Ev'n fuch fmall Critics fome regard may claim, Preferv'd in Milton's or in Shakespear's name. NOTES. His fon Jofeph, and Salmafius had indeed fuch endowments of nature and art, as might have raised modern learning to a rivalship with the ancient. Yet how did they and their adversaries tear and worry one another? The choiceft of Jofeph's flowers of fpeech were, Stercus Diaboli, and Lutum fiercore maceratum. It is true, these were lavished upon his enemies: for his friends he had other things in ftore. In a letter to Thuanus, fpeaking of two of them, Clavius and Lipfius, he calls the firft, a monster of ignorance; and the other, a flave to the Jefuits, and an Idiot. But fo great was his love of facred amity at the fame time, that he fays, I still keep up my correspondence with him, notwithstanding his Idiatry, for it is my principle to be conftant in my friendshipsJe ne reste de luy efcrire, nonobftant fon Idioterie, d'autant que je fuis conftant en amitié. The character he gives of his own Chronology, in the fame letter, is no lefs extraordinary: Vous vous pouvez affurer que noftre Eufebe fera un trésor des merveilles de la doctrine Chronologique. But this modeft account of his own work, is nothing in comparison of the idea the Father gives his Bookfeller of his own Perfon. Who, when he was preparing fomething of Julius Scaliger's for the Prefs, defired the Author would give him directions concerning his Picture, which was to be fet before the book. Whose answer (as it stands in his collection of Letters) is, that if the engraver could collect together the feveral graces of Maffinissa, Xenophon, and Plato, he might then be enabled to give the public fome faint and imperfect refemblance of his Perfon. Nor was Salmafius's judg ment of his own parts lefs favourable to himself; as Mr. Colomies tells the story. This Critic, on a time, meeting two of his brethren, Meff. Gaulmin and Mauffac, in the Royal Library at Paris, Gaulmin, in a virtuous consciousness of their Importance, told the other two, that he believed, they three could make head against all the learned in Europe: To which the great Salmafius fiercely replied, "Do you and M. Maussac join yourselves to all that are learned in the world, and you fhall find that I alone am a match for you all." Voffius tells us, that when Laur. Falla had fnarl'd at every name of the first order in antiquity, fuch as Ariftotle, Cicero. and one Pretty in amber to obferve the forms 169 Of hairs, or straws, or dirt, or grubs, or worms! NOTES. whom I should have thought this Critic the likelieft to fpare, the redoubtable PRISCIAN, he impiously boafted that he had arms even against Christ himself. But Codrus Urcæus went further, and actually used thofe arms the other only threatened with. This man while he was preparing fome trifling piece of Criticifm for the prefs, had the misfortune to hear his papers were deftroyed by fire: On which he is reported to have broke out-"Quodnam ego tantum fcelus concepi, O Chrifte! quem ego tuorum unquam læfi, ut ita inexpiabili in me odio debac"cheris? Audi ea quæ tibi mentis compos, et ex animo dicam. Si "forte, cum ad ultimum vitæ finem pervenero, fupplex accedam ❝ad te oratum, neve audias, neve inter tuos accipias oro; cum "Infernis Diis in æternum vitam agere decrevi." Whereupon, fays my author, he quitted the converfe of men, threw himfelf into the thickest of a forest, and wore out the wretched remainder of his life in all the agonies of defpair. VER. 164. flashing Bentley] This great man, tho' with all his faults, deferved to be put into better company. The following words of Cicero defcribe him not amifs. "Habuit à "natura genus quoddam acuminis, quod etiam arte limaverat, "quod erat in reprehendendis verbis verfutum et follers: fed "fæpe ftomachofum, nonnunquam frigidum, interdum etiam "facetum." VER. 169. Pretty! in amber to obferve the forms, &c.] Our Poet had the full pleasure of this amutement foon after the publication of his Shakespear. Nor has his Friend been lefs entertained fince the appearance of his edition of the fame poct. The liquid Amber of whofe Wit has lately licked up, and enrolled fuch a quantity of thefe Infects, and of tribes fo grotesque and various, as would have puzzled Reaumur to give names to. Two or three of them it may not be amifs to preferve and keep alive. Such as the Rev. Mr. J. Upton, Thomas Edwards, Efq. and, to make up the Triumvirate, their learned Coadjutor, that very refpectable perfonage, Mr. THEOPHILUS CIBBER. -As to the poetic imagery of this paffage, it has been much and justly admired; for the moft deteftable things in nature, The things we know, are neither rich nor rare, 171 But wonder how the devil they got there. 