Ut nihil anteferat, nihil illis comparet; errat:

Si quaedam nimis antique, fi pleraque dure

1

Dicere cedit eos, ignave multa fatetur ;

Et fapit, et mecum facit, et Jove judicat aequo.

" Non equidem infector, delendaque carmina Livî

Effe reor, memini quae" plagofum • mihi parvo

Orbilium dictare;

fed emendata videri

Pulchraque, et exactis minimum diftantia, miror:

NOTES.

mour, one of the first printed Plays in English, and therefore much valued by fome Antiquaries. P.

Ibid. To Gammer Gurton, And yet deny, etc.] i. e. If they give the bays to one play because it is old, and deny it to another as good, because it is new; why then, I fay, the Public acts a very foolish part.

VER. 97. Spencer himself affects the Obfolete,] This is certainly true; he extended, beyond all reason, that precept of Horace,

Obfcurata diu populo bonus eruet, atque

Proferat in lucem fpeciofa vocabula rerum. etc.

Or fay our Fathers never broke a rule;
Why then, I fay, the Public is a fool.

But let them own, that greater Faults than we
They had, and greater Virtues, I'll agree.
Spenfer himself affects the Obfolete,

And Sydney's verfe halts ill on Roman feet:
Milton's ftrong pinion now not Heav'n can bound,
Now Serpent-like, in 'profe he sweeps the ground,
In Quibbles, Angel and Archangel join,

And God the Father turns a School-divine.

n

" Not that I'd lop the Beauties from his book,
Like flashing Bentley with his desp❜rate hook,
Or damn all Shakespear, like th' affected Fool
At court, who hates whate'er he read at fchool.

But for the Wits of either Charles's days,
The Mob of Gentlemen who wrote with Ease;
Sprat, Carew, Sedley, and a hundred more,
(Like twinkling ftars the Mifcellanies o'er)

NOTES.

95

101

VER. 98. And Sydney's verfe halts ill on Roman feet :] Sir Philip Sidney. He attempted to introduce the Roman hexameter and pentameter measure into English verse. Baif, a french poet in the time of their Hen. II. had attempted the fame thing before him, and with the fame fuccefs.

VER. 104. bis defp'rate book] Alluding to the feveral paffages of Milton, which Bentley has reprobated, by including within hooks, fome with judgment, and fome without.

Inter quae verbum emicuit fi forte decorum,
Si verfus paulo concinnior unus et alter;
Injufte totum ducit venitque poema.

Indignor quidquam reprehendi, non quia crafse Compofitum, illepideve putetur, fed quia nuper; Nec veniam antiquis, fed honorem et praemia posci. • Recte necne crocum florefque perambulet Attae Fabula, fi dubitem; clamant periiffe pudorem Cuncti pene patres: ea cum reprehendere coner, Quae gravis Aefopus, quae doctus Roscius egit. Vel quia nil v rectum, nifi quod placuit fibi, ducunt; Vel quia turpe putant parere minoribus, et, quae Imberbi didicere, fenes perdenda fateri.

NOTES.

VER. 113. gleams thro' many a page,] The image is taken from half-formed unripe lightening, which ftreams along the fky, and is juft fufficient to fhew the deformity of thofe black vapours to which it ferves (as Milton expreffes it) for a filver lining.

VER. 119 On Avon's bank,] At Stratford in Warwickshire, where Shakespear had his birth. The thought of the Original is here infinitely improved. Perambulet is a low allufion to the name and imperfections of Atta.

VER. 121. One Tragic fentence if I dare deride,] When writers of our Author's rank have once effectually expofed turgid expreffion, and reduced it to its juft value,

One Simile, that P folitary shines

In the dry defert of a thousand lines,

Or lengthen'd Thought that gleams through many a

page,

Has fanctify'd whole poems for an age.

120

* I lose my patience, and I own it too,
When works are cenfur'd, not as bad but new;
While if our Elders break all reason's laws,
These fools demand not pardon, but Applause.
s On Avon's bank, where flow'rs eternal blow,
If I but afk, if any weed can grow?
One Tragic fentence if I dare deride
Which Betterton's grave action dignify'd,
Or well-mouth'd Booth with emphafis proclaims,
(Tho' but, perhaps, a mufter-roll of Names)
How will our Fathers rife up in a rage,
And swear, all shame is loft in George's Age!
You'd think v no Fools difgrac'd the former reign,
Did not fome grave Examples yet remain,

NOTES.

125

which, hitherto, the fmall critics had mistaken for the fublime, thefe latter are now apt to fufpect all they do not understand, to be bombaft: like the Idiot in Cervantes, who having been beat for not diftinguishing between a Cur and a Greyhound, imagined every dog he met, to be a Cur-dog.

VER. 124. A mufter roll of Names,] An abfurd cuftom of several Actors, to pronounce with emphafis the meer Proper Names of Greeks or Romans, which (as they call it) fill the mouth of the Player. P.

* K

W

Jam Saliare Numae carmen qui laudat, et illud,

Quod ntecum ignorat, folus vult fcire videri;

Ingeniis non ille favet plauditque fepultis,

Noftra fed impugnat, nos noftraque lividus odit.

x

Quod fi tam Graecis novitas invifa fuiffet,

Quam nobis ; quid nunc effet vetus? aut quid haberet, Quod legeret tereretque viritim publicus ufus?

> Ut primum pofitis nugari Graecia bellis

Coepit, et in vitium fortuna labier aequa ;

Nunc athletarum ftudiis, nunc arfit *

NOTES.

equorum;

VER. 129-130] Much inferior to the original. VER. 138. By learned Critics, of the mighty Dead?] A ridicule on the tribe of learned Critics, who think all wri. ters but the ancient unworthy their care and attention. This came properly into a fatire, whofe fubject is the unreasonable fondness for antiquity in general.

VER. 140. with Charles reftor'd;] He fays, restored, because the luxury he brought in, was only the revival of that practifed in the reigns of his Father and Grandfather. VER. 142. A Verfe of the Lord Lanfdown. P.

VER. 143. In Horfemanship t'excell, And ev'ry flow'ry Courtier writ Romance.] The Duke of Newcastle's book of Horfemanship: the Romance of Parthenia, by the