And the puffed orator bursts out in tropes. pain, 2 211 And quick sensations skip from vein to vein; Love 215 His sister sends, her votaress, from above. 220 "Now turn to different sports" (the Goddess cries) "And learn, my sons, the wondrous power of Noise. 1 Leonard Welsted, author of The Triumvirate, or a Letter in Verse from Palæmon to Celia at Bath, which was meant for a satire on Mr. P. and some of his friends, about the year 1718. He writ other things, which we cannot remember. Smedley, in his Metamorphosis of Scriblerus, mentions one, the Hymn of a Gentleman to his Creator. And there was another in praise either of a Cellar or a Garret. You have him again in Book iii. ver. 169.-P. 2 The satire of this Episode being levelled at the base flatteries of authors to worthless wealth or greatness, concludes here with an excellent lesson to such men that although their pens and praises were as exquisite as their conceit of themselves, yet (even in their own mercenary views) a creature unlettered, who serveth the passions, or pimpeth to the pleasures, of such vain, braggart, puffed Nobility, shall with those patrons be much more inward, and of them much higher rewarded.-Scriblerus.-P. To move, to raise, to ravish every heart, With horns and trumpets now to madness swell, tribe: And his this Drum, whose hoarse heroic bass Drowns the loud clarion of the braying Ass." Now thousand tongues are heard in one loud din; 235 The monkey-mimics rush discordant in; 'Twas chattering, grinning, mouthing, jabbering all, 1 "Excudent alii spirantia mollius æra,' Credo equidem, vivos ducent de marmore vultus, Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento, 2 The old way of making Thunder and Mustard were the same; but since, it is more advantageously performed by troughs of wood with stops in them. Whether Mr. Dennis was the inventor of that improvement, I know not; but it is certain, that being once at a Tragedy of a new author, he fell into a great passion at hearing some, and cried, "'Sdeath! that is my thunder."-P. Dennis, in his "Appius and Virginia," introduced a new way of making thunder, which was afterwards employed in "Macbeth." A mechanical aid to the Pathetic, not unuseful to the modern writers of Tragedy. --P. Certain musical instruments used by one class of Critics to confound the poets of the theatre.-P. And Noise and Norton, Brangling and Breval,1 Dennis and Dissonance, and captious Art, And Snip-snap short, and Interruption smart, 240 And Demonstration thin, and Theses thick, And Major, Minor, and Conclusion quick. "Hold!" (cried the Queen) "a Cat-call each shall win;2 3 Equal your merits! equal is your din! 4 255 High Sound, attempered to the vocal nose; 1 See ver. 415. J. Durant Breval, Author of a very extraordinary Book of Travels, and some Poems. See before, Note on ver. 126.-P. 2 "Non nostrum inter vos tantas componere lites, Et vitula tu dignus, et hic."-Virg. Ecl. iii.-P. 3 A simile with a long tail, in the manner of Homer.-P. Sir Gilbert Heathcote. See Moral Essays, iii. 101. The one the writer of a Newspaper called the Weekly Miscellany, the other a Field-preacher.— Warburton. This couplet first appeared in 1742. George Whitefield, the famous preacher, was born in 1714, and died in 1770. 3 2 But far o'er all, sonorous Blackmore's strain; 1 A figure of speech taken from Virgil: Et vox assensu nemorum ingeminata remugit." "He hears his numerous herds low o'er the plain, While neighbouring hills low back to them again." Cowley. The poet here celebrated, Sir R. B., delighted much in the word bray, which he endeavoured to ennoble by applying it to the sound of Armour, War, &c. In imitation of him, and strengthened by his authority, our author has here admitted it into Heroic poetry,-P. 2 "Immemor herbarum quos est mirata juvenca." Virg. Ecl. viii. The progress of the sound from place to place, and the scenery here of the bordering regions, Tottenhamfields, Chancery-lane, the Thames, Westminster-hall, and Hungerford-stairs, are imitated from Virgil, En. vii., on the sounding the horn of Alecto: "Audiit et Trivia longe lacus, audiit amnis Sulphurea Nar albus aqua, fontesque Velini," &c. -P. The place where the offices of Chancery are kept. The long detention of Clients in that Court, and the difficulty of getting out, is humorously allegorized in these lines.-P. 4 A just character of Sir Richard Blackmore, knight, who (as Mr. Dryden expresseth it) "Writ to the rumbling of his coach's wheels;" This labour past, by Bridewell all descend, (As morning prayer and flagellation end)1 270 and whose indefatigable Muse produced no less than six Epic poems: Prince and King Arthur, twenty books; Eliza, ten; Alfred, twelve; The Redeemer, six; besides Job, in folio; the whole Book of Psalms; The Creation, seven books; Nature of Man, three books; and many more. "Tis in this sense he is styled afterwards the everlasting Blackmore. Notwithstanding all which, Mr. Gildon seems assured that "this admirable author did not think himself upon the same foot with Homer."-Comp. Art of Poetry, vol. i. p. 108. This gentleman, in his first works, abused the character of Mr. Dryden; and, in his last, of Mr. Pope, accusing him in very high and sober terms of profaneness and immorality (Essay on Polite Writing, vol. ii. p. 270), on a mere report from Edmund Curl that he was author of a Travestie on the first Psalm. Mr. Dennis took up the same report, but with the addition of what Sir Richard had neglected, an Argument to prove it; which, being very curious, we shall here transcribe. "It was he who burlesqued the Psalm of David. It is apparent to me that Psalm was burlesqued by a Popish rhymester. Let rhyming persons who have been brought up Protestants be otherwise what they will, let them be rakes, let them be scoundrels, let them be Atheists, yet education has made an invincible impression on them in behalf of the sacred writings. But a Popish rhymester has been brought up with a contempt for those sacred writings; now shew me another Popish rhymester but he." This manner of argumentation is usual with Mr. Dennis; he has employed the same against Sir Richard himself, in a like charge of Impiety and Irreligion.-P. It is between eleven and twelve in the morning, after church service, that the criminals are whipped in Bridewell.-This is to mark punctually the time of the day: Homer does it by the circumstance of the Judges rising from court, or of the Labourers' dinner; our author, by one very proper both to the Persons and the Scene of his poem, which we may remember commenced in the evening of the Lord III. |