Something, whofe truth convinc'd at fight we find, For works may have more wit than does 'em good, As bodies perifh thro' excefs of blood. Others for Language all their care express, 305 And value books, as women men, for Dress : COMMENTARY. VER. 305. Others for Language, etc.] He proceeds fecondly to thofe narrow-minded Critics, whofe whole concern turns upon Language, and fhews [from 304 to 337.] that this quaity, where it holds the principal place, deferves no commendation; 1. Because it excludes qualities more effential. And when the abounding Verbiage has excluded the fenfe, the writer has nothing to do but to gild over the defect, by giving his words. all the falfe colouring in his power. 2. He fhews, that the Critic who bufies himself with this quality alone, is altogether unable to make a right Judgment of it; becaufe true Expreffion is only the drefs of Thought; and fo must be perpetually varied according to the fubject, and man NOTES. pher, in feparating Wit from Judgment, as he does in this place, has given us (and he could therefore give us no other) only an account of Wit in general: In which falfe Wit, tho' not every fpecies of it, is included. A friking Image therefore of Nature is, as Mr. Locke obferves, certainly Wit: But this image may strike on feveral other accounts, as well as for its truth and beauty; and the Philofopher has explained the manner how. But it never becomes that it which is the ornament of true Poefy, whofe end is to reprefent Nature, but when it drefjes that Nature to advantage, and prefents her to us in the brightest and most amiable light. And to know when the Their praise is still,---the Style is excellent: COMMENTARY. ner of thinking. But those who never concern themselves with the Senfe, can form no judgment of the correspondence between that and the Language: Expreffion is the drefs of thought, and still Appears more decent as more fuitable, etc. Now as thefe Critics are ignorant of this correfpondence, their whole judgment in Language is reduced to the examination of fingle words; and often, fuch as are most to his taste, are those that smack most of Antiquity: On which our author has therefore beftowed a little raillery; concluding with a short and proper direction concerning the use of words, fo far as regards their novelty and ancientry. NOTES. Teft, viz. When we perceive that it gives us back the image of our mind. When it does that, we may be fure it plays no tricks with us: For this image is the creature of the Judgment; and whenever Wit correfponds with Judgment, we may fafely pro nounce it to be true. "Naturam intueamur, hanc fequamur: id facillime accipi"unt animi quod agnofcunt." Quintil. lib. viii. c. 3. VER. 311. Falfe cloquence, like the prifmatic glafs, etc.] This fimile is beautiful. For the falfe colouring, given to objects by the prifmatic glafs, is owing to its untwisting, by its obliquities, thofe threads of light, which Nature had put together in order to fpread over its works an ingenuous and fimple candor, that But true Expreffion, like th' unchanging Sun, upon, It gilds all objects, but it alters none. A vile conceit in pompous words exprefs'd 320 For diff'rent styles with diff'rent fubjects fort, NOTES. should not hide, but only heighten the native complexion of the objects. And falfe Eloquence is nothing elfe but the straining and divaricating the parts of true expreffion; and then daubing them over with what the Rhetoricians very properly term coLOURS; in lieu of that candid light, now loft, which was reflected from them in their natural ftate while fincere and entire. VER. 324, Some by old words, etc.] “ Abolita et abrogata re"tinere, infolentiæ cujufdam eft, et frivolæ in parvis jactan"tiæ." Quint. lib. i. c. 6. P. "Opus eft, ut verba à veftutate repetita neque crebra fint "neque manifefta, quia nil eft odiofius affectatione, nec utique "ab ultimis repetita temporibus. Oratio cujus fumma virtus "eft perfpicuitas, quam fit vitiofa, fi egeat interprete? Ergo "ut novorum optima crunt maxime vetera, ita veterum "maxime nova," Idem. P. Unlucky, as Fungofo in the Play, These sparks with aukward vanity display What the fine gentleman wore yesterday; 330 And but fo mimic antient wits at best, As apes our grandfires, in their doublets drest. In words, as fathions, the fame rule will hold; Alike fantaftic, if too new, or old: Be not the first by whom the new are try'd, 335 Nor yet the last to lay the old aside. But most by Numbers judge a Poet's fong; And smooth or rough,with them, is right or wrong: VARIATIONS. VER. 337. But most by Numbers judge, etc.] The last fort are thofe [from y 336 to 384.] whofe ears are attached only to the Harmony of a poem. Of which they judge as ignorantly and as perverfely as the other fort did of Eloquence; and for the very fame reafon. He first defcribes that falle Harmony with which they are fo much captivated; and fhews, that it is wretchedly flat and unvaried: For Smooth or rough with them is right or wrong. He then describes the true. 1. As it is in itself, conftant; with a happy mixture of ftrength and fweetness, in contradiction to the roughness and flatness of falfe Harmony: And 2. as it is NOTES. VER. 328.-unlucky as Fungofo etc.] See Ben Johnson's Every Man in his humour. P. VER. 337. But most by numbers, etc.] Quis populi fermo eft? quis enim? nifi carmina molli Non fecus ac fi oculo rubricam dirigat uno. Perf. Sat. i. P In the bright Muse tho' thousand charms confpire, Tho' oft the ear the open vowels tire; 345 While expletives their feeble aid do join ; COMMENTARY. varied in compliance to the fubject, where the found becomes an echo to the fenfe, fo far as is confiftent with the preservation of numbers; in contradiction to the monotony of falfe Harmony: Of this he gives us, in the delivery of his precepts, four fine examples of Smoothness, roughness, flowness, and rapidity. The firft ufe of this correfpondence of the found to the fenfe, is to aid the fancy in acquiring a perfecter and more lively image of the thing reprefented. A fecond and nobler, is to calm and fubdue the turbulent and felfifh paffions, and to raise and warm the beneficent: Which he illuftrates in the famous adventure of Timotheus and Alexander: where, in referring to Mr. Dryden's Ode on that fubject, he turns it to a high compliment on that great poet. NOTES. VER. 345. Tho' oft the ear, etc.] "Fugiemus crebras voca"lium concurfiones, quæ vaftam atque hiantem orationem reddunt. Cic. ad Heren. lib. iv. Vide etiam Quintil. l.b. ix. c. 4. P. IMITATIONS. VER. 346. While expletives their feeble aid do join, And ten low words oft creep in one dull line:] From Dryden. "He creeps along with ten little words in every line, "and helps out his numbers with [for] [to] and [unto] and all "the pretty expletives he can find, while the fer.fe is left half "tired behind it." Effay on Dram. Poetry. |