Practis'd to lifp, and hang the head afide, 35 40 45 Unnumber'd throngs, on ev'ry fide are seen, Of bodies chang❜d to various forms by Spleen. Here living Tea-pots ftand, one arm held out, One bent; the handle this, and that the spout: 50 A Pipkin there, like Homer's Tripod walks; Here fighs a Jar, and there a Goose-pye talks ; NOTES. VER. 41. Dreadful, as hermits' dreams in haunted fhades, Men The Poet by this comparison would infinuate, that the tempta. tions of the mortified Reclufes in the Church of Rome, and the extatic vifions of their female Saints, were as much the effects IMITATIONS. of VER. 51. Homer's Tripod walks ;] See Hom. Iliad. xviii. of Vulcan's walking Tripods. POPE. VER. 52. and there a Goofe-pye talks ;] Alludes to a real fact, a Lady of distinction imagined herself in this condition. POPE. Men prove with child, as pow'rful fancy works, And maids turn'd bottles, call aloud for corks. Safe past the Gnome through this fantastic band, A branch of healing Spleenwort in his hand. Then thus address'd the pow'r-Hail, wayward Queen! 56 Who rule the fex to fifty from fifteen: Parent of vapours and of female wit, Who give th' hyfteric, or poetic fit, бо On various tempers act by various ways, And fend the godly in a pet to pray. 65 A nymph there is, that all thy pow'r difdains, 70 NOTES. Or of hypochondriac diforders, the Spleen, or, what was then the fashionable word, the Vapours, as any of the imaginary trans. formations he speaks of afterwards. WARBURTON. VER. 53. Men prove with child,] Van Swieten, in his Com. mentaries on Boerhaave, relates, that he knew a man who had ftudied till he fancied his legs to be of glafs; his maid bringing wood to his fire, threw it carelefsly down; our fage was angry and terrified for his legs of glafs; the girl, out of patience with his megrims, gave him a blow with a log on the parts affected; he inftantly started up in a rage, and from that moment recovered the use of his glafs legs! WARTON. Or caus'd fufpicion when no foul was rude, Which not the tears of brightest eyes could ease: The Goddess with a discontented air Seems to reject him, tho' fhe grants his pray'r. 75 80 85 Soft forrows, melting griefs, and flowing tears. Her eyes dejected, and her hair unbound. go Full o'er their heads the fwelling bag he rent, And all the Furies iffu'd at the vent. Belinda burns with more than mortal ire, And fierce Thaleftris fans the rifing fire. 94 O wretched maid! fhe spread her hands, and cry'd, (While Hampton's echoes, Wretched maid! reply'd) Was it for this you took fuch constant care The bodkin, comb, and effence to prepare? 99 For For this with fillets ftrain'd your tender head? How fhall I, then, your hapless fame defend? She faid; then raging to Sir Plume repairs, NOTES. 120 (Sir He was VER. 121. Sir Plume repairs,] Sir George Brown. the only one of the Party who took the thing feriously. He was angry that the Poet fhould make him talk nothing but nonsense; and in truth one could not well blame him. WARBURTON. An engraving of Sir Plume, with feven other figures, by Hogarth, was executed on the lid of a gold fnuff-box, and prefented to one of the parties concerned; the original impreffion of a print of it was fold, at Mr. Gulton's fale, for thirty-three pounds. WARTON. (Sir Plume, of amber fnuff-box justly vain, And thus broke out-" My Lord, why, what the devil! But Umbriel, hateful Gnome! forbears not fo; He breaks the Vial whence the forrows flow. NOTES. VER. 141. But Umbriel, hateful Gnome! forbears not fo 135 140 Then These two lines are additional; and affign the cause of the different operation on the Paffions of the two Ladies. The poem went on before without that diftin&tion, as without any Machinery, to the end of the Canto. IMITATIONS. POPE VER. 133. But by this Lock,] In allufion to Achilles's oath in Homer, ll. i. POPE. |