Exanimat lentus fpectator, fedulus inflat: Sic leve, fic parvum eft, animum quod laudis avarum Subruit, ac reficit: valeat res ludicra, fi me Palma negata macrum, donata reducit opimum. a Saepe etiam audacem fugat hoc terretque poetam ; Quod numero plures, virtute et honore minores, b Indocti, ftolidique, et depugnare parati Si difcordet eques, media inter carmina poscunt Auturfum aut pugiles: his nam plebecula gaudet. Verum equitis quoque jam migravit ab aure voluptas Omnis, ad incertos oculos, et gaudia vana. Quatuor aut plures aulaea premuntur in horas; e Dum fugiunt equitum turmae, peditumque catervae: Mox trahitur manibus regum fortuna retortis ; NOTES. The metaphor is fine, but inferior to the Original, in many respects. ventofo gloria curru, has a happy air of ridicule heightened by its allufion to the Roman Triumph. It has a great beauty too, taken in a more serious light, as reprefenting the Poet a Slave to Fame or Glory, Quem tulit ad fcenam-Gloria. With what a fhifting gale your courfe you ply, There still remains, to mortify a Wit, A fenfelefs, worthless, and unhonour'd croud; b C d 300 305 310 Clatt'ring their sticks before ten lines are spoke, Peers, Heralds, Bishops, Ermin, Gold and Lawn; NOTES. as was the custom in their triumphs. In other refpects it has the preference. It is more juft. For a Poet makes his first entrance on the ftage not, immediately, to Triumph, but to try his Fortune. However, Who pants for Glory, etc. is much fuperior to the Original. VER. 313. From heads to ears, and now from ears to eyes.] From Plays to Operas, and from Operas to Pantomines. Effeda feftinant, pilenta, petorrita, naves; Ut fibi praebentem mimo fpectacula plura: h Fabellam furdo. nam quae i pervincere voces Ac ne forte putes me, quae facere ipfe recufem, NOTES. VER. 319. Old Edward's Armour beams on Cibber's breaft.] The Coronation of Henry VIII. and Queen Anne Boleyn, in which the Playhoufes vied with each other to reprefent all the pomp of a Coronation. In this noble The Champion too! and, to complete the jest, f Had he beheld an Audience gape fo wide. i While all its throats the Gallery extends, And all the Thunder of the Pit afcends! Loud as the Wolves, on Orcas' stormy steep, At Quin's high plume, or Oldfield's ' petticoat; "But has he spoken?" Not a fyllable. 320 325 330 335 What shook the stage, and made the people stare? NOTES. contention, the Armour of one of the Kings of England was borrowed from the Tower, to drefs the Champion. P. VER. 328. Orcas' ftormy steep.] The fartheft Northern Promontory of Scotland, oppofite to the Orcades. P. Ille per extentum funem mihi poffe videtur Ire poeta; meum qui pectus inaniter angit, Irritat, mulcet, falfis terroribus implet, Ut magus; et modo me Thebis, modo ponit Athenis. > Verum age, et his, qui fe lectori credere malunt, Quam fpectatoris faftidia ferre superbi, Curam impende brevem: fi munus Apolline dignum Vis complere libris; et vatibus addere calcar, Ut ftudio majore petant Helicona virentem. * Multa quidem nobis facimus mala faepe poetae, (Ut vineta egomet caedam mea) cum tibi librum • Solicito damus, aut fesso: cum laedimur, 'unum NOTES. VER. 347. To Thebes, to Athens, etc.] i. e. is equally knowing in the manners of the most different people; and has the kill to employ thofe manners with decorum. |