One boundless Green, or flourish'd Carpet views,
With all the mournful family of Yews;

The thriving plants ignoble broomsticks made,
Now sweep thofe Alleys they were born to fhade.
At Timon's Villa let us pafs ́a day,

96

Where all cry out, "What fums are thrown away!"

NOTES.

the Father's tafte was enthu- | this was the good man's fiaftical; in which paffion there is always fomething great and noble; tho' it be too apt, in its flights, to leave fenfe behind it: and

cafe. But his Son's was a poor defpicable fuperftition, a low fombrous paffion, whofe perverfity of Tafte could only gratify itself

With all the mournful family of Yews.

are the moft tonfile) as to deftroy the nobler Forefttrees, to make way for such little ornaments as Pyramids of dark green continually repeated, not unlike a Funeral proceffion. P.

VER. 95. The two ex-(particularly Yews, which tremes in parterres, which are equally faulty; a boundlefs Green, large and naked as a field, or a flourish'd Carpet, where the greatnefs and nobleness of the piece is leffened by being divided into too many parts, with scroll'd works and beds, of which the examples are frequent. P.

VER. 96.-mournful family of Yews;] Touches upon the ill taste of those who are fo fond of Ever-greens

VER. 99. At Timon's Villa] This defcription is intended to comprize the principles of a falfe Tafte of Magnificence, and to exemplify what was faid before, that nothing but Good Senfe can attain it. P.

So proud, fo grand; of that ftupendous air,

101

Soft and Agreeable come never there.
Greatness, with Timon, dwells in such a draught
As brings all Brobdignag before your thought.

To compass this, his building is a Town,

His pond an Ocean, his parterre a Down:

Who but must laugh, the Mafter when he fees,
A puny infect, fhiv'ring at a breeze!

Lo, what huge heaps of littleness around!

The whole, a labour'd Quarry above ground. 110
Two Cupids fquirt before: a Lake behind
Improves the keenness of the Northern wind.
His Gardens next your admiration call,
On ev'ry fide you look, behold the Wall!
No pleafing Intricacies intervene,

No artful wildness to perplex the scene;

NOTES.

115

VER. 104-all Brobdig-body, but the foul of the nag] A region of giants in the fatires of Gulliver.

VER. 109. Lo! what huge heaps of littleness around,] Grandeur in building, as in the human frame, takes not its denomination from the

work: when the foul therefore is loft or incumber'd in its invelope, the unanimated parts, how huge foever, are not members of grandeur, but mere heaps of littleness.

120

Grove nods at grove, each Alley has a brother,
And half the platform juft reflects the other.
The fuff'ring eye inverted Nature sees,
Trees cut to Statues, Statues thick as trees;
With here a Fountain, never to be play'd;
And there a Summer-houfe, that knows no fhade;
Here Amphitrite fails thro' myrtle bow'rs;
There Gladiators fight, or die in flow'rs;
Un-water'd see the drooping fea-horse mourn, 125.
And swallows rooft in Nilus' dusty Urn.
My Lord advances with majestic mien,
Smit with the mighty pleasure, to be seen:

NOTES.

VER. 117, 118. Grove | neds at grove, each Alley bas a brother, And half the platform juft reflects the other.] This is exactly the two puddings of the citizen in the foregoing fable, only ferved up a little more magnificently: But both on the fame abfurd principle of wrong tafte, viz. that one can never have too much of a good thing.

Ibid. Grove nods at grove, &c.] The exquifite humour of this expreffion a

rifes folely from its fignificancy. Thefe groves, that have no meaning, but very near relation-fhip, can exprefs themselves only like twin-ideots by nods; which juft ferve to let us underftand, that they know one another, as having been nurfed, and brought up by one common parent.

VER. 124. The two Statues of the Gladiator pugnans and Gladiator moriens. P.

But foft-by regular approach-not yet

Firft thro' the length of yon hot Terrace fweat; 130 And when up ten fteep flopes you've drag'd your

thighs,

Juft at his Study-door he'll bless your eyes.

His Study! with what Authors is it ftor❜d?
In Books, 'not Authors, curious is my Lord;
To all their dated Backs he turns you
round:
These Aldus printed, those Du Suëil has bound,
Lo fome are Vellom, and the reft as good
For all his Lordship knows, but they are Wood.
For Locke or Milton 'tis in vain to look,

These shelves admit not any modern book.

NOTES.

135

140

VER. 130. The Ap-light chiefly in the elegance proaches and Communication of houfe with garden, or of one part with another, ill judged, and inconvenient. P. VER. 133. His Study!

The falfe Tafte in Books; a fatire on the vanity in collecting them, more frequent in men of Fortune than the study to understand them. Many de

N

of the print, or of the binding; fome have carried it fo far, as to cause the upper fhelves to be filled with painted books of wood; others pique themselves fo much upon books in a language they do not underftand, as to exclude the most useful in one they do. P.

And now the Chapel's filver bell you hear,
That fummons you to all the Pride of Pray'r:
Light quirks of Music, broken and uneven,
Make the foul dance upon a Jig to Heav'n.
On painted Cielings you devoutly ftare,
Where sprawl the Saints of Verrio or Laguerre,
On gilded clouds in fair expansion lie,
And bring all Paradife before your eye.

NOTES.

VER. 142. That fummons you to all the Pride of Pray'r] This abfurdity is very happily expreffed; Pride, of all human follies, being the first we should leave behind us when we approach the facred altar. But he who could take Meannefs for Magnificence, might eafily mistake Humility for Meannefs.

VER. 143. The falfe Tafte in Mufic, improper to the fubjects, as of light airs in churches, often practifed by the organifts, &c. P.

VER. 145. And in Painting (from which even Italy is not free) ‹ fnaked

145

figures in Churches, &c. which has obliged fome Popes to put draperies on fome of thofe of the beft mafters. P.

VER. 146. Where sprawl the Saints of Verrio, or Laguerre. ] The fine image here given in a fingle word, admirably expofes the unnatural pofition of the picture, and the 'too natural poftures of its female figures.

Ibid. Verrio or Laguerre.] Verrio (Antonio) painted many cielings, &c. at Windfor, Hampton-court, &c and Laguerre at Blenheim-castle, and other places. P.