Fondly we think we honour merit then, 461 Might he return, and blefs once more our eyes, New Blackmores and new Milbourns must arise : Nay should great Homer lift his awful head, Zoilus again would start up from the dead. 465 Envy will merit, as its shade, pursue; But like a fhadow, proves the fubftance true: COMMENTARY. itfelf; while, in support of Faction, it labours to depress fome rifing Genius, that was, perhaps, raised by nature, to enlighten his age and country. By which he would infinuate, that all the base and viler paffions feek refuge, and find fupport in party madness. NOTES. the men who get the laugh on their fide. He fhews, on how pitiful a basis their reputation ftands, the changeling difpofition of fools to laugh; who are always carried away with the last joke. VER. 463. Milbourn] The Rev. Mr. Luke Milbourn. Dennis ferv'd Mr. Pope in the fame office. And indeed the attendance of these flaves is neceffary to render the triumphs of a great Genius complete. They are of all times, and on all occafions. Sir Walter Raleigh had Alexander Rofs, Chillingworth had Cheynel, Milton one Edwards, and Locke, another Edwards; neither of them related to EDWARDSs of Lincoln'sInn; They were Divines of parts and learning; This a Critic For envy'd Wit, like Sol eclips'd, makes known up vapours It draws COMMENTARY. VER. 474. Be thou the firft, etc.] The poet having now gone thro' the laft caufe of wrong Judgment, and root of all the reft, PARTIALITY; and ended his remarks upon it with a detection of it's two rankeft kinds, those which arife out of partyrage and envy; takes the occafion which this affords him, of clofing his fecond divifion in the most graceful manner, [from ỷ 473 to 560] by concluding from the premises, and calling upon the TRUE CRITIC to be careful of his charge, which is the protection and fupport of Wit. For, the defence of it from malevolent cenfure is its true protection; and the illuftration of its beauties, is its true fupport. He firft fhews, the Critic ought to do this fervice without delay: And on these motives. 1. Out of regard to himself: For there is fome merit in giving the world notice of an excellence; but none at all in pointing, like an Idiot, to that which has been long in the admiration of men. 2. Out of regard to the Poem: For the short duration of modern works requires they fhould begin NOTES. without either. Yet (as Mr. Pope fays of Luke Milbourn) the fairest of all critics; for having written against the Editor's remarks on Shakespear, he did him juftice in printing at the fame time his own. VER. 468. For envy'd Wit, like Sol eclips'd, etc.] This fimilitude implies a fact too often verified; and of which we need not feek abroad for examples. It is, that frequently thofe very Authors, who have at first done all they could to obfcure and deprefs a rifing genius, have at length, in order to keep themselves Short is the date, alas, of modern rhymes, COMMENTARY. to enjoy their existence early. He compares the life of modern Wit, which, in a fleeting dialect, muft pafs away, and of the ancient, which furvives in an univerfal language, to the difference. between the Patriarchal age and our own: And obferves, that while the ancient writings live for ever, as it were in brass and marble, the modern are but like Paintings, which, of how mafterly a hand foever, have no fooner gained their requifite perfection by the incorporating, foftening, and ripening of their tints, which they do in a very few years, but they begin to fade and die away. 3. Laftly, our author fhews, that the Critic ought to do this fervice out of regard to the Poet; when he confiders the flender dowry the Mufe brings along with her: In youth'tis only a fhort lived vanity; and in maturer years an acceffion of care and labour, in proportion to the weight of Reputation to be fuftained, and of the increase of Envy to be oppofed: And concludes his reafóning therefore on this head, with that pathetic and infinuating addrefs to the Critic, from 508 to 524. Ah! let not learning, etc. NOTES. in fome little credit, been reduced to borrow from him, imitate his manner, and reflect what they could of his fplendor. Nor hath the Poet been lefs artful, to infinuate alfo what is fometimes the caufe. A youthful genius, like the Sun rifing towards the Meridian, difplays too strong and powerful beams for the dirty genius of inferior writers, which occafions their gathering, condenfing and blackening. But as he defcends from the Meridian (the time when the Sun gives its gilding to the furrounding clouds) his rays grow milder, his heat more benign, and then ---cv'n thofe clouds at laft adorn its way, Reflect new glories, and augment the day. Our fons their fathers' failing language fee, 485 And ready Nature waits upon his hand; When the ripe colours foften and unite, 491 And fweetly melt into just shade and light; NOTES. 495 VER. 484. So when the faithful pencil, etc.] This fimilitude, in which the poet difcovers (as he always does on this fubject) real fcience in the thing fpoken of, has ftill a more peculiar beauty, as at the fame time that it confeffes the juft fuperiority of ancient writings, it infinuates one advantage the modern have above them; which is this, that in thefe, our more intimate acquaintance with the occafion of writing, and the manners defcribed, lets us into thofe living and ftriking graces which may be well compared to that perfection of imitation only given by colouring: While the ravage of Time amongst the monuments of former ages, hath left us but the grofs fubftance of ancient wit, fo much of the form and matter of body only as may be expreffed in brafs or marble. In youth alone its empty praise we boast, Like some fair flow'r the early spring supplies, 'Tis what the vicious fear, the virtuous fhun, By fools 'tis hated, and by knaves undone! 505 If Wit fo much from Ign'rance undergo, Ah let not learning too commence its foe! Of old, thofe met rewards who could excell, 510 And fuch were prais'd who but endeavour'd well: Tho' triumphs were to gen'rals only due, Crowns were referv'd to grace the foldiers too. Now, they who reach Parnaffus' lofty crown, Employ their pains to fpurn fome others down; NOTES. VER. 507.--by knaves undone !] By which the Poet would infinuate, a common but fhameful truth, That Men in power, if they got into it by illiberal arts, generally left. Wit and Science to ftarve. |