed, (Diff'rent our parties, but with equal grace George Ridpath, author for several years of the Flying-post, a Whig paper; Nathaniel Mist, publisher of the Weekly Journal, a Tory paper. —P. *285 Yet lo! in me what authors have to brag on! 290 And carried off in some dog's tail at last. Happier thy fortunes! like a rolling stone, 295 Till rais'd from booths, to theatre, to court, The sure fore-runner of her gentle sway: REMARKS. 300 fair, where, in the droll called St. George for England, he acted in his old age in a dragon of green leather of his own invention. He was at last taken into the Charter-house, and there died, aged sixty years.-P. Ver. 288. Smithfield fair!] That is, Bartholomew fair, which is kept in Smithfield, where these pantomimical wonders were exhibited.—Wakefield. Ver. 297. Thee shall the patriot, thee the courtier taste,] It stood in the first edition with blanks, ** and * *. Concanen was sure, they must needs mean nobody but King GEORGE and Queen CAROLINĚ; and said he would insist it was so, till the poet cleared himself by filling up the blanks otherwise, agreeably to the context, and consistent with his allegiance." Pref. to a Collection of verses, essays, letters, &c. against Mr. P. printed for A. Moore, p. 6.—P. Ver. 301. Already Opera] The Italian Opera is said to owe its origin to a sacred drama, intitled, Conversione di S. Paolo, set to music by Francesco Beverini, a most celebrated composer at that time, and represented before Cardinal Riario, nephew to Pope Sixtus IV. in the Carnival Season of 1480. This was followed by another at the Carnival at Venice, 1485. But in this latter drama was a mixture of comic characters, lawyers, phy VARIATIONS. Ver. 295. Safe in his heaviness, &c.] In the former Edd. And lick up ev'ry blockhead in the way. Thy dragons, magistrates and peers shall taste, 305 Let her thy heart, next drabs and dice, engage, For new abortions, all ye pregnant fair! REMARKS. 310 315 sicians, ladies, servants, merchants, &c. though on a serious subject, and intitled, La Verità Raminga.-Warton. Ver. 305. Polypheme] He translated the Italian Opera of Polifemo; but unfortunately lost the whole jest of the story. The Cyclops asks Ulysses his name, who tells him his name is Noman. After his eye is put out, he roars and calls the Brother Cyclops to his aid. They inquire, who has hurt him? he answers, Noman; whereupon they all go away again. Our ingenious translator made Ulysses answer, I take no name; whereby all that followed became unintelligible. Hence it appears that Mr. Cibber, who values himself on subscribing to the English Translation of Homer's Iliad, had not that merit with respect to the Odyssey, or he might have been better instructed in the Greek Pun-ology.-P. Ver. 308, 309. Faustus, Pluto, &c.] Names of miserable Farces, which it was the custom to act at the end of the best Tragedies, to spoil the digestion of the audience.-P. Ver. 812. ensure it but from fire.] In Tibbald's Farce of Proserpine, a corn-field was set on fire: whereupon the other playhouse had a barn burnt down for the recreation of the spectators. They also rivalled each other in showing the burnings of hell-fire, in Dr. Faustus.-P. Ver. 313. Another Eschylus appears!] It is reported of Eschylus, that when his tragedy of the Furies was acted, the audience were so terrified, that the children fell into fits, and the big-bellied women miscarried.-P. On mentioning this abortive attempt of Tibbald to translate the Prometheus, one cannot forbear thinking of the spirited and faithful translation which Mr. Potter has given us of this great Father of the Greek Tragedy. -Warton. Ver. 315. like Semele's,] See Ovid. Met. iii.—P. IMITATIONS. Ver. 307. To aid our cause, if Heav'n thou canʼst not bend, Hell thou shalt move ;] "Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo." Virg. Æneid. vii.—P. [It "Now, Bavius! take the poppy from thy brow, REMARKS. 320 325 It seems strange that a writer of Congreve's good and classical taste should choose Semele for the subject of a drama, where the catastrophe is so very absurd. The stage direction in the last act is—“ As the cloud which contains Jupiter is arrived just over the canopy of Semele, a sudden and great flash of lightning breaks forth, and a clap of loud thunder is heard; when at one instant Semele, with the palace, and the whole scene, disappears, and Jupiter re-ascends swiftly." It was with justice he took, for a motto, to his Opera, these words of Seneca-" A naturâ discedimus, populo nos damus, nullius rei bono auctori, et in hâc re, sicut in omnibus, inconstantissimo." I wonder Pope mentioned the story of Semele, as his friend Congreve had introduced it on the stage.-Warton. Ver. 325. On poets' tombs, see Benson's titles urit !] W-m Benson, Sur, veyor of the Buildings to his Majesty King George I., gave in a report to the Lords, that their House and the Painted Chamber adjoining were in immediate danger of falling. Whereupon the Lords met in a committee to appoint some other place to sit in, while the house should be taken down. But it being proposed to cause some other builders first to inspect it, they found it in very good condition. The Lords, upon this, were going upon VARIATIONS. Ver. 323. See, see, our own, &c.] In the former Edit. Beneath his reign, shall Eusden wear the bays, I see the Savoy totter to her fall; Hibernian politics, O Swift! thy doom, And Pope's, translating three whole years with Broome. IMITATIONS. Ver. 319, 320. This, this is he, foretold by ancient rhymes: Th' Augustus, &c.] "Hic vir, hic est ! tibi quem promitti sæpius audis, Secula qui rursus Latio, regnata per arva Saturno quondam' Virg. Æneid. vi. Saturnian here relates to the age of Lead, mentioned Book i. ver. 28. -P. |