385

So well in paint and stone they judg'd of merit ;
But Kings in Wit may want difcerning Spirit.
The Hero William, and the Martyr Charles,
One knighted Blackmore, and one penfion'd Quarles;
Which made old Ben and furly Dennis fwear,
"No Lord's anointed, but a Ruffian Bear."
Not with fuch majefty, fuch bold relief, 390
The Forms auguft, of King, or conqu❜ring Chief,
E'er fwell'd on marble; as in verfe have shin'd
(In polish'd verfe) the Manners and the Mind.

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Oh!

NOTES.

year 1671, tells the following ftory: "I and John Echard, the Author of the Contempt of the Clergy, dined with Archbishop Sheldon. After dinner, when the Archbishop had withdrawn and selected his company, I was called into the withdrawing room, and Echard was left behind to go drink and smoke with the Chaplains:" So well adjufted was this refpect of perfons; Echard, the wittiest man of the age, was very fitly left to divert the Chaplains; and Anthony Wood, without all per-adventure the dulleft, was called in to enjoy the conversation of his Grace. WARBURTON.

VER. 385. But Kings in Wit] They may, nevertheless, be very good Kings. It is not for his verses, any more than for his victories, that the late King of Pruffia will be celebrated by pofterity: but for foftening the rigours of a defpotic government, by a code of milder laws than his crouching people had known before; and for building many villages and farm-houses, to encourage agricul ture, and repair the wastes and ravages of war. He muft therefore be pardoned for an abfurd judgment, which he has passed on Homer, whom he could not read in the Original, where he fays; "Ses chants et l'action ont peu ou point de liason les uns avec les autres, ce qui leur a mérité le nom de rapfodies." Preface to the Henriade. WARTON.

VER. 387. penfion'd Quarles;] Who has lately been more favourably spoken of by fome ingenious critics; particularly by the author of Thirty Letters. WARTON,

h

Aufpiciis totum confecta duella per orbem,
Clauftraque cuftodem pacis cohibentia Janum,
Et formidatam Parthis, te principe, Romam:

Si quantum cuperem, poffem quoque. fed neque par

vum

b

* Carmen majeftas recipit tua; nec meus audet
Rem tentare pudor, quam vires ferre recufent.
Sedulitas autem iftulte, quem diligit, urget;
Præcipue cum fe numeris commendat et arte.
Difcit enim citius, meminitque libentius illud
Quod quisTM deridet, quam quod probat et veneratur.
Nil moror" officium, quod me gravat: ac neque ficto
In • pejus vultu proponi cereus ufquam,
Nec
prave factis decorari verfibus opto:
Ne rubeam pingui donatus munere, et una
Cum fcriptore meo capfa porrectus aperta,
Deferar in vicum vendentem thus et odores,
Et piper, et quicquid chartis amicitur ineptis.

NOTES.

VER. 397. how dearly bought !] All this is in the fpirit of the moft contemptuous irony.

VER. 409. they fay I bite.] If any key had been wanting to the artful irony contained in this imitation, efpecially in the laft ixteen lines, this one verfe would have been fufficient to fix the Poet's intention. Neither Dr Warburton nor Dr. Hurd take the leaft notice of any irony being intended in this imitation. To what motive fhall we afcribe this cautious filence? WARTON.

394

Oh! could I mount on the Mæonian wing,
Your Arms, your Actions, your Repose to fing!
What' feas you travers'd, and what fields you fought!
Your Country's Peace, how oft, how dearly bought!
How barb'rous rage fubfided at your word,
And Nations wonder'd while they dropp'd the fword!
How, when you nodded, o'er the land and deep, 400
› Peace stole her wing, and wrapt the world in fleep;
Till earth's extremes your mediation own,

k

1

Andi Afia's Tyrants tremble at your Throne-
But Verfe, alas! your Majefty difdains;
And I'm not us'd to Panegyric strains :
The Zeal of Fools offends at any time,
But most of all, the Zeal of Fools in rhyme.
Befides, a fate attends on all I write,
That when I aim at praife, they fay I bite.
A vile Encomium doubly ridicules:
There's nothing blackens like the ink of fools.
If true, a° woful likeness; and if lies,
"Praise undeferv'd is fcandal in disguise:"
Well may he blush, who gives it, or receives;
And when I flatter, let my dirty leaves

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מן

405

410

415

(Like Journals, Odes, and fuch forgotten things As Eufden, Philips, Settle, writ of Kings)

Cloath fpice, line trunks, or flutt'ring in a row,
Befringe the rails of Bedlam and Soho.

POPE, in his celebrated letter to Lord Hervey, has the hardi. hood to boast himself "a man who never wrote a line in which "the religion or government of his country, the ROYAL FAMILY, "or their miniftry, were difrefpectfully mentioned." The cafe was very much altered, when he wrote this Imitation, the drift of which cannot be mistaken. I have before taken notice of the circumflances of the times when it was published, which the reader should keep in mind, as they are the best comment on fome paffages of particular severity.

No one, however, can be insensible of the great powers of language, and confummate dexterity of fatire, which this Epiftle evinces.

THE SECOND EPISTLE

OF THE

SECOND BOOK OF HORACE.