No longer now that golden age appears, When Patriarch-wits furviv'd a thousand years: 480 Now length of Fame (our fecond life) is loft, NOTES. So totle and Antoninus. In the Roman authors, the change of language is ftill more remarkable. How different, in this refpect, is Ennius from Virgil, Lucilius from Horace, Cato from Columella, and even Catullus from Ovid! The Laws of the Twelve Tables, though ftudied by every Roman of condition, were not perfectly underfood, even by antiquarians, in the time of Cicero, when they were not quite four hundred years old. Cicero himfelf, as well as Lucretius, made feveral improvements in the Latin tongue; Virgil introduced fome new words; and Horace afferts his right to the fame privilege; and from his remarks upon it, appears to have confidered the immutability of living language as an impoffible thing. It were vain then to flatter ourselves with the hope of permanency to any of the modern tongues of Europe; which, being more ungrammatical than the Latin and Greek, are exposed to more dangerous, because lefs difcernible, innovations. Our want of tenfes and cafes makes a multitude of auxiliary verbs neceffary; and to these the unlearned are not attentive, because they look upon them as the least important parts of language; and hence they come to be omitted or misapplied in converfation, and afterwards in writing. Befides, the spirit of commerce, manufacture, and naval enterprize, fo honourable to modern Europe, and to Great Britain in particular, and the free circulation of arts, fciences, and opinions, owing, in part, to the ufe of printing, and to our improvements in navigation, must render the modern tongues, and especially the English, more variable than the Greek or Latin.". Beattie. WARTON. VER. 482. failing language] " In England (fays an ingenious Italian) the Translation of the Bible is the standard of their language; in Italy the standard is, the Decamerone of Boccacio. WARTON. VOL. I. $ די So when the faithful pencil has defign'd Some bright Idea of the master's mind, Where a new world leaps out at his command, And ready nature waits upon his hand : 485 When the ripe colours foften and unite, And fweetly melt into juft fhade and light; Unhappy Wit, like most mistaken things, Like fome fair flow'r the early spring supplies, That gaily blooms, but ev'n in blooming dies. NOTES. 491 495 What VER. 484. So when the faithful pencil, &c] This is again a beautiful illuftration. Thefe images and fimiles interfperfed in a dry didactic poem, prove the Poet's great judgment; and as the fubjects of each illuftration are fo poetical, the expreffions fo forcible and well-felected, and the whole image fo entirely and beautifully painted, they illuftrate moft happily the Poet's own. doctrine: A prudent chief not always must display His pow'rs, in equal ranks and fair array. For if occafionally he becomes profaic, he amply repays a moment's languor to the reader by his unexpected, highly polished, accurate, and poetical illuftrations. VER. 498. Like fome fair flower, &c.] Something like this idea, and the comparison, may be found in George Herbert's elegant canzonet : "I made What is this Wit, which muft our cares employ? 501 Then most our trouble ftill when most admir'd, And still the more we give, the more requir'd; Whofe fame with pains we guard, but lofe with ease, Sure fome to vex, but never all to please ; 505 'Tis what the vicious fear, the virtuous fhun, By fools 'tis hated, and by knaves undone! If Wit fo much from Ign'rance undergo, Ah let not learning too commence its foe! Of old, thofe met rewards who could excell, And fuch were prais'd who but endeavour'd well: NOTES. 510 Though "I made a pofie, while the day ran by, "But TIME did beckon to the flow'rs, and they "Farewell, dear flow'rs, fweetly your time ye fpent, 86 Fit, while ye liv'd, for fmell or ornament, "And after death, for cures : "I follow ftraight, without complaints or grief, VER. 50S. If Wit fo much from Ign'rance undergo,] Boileau going one day to receive his penfion, and the treasurer reading thefe words in his order," the penfion we have granted to Boileau, on account of the fatisfaction his works have given us,” afked him of what kind were his works; "Of masonry (replied the Poet), I am a builder!" Racine ufed to relate, that an old magistrate, who had never been at a play, was carried, one day, to his Andromaque. This magiftrate was very attentive to the tragedy, $ 2 Though triumphs were to gen'rals only due, Are mortals urg'd through facred luft of praise! Nor in the Critic let the Man be loft. To err is human, to forgive, divine. But if in noble minds some dregs remain But Dulness with Obfcenity muft prove As fhameful fure as Impotence in love. In the fat age of pleafure, wealth, and ease, 520 525 530 Sprung the rank weed, and thriv'd with large increase: When NOTES. tragedy, to which was added the Plaideurs; and going out of the theatre, he faid to the author, "I am extremely pleased, Sir, with your Andromaque: I am only amazed that it ends fo gaily; j'avois d'abord eu quelque envie de pleurer, mais la vue des petits chiens m'a fait rire." WARTON. When love was all an eafy Monarch's care; Seldom at council, never in a war: Jilts rul'd the state, and statesmen farces writ: 536 Nay wits had penfions, and young Lords had wit: And not a Mask went unimprov'd away: The modeft fan was lifted up no more, And Virgins smil❜d at what they blush'd before. Did all the dregs of bold Socinus drain; Then unbelieving Priests reform'd the nation, 540 545 And taught more pleasant methods of falvation; Where Heav'n's free fubjects might their rights dispute, Left God himself should seem too abfolute : Pulpits their facred fatire learn'd to fpare, NOTES. 550 Encou VER. 534. In the fat age of pleasure, wealth, and eafe, "And duller should'ft thou be than the fat weed." HAMLET. VER. 54. And not a Mafk, &c.] Alluding to the custom in that age, of Ladies going in Masks to the Play. When we confider that, many even of our early Tragedies are polluted with the groffeft allufions and ribaldry, how amiable does Shakespear appear, whofe page, in comparifon of that of Beaumont and Fletcher, is purity itself! VER. 544 Foreign reign] The reign of William III. The fanaticism of Cromwell was fucceeded by general licentiousness in Charles II.'s reign. This Pope, infinuates, and he is followed by Warburton, was the cause of the general freedom of inquiry after the revolution. Pope, for obvious reafons, feems to forget there was fuch a King as James II. He here alludes to those whom Warburton calls Latitudinarian Divines. |