Ut "propius spectes lacrymosa poemata Pupî! y Quod si me Populus Romanus forte roget, cur Non, ut porticibus, sic judiciis fruar îsdem ; Nec sequar aut fugiam, quæ diligit ipse vel odit : Olim quod vulpes ægroto cauta leoni Respondit, referam: Quia me vestigia terrent Omnia te adversum spectantia, nulla retrorsum. b Bellua multorum est capitum. nam quid sequar, aut quem? Pars hominum gestit 'conducere publica: sunt qui NOTES. Ver. 106. eye a King.] Our Author is so perpetually expressing an affected contempt for kings, that it becomes almost a nauseous cant. -the pride of kings -some monster of a king -pity kings—the gift of kings -gods of kings-much above a king -Settle wrote of kings -Midas; and a king, and many others. Hawkins Brown laughed at him for his affectation, in the pleasant Imitations of English Poets, on Tobacco. "Come let me taste thee, unexcised by kings." Kings have been of late years spoken of with even much more disrespect. Ver. 116. Because I see,] Both poets have told this Fable, which Plato also was fond of, with an elegant brevity, a quality for which Babrius was eminent, and in which our modern fabulists miserably fail. Why did Pope omit ægroto? And why would he connect the passage that immediately follows in a forced and quaint manner, which Horace never thought of? As if the word bellua had any relation to the lion before mentioned? For what? to have a "Box where Eunuchs sing, Or "he, who bids thee face with steady view 106 Proud Fortune, and look shallow Greatness through: X And, while he bids thee, sets th' Example too? If such a Doctrine, in St. James's air, 110 Should chance to make the well-drest Rabble stare; That less admires the 'Palace than the Park: "I cannot like, dread Sir, your Royal Cave: 115 Because I see, by all the tracks about, Full many a Beast goes in, but none come out." Send her to Court, you send her to her grave. The 'People are a many-headed Beast: Alike in nothing but one Lust of Gold, 120 Just half the land would buy, and half be sold: 125 Their Country's Wealth our mightier Misers drain, Or cross, to plunder Provinces, the Main; The rest, some farm the Poor-box, some the Pews; Some keep Assemblies, and would keep the Stews; NOTES. Ver. 129. Some keep Assemblies,] This was written fifty years ago. What would our Author have said of the increase of this infamous practice in the year 1796? In what glowing colours would he have proscribed it! Crustis et pomis viduas venentur avaras, NOTES. Ver. 130. Dotards fawn ;] The legacy-hunters, the hæredipetæ, were a more common character among the ancients than with us. The ridicule, therefore, is now not so striking. Lucian has five pleasant dialogues on the subject, from page 343 to 363, in the Quarto Edition of Hemsterhusius. Horace himself appears to have failed more in exposing this folly, than in any other of his Satires; and principally so, by mixing ancient with modern manners, and making Tiresias instruct Ulysses in petty frauds, and artifices too subtle for the old prophet and hero to dictate and to practise. Sat. 5. lib. ii. Ben Jonson's Fox is not much relished from our not being acquainted with such characters, which are finely ridiculed by Plautus, in the Soldier, 3d Act. Illi apud me edunt, me curant ; visunt quid agam, ecquid velim ; Priusquam lucet, assunt; rogitant, ut nocte somnum ceperim ; Eos pro liberis habeo, qui mihi mittunt munera ; Sacrificant? dant inde partem mihi majorem, quam sibi; Abducunt ad exta; me ad se, ad prandium, ad cœnam vocant. See Sir Charles Hanbury Williams's Satire on Lord Sidney Beauclerc. "Who got by Topham what he lost by Reeve." Ver. 138. Sir Job] Superior to the original; a pleasing little landscape is added to the Satire. But Greenwich-hill is not an exact parallel for Baiæ; where the Romans of the best taste and fashion built their villas. Pope's is the villa of a citizen. The Some with fat Bucks on childless Dotards fawn; Some win rich Widows by their Chine and Brawn ; While with the silent growth of ten per cent e In dirt and darkness, hundreds stink content. Of all these ways, if each 'pursues his own, But shew me one who has it in his pow'r 132 135 Sir Job sail'd forth, the ev'ning bright and still, "No place on earth (he cry'd) like Greenwich-hill!" Up starts a Palace, lo, th' obedient base b 140 Slopes at its foot, the woods its sides embrace, Away, away! take all your scaffolds down, 146 For Snug's the word: My dear! we'll live in Town." NOTES. absurd and awkward magnificence of some opulent citizens has of late been frequently exposed; but no where with more humour than in the Connoisseur, and in the characters of Sterling and Mrs. Heidelberg, in the Clandestine Marriage. This ridicule of citizens was borrowed from the French. We have some citizens whose good taste is equal to their riches. Ver. 143. Now let some whimsey, &c.] This is very spirited, but much inferior to the elegance of the Original: "Cui si vitiosa Libido "Fecerit auspicium;" which alluding to the religious manners of that time, no modern imitation can reach. W. Ver. 147. live in Town.] Horace says, he will carry his build k Tolletis, fabri. lectus genialis in aula est? 'Si non est, jurat bene solis esse maritis. m Quo teneam vultus mutantem Protea nodo? Quid "pauper? ride: mutat °cœnacula, lectos, "Si curatus inæquali tonsore capillos · Occurro; rides. si forte subucula pexæ Trita subest tunicæ, vel si toga dissidet impar ; Rides. quid? 'mea cum pugnat sententia secum; Quod petiit, spernit; repetit quod nuper omisit; Estuat, et vitæ disconvenit ordine toto; 'Diruit, ædificat, mutat quadrata rotundis? "Insanire putas solennia me, neque rides, Nec medici credis, nec curatoris egere A prætore dati; rerum 'tutela mearum NOTES. ings from so proper and pleasant a situation as Baiæ to Teanum ; a situation unhealthy, disagreeable, and inland. Pope says, he will not build at all, he will again retire to town. He has, I think, destroyed the connexion by this alteration. Mutability of temper is indeed equally exhibited in both instances, but Horace keeps closer to his subject. Ver. 163. You laugh, if coat,] I am inclined to think that Horace laughs at himself, not at Virgil as hath been supposed, for the ungraceful appearance he sometimes made among the courtiers of Augustus, on account of the incongruity of his dress. Perhaps our little, round, fat, oily man was somewhat of a sloven. |
