But following wits from that intention stray'd, 104 By Doctors' bills to play the Doctor's part, NOTES. 115 to fland prominent like a dug of the first rate, nor wanted excrefcencies in form of teats, at which a crew of ugly monsters were greedily fucking; and, what is wonderful to conceive, the bulk of fpleen encreased faster than the fucking could diminish it.” Tale of a Tub, p. 200. VER. 107. Sure to hate] A feeble line of monofyllables, confifting of ten low words. VER. 112. Some on the leaves] He has too frequently expreffed an idle contempt of the Heinfius's, Burmans, Gronovius's, Reifkius's, Marklands, and Gefners; and other fearchers into various readings, who have done fo much towards fettling the texts of ancient authors. VER. 115. Write dull] Perhaps he glanced at Boffu's famous Treatife on Epic Poetry; which may have been too much praised. D'Aubignac, under the patronage of Richlieu, wrote a treatife on the drama; and Mambrun on the epopée; but the tragedy of the one, and the Conftantine, an epic poem, of the other, were defpicable performances, which induced the great Condé to fay," Je scais bon gré, à l'Abbé D'Aubignac d'avoir fuivi les regles d'Ariftote, mais je ne pardonne pas aux regles d'Ariftote d'avoir fait faire une fi mauvaise tragedie à l'Abbé D'Aubignac." Thefe These leave the fenfe, their learning to display, You then whofe judgment the right course would fteer, Know well each ANCIENT'S proper character; His NOTES. VER. 119. Know well each Ancient's proper character;] From their inattention to these particulars, many critics, and particularly the French, have been guilty of great abfurdities. When Perrault impotently attempted to ridicule the firft ftanza of the first Olympic of Pindar, he was ignorant that the poet, in beginning with the praises of water, alluded to the philofophy of Thales, who taught, that water was the principle of all things; and which philofophy, Empedocles the Sicilian, a cotemporary of Pindar, and a fubje&t of Hiero, to whom Pindar wrote, had adopted in his beautiful poem. Homer and the Greek tragedians have been likewife cenfured, the former for protracting the Iliad after the death of Hector; and the latter, for continuing the Ajax and Phoeniffe, after the deaths of their respective heroes. But the cenfurers did not confider the importance of burial among the ancients; and that the action of the Iliad would have been imperfect without a defcription of the funeral rites of Hector and Patroclus; as the two tragedies, without those of Polynices and Eteocles; for the ancients efteemed a deprivation of fepulture to be a more severe calamity than death itself. It is obfervable, that this circumftance did not occur to Pope, when he endeavoured to juftify this conduct of Homer, by only faying, that as the anger of Achilles does not die with Hector, but perfecutes his very remains, the poet ftill keeps up to his fubject, by describing the many effects of his anger, till it is fully fatisfied; and that for this reason, the two last books of the Iliad may be thought not to be excrefcencies, but effential to the poem. I will only add, that I do not know an author whofe capital excellence fuffers more from the reader's not regarding his climate and country, than the incomparable Cervantes. There is a ftriking propriety in the madness of Don Quixote, not frequently taken notice of; for Thuanus informs us, that madness is a common diforder among 0 2 His Fable, Subject, fcope in ev'ry page; Be Homer's works your ftudy and delight, 120 125 Thence form your judgment, thence your maxims bring, And trace the Muses upward to their spring. 128 And let your comment be the Mantuan Mufe. When VARIATIONS. VER. 123. Cavil you may, but never criticize.] The author after this verse originally inferted the following, which he has however omitted in all the editions: Zoilus, had these been known, without a Name P. NOTES. among the Spaniards at the latter part of life, about the age of which the knight is reprefented. "Sur la fin de ses jours Mendozza devint furieux, comme font d'ordinaire les Espagnols.” VER. 128. Still with itself compar'd, &c.] Although perhaps it may feem impoffible to produce any new observations on Homer and Virgil, after fo many volumes of criticism as have been spent upon them, yet the following remarks have a novelty and penetration in them that may entertain; efpecially, as the little treatife from which they are taken is extremely fcarce. 