Or, if you needs must write, write CESAR's Praise, You'll gain at least a Knighthood, or the Bays. P. What? like Sir Richard, rumbling, rough, and fierce, With ARMS, and GEORGE, and BRUNSWICK, crowd the verse, Rend with tremendous sound your ears asunder, 25 With Gun, Drum, Trumpet, Blunderbuss, and Thunder? Or nobly wild, with Budgel's fire and Force, P. 'Alas! few verses touch their nicer ear; They scarce can bear their Laureat twice a year; 30 NOTES. and tell him I will never imitate Milton more, till the author of Blenheim is forgotten." In vain was Blackmore extolled by Molyneux and Locke: but Locke, to his other superior talents, did not add good taste. He affected to despise poetry, and he depre-ciated the ancients: which circumstance, as I was informed by the late Mr. James Harris, his relation, was the source of perpetual discontent and dispute betwixt him and his pupil Lord Shaftesbury; who, in many parts of his Characteristics, and Letters to a Clergyman, has ridiculed Locke's selfish philosophy, and has represented him as a disciple of Hobbes; from which writer it must in truth be confessed that Locke borrowed frequently and largely. Locke had not the fine taste of a greater philosopher, I mean Galileo, who wrote a comment on Ariosto full of just criticism, and whose letter to Fr. Rinuccini on this subject may be seen in Martinelli's Letters, p. 255. London; 1758. Ver. 28. falling Horse?] The horse on which his Majesty charged at the battle of Oudenard; when the Pretender, and the Princes of the blood of France, fled before him. W. Verba per attentam non ibunt Cæsaris aurem : odit. H. Quid faciam? saltat Milonius, ut semel icto P Castor gaudet equis; ovo prognatus eodem, NOTES. Ver. 39. Abuse the City's best good men in metre,] The best good Man, a City phrase for the richest. Metre-not used here purely to help the verse, but to shew what it is a Citizen esteems the greatest aggravation of the offence. W. Ver. 41. What should ail 'em?] Horace hints at one reason, that each fears his own turn may be next; his imitator gives another, and with more art, a reason which insinuates, that his very levity, in using feigned names, increases the number of his Enemies, who suspect they may be included under that cover. W. Ver. 45. Each mortal] These words, indeed, open the sense of Horace; but the quid faciam is better, as it leaves it to the reader to discover, what is one of Horace's greatest beauties, his secret and delicate transitions and connexions, to which those who do not carefully attend, lose half the pleasure of reading him. Ver. 46. Darty his Ham-pie ;] This lover of Ham-pie owned the fidelity of the Poet's pencil; and said, he had done justice to his taste; but that if, instead of Ham-pie, he had given him Sweet-pie, he never could have pardoned him. W. Lyttleton, in his Dialogues of the Dead, has introduced Darteneuf, in a pleasant discourse betwixt him and Apicius, bitterly lamenting his ill-fortune in having lived before turtle-feasts were known in England. The story of the Ham-pie was confirmed by Mr. Dodsley, who knew Darteneuf, and, as he candidly owned, had waited on him at dinner. Ver. 50. Like in all else,] This parallel is not happy and exact: To shew the variety of human passions and pursuits, Castor and And justly CESAR scorns the Poet's lays, F. "Better be Cibber, I'll maintain it still, And laugh at Peers that put their trust in Peter. 40 "Ev'n those you touch not hate you. P. What should ail 'em? F. A hundred smart in Timon and in Balaam : The fewer still you name, you wound the more; Bond is but one, but Harpax is a score. P. Each mortal has his pleasure: none deny 45 Scarsdale his bottle, Darty his Ham-pie; Ridotta sips and dances, till she see The doubling Lustres dance as fast as she; PF - - - loves the Senate, Hockley-hole his brother, Like in all else, as one egg to another. 50 NOTES. Pollux were unlike, even though they came from one and the same egg. This is far more extraordinary and marvellous than that two common brothers should have different inclinations. And afterward, ver. 51, "I love to pour out all myself, as plain As downright SHIPPEN, or as old MONTAIGNE." "My chief pleasure is to write Satires like Lucilius," says Horace. My chief pleasure," says Pope," is-what? to speak my mind freely and openly." There should have been an instance of some employment, and not a virtuous habit. Pope would not have been pleased with this censure of the politics of Shippen, who was an able speaker, which the commentator has subjoined to this passage. A poet, like Lucilius, ought to have been named, not a politician. In the original, Horace calls Lucilius, senis; not because he was an old man, Incuteret violenta.] 'sed hic stylus haud petit ultro 'Cervius iratus leges minitatur et urnam; Canidia Albutî, quibus est inimica, venenum; NOTES. Ver. 70. To run a muck,] The expression is from Dryden: "Frontless and satire-proof, he scours the streets, And runs an Indian muck at all he meets." And it alludes to a practice among the Malayans, who are great gamesters; which is, that when a man has lost all his property, he intoxicates himself with opium, works himself up to a fit of frenzy, rushes into the streets, and attacks and murders all he meets. Ver. 71. I only wear it in a land of Hectors, &c.] Superior to "tutus ab infestis latronibus," which only carries on the metaphor in whereas the imitation does more; for, along with the metaphor, it conveys the image of the subject, by presenting the reader with the several objects of satire. W. Ver. 73. Save but our Army! &c.] "Une maladie nouvelle," says the admirable Author de L'esprit des Loix, "s'est répandue en Europe; elle a saisi nos Princes, et leur fait entretenir un nombre desordonné de Troupes. Elle a ses redoublemens, et elle devient necessairement contagieuse. Car si tot qu'un Etat augmente ce qu'il appelle ses Troupes, les autres soudain augmentent les leurs, de façon qu'on ne gagne rien par-là que la Ruïne commune. Chaque Monarque tient sur pied toutes les Armées qu'il pourroit avoir, si ses Peuples etoient en danger 'Satire's my weapon, but I'm too discreet Thieves, Supercargoes, Sharpers, and Directors. And the sad burden of some merry song. y Slander or Poison dread from Delia's rage, From furious Sappho scarce a milder fate, 70 76 80 NOTES. d'être exterminés; et ON NOMME PAIX, CET ETAT D'EFFORT DE TOUS CONTre tous. Aussi l'Europe est-elle si ruinée, qui les particuliers, qui seroient dans la situation où sont les trois Puissances de cette partie du monde les plus opulentes, n'auroient pas de quoi vivre. Nous sommes pauvres avec les richesses et le commerce de tout l'univers; et bientôt, à force d'avoir des soldats, nous n'aurons plus que des soldats, et nous serons comme des Tartares." W. Ver. 78. Slides into verse,] Closely copied from Boileau : "Et malheur a tout nom qui, propre à la censure, Peut entrer dans un vers sans rompre la mesure." Ver. 81-84. Slander-libell'd by her hate.] There seems to be more spirit here than in the original: but it is hard to pronounce with certainty for though one may be confident there is more force in the 83d and 84th lines than in : "Canidia Albuti, quibus est inimica, venenum;" yet there might be something, for aught we know, in the cha |