Or their fond parents dressed in red and gold; own. 140 2 Here swells the shelf with Ogilby the great; There, stamped with arms, Newcastle shines complete: " 3 Here all his suffering brotherhood retire, 1 See Imitations of Horace, Bk. ii. Ep. i. 387. 145 2 "John Ogilby was one who, from a late initiation into literature, made such a progress as might well style him the prodigy of his time, in sending into the world so many Large Volumes! His translations of Homer and Virgil, done to the life, and with such excellent sculptures! And (what added great grace to his works) he printed them all on special good paper, and in a very good letter."-Winstanley, Lives of Poets.-P. Ogilby (1600-1676) translated the Æneid, the Iliad and Odyssey, and Æsop. 3 "The Duchess of Newcastle was one who busied herself in the ravishing delights of Poetry; leaving to posterity in print three ample Volumes of her studious endeavours."-Winstanley, ibid. Langbaine reckons up eight Folios of her Grace's, which were usually adorned with gilded covers, and had her coat of arms upon them.-P. Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle (1624-1673), a voluminous writer of plays, poems, and philosophical and other works. 4 The Poet has mentioned these three authors in particular, as they are parallel to our Hero in his three capacities: I. Settle was his brother Laureate; only indeed upon half-pay, for the City instead of the Court; but equally famous for unintelligible flights in his poems on public occasions, such as Shows, Birth-days, &c. 2. Banks was his Rival in Tragedy (though more successful) in one of his Tragedies, the Earl of Essex, which is yet alive; Anna Boleyn, the Queen of Scots, and Cyrus the Great, are dead and 1 But, high above, more solid Learning shone,' The Classics of an Age that heard of none; There Caxton slept, with Wynkyn at his side, One clasped in wood, and one in strong cow hide; 2 150 There saved by spice, like mummies, many a year, Dry Bodies of Divinity appear; De Lyra there a dreadful front extends,3 size, 155 gone. Those he dressed in a sort of Beggar's Velvet, or a happy Mixture of the thick Fustian and thin Prosaic; exactly imitated in Perolla and Isidora, Cæsar in Egypt, and the Heroic Daughter. 3. Broome was a serving-man of Ben Jonson, who once picked up a Comedy from his Betters, or from some cast scenes of his Master, not entirely contemptible.-P. W. 1 Some have objected, that books of this sort suit not so well the library of our Bays, which they imagine consisted of Novels, Plays, and obscene books; but they are to consider, that he furnished his shelves only for ornament, and read these books no more than the Dry Bodies of Divinity, which, no doubt, were purchased by his father when he designed him for the Gown. See the note on verse 200.-P. W. 2 A printer in the time of Edward IV., Richard III., and Henry VII.; Wynkyn de Word, his successor, in that of Henry VII. and VIII.-P. 3 Nich. de Lyra, or Harpsfield, a very voluminous commentator, whose works, in five vast folios, were printed in 1472.-P. 4 Philemon Holland, Doctor in Physic. "He translated so many books, that a man would think he had done nothing else; insomuch that he might be called Translator general of his age. The books alone of his turning into English are sufficient to make a Country Gentleman a complete library."-Winstanley.-P. Or their fond parents dressed in red and gold; own. 140 Here swells the shelf with Ogilby the great; 2 There, stamped with arms, Newcastle shines complete: " 3 Here all his suffering brotherhood retire, 1 See Imitations of Horace, Bk. ii. Ep. i. 387. 145 2 "John Ogilby was one who, from a late initiation into literature, made such a progress as might well style him the prodigy of his time, in sending into the world so many Large Volumes! His translations of Homer and Virgil, done to the life, and with such excellent sculptures! And (what added great grace to his works) he printed them all on special good paper, and in a very good letter."-Winstanley, Lives of Poets.-P. Ogilby (1600-1676) translated the Æneid, the Iliad and Odyssey, and Æsop. 3 "The Duchess of Newcastle was one who busied herself in the ravishing delights of Poetry; leaving to posterity in print three ample Volumes of her studious endeavours."- Winstanley, ibid. Langbaine reckons up eight Folios of her Grace's, which were usually adorned with gilded covers, and had her coat of arms upon them.-P. Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle (1624-1673), a voluminous writer of plays, poems, and philosophical and other works. 4 The Poet has mentioned these three authors in particular, as they are parallel to our Hero in his three capacities: 1. Settle was his brother Laureate ; only indeed upon half-pay, for the City instead of the Court; but equally famous for unintelligible flights in his poems on public occasions, such as Shows, Birth-days, &c. 2. Banks was his Rival in Tragedy (though more successful) in one of his Tragedies, the Earl of Essex, which is yet alive; Anna Boleyn, the Queen of Scots, and Cyrus the Great, are dead and But, high above, more solid Learning shone,' The Classics of an Age that heard of none; There Caxton2 slept, with Wynkyn at his side, One clasped in wood, and one in strong cow hide; 150 There saved by spice, like mummies, many a year, Dry Bodies of Divinity appear; De Lyra there a dreadful front extends,3 size, 155 gone. Those he dressed in a sort of Beggar's Velvet, or a happy Mixture of the thick Fustian and thin Prosaic; exactly imitated in Perolla and Isidora, Cæsar in Egypt, and the Heroic Daughter. 3. Broome was a serving-man of Ben Jonson, who once picked up a Comedy from his Betters, or from some cast scenes of his Master, not entirely contemptible.-P. W. 1 Some have objected, that books of this sort suit not so well the library of our Bays, which they imagine consisted of Novels, Plays, and obscene books; but they are to consider, that he furnished his shelves only for ornament, and read these books no more than the Dry Bodies of Divinity, which, no doubt, were purchased by his father when he designed him for the Gown. See the note on verse 200.-P. W. 2 A printer in the time of Edward IV., Richard III., and Henry VII.; Wynkyn de Word, his successor, in that of Henry VII. and VIII.—P. 3 Nich. de Lyra, or Harpsfield, a very voluminous commentator, whose works, in five vast folios, were printed in 1472.-P. 4 Philemon Holland, Doctor in Physic. "He translated so many books, that a man would think he had done nothing else; insomuch that he might be called Translator general of his age. The books alone of his turning into English are sufficient to make a Country Gentleman a complete library."-Winstanley.-P. An hecatomb of pure, unsullied lays That altar crowns: A folio Common-place Founds the whole pile, of all his works the base: 160 Quartos, octavos, shape the lessening pyre; : Dulness! whose good old cause I yet defend, 165 With whom my Muse began, with whom shall end.1 E'er since Sir Fopling's Periwig was Praise,2 170 176 Obliquely waddling to the mark in view: 1 "A te principium, tibi desinet."-Virg. Ecl. viii. Ἐκ Διὸς ἀρχώμεσθα, καὶ εἰς Δία λήγετε, Μοῦσαι.-Theoc. "Prima dicte mihi, summa dicende Camoena."Hor.-P. 2 The first visible cause of the passion of the Town for our Hero, was a fair flaxen full-bottomed periwig, which, he tells us, he wore in his first play of the Fool in Fashion. This remarkable periwig usually made its entrance upon the stage in a sedan, brought in by two chairmen, with infinite approbation of the audience.-P. W. |