b EPISTOLA I. PRIMA dicte mihi, fumma dicende camena, Spectatum fatis, et donatum jam rude, quæris, Mæcenas, iterum antiquo me includere ludo. Non eadem eft ætas, non mens. с Veianius, armis "Herculis ad poftem fixis, latet abditus agro; Ne populum extrema toties exoret arena. Eft NOTES. VER. 1. Whofe love] Equal to the affection which Horace in the original profeffes for Mecenas. It has been fufpected that his affection to his friend was fo ftrong, as to make him refolve not to outlive him; and that he actually put into execution his promise of ibimus, ibimus. Od. xvii. lib. 3. Both died in the end of the year 746; Horace only three weeks after Mecænas, November 27. Nothing can be fo different as the plain and manly ftyle of the former, in comparison of what Quintilian calls the calamistros of the latter, for which Sactorius and Macrobius, cap. 86. say Augustus frequently ridiculed him, though Auguftus himself was guilty of the fame fault: as when he said, vapidè fe habere for male. The learned C. G. Heyne, in his excellent edition of Virgil, after obferving that the well-known verses usually ascribed to Augustus, on Virgil's ordering his Æneid to be burnt, are the work of fome bungling grammarian, and not of that emperor, adds, "Videas tamen Voltairium, horridos hos et ineptos versus non modo Augufto tribuere, verum etiam magnopere probare; ils font beaux et semblent partir du cœur. Effai fur le Poefie Epique, cap. 3. Ita vides, ad verum pulchrarum fententiarum fenfum et judicium, fermonis intelligentiam aliquam effe neceffariam." P. V. Maronis Opera, tom. i. p. 131. Lipfiæ, 1767. VER. 3. Sabbath of my days?] i. e. The 49th year, the age of the Author. W. EPISTLE I. TO LORD BOLINGBROKE. ST. JOHN, whofe love indulg'd my labours past, you Public too long, ah let me hide my Age! C See modest Cibber now has left the Stage: d Our Gen❜rals now, retir'd to their Estates, e 5 Nor fond of bleeding, e'en in BRUNSWICK'S caufe. NOTES. A Voice VER. 8. Hang their old Trophies o'er the Garden gates,] An occafional stroke of Satire on ill-placed ornaments. He has more openly ridiculed them in his Epiftle on Tafle: "Load fome vain Church with old theatric state, W. He is faid to have alluded to the entrance of Lord Peterborough's Lawn at Bevifmount, near Southampton. There is more pleasantry and humour in Horace's comparing himself to an old gladiator, worn out in the service of the public, from which he had often begged his life, and has now at last been difmiffed with the ufual ceremonies, than for Pope to compare himself to an old actor or retired general. Pope was in his forty-ninth year, and Horace probably in his forty-feventh, when he wrote this Epistle. Bentley has arranged the writings of Horace in the following order. He compofed the first book of his Satires between the twenty-fixth and twenty-eighth year of his age; the fecond 'Eft mihi purgatam crebro qui perfonet aurem ; Solve & fenefcentem mature fanus equum, ne Peccet ad extremum ridendus, et ilia ducat. h Nunc itaque et verfus, et cætera ludicra pono: i Quid verum atque decens, curo et rogo, et omnis in k hoc fum: * Condo, et compono, quæ mox depromere poffim. Ac ne forte roges, 'quo me duce, quo Lare tuter: Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri, "Quo me cunque rapit tempeftas, deferor hofpes. Nunc agilis fio, et merfor " civilibus undis, n NOTES. Virtutis fecond book, from the year thirty-one to thirty-three; next, the Epodes, in his thirty-fourth and fifth year; next, the first book of his Odes, in three years, from his thirty-fixth to his thirtyeighth year; the second book in the two next years; then, the first book of the Epiftles, in his forty-fixth and feventh year; next to that, the fourth book of his Odes, in his forty-ninth year: laftly, the Art of Poetry, and fecond book of the Epiftles, to which an exact date cannot be affigned. VER. 10. Ev'n in BRUNSWICK's cause.] In the former Editions it was Britain's caufe. But the terms are fynonimous. W. VER. 15. Left fiff,] He has excelled Boileau's imitation of thefe verfes, Ep. 10. v. 44. And indeed Boileau himself is excelled by an old French Poet, whom he has frequently imitated, that is, Le Fresnaie Vauquelin, whofe Poems were published 1612. Vanquelin fays, that he profited much by reading the Satires of Ariofto; he alfo wrote an Art of Poetry; one of his best pieces is an imitation of Horace's Trebatius, being a dialogue be tween himself and the Chancellor of France. VER. 16. You limp, like Blackmore on a Lord Mayor's horfe.] The fame of this heavy Poet, however problematical elsewhere, was A voice there is, that whispers in my ear, I I ('Tis Reafon's voice, which sometimes one can hear,) "Friend Pope! be prudent, let your Mufe take "breath, "And never gallop Pegasus to death; "Left ftiff, and stately, void of fire or force, 15 "You limp, like Blackmore on a Lord Mayor's "horfe." h Farewell then Verfe, and Love, and ev'ry Toy, The Rhymes and Rattles of the Man or Boy; What 'right, what true, what fit we justly call, Let this be all my care-for this is All: k To lay this harvest up, and hoard with haste But ask not, to what 'Doctors I apply? Sworn to no Master, of no Sect am I: As drives the " ftorm, at any door I knock: 20 25 And house with Montagne now, or now with Locke. Sometimes a "Patriot, active in debate, Mix with the World, and battle for the State, NOTES. Free was univerfally received in the City of London. His verfification is here exactly described; stiff, and not strong; ftately, and yet dull, like the fober and flow-paced animal generally employed to mount the Lord Mayor: and therefore here humorously opposed to Pegafus. P. VER. 26. And house with Montagne now, or now with Locke.] i. e. Chufe either an active or a contemplative life, as is most fitted to the feason and circumftances. For he regarded these Writers as the beft Schools to form a man for the world; or to give him a knowledge of himfelf: Montagne excelling in his obfervations on focial and civil life; and Locke, in developing the faculties, and explaining the operations of the human mind. W. |