Round him much Embryo, much Abortion lay, Much future Ode, and abdicated Play; Nonsense precipitate, like running Lead,

That flip'd thro' Cracks and Zig-zags of the Head;
All that on Folly Frenzy could beget,

Fruits of dull Heat, and Sooterkins of Wit.
Next, o'er his Books his eyes began to roll,
In pleasing memory of all he stole,

125

How here he fipp'd, how there he plunder'd fnug, And fuck'd all o'er, like an industrious Bug. 130

VARIATIONS.

VER. 121. Round him much Embryo &c.] In the former Editions thus,

He roll'd his Eyes that witnefs'd huge difmay,

Where yet unpawn'd, much learned lumber lay ;
Volumes, whose fize the space exactly fill'd,
Or which fond authors were fo good to gild,
Or where, by fculpture made for ever known,
The page admires new beauties not its own.
Here fwells the shelf &c.

IMITATIONS.

Var. He roll'd his eyes that witness'd huge difmay.

round he throws his eyes,

That witness'd huge affliction and difmay.

Milt. B. i.

The progrefs of a bad poet in his thoughts, being (like the progrefs of the Devil in Milton) through a Chaos, might probably fuggeft this imitation.

Here lay poor Fletcher's half-eat scenes, and here
The Frippery of crucify'd Moliere;
There hapless Shakespear, yet of Tibbald fore,
Wifh'd he had blotted for himself before.
The rest on Out-fide merit but presume,

Or ferve (like other Fools) to fill a room;

REMARK S.

135

VER. 131. poor Fletcher's half-eat fcenes, ] A great number of them taken out to patch up his Plays.

VER. 132. The Frippery] "When I fitted up an old play, "it was as a good housewife will mend old linnen, when she "has not better employment." Life, p. 217. octavo.

VER. 133. hapless Shakespear, &c.] It is not to be doubted but Bays was a fubfcriber to Tibbald's Shakespear. He was frequently liberal this way; and, as he tells us, " fubfcribed to "Mr. Pope's Homer, out of pure Generofity and Civility; "but when Mr. Pope did fo to his Nonjuror, he concluded it "could be nothing but a joke." Letter to Mr. P. p. 24.

This Tibbald, or Theobald, published an edition of Shakefpear, of which he was fo proud himself as to say, in one of Mift's Journals, June 8, "That to expose any Errors in it "was impracticable." And in another, April 27, "That "whatever care might for the future be taken by any other "Editor, he would still give above five hundred Emendations, "that shall escape them all."

VER. 134. Wish'd he had blotted] It was a ridiculous praise which the Players gave to Shakespear, "that he never blotted "a line." Ben Johnfon honeftly wifh'd he had blotted a thoufand; and Shakespear would certainly have wifhed the fame, if he had lived to fee thofe alterations in his works, which, not the Actors only (and especially the daring Hero of this poem) have made on the Stage, but the prefumptuous Critics of our days in their Editions.

VER. 135. The rest on Out-fide merit &c.] This Library is divided into three parts; the firft confifts of those authors from whom he ftole, and whofe works he mangled; the fecord, of fuch as fitted the fhelves, or were gilded for fhew, or adorned

Such with their fhelves as due proportion hold,
Or their fond Parents dreft in red and gold;

Or where the pictures for the

page attone, And Quarles is fav'd by Beauties not his own. 140 Here fwells the shelf with Ogilby the great;

There, ftamp'd with arms, Newcastle shines complete:

Here all his fuff'ring brotherhood retire,

And 'scape the martyrdom of jakes and fire :

REMARK S.

with pictures; the third class our author calls folid learning, old bodies of Divinity, old Commentaries, old English Printers, or old English Translations; all very voluminous, and fit to erect altars to Dulness.

VER. 141. Ogilby the great ;] " John Ogilby was one, who, << from a late initiation into literature, made fuch a progrefs as "might well ftyle him the prodigy of his time! fending into "the world fo many large Volumes! His tranflations of Homer "and Virgil done to the life, and with fuch excellent fculptures: "And (what added great grace to his works) he printed them "all on special good paper, and in a very good letter." WINSTANLY, Lives of Poets.

VER. 142. There, stamp'd with arms, Newcastle shines complete] "The Duchefs of Newcastle was one who bufied herself

in the ravishing delights of Poetry; leaving to pofterity in "print three ample Volumes of her ftudious endeavours." WINSTANLY, ibid. Langbaine reckons up eight Folios of her Grace's; which were ufually adorned with gilded covers, and had her coat of arms upon them.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 140. in the former Edd.