6 Quæ When first young Maro in his boundless mind A work t'outlaft immortal Rome defign'd, VER. 130.] VARIATIONS. 131 Perhaps When first young Maro fung of Kings and Wars, NOTES. hac "Quæ variæ inter fe notæ atque imagines animorum, a principibus utriufque populi poetis, Homero et Virgilio, mirificè exprimuntur. Siquidem Homeri duces et reges rapacitate, libidine, atque anilibus queftibus, lacrymifque puerilibus, Græcam levitatem et inconftantiam referunt. Virgiliani vero principes, ab eximio poeta, qui Romanæ feveritatis faftidium, et Latinum fupercilium verebatur, et ad heroum populum loquebatur, ita componuntur ad majeftatum consularem ut quamvis ab Afiatica mollitie luxuque venerint, inter Furios atque Claudios nati educatique videantur. Neque fuam, ullo actu, Æneas originem prodidiffet, nifi, a præfactiore aliquanto pietate, fudiffet crebro copiam lacrymarum. Qua meliorem expreffione morum ætate, non modo Virgilius Latinorum poetarum princeps, fed quivis inflatiffimus vernaculorum, Homero præfertur: cum hic animos proceribus indurit fuos, ille vero alienos. Quamobrem varietas morum, qui carmine reddebantur, et hominum ad quos ea dirigebantur, inter Latinam Græcamque poefin, non inventionis tantum attulit, fed et elocutionis difcrimen illud, quod præcipue inter Homerum et Virgilium deprehenditur; cum fententias et oramenta quæ Homeras fparferat, Virgilius, Romanorum arium caufa, contraxerit; atque ad mores et ingenia retulerit eorum, qui a poefi non petebant publicam aut privatem inftitutionem, quam ipfi Marte fuo invenerant; fed tantum delectationem * Blackwell, in his excellent Enquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer, has taken many obfervations from this valuable book, particularly in his twelfth fection. VER. 130. When firft young Maro, &c.] Virg. Eclog. vi. "Cum canerem reges et proelia, Cynthius aurum Vellit." * J. Vincentii Gravinæ de Poefi, ad S. Maffeinno Epift. added to his treatise entitled Della Rafion Poetica. In Napoli, 1716, page 239. 250. Perhaps he feem'd above the Critic's law, And but from Nature's fountain fcorn'd to draw: NOTES. It is a tradition preferved by Servius, that Virgil began with writing a poem of the Alban and Roman affairs; which he found above his years, and defcended firft to imitate Theocritus on rural fubjects, and afterwards to copy Homer in Heroic poetry. P. That Virgil, not only in his general plan, but in most of the fubordinate parts, was a close copyift of Homer, is undeniable, whatever be thought of the fuppofition that he fet out with a defign of drawing from the fources of nature, and was diverted from it by the difcovery that "Nature and Homer were the fame." The modern idolatry of Shakespear has elevated him to the fame degree of authority among us; and critics have not been wanting, who have confidently drawn from his characters the proofs and illuftrations of their theories on the human mind. But what can be more unworthy of the true critic and philofopher, than fuch an implicit reliance on any man, how exalted foever his genius, especially on thofe who lived in the infancy of their art? If an epic poem be a reprefentation of nature in a course of heroic action, it must be fufceptible of as much variety as nature herself; and furely it is more defirable that a poet of original genius fhould give full fcope to his inventive powers, under the reftri&tion of fuch laws only as are founded on nature, than that he fhould fetter himself with rules derived from the practice of a predecessor. When Pope praises the ancient rules for compofition on the ground that they were "difcover'd not devis'd," and were only "nature methodized," he gives a juft notion of what they ought to be. But when he supposes Virgil to have properly" checked in his bold defign of drawing from Nature's fountains," and in confequence, to have confined his work within rules as ftrict, "As if the Stagyrite o'erlook'd each line;" how can he avoid the force of his own ridicule, where a little further, in this very piece, he laughs at Dennis for 66 Concluding all were defperate fots and fools. Who durft depart from Aristotle's rules?" Such are the inconfiftencies of a writer who fometimes utters notions derived from reading and education; fometimes the fuggeftions of native good fenfe!" Dr. Aikin to his Son. But |