A Sylph too warn'd me of the threats of fate, 165 170 And tempts, once more, thy sacrilegious hands. 175 CANTO V. SHE said: the pitying audience melt in tears, Say, why are Beauties prais'd and honour'd most, VARIATIONS. 5 10 Ver. 7. Then grave Clarissa, &c.] A new Character introduced in the subsequent Editions, to open more clearly the Moral of the Poem, in a parody of the speech of Sarpedon to Glaucus in Homer.-P. IMITATIONS. Ver. 9. Say, why are Beauties, &c.] Homer. 66 Why boast we, Glaucus! our extended reign, Why deck'd with all that land and sea afford, Why Angels call'd, and Angel-like ador'd? Why round our coaches crowd the white-glov'd Beaus, Why bows the side-box from its inmost rows? How vain are all these glories, all our pains, 15 Unless good sense preserve what beauty gains: Oh! if to dance all night, and dress all day, 20 Charm'd the small-pox, or chas'd old-age away; But since, alas! frail beauty must decay, NOTES. 25 Ver. 26. Curl'd or uncurl'd,] Fontenelle writes a gallant and pleasant letter to a beautiful young lady on discovering one grey hair on her head. -Warton. IMITATIONS. Why on those shores are we with joy survey'd, Unless great acts superior merit prove, And vindicate the bounteous pow'rs above? That when with wond'ring eyes our martial bands Or let us glory gain, or glory give.”— Warburton. This passage was the first specimen our author gave of his translation of Homer; and it appeared first in the sixth volume of Dryden's Miscellanies. -Warton. 30 What then remains but well our pow'r to use, All side in parties, and begin th' attack; Fans clap, silks rustle, and tough whalebones crack; NOTES. Ver. 45. So when bold Homer] Homer, Il. xx.—P. 35 41 45 The ridicule is most artfully heightened by introducing one of the most sublime passages in Homer : ̓Αμφὶ δ ̓ ἐσάλπιγξεν μέγας οὐρανὸς, οὔλυμπός τε, Οἴκια δὲ θνητοῖσι καὶ ἀθανάτοισι φανείη, Well might Longinus exclaim, "Do you see, O my friend, how the earth bursts asunder to its centre, Tartarus itself is laid open and naked, all things mortal and immortal combat together, and share the danger of this tremendous conflict?" [In VARIATIONS. Ver. 37. To arms, to arms!] From hence the first edition goes on to the conclusion, except a very few short insertions added, to keep the Machinery in view to the end of the poem.-P. IMITATIONS. Ver. 35. So spoke the Dame,] It is a verse frequently repeated in Homer after any speech, 66 So spoke and all the Heroes applauded."-P. [* Dr. Warton quotes this passage directly from Longinus, who gives it as it appears in the note above the first line, however, is taken from Il. Φ. 388, with the substitution of οὔλυμπός τε for ἄτε δὲ Ζεύς, and the remaining five from Il. Y. 61-65.] VOL. II. Ff 'Gainst Pallas, Mars; Latona, Hermes arms; And all Olympus rings with loud alarms: Jove's thunder roars, heav'n trembles all around, Triumphant Umbriel on a sconce's height Clapp'd his glad wings, and sate to view the fight: While through the press enrag'd Thalestris flies, One dy'd in metaphor, and one in song. 66 "O cruel Nymph! a living death I bear," Cry'd Dapperwit, and sunk beside his chair. A mournful glance Sir Fopling upwards cast, NOTES. 60 In none of his many imitations has Virgil shown his inferiority to Homer so much as in this passage: "Non secus ac si qua penitus vi terra dehiscens Pallida, Dîs invisa; superque immane barathrum Eneid, viii. v. 243. For not to mention that what is part of the action in Homer, is only a simile in Virgil, how tame is "superque immane barathrum" (even though a magnificent image) to Δείσας δ ̓ ἐκ θρόνου ἆλτο καὶ ἴαχε How or where has terror ever been so strongly painted as by this circumstance of Pluto himself, suddenly leaping from his throne and shrieking aloud?-Warton. Ver. 55. Propp'd on their] Like the heroes in Homer, when they are spectators of a combat.-Warton. Ver. 64. "Those eyes] It was the common cant of all the wits and VARIATIONS. Ver. 53. Triumphant Umbriel] These four lines added, for the reason before mentioned.-P. Added with great dexterity, beauty, and propriety !—Warton. IMITATIONS. Ver. 53. Triumphant Umbriel] Minerva in like manner, during the battle of Ulysses with the Suitors in the Odyssey, perches on a beam of the roof to behold it.-P. Ver. 64. "Those eyes are made so killing"] The words of a song in the Opera of Camilla.—P. Thus on Mæander's flow'ry margin lies 65 Th' expiring Swan, and as he sings he dies. When bold Sir Plume had drawn Clarissa down, Chloe stepp'd in, and kill'd him with a frown; She smil❜d to see the doughty hero slain, But, at her smile, the Beau reviv'd again. Now Jove suspends his golden scales in air, Weighs the Men's wits against the Lady's hair; The doubtful beam long nods from side to side; At length the wits mount up, the hairs subside. 70 See fierce Belinda on the Baron flies, 75 80 A charge of snuff the wily virgin threw, NOTES. poets of this time to depreciate and laugh at Italian Operas. See what Addison has said of them, Spectator 18. They would have been of a different opinion, if they could have read what Dr. Burney has said on this subject in his History of Music.-Warton. Ver. 71. Now Jove, &c.] Vid. Homer, Il. viii. and Virg. Æn. xii. -P. Ver. 74. At length the wits] This parody from Homer and Virgil is admirable. Milton improved on this fine fiction in Paradise Lost, Book iv. v. 997, by saying, that when "the Almighty weighed Satan in such scales, the mounting of his scales denoted ill success; and also by alluding artfully to the sign of Libra in the heavens.-Warton. Ver. 84. titillating dust.] Boileau and Garth have also each of them enlivened their pieces with a mock-fight. But Boileau has laid the scene of his action in a neighbouring bookseller's shop; where the combatants encounter each other by chance. This conduct is a little inartificial; but VARIATIONS. Ver. 83. The Gnomes direct,] These two lines added for the above reason.-P. IMITATIONS. Ver. 65. Thus on Maander's flow'ry margin lies] "Sic ubi fata vocant, udis abjectus in herbis, Ad vada Mæandri concinit albus olor." Ov. Ep.-P. |