The page admires new beauties not it's own. Miraturque novas frondes non fua poma.

Virg. Geor, it

A Gothic Library! of Greece and Rome

145

Well purg'd, and worthy Settle, Banks, and Broome.

But, high above, more folid Learning fhone, The Claffics of an Age that heard of none;

VARIATIONS.

VER. 146. in the first Edit. it was

Well-purg'd, and worthy W-y, W—s, and Bl— And in the following alter'd to Withers, Quarles, and Blome, on which was the following note:

It was printed in the furreptitious editions, Wly, W—s, who were perfons eminent for good life; the one writ the Life of Chrift in verfe, the other fome valuable pieces in the lyric kind on pious subjects. The line is here reftor'd according to its original.

"George Withers was a great pretender to poetical zeal against the vices of the times, and abused the greatest person❝ages in power, which brought upon him frequent Correction. "The Marshalfea and Newgate were no ftrangers to him." WINSTANLY. Quarles was as dull a writer, but an honester man. Blome's books are remarkable for their cuts.

REMARK S.

VER. 146. Worthy Settle, Banks, and Broome.] The Poet has mentioned these three authors in particular, as they are parallel to our Hero in his three capacities: 1. Settle was his Brother Laureate; only indeed upon half-pay, for the City instead of the Court; but equally famous for unintelligible flights in his poems on public occafions, fuch as Shows, Birth-days, &c. 2. Banks was his Rival in Tragedy (tho' more fuccessful) in one of his Tragedies, the Earl of Effex, which is yet alive: Anna Boleyn, the Queen of Scots, and Cyrus the Great, are dead and gone. These he dreft in a fort of Beggars Velvet, or a happy mixture of the thick Fuftian and thin Profaic; exactly imitated in Perolla and Ifidora, Cæfar in Egypt, and the Heroic Daughter. 3. Broome was a ferving man of Ben. Johnson, who once picked up a Comedy from his Betters, or from fome caft fcenes of his Mafter, not entirely contemptible.

VER. 147. More folid Learning] Some have objected, that

There Caxton slept, with Wynkyn at his fide, 149 One clafp'd in wood, and one in strong cow-hide; There, fav'd by fpice, like Mummies, many a year, Dry Bodies of Divinity appear :

REMARK S.

books of this fort fuit not fo well the library of our Bays, which they imagine confifted of Novels, Plays, and obfcene books; but they are to confider, that he furnished his fhelves only for ornament, and read these books no more than the Dry bodies of Divinity, which, no doubt, were purchased by his Father when he defigned him for the Gown. See the note on y 200.

VER. 149. Caxton] A Printer in the time of Edw. IV. Rich. III. and Hen. VII; Wynkyn de Word, his fucceffor, in that of Hen. VII and VIII. The former translated into prose Virgil's Æneis, as a hiftory; of which he speaks, in his Proeme, in a very fingular manner, as of a book hardly known. "Hap"pened that to my hande cam a lytyl book in frenche, whiche "late was tranflated out of latyn by fome noble clerke of "fraunce, whiche booke is named Eneydos (made in latyn by "that noble poete & grete clerk Vyrgyle) which booke I fawe "over and redde therein, How after the generall deftruccyon "of the grete Troy, Eneas departed berynge his old fader an"chises upon his fholdres, his lytyl fon yolas on his hande, his "wyfe with moche other people followynge, and how he "fhipped and departed; wythe all thyftorye of his adventures "that he had er he cam to the atchievement of his conqueft of ❝ytalye, as all alonge fhall be fhewed in this present booke. "In whiche booke I had grete playfyr, by cause of the fayr and "honest termes & wordes in frenche, whiche I neuer fawe to "fore lyke, ne none fo playfaunt ne fo well ordred; whiche "booke as me femed fholde be moch requyfite to noble men "to fee, as wel for the eloquence as the hyftoryes. How wel "that many hondred yerys paffed was the fayd booke of Eney"dos wyth other workes made and lerned dayly in fcolis, ef"pecyally in ytayle and other places, which historye_the fayd ❝. Vyrgyle made in metre." Tibbald quotes a rare paffage from him in Mift's Journal of March 16, 1728, concerning à ftraunge and mervaylloufe beafte called Sagittarye, which he would have