175 Were others angry: I excus'd them too; Well might they rage, I gave them but their due. A man's true merit 'tis not hard to find; But each man's fecret ftandard in his mind, That Cafting-weight pride adds to emptiness, This, who can gratify? for who can guess? The Bard whom pilfer'd Paftorals renown, Who turns a Perfian tale for half a Crown, 180 Juft writes to make his barrennefs appear, And strains from hard-bound brains, eight lines a year; He, who ftill wanting, tho' he lives on theft, Steals much, fpends little, yet has nothing left: 184 And He, who now to fenfe, now nonfenfe leaning, Means not, but blunders round about a meaning: NOTES. as a toad, or a beetle, become pleafing when well represented in a work of Art. But it is no lefs eminent for the beauty of the thought. For though a fcribler exifts by being thus incorporated, yet he exifts intombed, a lafting monument of the wrath of the Mufes. VER. 173. Were others angry:] The Poets. VER. 174.I gave them but their due.] Our Author always found thofe he commended lefs fenfible than those he reproved. The reafon is plain. He gave the latter but their due; and the other thought they had no more. VER. 180.a Perfian tale.] Amb. Philips tranflated a Book called the Perfian tales. And He, whose fuftian's fo fublimely bad, All these, my modeft Satire bad tranflate, And own'd that nine fuch Poets made a Tate. 190 How did they fume, and stamp, and roar, and chafe! And fwear, not ADDISON himself was fafe. Peace to all fuch! but were there One whofe fires True Genius kindles, and fair Fame infpires; NOTES. VER. 186. Means not, but blunders round about a meaning:] A cafe common both to Poets and Critics of a certain order; only with this difference, that the Poet writes himself out of his own meaning; and the Critic never gets into another man's. Yet both keep going on, and blundering round about their fubject, as benighted people are wont to do, who seek for an entrance which they cannot find. VER. 189. All these, my modeft Satire bad tranflate,] See their works, in the Tranflations of claffical books by feveral hands. VER. 190.-nine fuch Poets, &c.] Alluding, not to the nine Mufes, but to nine Taylors. VER. 192. And fwear, not ADDISON himself was fafe.] This is an artful preparative for the following tranfition; and finely obviates what might be thought unfavourably of the feverity of the fatire, by thofe who were ftrangers to the provocation. It was VER. 193. But were there One whofe fires &c.] Our Poct's friendship with Mr. Addifon began in the year 1713. cultivated, on both fides, with all the marks of mutual efteem and affection, and conftant intercourfe of good offices. Mr. Addison was always commending moderation, warned his friend against a blind attachment to party, and blamed Steele for his indifcreet zeal. The tranflation of the Iliad being now on foot, he recommended it to the public, and joined with the Tories in pufhing the fubfcription; but at the fame time advised Mr. Pope not to be content with the applause of one half of the nation. On the other hand, Mr. Pope made his friend's Intereft his own (fee note on 215. 1 Ep. B. ii. of Hor.) and, when 1 Bleft with each talent and each art to please, 195 And born to write, converfe, and live with ease: Should fuch a man, too fond to rule alone, Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne, NOTES. Dennis fo brutally attacked the Tragedy of Cato, he wrote the piece called A narrative of his madness. Thus things continued till Mr. Pope's growing reputation, and fuperior genius in Poetry gave umbrage to his friend's falfe delicacy and then it was he encouraged Philips and others (fee his Letters) in their clamours against him as a Tory and Jacobite, who had affifted in writing the Examiners; and, under an affected care for the government, would have hid, even from himself, the true grounds of his difguft. But his jealoufy foon broke out, and discovered itself, firft to Mr. Pope, and, not long after, to all the world. The Rape of the Rock had been written in a very hafty manner, and printed in a collection of Mifcellanies. The fuccefs it met with encouraged the Author to revife and enlarge it, and give it a more important air, which was done by advancing it into a mock-epic Poem. In order to this it was to have its Machinery; which, by the happiest invention, he took from the Rofycrufian Syftem. Full of this noble conception, he communicated it to Mr. Addison, who he imagined would have been equally delighted with the improvement. On the contrary, he had the mortification to have his friend receive it coldly; and more, to advise him against any alteration; for that the poem in its original state was a delicious little thing, and, as he expreffed it, merum fal. Mr. Pope was fhocked for his friend; and then firft began to open his eyes to his Character. Soon after this, a translation of the first book of the Iliad appeared under the name of Mr. Tickell; which coming out at a critical juncture, when Mr. Pope was in the midst of his engagements on the fame fubject, and by a creature of Mr. Addison's, made him fufpect this to be another fhaft from the fame quiver: And after a diligent enquiry, and laying many odd circumstances together, he was fully convinced that it was not only published with Mr. Addifon's participation, but was in |