Though stale, not ripe; though thin, yet never clear; 170 So sweetly mawkish, and so smoothly dull; Heady, not strong; o'erflowing, though not full.' "Ah Dennis! Gildon ah! what ill-starred rage he returned to town, where he became the darling Expectation of all the polite Writers, whose encouragement he acknowledged in his occasional poems, in a manner that will make no small part of the Fame of his protectors. It also appears from his Works, that he was happy in the patronage of the most illustrious characters of the present age. Encouraged by such a Combination in his favour, he published a book of poems, some in the Ovidian, some in the Horatian manner, in both which the most exquisite Judges pronounce he even rivalled his masters. His Love verses have rescued that way of writing from contempt. In his Translations, he has given us the very soul and spirit of his author. His Ode-his Epistlehis Verses-his Love tale-all, are the most perfect things in all poetry.-Welsted of Himself, Char. of the Times, 8vo. 1728, pp. 23, 24.—P. 1 Parody on Denham, Cooper's Hill: "O could I flow like thee, and make thy stream My great example, as it is my theme: Though deep, yet clear; though gentle, yet not dull; Strong without rage; without o'erflowing, full !”—P. 2 The reader, who has seen, through the course of these notes, what a constant attendance Mr. Dennis paid to our Author and all his works, may perhaps wonder he should be mentioned but twice, and so slightly touched, in this poem. But in truth he looked upon him with some esteem, for having (more generously than all the rest) set his Name to such writings. He was also a very old man at this time. By his own account of himself in Mr. Jacob's Lives, he must have been above threescore, and happily lived many years after. So that he was senior to Mr. Durfey, who hitherto of all our Poets enjoyed the longest bodily life.-P. Divides a friendship long confirmed by age? Blockheads with reason wicked wits abhor; 175 But fool with fool is barbarous civil war. Embrace, embrace, my sons! be foes no more!1 Nor glad vile Poets with true Critics' gore. "Behold yon Pair, in strict embraces joined ; 2 How like in manners, and how like in mind! Equal in wit, and equally polite, 181 Shall this a Pasquin, that a Grumbler write; 1 Virg. Æn. vi. : Ne tanta animis assuescite bella, Neu patriæ validas in viscera vertite vires : Tuque prior, tu parce-sanguis meus!"-P. Expressly parodied from Dryden's version: 185 "Embrace again, my sons: be foes no more, Nor stain your country with your children's gore." -Wakefield. 2 One of these was author of a weekly paper called The Grumbler, as the other was concerned in another called Pasquin, in which Mr. Pope was abused with the Duke of Buckingham and Bishop of Rochester. They also joined in a piece against his first undertaking to translate the Iliad, intituled Homerides, by Sir Iliad Doggrel, printed 1715.-P. The pair were Thomas Burnet, third son of the famous Bishop of Salisbury, and Colonel Ducket. 3 Such places were given at this time to such sort of Writers.-P. W. Burnet was consul at Lisbon; Ducket a commissioner of Excise. 4 Virg. Æn. vi. questions and answers in this manner, of Numa: Quis procul ille autem ramis insignis olivæ, Sacra ferens?-nosco crines, incanaque menta," III. &c.-P. Right well mine eyes arede1 the myster wight,2 On parchment scraps y-fed, and Wormius hight.3 To future ages may thy dulness last, As thou preserv'st the dulness of the past! 190 "There, dim in clouds, the poring Scholiasts mark, 4 Wits, who, like owls, see only in the dark, For ever reading, never to be read! "But, where each Science lifts its modern type, History her Pot, Divinity her Pipe, 195 While proud Philosophy repines to show, Dishonest sight! his breeches rent below; Embrowned with native bronze, lo! Henley stands, 5 Read, or peruse; though sometimes used for counsel.-P. 2 Uncouth mortal.-P. 3 Let not this name, purely fictitious, be conceited to mean the learned Olaus Wormius; much less (as it was unwarrantably foisted into the surreptitious editions) our own antiquary, Mr. Thomas Hearne, who had no way aggrieved our Poet, but, on the contrary, published many curious tracts which he hath to his great contentment perused. "In Cumberland they say to hight, for to promise, or vow; but HIGHT usually signifies, was called; and so it does in the North even to this day, notwithstanding what is done in Cumberland."