Thine from the birth, and facred from the rod, REMARK S. The Poet gives him no particular name; being unwilling, I prefume, to offend or do injuftice to any, by celebrating one only with whom this character agrees, in preference to so many who SCRIBL. equally deserve it. VER. 284. A dauntless infant! never scar'd with God] i. e. Brought up in the enlarged principles of modern Education; whofe great point is to keep the infant mind free from the prejudices of opinion, and the growing spirit unbroken by terrifying Names. Amongst the happy confequences of this reformed discipline, it is not the leaft, that we have never afterwards any occafion for the Priest, whofe trade, as a modern wit informs us, SCRIBL. is only to finish what the nurse began. VER. 286-the bleffing of a Rake] Scriblerus is here much at a lofs to find out what this bleffing fhould be. He is fometimes tempted to imagine it might be the marrying a great fortune: but this, again, for the vulgarity of it, he rejects, as something uncommon feemed to be prayed for. And after many strange conceits, not at all to the honour of the fair fex, he at length refts in this, that it was, that her fon might pass for a wit; in which opinion he fortifies himself by ver. 316. where the Orator, fpeaking of his pupil, fays, that he Intrigu'd with glory, and with spirit whor'd, which feems to infinuate that her prayer was heard. Here the good fcholiaft, as, indeed, every where elfe, lays open the very foul of modern criticism, while he makes his own ignorance of a poetical expreffion hold open the door to much erudition and learned conjecture: the blessing of a rake fignifying no more than that he might be a Rake; the effects of a thing for the IMITATIONS. VER. 284. A dauntless infant never fear'd with God.] Thou gav'ft that Ripenefs, which so foon began, REMARKS. 295 thing itself, a common figure. The careful mother only wished her fon might be a Rake, as well knowing that its attendant Bleffings would follow of course, VER. 288. be ne'er was Boy, nor Man.] Nature hath beftowed on the human fpecies two ftates or conditions, Infancy and Manhood. Wit fometimes makes the firft difappear, and Folly the latter; but true Dulness annihilates both. For, want of apprehenfion in Boys, not fuffering that confcious ignorance and inexperience which produce the aukward bashfulness of youth, makes them affured; and want of imagination makes them grave. But this gravity and affurance, which is beyond boyhood, being neither wifdem nor knowledge, do never reach to manhood. VER. 290. unfeen the young neas paft: Thence bursting glorious,] See Virg. Æn. i. At Venus obfcuro gradientes aëre fepfit, Et multo nebule circum Dea fudit amiētu, Cernere ne quis eos ;-1. neu quis contingere poffit ; 2. Molirive mòram ;—aut 3. veniendi pofcere caufas. Where he enumerates the caufes why his mother took this care of him to wit, 1. that no-body might touch or correct him: 2. might stop or detain him: 3. examine him about the progress he had made, or fo much as guess why he came there. To where the Seine, obfequious as he runs, 300 305 To happy Convents, bofom'd deep in vines, 315 REMARK S. VER. 303. lilly filver'd vales,] Tuberofes. VER. 307. But chief, &c.] Thefe two lines, in their force of imagery and colouring, emulate and equal the pencil of Rubens. VER. 308. And Cupids ride the Lion of the Deeps ;] The winged Lion, the Arms of Venice. This Republic heretofore the most confiderable in Europe, for her Naval Force and the extent of her Commerce; now illuftrious for her Carnivals. Try'd all hors-d'œuvres, all liqueurs defin'd, 321 Spoil'd his own language, and acquir'd no more; As Janfen, Fleetwood, Cibber shall think fit; REMARKS. 325 VIR. 318. greatly-daring din'd;] It being indeed no small rifque to eat thro' thofe extraordinary compofitions, whose difguis'd ingredients are generally unknown to the guests, and highly inflammatory and unwholesome. VER. 322. And last turn'd Air, the Echo of a Sound!] Yet lefs a Body than Echo itself; for Echo reflects Senfe or Words at leaft, this Gentleman only Airs and Tunes: •Sonus eft, qui vivit in illo. Ovid. Met. So that this was not a Metamorphofis either in one or the other, but only a Resolution of the Soul into its true Principles; its real Effence being Harmony, according to the Doctrine of Orpheus, the Inventor of Opera, who first performed to a select affembly of Beafts. SCRIBL. VER. 324. With nothing but a Solo in bis bead ;] With nothing but a Solo? Why, if it be a Solo, how should there be any thing else? Palpable Tautology! Read boldly an Opera, which is enough of conscience for such a head as has loft all its Latin. BENTL VER. 326. Jansen, Fleetwood, Cibber,] Three very eminent perfons, all Managers of Plays; who, tho' not Governors by profeffion, had, each in his way, concerned themselves in the 3 Stol'n from a Duel, follow'd by a Nun, And, if a Borough chufe him, not undone! This glorious Youth, and add one Venus more. 230 Her too receive (for her my foul adores) So may the fons of fons of fons of whores, Prop thine, O Empress! like each neighbour Throne, And make a long Posterity thy own. REMARK S. Education of Youth: and regulated their Wits, their Morals, or their Finances, at that Period of their age which is the moft important, their entrance into the polite world. Of the last of these, and his Talents for this end, fee Book i. ver. 199. &c. VER. 331. Her too receive, &c.] This confirms what the learned Scriblerus advanced in his Note on ver. 272, that the Governor, as well as the Pupil, had a particular intereft in this lady. Ibid. fons of whores] For fuch have been always efteemed the ableft fupports of the Throne of Dulness, even by the confeffion of those her moft legitimate Sons, who have unfortunately wanted that advantage. The illuftrious Vanini in his divine encomiums on our Goddefs, intitled, De Admirandis Naturæ Regina Deaque mortalium Arcanis, laments that he was not born a Baftard: 0 utinam extra legitimum ac connubialem thorum essem procreatus! &c. He expatiates on the prerogatives of a free birth, and on what he would have done for the Great Mother with thofe advantages; and then forrowfully concludes, At quia Conjugatorum fum foboles, his orbatus fum bonis. IMITATIONS. ་ VER. 332. So may the fons of fons &c.] Virg. |