Now Night descending, the proud fcene was o'er, 90 95 Now May'rs and Shrieves all hush'd and fatiate lay, REMARKS. 100 She VER. 90. But liv'd, in Settle's numbers one day more.] A beautiful manner of fpeaking, ufual with poets in praise of poetry, in which kind nothing is finer than those lines of Mr. Addifon : "Sometimes, misguided by the tuneful throng, Dumb are their fountains, and their channels dry; And in the smooth description murmur ftill." Ibid. But liv'd, in Settle's numbers, one day more.] Settle was poet to the City of London. His office was to compofe yearly panegyrics upon the Lord Mayors, and verses to be spoken in the Pageants: But that part of the fhows being at length frugally abolished, the employment of City-poet ceased; fo that upon Settle's demise there was no fucceffor to that place. W. VER. 98. John Heywood, whofe Interludes were printed in the time of Henry VIII. She faw old Pryn in restless Daniel shine, And Eufden eke out Blackmore's endless line; REMARKS. She VER. 103. Reflefs Daniel] I am forry to find De Foe placed in fuch company. He was a writer of uncommon genius and fertility of fancy. Witnefs his Robinson Crufoe, in which a wonderful reach of invention is difplayed; his History of the Plague in London which for a long time impofed on Dr. Mead, who thought it genuine; and his Memoirs of a Cavalier, a favourite book of the great Earl of Chatham, who spoke of it as the best account of the Civil Wars extant; and who, when he was at laft convinced that it was all a fiction, cried out, Sic extorta voluptas, Et demptus per vim mentis gratiffimus error. Among other entertaining works, De Foe wrote, in prison, 1703, a Review, confifting of a Scandal Club, as he entitled it, on questions of Theology, Morals, Politics, Trade, Language, Poetry, Love, &c. which Mr. Chalmers thinks gave a hint for the plan of the Tatler and Spectator. VER. 104. And Eufden eke out, &c.] Laurence Eufden Poet Laureate. Mr. Jacob gives a catalogue of some few only of his works, which were very numerous. Mr. Cook, in his Battle of Poets, faith of him, "Eufden, a laurel'd Bard, by fortune rais'd, By very few was read, by fewer prais'd." Mr. Oldmixon, in his Arts of Logic and Rhetoric, p. 413, 414, affirms, "That of all the Galimatia's he ever met with, none comes up to fome verfes of this poet, which have as much of the Ridiculum and the Fuftian in them as can well be jumbled together, and are of that fort of nonfenfe, which fo perfectly confounds all ideas, that there is no diftinct one left in the mind." Further he fays of him, "That he hath prophecied his own poetry fhall be fweeter than Catullus, Ovid, and Tibullus; but we have little hope of the accomplishment of it, from what he hath lately published." Upon which Mr. Oldmixon has not spared a reflection, "That the putting the Laurel on the head of one who writ fuch verfes, will give futurity a very lively idea of the judgment and juftice of those who bestow'd it." Ibid. p. 417. But the well-known learning of that noble Perfon, who was then Lord Chamberlain, might have screen'd him from this unmannerly reflection She faw flow Philips creep like Tate's poor page, REMARKS. 106 reflection. Nor ought Mr. Oldmixon to complain, fo long after, that the Laurel would have better become his own brows, or any others: It were more decent to acquiefce in the opinion of the Duke of Buckingham upon this matter: "In rush'd Eufden, and cry'd, Who fhall have it, But I, the true Laureate, to whom the King gave it? Apollo begg'd pardon, and granted his claim, But vow'd that till then he neʼer heard of his name.” Seffion of Poets. The fame plea might alfo ferve for his fucceffor, Mr. Cibber; and is further ftrengthened in the following Epigram, made on that occafion: "In merry Old England it once was a rule, The King had his Poet and also his Fool: But now we're so frugal, I'd have you to know it, That Cibber can ferve both for Fool and for Poet." Of Blackmore, fee Book ii. Of Philips, Book i. ver. 262. and Book iii. prope fin. Nahum Tate was Poet Laureate, a cold writer of no invention; but sometimes translated tolerably when befriended by Mr. Dryden. In his fecond part of Abfalom and Achitophel are above two hundred admirable lines together of that great hand, which strongly shine through the infipidity of the reft. Something parallel may be observed of another author here mentioned. W. VER. 106. And all the mighty Mad in Dennis rage.] Mr. Theobald, in the Cenfor, vol. ii. N. 33. calls Mr. Dennis by the name of Furius. "The modern Furius is to be looked upon as more an object of pity, than of that which he daily provokes, laughter and contempt. Did we really know how much this poor man [I wish that reflection on poverty had been spared] fuffers by being contradicted, or