-Hearne.-P. These few lines exactly describe the right verbal critic: The darker his author is, the better he is pleased; like the famous Quack Doctor, who put up in his bills, he delighted in matters of difficulty. Somebody said well of these men, that their heads were Libraries out of order.-P. J. Henley, the Orator: he preached on the Sundays upon Theological matters, and on the Wednesdays upon all other sciences. Each auditor paid one shilling. He declaimed some years against the greatest persons, and occasionally did our Author that honour. 66 Tuning his voice, and balancing his hands. 200 How fluent nonsense trickles from his tongue! WELSTED, in Oratory Transactions, N. 1, published by Henley himself, gives the following account of him: "He was born at Melton Mowbray, in Leicestershire. From his own Parish school he went to St. John's College, in Cambridge. He began there to be uneasy; for it shocked him to find he was commanded to believe against his own judgment in points of Religion, Philosophy, &c., for his genius leading him freely to dispute all propositions, and call all points to account, he was impatient under those fetters of the free-born mind. Being admitted to Priest's orders, he found the examination very short and superficial, and that it was not necessary to conform to the Christian religion, in order either to Deaconship or Priesthood." He came to town, and after having for some years been a writer for Booksellers, he had an ambition to be so for Ministers of state. The only reason he did not rise in the Church, we are told, was the envy of others, and a disrelish entertained of him, because he was not qualified to be a compleat Spaniel." However, he offered the service of his pen to two great men, of opinions and interests directly opposite; by both of whom being rejected, he set up a new Project, and styled himself the Restorer of ancient eloquence. He thought "it as lawful to take a licence from the King and Parliament at one place as another; at Hickes's hall, as at Doctors' Commons; so set up his Oratory in Newport-market, Butcherrow. There (says his friend) he had the assurance to form a plan, which no mortal ever thought of; he had success against all opposition; challenged his adversaries to fair disputations, and none would dispute with him; writ, read, and studied twelve hours a day; composed three dissertations a week on all subjects; undertook to teach in one year what schools and universities teach in five; was not terrified by menaces, insults, or satires, but still proceeded, matured his bold scheme, and put the Church and all that in danger."-Welsted, Narrative in Orat. Transact., N. 1. After having stood some Prosecutions, he turned his rhetoric to buffoonery upon all public and private occurrences. All this passed in the same room; where How sweet the periods, neither said nor sung! Still break the benches, Henley! with thy strain, While Sherlock, Hare, and Gibson preach in vain.1 205 Oh great Restorer of the good old Stage, maul; 210 And bade thee live, to crown Britannia's praise, In Toland's, Tindal's, and in Woolston's days.* "Yet oh, my sons, a father's words attend: (So may the fates preserve the ears you lend) 'Tis yours, a Bacon or a Locke to blame, A Newton's genius, or a Milton's flame: 215 sometimes he broke jests, and sometimes that bread which he called the Primitive Eucharist. This wonderful person struck Medals, which he dispersed as Tickets to his subscribers: the device, a Star rising to the meridian, with this motto, AD SVMMA; and below, INVENIAM VIAM AVT FACIAM. This man had an hundred pounds a year given him for the secret service of a weekly paper of unintelligible nonsense, called the Hyp-Doctor.-P. Orator Henley published a piece called Oratory Transactions, written by Mr. Welstede, spelt with an e at the end, as an evasion, if Mr. Welsted should call upon him for using his name, when he knew nothing of the piece; and that Pope could not but know; and yet he quotes Welsted in several places as the author of these Oratory Transactions.-Nichols's Memoirs of Welsted. Bishops of Salisbury, Chichester, and London; whose Sermons and Pastoral Letters did honour to their country as well as stations.-Warburton. 2 Of Toland and Tindal, see Book ii. [v. 399.] Tho. Woolston was an impious madman, who wrote in a most insolent style against the Miracles of the Gospel, in the years 1726, &c.-P. |