One boundless Green, or flourish'd Carpet views, 95
With all the mournful family of Yews:

The thriving plants, ignoble broomsticks made,
Now sweep thofe Alleys they were born to fhade.
At Timon's Villa let us pass a day,

Where all cry out, "What fums are thrown away!"
So proud, fo grand; of that stupendous air,
Soft and Agreeable come never there.
Greatness, in Timon, dwells in fuch a draught
As brings all Brobdignag before your thought.
To compafs this, his building is a Town,
His pond an Ocean, his parterre a Down :
Who but muft laugh, the Mafter when he sees,
puny infect, fhiv'ring at a breeze!

A

105

VER. 95. The two extremes in parterres, which are equally faulty; a boundless Green, large and naked as a field, or a flourish'd carpet, where the greatnefs and nobleness of the piece is leffened by being divided into too many parts, with fcroll'd works and beds, of which the examples are frequent.

VER. 96. mournful family of Yews;] Touches upon the ill tafte of thofe who are fo fond of Ever-greens (particularly Yews, which are the moft tonfile) as to destroy the nobler Foreft-trees, to make way for fuch little ornaments as Pyramids of dark-green continually repeated, not unlike a Funeral proceffion.

VER. 99. At Timon's Villa] This defcription is intended to comprize the principles of a falfe Taste of Magnificence, and to exemplify what was faid before, that nothing but Good Senfe can attain it.

VER. 104. all Brobdignag] A region of giants, in the fatires of Gulliver,

Lo, what huge heaps of littleness around!
The whole, a labour'd Quarry above ground,
Two Cupids fquirt before: a Lake behind
Improves the keenness of the Northern wind.
His Gardens next your admiration call,
On ev'ry fide you look, behold the Wall!
No pleasing Intricacies intervene,

No artful wildness to perplex the scene;
Grove nods at grove, each Alley has a brother,
And half the platform juft reflects the other.
The fuff'ring eye inverted Nature sees,

120

Trees cut to Statues, Statues thick as trees;
With here a Fountain never to be play'd;
And there a Summer-house, that knows no fhade;

VER. 117, 118. Grove nods at Grove, each Alley bas a brother, And half the platform juft reflects the other.] This is exactly the two puddings of the citizen in the foregoing fable, only ferved up a little more magnificently: But both on the fame abfurd principle of wrong taste, viz. that one can never have too much of a good thing.

Ibid. Grove nods at grove, etc.] The exquifite humour of this expreffion arifes folely from its fignificancy. These groves that have no meaning, but very near relationship, can exprefs themfelves only like twin-ideots by nods;

as the Poet fays, which juft ferves to let us understand, that they know one another, as having been nurfed, and brought up by one common parent.

Here Amphitrite fails thro' myrtle bow'rs;

There Gladiators fight, or die in flow'rs;
Un-water'd fee the drooping fea-horse mourn,
And swallows rooft in Nilus dufty Urn.

My Lord advances with majestic mien,
Smit with the mighty pleasure, to be feen:
But foft by regular approach- not yet-

125

First thro' the length of yon hot Terrace fweat: 130
And when up tenfteep flopes you've drag'd your thighs,
Juft at his Study-door he'll blefs your eyes.

His Study with what Authors is it stor'd?
In Books, not Authors, curious is my Lord;
To all their dated backs he turns you round;
Thefe Aldus printed, thofe Du Sueïl bound.
Lo fome are Vellom, and the reft as good.
For all his Lordship knows, but they are Wood.

135

VER. 124. The two Statues of the Gladiator pugnans and Gladiator moriens.

VER. 130. The Approaches and Communication of house with garden, or of one part with another, ill judged, and inconvenient.

VER. 133. His Study, etc.] The false Taste in Books; a fatire on the vanity in collecting them, more frequent in men of Fortune than the study to understand them. Many delight chiefly in the elegance of the print, or of the binding; fome have carried it fo far, as to caufe the upper fhelves to be filled with painted books of wood; others pique themselves fo much upon books in a language they do not understand, as to exclude the most useful in one they do. 8

For Locke or Milton 'tis in vain to look,

These shelves admit not any modern book.
And now the Chapel's filver bell you hear,

140

That fummons you to all the Pride of Pray'r:
Light quirks of Mufic, broken and uneven,
Make the foul dance upon a Jig to Heav'n.
On painted Cielings you devoutly stare,

145

Where sprawl the Saints of Verrio or Laguerre,
On gilded clouds in fair expanfion lie,

And bring all Paradife before your eye.

To reft, the Cufhion and foft Dean invite,

Who never mentions Hell to ears polite.

150

VER. 141. The falfe tafte in Mufic, improper to the sub jects, as of light airs in churches, often practifed by the organists, etc.

VER. 142. That fummons you to all the Pride of Pray'r:] This abfurdity is very happily expreffed; Pride, of all human follies, being the first we fhould leave behind us when we approach the facred altar. But he who could take Meannefs for Magnificence, might eafily milfake Humility for Meannefs.

VER. 145. And in Painting (from which even Italy is not free) of naked figures in Churches, etc. which has obliged fome Popes to put draperies on fome of those of the best mafters.

VER. 146. Verrio or Laguerre,] Verrio (Antonio) painted many ceilings, etc. at Windfor, Hampton-Court, stc, and Laguerre at Blenheim-castle, and other Places.

VER. 150. Who never mentions Hell to ears polite.] This is a fact; a reverend Dean preaching at Court, threatned the

155

But hark! the chiming Clocks to dinner call; A hundred footfteps fcrape the marble Hall: The rich Buffet well-colour'd Serpents grace, And gaping Tritons fpew to wash your face. Is this a dinner? this a Genial room? No, 'tis a Temple, and a Hecatomb. A folemn Sacrifice, perform'd in state, You drink by measure, and to minutes eat. So quick retires each flying courfe, you'd fwear Sancho's dread Doctor and his Wand were there. Between each A&t the trembling falvers ring, 161 From foup to fweet-wine, and God bless the King.

finner with punishment in "a place which he thought it not "decent to name in fo polite an affembly."

VER. 153. Taxes the incongruity of Ornaments (though fometimes practifed by the ancients) where an open mouth ejects the water into a fountain, or where the shocking images of ferpents, etc. are introduced in Grottos or Buffets.

VER. 153. The rich Buffet well-colour'd Serpents grace,] The circumftance of being well-colour'd fhews this ornament not only to be very abfurd, but very odious too; and has a peculiar beauty, as, in one inftance of falfe Tafte, viz. an injudicious choice in imitation, he gives (in the epithet employed) the fuggeftion of another, which is an injudicious manner of it.

VER. 155. Is this a dinner, etc.] The proud Feftivals of fome men are here fet forth to ridicule, where pride deftroys the cafe, and formal regularity all the pleasurable enjoyment of the entertainment.

VER. 160. Sancho's dread Doctor] See Don Quixote, chap. xlvii.