the how the Wit of Greece and Rome was known And pyry author's merit, but his own. Necip la lungs were Walsh the Muse's judge and Fren Magcondly knew to blame or to commend: To failings mild, but zealous for desert; The clearest head, and the sincerest heart. This humble praise, lamented shade! receive, Content, if hence th' unlearn'd their wants may view, Still pleas'd to praise, yet not afraid to blame; Not free from faults, nor yet too vain to mend. NOTES. rank it with the Paradise Lost? Some of their most perfect tragedies abound in faults as contrary to the nature of that species of poetry, and as destructive to its end, as the fools or gravediggers of Shakspeare. That the French may boast some excellent critics, particularly Bossu, Boileau, Fenelon, and Brumoy, cannot be denied; but that these are sufficient to form a taste upon, without having recourse to the genuine fountains of all polite literature, I mean the Grecian writers, no one but a superficial reader can allow. Ver. 741. Careless of censure,] These concluding lines bear a great resemblance to Boileau's conclusion of his Art of Poetry, but are perhaps superior. "Censeur un peu facheux, mais souvent necessaire ; Plus enclin à blâmer, que scavant à bien faire." Our author has not, in this piece, followed the examples of the ancients, in addressing their didactic poems to some particular person; as Hesiod to Perses; Lucretius to Memmius; Virgil to Mecenas; Horace to the Pisos; Ovid, his Fasti, to Germanicus; Oppian to Caracalla. In later times, Fracastorius addrest P. Bembo; Vida the Dauphin of France. But neither Boileau in his Art, nor Roscommon nor Buckingham in their Essays, nor Akenside nor Armstrong, have followed this practice. But we, brave Britons, foreign laws despis'd, 715 Fierce for the liberties of wit, and bold, Yet some there were, among the sounder few Of those who less presum'd, and better knew, 720 Such was the Muse, whose rules and practice tell, "Nature's chief Master-piece is writing well." NOTES. this poet had formed his taste. Boileau's chief talent was the didactic. His fancy was not the predominant faculty of his mind. Fontenelle has thus characterized him; "Il étoit grand et excellent versificateur, pourvû cependant que cette louange se renferme dans ses beaux jours, dont la différence avec les autres est bien marquée, et faisoit souvent dire Helas! et Hola! mais il n'etoit pas grand poëte, si l'on entend par ce mot, comme on le doit, celui qui Fait, qui Invente, qui Cree." It has become fashionable among the late French writers, to decry Boileau; Marmontel, Diderot, D'Alembert, have done it. The chief fault of Boileau seems to be his decrying the great poets of Italy, and particularly Tasso; but M. Maffei informs us, that the elder son of Racine assured him, that his friend Boileau did not understand Italian, and had not read Tasso. The high encomium Tasso gave to Ariosto does him great honour, and shews him to be superior to envy. Ver. 723. Such was the Muse, whose rules and practice tell, "Nature's chief Master-piece is writing well." This high panegyric, which was not in the first edition, procured to Pope the acquaintance, and afterward the constant friendship, of the Duke of Buckingham; who, in his essay here alluded to, has followed the method of Boileau, in discoursing on the various species of poetry in their different gradations, to no other purpose than to manifest his own inferiority. The piece is, indeed, of the satiric, rather than of the preceptive kind. The coldness and neglect with which this writer, formed only on the Such was Roscommon, not more learn'd than good, With manners gen'rous as his noble blood; 726 NOTES. French critics, speaks of Milton, must be considered as proofs of his want of critical discernment, or of critical courage. I can recollect no performance of Buckingham, that stamps him a true genius. His reputation was owing to his rank. In reading his poems one is apt to exclaim with our author, "What woful stuff this madrigal would be, And each exalted stanza teems with thought." The best part of Buckingham's essay is that, in which he gives a ludicrous account of the plan of modern tragedy. I should add, that his compliment to Pope, prefixed to his poems, contains a pleasing picture of the sedateness and retirement proper to age, after the tumults of public life; and by its moral turn, breathes the spirit if not of a poet, yet of an amiable old man. Ver. 725. Such was Roscommon,] An Essay on Translated Verse seems, at first sight, to be a barren subject; yet Roscommon has decorated it with many precepts of utility and taste, and enlivened it with a tale in imitation of Boileau. It is indisputably better written, in a closer and more vigorous style, than the last-mentioned essay. Roscommon was more learned than Buckingham. He was bred under Bochart, at Caen in Normandy. He had laid a design of forming a society for the refining and fixing the standard of our language; in which project, his intimate friend Dryden was a principal assistant. This was the first attempt of that sort; and, I fear, we shall never see another set on foot in our days; even though Mr. Johnson has lately given us so excellent a Dictionary. It may be remarked, to the praise of Roscommon, that he was the first critic who had taste and spirit publicly to praise the Paradise Lost; with a noble encomium of which, and a rational recommendation of blank verse, he concludes his performance, though this passage was not in the first edition. Fenton, in his Observations on Waller, has accurately delineated his character. "His imagination might have probably been more fruitful and To him the Wit of Greece and Rome was known, And ev'ry author's merit, but his own. Such late was Walsh-the Muse's judge and friend, Who justly knew to blame or to commend; NOTES. 730 sprightly, if his judgment had been less severe; but that severity, delivered in a masculine, clear, succinct style, contributed to make him so eminent in the didactical manner, that no man with justice can affirm, he was ever equalled by any of our own nation, without confessing, at the same time, that he is inferior to none. In some other kinds of writing, his genius seems to have wanted fire to attain the point of perfection; but who can attain it?" Edit. 12mo. p. 136. Ver. 729.] Several lines were here added to the first edition, concerning Walsh. Ver. 729. Such late was Walsh-the Muse's judge and friend,] If Pope has here given too magnificent a eulogy to Walsh, it must be attributed to friendship rather than to judgment. Walsh was, in general, a flimsy and frigid writer. The Rambler calls his works, pages of inanity. His three letters to Pope, however, are well written. His remarks on the nature of pastoral poetry, on borrowing from the ancients, and against florid conceits, are worthy perusal. Pope owed much to Walsh; it was he who gave him a very important piece of advice, in his early youth; for he used to tell our author, that there was one way still left open for him, by which he might excel any of his predecessors, which was, by correctness; that though indeed, we had several great poets, we as yet could boast of none that were perfectly correct; and that therefore, he advised him to make this quality his particular study. Correctness is a vague term, frequently used without meaning and precision. It is perpetually the nauseous cant of the French critics, and of their advocates and pupils, that the English writers are generally incorrect. If correctness implies an absence of petty faults, this perhaps may be granted. If it means, that, because their tragedians have avoided the irregularities of Shakspeare, and have observed a juster economy in their fables, therefore the Athalia, for instance, is preferable to Lear, the notion is groundless and absurd. Though the Henriade should be allowed to be free from any very gross absurdities, yet who will dare to |