Ut nihil anteferat, nihil illis comparet; errat:

k

Si quaedam nimisi antique, fi pleraque * dure
Dicere cedit eos, 1ignave multa fatetur ;
Et fapit, et mecum facit, et Jove judicat aequo.

m Non equidem infector, delendaque carmina Livi

Effe reor, memini quae " plagofum • mihi parvo

Orbilium dictare;

fed emendata videri

Pulchraque, et exactis minimum diftantia, miror:

NOTES.

mour, one of the first printed Plays in English, and therefore much valued by fome Antiquaries. P.

1

Ibid. To Gammer Gurton, And yet deny, etc.] i. e. If they give the bays to one play because it is old, and deny it to another as good, because it is new; why then, I say, the Public acts a very foolish part.

VER. 97. Spencer himself affects the Obfolete,] This is certainly true; he extended, beyond all reafon, that precept of Horace,

Obfcurata diu populo bonus eruet, atque

Proferat in lucem fpeciofa vocabula rerum. etc.

Or fay our Fathers never broke a rule;

Why then, I fay, the Public is a fool.

But let them own, that greater Faults than we
They had, and greater Virtues, I'll agree.
Spenfer himself affects the Obfolete,

i

k

And Sydney's verfe halts ill on * Roman feet: Milton's ftrong pinion now not Heav'n can bound, Now Serpent-like, in profe he sweeps the ground, In Quibbles, Angel and Archangel join,

1

And God the Father turns a School-divine.

m Not that I'd lop the Beauties from his book,
Like" flashing Bentley with his defp'rate hook,
Or damn all Shakespear, like th' affected Fool
At court, who hates whate'er he read at school.
But for the Wits of either Charles's days,
The Mob of Gentlemen who wrote with Ease;
Sprat, Carew, Sedley, and a hundred more,
(Like twinkling stars the Mifcellanies o'er)

NOTES.

95

ΙΟΙ

VER. 98. And Sydney's verfe halts ill on Roman feet :] Sir Philip Sidney. He attempted to introduce the Roman hexameter and pentameter measure into English verfe. Baif, a french poet in the time of their Hen. II. had attempted the fame thing before him, and with the same fuccefs.

VER. 104. his defp'rate hook] Alluding to the feveral paffages of Milton, which Bentley has reprobated, by including within hooks, fome with judgment, and fome without.

Inter quae P verbum emicuit fi forte decorum,
Si verfus paulo concinnior unus et alter;
Injuste totum ducit venitque poema.

Indignor quidquam reprehendi, non quia crafse Compofitum, illepideve putetur, fed quia nuper; Nec veniam antiquis, fed honorem et praemia. pofci. s Recte necne crocum florefque perambulet Attae Fabula, fi dubitem; clamant periiffe pudorem Cuncti pene patres: ea cum reprehendere coner, Quae gravis Aefopus, quae doctus Rofcius egit.

t

v

Vel quia nil rectum, nifi quod placuit fibi, ducunt;

Vel quia turpe putant parere minoribus, et, quae

Imberbi didicere, fenes perdenda fateri.

NOTES.

VER. 113. gleams thro' many a page,] The image is taken from half-formed unripe lightening, which streams along the fky, and is just fufficient to fhew the deformity of those black vapours to which it ferves (as Milton expreffes it) for a filver lining.

VER. 119. On Avon's bank,] At Stratford in Warwickshire, where Shakespear had his birth. The thought of the Original is here infinitely improved. Perambulet is a low allufion to the name and imperfections of Atta.

VER. 121. One Tragic fentence if I dare deride,] When writers of our Author's rank have once effectually expafed turgid expreffion, and reduced it to its juft value,

One Simile, that P folitary fhines

In the dry defert of a thousand lines,

Or a lengthen'd Thought that gleams through many a

page,

Has fanctify'd whole poems for an age.

* I lose my patience, and I own it too,
When works are cenfur'd, not as bad but new ;
While if our Elders break all reafon's laws,
These fools demand not pardon, but Applause.

s On Avon's bank, where flow'rs eternal blow, If I but afk, if any weed can grow?

One Tragic fentence if I dare deride.

t

Which Betterton's grave action dignify'd,

115

120

125

Or well-mouth'd Booth with emphasis proclaims,
(Tho' but, perhaps, a mufter-roll of Names)
How will our Fathers rife up in a „ge,
And swear, all fhame is loft in George's Age!
You'd think no Fools difgrac'd the former reign,
Did not fome grave Examples yet remain,

NOTES.

which, hitherto, the fmall critics had mistaken for the fublime, thefe latter are now apt to fufpect all they do not underftand, to be bombaft: like the Idiot in Cervantes, who having been beat for not distinguishing between a Cur and a Greyhound, imagined every dog he met, to be a Cur-dog.

VER. 124. A mufter roll of Names,] An abfurd custom of several Actors, to pronounce with emphasis the meer Proper Names of Greeks or Romans, which (as they call it) fill the mouth of the Player. P.

Jam Saliare Numae carmen qui laudat, et illud,

Quam nobis ; quid nunc effet vetus? aut quid haberet,

VER. 129-130] Much inferior to the original. VER. 138. By learned Critics, of the mighty Dead?] A ridicule on the tribe of learned Critics, who think all writers but the ancient unworthy their care and attention. This came properly into a fatire, whofe fubject is the unreafonable fonduefs for antiquity in general,

VER. 140. with Charles reftor'd;] He fays, restored, because the luxury he brought in, was only the revival of that practised in the reigns of his Father and Grandfather. VER. 142. A Verse of the Lord Lansdown. P.

VER. 143. In Horfemanship t'excell, And ev'ry flow'ry Courtier writ Romance.] The Duke of Newcastle's book of Horfemanship: the Romance of Parthenia, by the