III.

LEARN then what MORALS Critics ought to fhow,
For 'tis but half a Judge's tafk, to know. 561
'Tis not enough, taste, judgment, learning, join;
In all you speak, let truth and candour fhine:
That not alone what to your fense is due
All may allow; but feek your friendship too.

Be filent always, when you doubt your fense;
And speak, tho' fure, with feeming diffidence:
Some pofitive, perfifting fops we know,
Who, if once wrong, will needs be always fo;
But you, with pleasure own your errors past,
And make each day a Critique on the last.

565

570

'Tis

NOTES.

VER. 560. Learn then, &c.] We enter now on the third part, the Morals of the critic; included in candour, modefty, and good-breeding. This third and laft part is in two divifions. In the first of which [from ver. 559 to 631.] our author inculcates thefe morals by precept: In the second [from ver. 630 to the end} by example. His first precept [from ver. 561 to 566.] recommends candour, for its use to the critic, and to the writer criticised. W.

VER. 570. Your errors paft,] Thefe few following words of Quintilian, (whom Pope himself has, with propriety, fo frequently quoted), contain almost every thing that can be said on the subject of correcting and emendation. "Hujus autem operis eft, adjicere, detrahere, mutare. Sed facilius in his fimpliciufque judicium, quæ replenda, vel dejicienda funt; premere verò tumentia, humilia extollere, luxuriantia aftringere, inordinata digerere, foluta componere, exultantia coercere, duplicis operæ." Suffer me to add another paffage of equal taste and utility; "Et ipfa emendatio habet finem; funt enim qui ad omnia fcripta, tanquam vitiofa redeunt; & quafi nihil fas fit rectum effe quod primum eft, melius exiftiment quidquid eft aliud; idque faciunt quoties librum in manus refumpferint; fimiles medicis, etiam integra fecantibus.

Accidit

'Tis not enough your counsel still be true; Blunt truths more mischief than nice falfhoods do; Men must be taught as if you taught them not, And things unknown propos'd as things forgot. 575 Without Good-Breeding, truth is disapprov'd; That only makes superior sense belov❜d.

Be niggards of advice on no pretence:

For the worst avarice is that of sense.

With mean complacence ne'er betray your truft,

Nor be fo civil as to prove unjust.

581

Fear not the anger of the wife to raise;

Those best can bear reproof, who merit praise.

NOTES.

'Twere

Accidit itaque ut cicatricofa fint, & exanguia, & curâ pejora. Sit aliquando quod placeat; aut certè quod fufficiat : ut plus poliat lima, non exterat." Quintil. lib. 10. Thefe cautions and restrictions, in the business of emendation, are excellent indeed. VER. 580. With mean complacence ne'er betray your trust, Nor be fo civil as to prove unjufl.]

Our poet practised this excellent precept in his conduct towards Wycherley, whofe pieces he corrected with equal freedom and judgment. But Wycherley, who had a bad heart, and an infufferable fhare of vanity, and who was one of the profeffed wits of the last age, was foon disgusted at this candour and ingenuity of Pope; infomuch, that he came to an open and ungenerous rupture with him.

VER. 582. Fear not the anger of the wife to raife;] The freedom and unrefervednefs with which Boileau and Racine communicated their works to each other, is hardly to be paralleled; of which many amiable inftances appear in their letters lately published by a fon of the latter; particularly in the following: "J'ai trouvé que la Trompette & les Sourds etoient trop joués, & qu'il ne falloit point trop appuyer fur votre incommodité, moins encore chercher de l'efprit fur ce fujet." Boileau communicated to his friend the firft fketch of his Ode on the Taking Namur. It is entertaining

'Twere well might Critics ftill this freedom take, But Appius reddens at each word you speak,

And ftares, tremendous, with a threat'ning eye,
Like fome fierce tyrant in old tapestry,

NOTES.

585

to contemplate a rude draught by fuch a master; and is no lefs pleafing to obferve the temper, with which he receives the objections of Racine. "J'ai deja retouché à tout cela; mais je ne veux point l'achever que je n'aie reçu vos remarques, qui furément m'éclaireront encore l'efprit." The fame volume informs us of a curious anecdote, that Boileau generally made the second verfe of a couplet before the first; that he declared it was one of the grand fecrets of poetry to give, by this means, a greater energy and meaning to his verfes; that he advifed Racine to follow the fame method, and faid on this occafion, "I have taught him to rhyme with difficulty."

