Fir'd that the houfe reject him, "'Sdeath, I'll print it, "And fhame the Fools-Your int'reft, Sir, with "Lintot." Lintot, dull rogue! will think your price too much : 66 Not, Sir, if you revife it, and retouch." NOTES. All VER. 60. The Play'rs and I, &c.] On this paffage, Cibber, in his curious letter, printed in 1742, addressed to Pope, has the following obfervation : "I am glad to find in your smaller Edition, that your con. fcience has fince given this line fome correction; for there you have taken off a little of its edge: it there runs only thus: The Players and I are luckily no friends. This is fo uncommon an inftance of your checking your temper, and taking a little fhame to yourself, that I cannot in justice omit my notice of it." The caufe of Pope's continued invective against Cibber, is thus given in the letter before mentioned: "The play of the Rehearfal, which had laid fome few years dormant, being by his prefent Majefty (George II.), then Prince of Wales commanded to be revived, the part of Bays fell to my fhare. To this character there had always been allowed such ludicrous liberties of obfervation upon any thing new, or remarkable in the flate of the flage, as Mr. Bays might think proper to make." He then defcribes a fuccefsful fally in ridiculing the introduction of the Mummy and Crocodile, in an entertainment acted about that time without fuccefs, called "Three Hours after Marriage," and fupposed to have been written by Pope "In "This was the offence," he fays: " In this play (Three Hours after Marriage), two Coxcomb3, being in love with a learned virtuofo's wife, to get unfufpected accefs to her, ingeniously fend themfelves, as two prefented rarities, to the husband; the one curiously fwathed up like an Egyptian Mummy, and the other lily covered in the pafle board fkin of a Crocodile; upon which poetical expedient I, Mr. Bays, when the two Kings of Brentford came from the clouds again into the throne, inflcad of what the part directed me to fay, made me use these words, viz. σε Νότι All my demurs but double his attacks; At last he whispers, "Do; and we go fnacks." Glad of a quarrel, ftraight I clap the door, Sir, let me fee your works and you no more. 65 70 His NOTES. "Norv, Sir, this revolution, I had fome thoughts of introducing "by a quite different contrivance; but my defign taking air, fome "of your fharp wits, I found, had made use of it before me; "otherwife I intended to have folen one of them in the shape of "a MUMMY, and the other, in that of a Crocodile." This fally of Cibber, it appears, was received with great applaufe; and Pope, very much irritated, came to Cibber after the play, to call him to account for the infult. This is the fum of Cibber's ftatement, refpecting the first caufe of Pope's anger, in his letter, the publication of which, it is well known, gave Pope great uneafinefs; and on account of which, he afterwards dethroned Theobald from his eminence as King of the Dunces, and placed Cibber, who cared very little about the matter, in his place. VER. 69. 'Tis fung, when Midas'] The abruptnefs with which this ftory from Perfius is introduced, occafions an obfcurity in the paffage; for there is no connection with the foregoing paragraph. Boileau fays, Sat. ix. v. 221. I have nothing to do with Chape> lain's honour, or candour, or civility, or complaifance; but, if you hold him up as a model of good writing, and as the king of authors, "Ma bile alors s'echauffe, et je brûle d'ecrire; Et s'il ne m'eft permis de le dire au papier ; Midas, le Roi Midas, a des oreilles d'Afne." There is much humour in making the prying and watchful eyes of the minifter, instead of the barber, firft difcover the afs's ears; and the word perks has particular force and emphafis. Sir Robert Walpole and Queen Caroline were here pointed at. VOL. IV. C WARTON. His very Minister who fpy'd them first, (Some fay his Queen,) was forc'd to fpeak, or burft. And is not mine, my friend, a forer cafe, When ev'ry coxcomb perks them in my face? A. Good friend, forbear! you deal in dang'rous things. I'd never name Queens, Ministers, or Kings; That fecret to each fool, that he's an Afs: 75 80 The truth once told (and wherefore fhould we lie?) The Queen of Midas flept, and fo may I. You think this cruel? take it for a rule, No creature fmarts fo little as a fool. 84 Let peals of laughter, Codrus! round thee break, Pit, NOTES. VER. 72. Queen,] The ftory is told, by fome, of his Barber, but by Chaucer, of his Queen. See Wife of Bath's Tale in Dryden's Fables. POPE. VER. 80. That fecret to each fool, that he's an Afs:] i. e. that his ears (his marks of folly) are visible. WARBURTON. VER. 86. the mighty crack:] A parody on Addifon's tranflation of Horace, Ode iii. b. 3. "Should the whole frame of Nature round him break In ruin and confusion hurl'd, She unconcern'd would hear the mighty crack, And ftand fecure amidst a falling world." On which lines he obferves, in the Bathos, "Sometimes a fingle word (as crack) will vulgarize a poetical idea." WARTON. Pit, box, and gall'ry in convulfions hurl'd, Thou ftand'st unfhook amidst a bursting world. The creature's at his dirty work again, Whom have I hurt? has Poet yet, or Peer, 95 And NOTES. VER. 88. "Si fractus illabatur orbis, POPE. Impavidum ferient ruinæ." Hor. VER. 90. He fpins the flight,] The metaphor in our Author is mot happily carried on through a variety of correfponding particulars, that exactly hit the nature of the two infects in queftion. It is not purfued too far, nor jaded out, so as to become quaint and affected; as is the cafe in many of Congreve's too witty comedies, particularly in the Way of the World, and in Young's Satires. For inftance: "Critics on verfe, as fquibs on triumphs, wait, Burn, hifs, and bounce, wafte paper, ftink, and die! VER. 95. -has Poet yet, or Peer, Loft the arch'd eye-brow, or Parnaffian fneer?] WARTON. He has given the "Parnaffian fneer," in the first editions of the Dunciad, to Theobald: "The proud Parnaffian fneer, "The confcious fimper, and the jealous leer, "Mix on his look." Dunciad, book 2d. And has not Colley still his lord, and whore? His butchers Henley, his free-masons Moore ? Still to one Bishop Philips seem a wit? 100 Still Sappho-A. Hold! for God-fake-you'll offend. No Names-be calm-learn prudence of a friend : I too could write, and I am twice as tall; But foes like thefe-P. One Flatt'rer's worse than all. Of all mad creatures, if the learn'd are right, 105 It is the flaver kills, and not the bite. NOTES. A fool VER 97. And has not Colley fil, &c] I forbear to say any thing of Colley's" anfwer to this line. VER. 98. free mafons Moore ?] He was of this fociety, and frequently headed their proceffions. WARBURTON. VER. 98. His butchers Eenley,] This alludes to Henley, commonly called Orator Henley, who declaimed on Sundays on religious fubjects, and on Wednesdays on the fciences;-one fhilling was the price of admittance. His Oratory was among the Butchers in Newport Market and Butcher Row; hence the expref. fion, "His butchers, Henley." There is no great fatire or wit in the allufion, nor is there any thing ludicrous in the idea, that Moore," still continues a Free-mafon," in spight of Pope's Satire. VER. R. 99. Does not one table Bavius ill admit?] I cannot find out the circumftance to which this alludes. VER. 100. Still to one Bishop] This is Eifhop Boulter, who was Ambrofe Philips' great friend and patron. Boulter wrote, in conjunction with Philips, a paper called the Freethinker. He was then only minifter of a parish in Southwark; but being confidered of confequence to Government, he was first made Dean of St. Paul's, and afterwards Primate of Ireland; where, adds Johnfon, his piety and charity will be long remembered. |