575 580 Or issue Members of an Annual feast. 3 From Stage to Stage the licensed Earl may run, 5 1 A sort of Lay-brothers, Slips from the Root of the Freemasons.-P. W. 2 Pope refused the degree of D.C.L. at Oxford because the University did not at the same time confer the degree of D.D. on Warburton. 3 This speech of Dulness to her Sons at parting may possibly fall short of the Reader's expectations; who may imagine the Goddess might give them a Charge of more consequence, and, from such a Theory as is before delivered, incite them to the practice of something more extraordinary than to personate RunningFootmen, Jockeys, Stage-Coachmen, &c. But if it be well considered that whatever inclination they might have to do mischief, her sons are generally rendered harmless by their inability; and that it is the common effect of Dulness (even in her greatest efforts) to defeat her own design; the Poet, I am persuaded, will be justified, and it will be allowed that these worthy persons, in their several ranks, do as much as can be expected from them.-P. W. 4 The Duke of Devonshire. The Marquis in the next line is his son the Marquis of Hartington.— Courthope. The Earl of Salisbury, who took the property of a Stage Coach and drove it himself. - Walpole. 1 590 Paired with his Fellow-Charioteer the Sun; nods: 3 What Mortal can resist the Yawn of Gods ?1 605 1 This is one of the most ingenious employments assigned, and therefore recommended only to Peers of Learning. Of weaving Stockings of the Webs of Spiders, see the Phil. Trans.-P. W. 2 Alluding, perhaps, to that ancient and solemn Dance, entitled A Call of Serjeants.-P. W. An ancient amusement of Sovereign Princes, viz., Achilles, Alexander, Nero; though despised by Themistocles, who was a Republican.-Make Senates dance, either after their Prince, or to Pontoise, or Siberia.-P. W. See Moral Essays iii. 44. ✦ This verse is truly Homerical; as is the conclusion of the Action, where the great Mother composes all, in the same manner as Minerva at the period of the Odyssey. It may, indeed, seem a very singular Epitasis of a Poem to end as this does with a Great Yawn; but we must consider it as the Yawn of a God, and of powerful effects. It is not out of nature; most long and grave Counsels concluding in this very manner: nor without authority, the incomparable 1 Churches and Chapels instantly it reached; The Convocation gaped, but could not speak : 610 616 Spenser having ended one of the most considerable of his works with a Roar; but then it is the Roar of a Lion, the effects whereof are described as the Catastrophe of the Poem.—P. W. The Progress of this Yawn is judicious, natural, and worthy to be noted. First it seizeth the Churches and Chapels; then catcheth the Schools, where, though the boys be unwilling to sleep, the Masters are not; next Westminster-hall, much more hard indeed to subdue, and not totally put to silence, even by the Goddess; then the Convocation, which though extremely desirous to speak, yet cannot even the House of Commons, justly called the Sense of the Nation, is lost (that is to say suspended) during the Yawn (far be it from our Author to suggest it could be lost any longer!), but it spreadeth at large all over the rest of the Kingdom, to such a degree, that Palinurus himself (though as incapable of sleeping as Jupiter) yet noddeth for a moment: the effect of which, though ever so momentary, could not but cause some relaxation, for the time, in all public affairs.-Scriblerus.-P. W. 2 Dr. Gilbert, Bishop of Salisbury (afterwards Archbishop of York). He had never given Pope any particular offence, but he had attacked Dr. King, of Oxford, whom Pope respected.-Warton. 3 Young's. Universal Passion, Sat. vii. 225: "What felt thy Walpole, pilot of the realm! Our Palinurus slept not at the helm." -Wakefield. 2 And Navies yawned for Orders on the Main.' What Charms could Faction, what Ambition lull, The Venal quiet, and entrance the Dull; 'Till drowned was Sense, and Shame, and Right, and Wrong 625 O sing, and hush the Nations with thy Song! * * * In vain, in vain,-the all-composing Hour 1 These verses were written many years ago, and may be found in the State Poems of that time. So that Scriblerus is mistaken, or whoever else have imagined this Poem of a fresher date.-P. W. From a poem by Halifax on Orpheus and Margarita : "And when the tawny Tuscan raised her strain, Rook furls his sails, and dozes on the main : Treaties unfinished in the office sleep, And Shovel yawns for orders on the deep." -Wakefield. 2 This seems to be the reason why the Poets, whenever they give us a Catalogue, constantly call for help on the Muses, who, as the Daughters of Memory, are obliged not to forget anything. So Homer, Iliad ii. : Πληθὺν δ ̓ οὐκ ἂν ἐγὼ μυθήσομαι οὐδ ̓ ὀνομήνω, And Virgil, Æn. vii.: "Et meministis enim, Divæ, et memorare potestis: Ad nos vix tenuis famæ perlabitur aura. But our Poet had yet another reason for putting this task upon the Muse, that, all besides being asleep, she only could relate what passed.-Scriblerus.-P. W. 630 635 Resistless falls: the Muse obeys the Power. 640 645 In vain they gaze, turn giddy, rave, and die. Religion blushing veils her sacred fires, And unawares Morality expires. 650 Nor public Flame, nor private, dares to shine; 1 The sable Thrones of Night and Chaos, here represented as advancing to extinguish the light of the Sciences, in the first place blot out the colours of Fancy, and damp the fire of Wit, before they proceed to their greater work.-Warburton. 2 "Et quamvis sopor est oculorum parte receptus, Parte tamen vigilat -Vidit Cyllenius omnes Succubuisse oculos," etc.-Ovid, Met. i.-P. 3 Alluding to the saying of Democritus, that Truth lay at the bottom of a deep well, from whence he had drawn her though Butler says, He first put her in, before he drew her out.-P. |