VER. 584. 'Twere well might Critics, &c.] The poet having thus recommended, in his general rules of conduct for the Judgment, these three critical virtues to the Heart; fhews next [from ver. 583 to 631.] upon what three forts of writers these virtues, together with the advice conveyed under them, would be thrown away; and which is worse, be repaid with obloquy and fcorn. These are the false Critic, the dull Man of Quality, and the bad Poet; each of which fpecies of incorrigible writers he hath very exactly painted. But having drawn the last of them at full length, and being always attentive to the two main branches of his fubject, which are, of writing and judging well, he re-affumes the character of the bad Critic (whom he had touched upon before) to contraft him with the other; and makes the characteristic common to both, to be a never-ceafing repetition of their own impertinence.

The Poet-ftill runs on in a raging vein, &c. ver. 606, &c.
The Critic with his own tongue ftill edifies his ears, 614, &c. W.

VER. 586. And flares, tremendous, &c.] This picture was taken to himself by John Dennis, a furious old critic by profeffion, who,. upon no other provocation, wrote against this effay and its author, in a manner perfectly lunatic: For, as to the mention made of him in ver. 270, he took it as a compliment, and faid it was treacherously meant to caufe him to overlook this abuse of his perfon,

P.

Fear

Fear moft to tax an Honourable fool,

Whose right it is, uncenfur'd, to be dull;
Such, without wit, are Poets when they please,
As without learning they can take Degrees.
Leave dang❜rous truths to unsuccessful Satires,
And flattery to fulfome Dedicators,

589

Whom, when they praise, the world believes no more,
Than when they promise to give fcribling o'er. 595
'Tis best sometimes your cenfure to restrain,
And charitably let the dull be vain :

Your filence there is better than your fpite,

For who can rail fo long as they can write?

Still humming on, their drouzy course they keep,
And lash'd fo long, like tops, are lafh'd asleep. 601
False steps but help them to renew the race,
As, after stumbling, Jades will mend their pace.
What crouds of thefe, impenitently bold,

In founds and jingling fyllables grown old,

NOTES.

605

VER. 593. Fulfome Dedicators,]" To fee a difcourfe on the ten predicaments (fays Warburton pleasantly) addreffed to a leader of armies, or a system of casuistry to a minister of state, always appeared to me a high abfurdity." Might we not say the same of addreffing a difcourfe on fatalism and free-will to the worthy, but illiterate, Mr. Allen of Bath?

VER. 597. Be vain :] This was a favourite maxim and practice of Addifon, as it is related by Swift; he never contradicted a felf-fufficient affected coxcomb.

VER. 604. Impenitently bold,] Bold is but a poor epithet in this place.

Still run on Poets in a raging vein,

Ev'n to the dregs and fqueezing of the brain,
Strain out the last dull droppings of their fense,
And rhyme with all the rage of Impotence.

With loads of learned lumber in his head,
With his own tongue still edifies his ears,
And always lift'ning to himself appears.

Such fhameless Bards we have; and yet 'tis true, There are as mad, abandon'd Critics too. The bookful blockhead ignorantly read,

611

615

All books he reads, and all he reads affails,
From Dryden's Fables down to Durfey's Tales.
With him most authors fteal their works, or buy;
Garth did not write his own Difpenfary.

Name a new play, and he's the Poet's friend,

620

Nay fhow'd his faults-but when would Poets mend? No place fo facred from fuch fops is barr'd,

Nor is Paul's church more safe than Paul's churchyard; Nay,

NOTES.

VER. 607. Squeezing of the brain,] It has been fuggested that he alludes to Wycherley, who had quarrelled with him for correcting his rough and harsh verfes, and for faying, he had better put his thoughts into profe, like Rochfoucault's maxims.

VER. 619. Garth did not write, &c.] A common flander at that time in prejudice of that deferving author. Our Poet did him this juftice, when that flander most prevailed; and it is now (perhaps the fooner for this very verfe) dead and forgotten.

P.

VER. 622. No place fo facred] This ftroke of fatire is literally

taken from Boileau.

"Gardez vous d'imiter ce rimeur furieux,
Qui de fes vains écrits lecteur harmonieux
Aborde en récitant quiconque le falue,

Et pourfuit de fes vers les paffans dans le ruë,