which is the fame thing in effect, by hearing another praised; we fhould in compaffion, fometimes attend to him with a filent nod, and let him go away with the triumphs of his ill-nature.Poor Furius [again] when any of his cotemporaries are fpoken well of, quitting the ground of the present dispute, steps back a thousand years to call in the fuccour of the Ancients. His very panegyric is fpiteful, and he ufes it for the fame reason as In each the marks her Image full exprest, But chief in BAYS's monfter-breeding breast; VARIATIONS. Bays, VER. 108. But chief in Bays's, &c.] In the former Editions thus, But chief, in Tibbald's monfter-breeding breast; Sinking from thought to thought, &c. Var. Tibbald] Author of a pamphlet intitled, Shakespear reflor'd. During two whole years while Mr. Pope was preparing his Edition of Shakespear, he published Advertisements, requesting affiftance, and promifing fatisfaction to any who could contribute to its greater perfection. But this Reftorer, who was at that time foliciting favours of him by letters, did wholly conceal his defign, till after its publication: (which he was fince not ashamed to own, in a Daily Journal of Nov. 26, 1728.) And then an outery was made in the Prints, that our Author had joined with the Bookseller to raise an extravagant fubfcription; in which he had no fhare, of which he had no knowledge, and against which he had publicly advertised in his own propofals for Homer. Probably that proceeding elevated Tibbald to the dignity he holds in this Poem, which he feems to deferve no other way better than his brethren; unless we impute it to the fhare he had in the Journals, cited among the Teftimonies of Authors prefixed to this work. REMARKS. as fome Ladies do their commendations of a dead beauty, who would never have had their good word, but that a living one happened to be mentioned in their company. His applause is not the tribute of his Heart, but the facrifice of his Revenge," &c. Indeed his pieces against our poet are fomewhat of an angry character, and as they are now scarce extant, a taste of his style may be fatisfactory to the curious. "A young, fquab, fhort gentleman, whofe outward form, though it fhould be that of downright monkey, would not differ fo much from human shape as his unthinking immaterial part does from human understanding. -- He Bays, form'd by nature Stage and Town to bless, And a&t, and be, a Coxcomb with fuccefs. REMARKS. 95 Dulness He is as stupid and as venomous as a hunch-back'd toad.—A book through which folly and ignorance, those brethren fo lame and impotent, do ridiculously look very big and very dull, and ftrut and hobble, cheek by jowl, with their arms on kimbo, being led and fupported, and bully-back'd by that blind Hector, Impudence." Reflect. on the Effay on Criticifm, p. 26, 29, 30. It would be unjust not to add his reasons for this Fury, they are fo ftrong and fo coercive: "I regard him (faith he) as an Enemy, not fo much to me, as to my King, to my Country, to my Religion, and to that Liberty which has been the fole felicity of my life. A vagary of Fortune, who is fometimes pleased to be frolickfome, and the epidemic Madness of the times have given him Reputation, and Reputation (as Hobbes fays) is Power, and that has made him dangerous. Therefore I look on it as my duty to King George, whose faithful fubject I am; to my Country, of which I have appeared a constant lover; to the Laws, under whose protection I have fo long lived; and to the Liberty of my Country, more dear to me than life, of which I have now for forty years been a conftant affertor, &c. I look upon it as my duty, I fay, to do-you fhall fee what to pull the lion's fkin from this little Afs, which popular error has thrown round him; and to fhew that this Author, who has been lately fo much in vogue, has neither Senfe in his thoughts, nor English in his expreffions." DENNIS, Rem. on Hom. Pref. p. 2, 91, &c. Befides these public-spirited reasons, Mr. D. had a private one; which by his manner of expreffing it in p. 92. appears to have been equally strong. He was even in bodily fear of his life from the machinations of the faid Mr. P. "The ftory (fays he) is too long to be told, but who would be acquainted with it, may hear it from Mr. Curl, my Bookfeller. However, what my reafon has fuggefted to me, that I have with a juft confidence faid, in defiance of his two clandeftine weapons, his Slander and his Poifon." Which laft words of his book plainly discover Mr. D's fufpicion was that of being poifoned, in like manner as Mr. Curl had been before him: Of which fact see A full and true account of a horrid and barbarous revenge, by poifon, on the body of Edmund Curl, printed in 1716, the year antecedent to that wherein thefe Remarks of Mr, |