See under Ripley rise a new White-hall, REMARKS. 330 Hibernian vol. i. p. 157. "Indeed he confefses, he dares not fet " him quite on the fame foot with Virgil, left it should "seem flattery, but he is much mistaken if pofte"rity does not afford him a greater esteem than he at " present enjoys." He endeavoured to create fome mifunderstanding between our Author and Mr. Addison, whom alfo foon after he abused as much. His conftant cry was, that Mr. P. was an Enemy to the government; and in particular he was the avowed author of a report very industrioufly spread, that he had a hand in a party paper called the Examiner: A falsehood well known to those yet living, who had the direction and publication of it. Ver. 328. While Jones' and Boyle's united labours fall:] At the time when this poem was written, the banquetting-house of Whitehall, the church and piazza of Covent-garden, and the palace and chapel of Somerfet house, the works of the famous Inigo Jones, had been for many years so neglected, as to be in danger of ruin. The portico of Covent-garden church had been just then restored and beautified at the expence of the Earl of Burlington: who, at the same time, by his publication of the designs of that great Master and Palladio, as well as by many noble buildings of his own, revived the true taste of Architecture in this Kingdom. Ver. 330. Gay dies unpenfion'd, &c.] See Mr. Gay's fable of the Hare and many Friends. This gentleman was early in the friendship of our author, which continued to his death. He wrote several works of humour Hibernian Politics, O Swift! thy fate; VARIATION. Ver. 331. in the former Editions thus, Proceed, And Pope's, translating ten whole years with Broome. On which was the following Note, "He concludes his " irony with a stroke upon himself: for whoever ima"gines this a farcafm on the other ingenious perfon, is "furely mistaken. The opinion our Author had of " him was fufficiently shewn by his joining him in the "undertaking of the Odyffey; in which Mr. Broome, " having engaged without any previous agreement, dif" charged his part so much to Mr. Pope's fatisfaction, "that he gratified him with the full fum of Five hun"dred pounds, and a present of all those books for " which his own interest could procure him fubfcribers, "to the value of One hundred more. The author only " seems to lament, that he was employed in Tranfla"tion at all." REMARKS. humour with great fuccess, the Shepherd's Week, Trivia, the What d'ye-call it, Fables; and lastly, the celebrated Beggar's Opera; a piece of satire which hit all tastes and degrees of men, from those of the highest quality to the very rabble: That verse of Horace : " Primores populi arripuit, populumque tributim," could never be so justly applied as to this. The vast fuccess of it was unprecedented, and almost incredible: what is related of the wonderful effects of the ancient music or tragedy hardly came up to it: Sophocles and Euripides were less followed and famous. It was acted in London fixty-three days, uninterrupted; and renewed the next season with equal applauses. It spread into all the great towns of England, was played in Proceed, great days! till Learning fly the shore, Till Birch shall blush with noble blood no more, many REMARKS. Till many places to the thirtieth and fortieth time, and at Bath and Bristol fifty, &c. It made its progress into Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, where it was performed twenty-four days together: it was last acted in Minorca. The fame of it was not confined to the author only; the ladies carried about with them the favourite fongs of it in fans; and houses were furnished with it in fcreens. The perfon who acted Polly, till then obfcure, became all at once the favourite of the town; her pictures were engraved, and fold in great numbers; her life written, books of letters and verses to her, published; and pamphlets made even of her sayings and jefts. Furthermore, it drove out of England, for that feafon, the Italian Opera, which had carried all before it for ten years. That idol of the Nobility and people, which the great Critic Mr. Dennis by the labours and outcries of a whole life could not overthrow, was demolished by a single stroke of this gentleman's pen. This happened in the year 1728. Yet so great was his modesty, that he constantly prefixed to all the editions of it this motto, Nos hæc novimus esse nihil. Ver. 332. And Pope's, ten years to comment and tranflate.] The author here plainly laments that he was fo long employed in tranflating and commenting. He began the Iliad in 1713, and finished it in 1719. The edition of Shakespeare (which he undertook merely because nobody else would) took up near two years more in the drudgery of comparing impressions, rectifying the Scenery, &c. and the Tranflation of half the Odyffey employed him from that time to 1725. Ver. 333. Proceed, great days! &c.] It may perhaps feem incredible, that so great a Revolution in Learning Till Thames see Eaton's fons for ever play, VARIATIONS. 335 Enough! After ver. 338. in a former Edit. were the following lines : Signs following signs lead on the mighty year; In vain! they gaze, turn giddy, rave, and die. REMARKS. Learning as is here prophefied, should be brought about by such weak instruments as have been [hitherto] described in our poem: But do not thou, gentle reader, reft too fecure in thy contempt of these instruments. Remember what the Dutch stories fomewhere relate, Enough! enough! the raptur'd Monarch cries; that 340 And thro' the Ivory Gate the Vision flies. REMARKS. that a great Part of their Provinces was once overflowed, by a small opening made in one of their dykes by a fingle Water-Rat. However, that such is not feriously the judgment of our Poet, but that he conceiveth better hopes from the Diligence of our Schools, from the Regularity of our Universities, the Discernment of our Great men, the Accomplishments of our Nobility, the Encouragement of our Patrons, and the Genius of our Writers of all kinds (notwithstanding some few exceptions in each) may plainly be seen from his conclufion; where caufing all this vision to pass through the Ivory gate, he expressly, in the language of Poefy, declares all fuch imaginations to be wild, ungrounded, and fictitious. SCRIBL. THE END OF THE THIRD BOOK. VOL. III. P |