C Naevius in manibus non eft; at mentibus haeret Pene recens : с adeo fanctum eft vetus omne poema. Ambigitur quoties, uter utro fit prior; aufert Pacuvius docti famam fenis, Accius alti: Dicitur Afranî toga conveniffe Menandro Plautus ad exemplar Siculi properare Epicharmi Hos edifcit, et hos arcto ftipata theatro f Spectat Roma potens; habet hos numeratque poetas Interdum vulgus rectum videt: eft ubi peccat. Sib veteres ita miratur laudatque poetas, NOTES. VER. 77. Pindaric Art,] which has much more merit than his Epic, but very unlike the Character, as well as Numbers, of Pindar. P. VER. 81. In all debates etc.] The Poet has here put the bald cant of women and boys into extreme fine verfe. This is in ftrict imitation of his Original, where the fame impertinent and gratuitous criticism is admirably ridiculed. '. VER. 85. Shadwell hafty, Wycherly was flow.] Nothing was lefs true than this particular: But the whole paragraph has a mixture of Irony, and muft not altogether be taken for Horace's own Judgment, only the com Who now reads Cowley? if he pleases yet, His Moral pleases, not his pointed wit; Forgot his Epic, nay Pindaric Art, But ftill I love the language of his heart. 75 80 "Yet furely, furely, these were famous men! "What boy but hears the fayings of old Ben? "In all debates where Critics bear a part, "Not one but nods, and talks of Johnson's Art, "Of Shakespear's Nature, and of Cowley's Wit; "How Beaumont's judgment check'd what Fletcher " writ; "How Shadwell hafty, Wycherly was flow; "But, for the Paffions, Southern fure and Rowe. f "These, only these, support the crouded stage, "From eldeft Heywood down to Cibber's age." All this may be; the People's Voice is odd, It is, and it is not, the voice of God. h Tob Gammer Gurton if it give the bays, And yet deny the Careless Husband praise, NOTES. mon Chat of the pretenders to Criticifm; in fome things right, in others, wrong; as he tells us in his anfwer, Interdum vulgus rectum videt: eft ubi peccat. P. -hafty Shadwell and flow Wycherley, is a line of Wilmot, Earl of Rochefter; the fenfe of which feems to have been generally mistaken. It gives to each his epithet, not to defign the difference of their talents, but the number of their productions. VaR. 91. Gammer Gurton] A piece of very low hu Ut nihil anteferat, nihil illis comparet; errat: k Si quaedam nimis i antique, fi pleraque dure Dicere cedit eos, 1ignave multa fatetur; Et fapit, et mecum facit, et Jove judicat aequo. m 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 firft 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 say, the Public acts a very foolish part. VER. 97. Spencer himself affects the Obfolete,] This is certainly true; he extended, beyond all reafon, that precept of Horace, Obfcurata diu populo bonus eruet, atque Proferat in lucem speciofa vocabula rerum. etc. Or fay our Fathers never broke a rule; Why then, I say, the Public is a fool. But let them own, that greater Faults than we i k And Sydney's verse halts ill on Roman feet: Milton's ftrong pinion now not Heav'n can bound, Now Serpent-like, in ' prose he sweeps the ground, In Quibbles, Angel and Archangel join, And God the Father turns a School-divine. Not that I'd lop the Beauties from his book, n Like a flashing Bentley with his defp'rate hook, NOTES. 95 ΙΟΣ 105 110 VER. 98. And Sydney's verfe balts ill on Roman feet :] Sir Philip Sidney. He attempted to introduce the Roman hexameter and pentameter meafure 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 P verbum emicuit fi forte decorum, • Indignor quidquam reprehendi, non quia craffe 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 Rofcius egit. Vel quia nil v rectum, nifi quod placuit fibi, ducunt; 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 those black vapours to which it ferves (as Milton expreffes it) for a filver lining. VER. 119. Ox 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 sentence if I dare deride,] When writers of our Author's rank have once effectually expofed turgid expreffion, and reduced it to its juft value, 1 |