Caetera nequaquam fimili ratione modoque Aestimat; et, nifi quae terris femota fuisque regum, Si, quia" Graecorum funt antiquiffima quaeque Scripta vel optima, Romani penfantur eadem Scriptores trutina; non eft quod multa loquamur: Nil intra eft oleam, nil extra eft in nuce duri. Venimus ad fummum fortunae : pingimus, atque • Pfallimus, et luctamur Achivis doctius unctis. NOTES. "anges, tandis que fes imbécilles detracteurs, ces hommes vils, "qui pour être oubliez, n'ont pas befoin de ceffer d'être, ref"teront pour jamais plongez dans l'oubli.” VER. 38. And beaftly Skelton, etc.] Skelton, Poet Laureat to Hen. VIII. a volume of whofe verfes has been lately reprinted, confifting almost wholly of ribaldry, obfcenity, and fcurrilous language. P. Juft in one inftance, be it yet confeft Your People, Sir, are partial in the rest: 1 Chaucer's worst ribaldry is learn'd by rote, A Scot will fight for Christ's Kirk o' the Green; And each true Briton is to Ben fo civil, m He fwears the Mufes met him at the Devil. Tho' juftly" Greece her eldest sons admires, Why fhould not We be wiser than our fires? In ev'ry Public virtue we excell; 34 We build, we paint, we fing, we dance as well, And learned Athens to our art must stoop, Could the behold us tumbling thro' a hoop. NOTES. 39 45 VER. 40. Chrift's Kirk o' the Green ;] A Ballad made by a King of Scotland. P. VER. 42. The Mufes met him] This inftance of the People's ill tafte was well chofen. Johnfon's talents were learning, judgment, and industry, rather than wit, or natural genius. VER. 42. met him at the Devil] The Devil Tavern, where Ben Johnson held his Poetical Club. P. Si meliora dies, ut vina, poemata reddit; Scire velim, chartis pretium quotus arroget annus. Scriptor ab hinc annos centum qui decidit, inter Viles atque novos? excludat jurgia finis. Est vetus atque probus, * centum qui perficit annos. Quid? qui deperiit minor uno menfe vel anno, Inter quos S referendus erit? veterefne poetas, An quos et praefens et poftera refpuat aetas? Utor permiffo, caudaeque pilos ut" equinae Paulatim vello: et demo unum, demo et item unum; Dum cadat elufus ratione "ruentis acervi, Qui redit in* faftos, et virtutem aeftimat annis, Miraturque nihil, nifi quod Libitina facravit. NOTES. VER, 68. Bestow a Garland only on a Bier.] The thought is beautiful, and alludes to the old practice of our Ancestors, of covering the Bier (on which the dead were carried to their in If Time improve our Wit as well as Wine, age a Poet grows divine? Say at what Shall we, or shall we not, account him fo, years ago? Who dy'd, perhaps, an hundred 50 "Who lafts a' century can have no flaw, 55 "I hold that Wit a Claffic, good in law. Suppose he wants a year, will you compound?, And shall we deem him 'Ancient, right and found, Or damn to all eternity at once, At ninety nine, a Modern and a Dunce? "We shall not quarrel for a year or two; By courtesy of England, he may do. 60 Then, by the rule that made the" Horse-tail bare, I pluck out year by year, as hair by hair, W And melt down Ancients like a heap of snow : 65 While you, to measure merits, look in * Stowe, y Beftow a Garland only on a Bier. NOTES. terment) with Garlands. A manly and pious custom, which arofe from the most ancient practice of rewarding victors; and from thence was brought into the Church, and applied to thofe who had fought the good fight. Ennius et fapiens, et fortis, et alter Homerus, Ut critici dicunt, leviter curare videtur Quo* promissa cadant, et fomnia Pythagorea. Naevius in manibus non eft; at mentibus haeret NOTES. VER. 69. Shakespear.] Shakespear and Ben Johnson may truly be faid not much to have thought of this Immortality, the one in many pieces composed in hafte for the Stage; the other in his latter works in general, which Dryden call'd his Dotages. P. Ibid. Shakespear-For gain, not glory, etc.] SHAKESPEAR knew perfectly well what belonged to a true compofition, as appears from the Tempest, and the Merry Wives of Windfor. But he generally complied with the ignorance, and the ill taste of his Au dience. However, in his most irregular plays his wit and sublimity make amends for his tranfgreffion of the rules of art, and fupport him in it. But, happily for the improvement of the Drama, he had a competitor in JOHNSON; who, with a greater temptation to comply with the bad taste of the age, yet had not the fame force of genius to fupport an irregular compofition. Johnson, therefore, borrowed all he could from art; and like an experienced general, when he could not depend on his natural strength, never ventured from behind his lines. The confequence was, that Shakespear having once tried to reform the tafte [See Hamlet] and, on failing, had complied with it, became the favourite Poet of the People; while Johnfon, who, for the reafon given |