But chief her shrine where naked Venus keeps, Where, eased of fleets, the Adriatic main Wafts the smooth eunuch and enamour'd swain. 310 And gather'd every vice on Christian ground; And last turn'd air, the echo of a sound; REMARKS. rying a great fortune: but this again, for the vulgarity of it, he rejects, as something uncommon seemed to be prayed for: and after many strange conceits, not at all to the ho nour of the fair sex, he at length rests in this, that it was, that her son might pass for a wit: in which opinion he fortifies himself by ver. 316, where the orator, speaking of his pupil, says that he Intrigued with glory, and with spirit whored, which seems to insinuate that her prayer was heard. Here the good scholiast, as, indeed, every where else, lays open the very soul of modern criticism, while he makes his own ignorance of a poetical expression hold open the door to much erudition and learned conjecture: the blessing of a rake signifying no more than that he might be a rake; the effects of a thing for the thing itself, a common figure. The careful mother only wished her son might be a rake, as wel. knowing that its attendant blessings would follow of course. Ver. 307. But chief, &c.] These two lines, in their force of imagery and colouring, emulate and equal the pencil of Rubens. Ver. 308. And Cupids ride the lion of the deeps;] The winged lion, the arms of Venice. This republic, heretofore the most considerable in Europe, for her naval force and the extent of her commerce; now illustrious for her carnivals. Ver. 318. Greatly daring dined:] It being, indeed, no small risk to eat through those extraordinary compositions, whose disguised ingredients are generally unknown to the guests, and highly inflammatory and unwholesome. See now, half-cured, and perfectly well-bred, This glorious youth, and add one Venus more. So may the sons of sons of sons of whores 330 Prop thine, O empress ! like each neighbour throne, Pleased, she accepts the hero and the dame, Of ever-listless loiterers, that attend No cause, no trust, no duty, and no friend. REMARKS. 340 Ver. 324. With nothing but a solo in his head;] With nothing but a solo? Why, if it be a solo, how should there be any thing els? Palpable tautology! Read boldly an opera, which is enough of conscience for such a head as has lost all its Latin. Bentl. Ver. 326. Jansen, Fleetwood, Cibber.] Three very eminent persons, all managers of plays: who, though not governors by profession, had, each in his way, concerned themselves in the education of youth; and regulated their wits, their morals, or their finances, at that period of their age which is the most important, their entrance into the polite world. Of the last of these, and his talents for this end, see Book i. ver. 199, &c. Ver. 331. Her too receive, &c.] This confirms what the learned Scriblerus advanced in his note on ver. 272, that the governor, as well as the pupil, had a particular interest in this lady. Ver. 341. Thce too, my Paridel!] The poet seems to speak of this young gentleman with great affection. The name is taken from Spenser, who gives it to a wandering courtly 'squire, that travelled about for the same reason for which many young 'squires are now fond of travelling, and especially to Paris. And heard thy everlasting yawn confess But Annius, crafty seer, with ebon wand, And well-dissembled emerald on his hand, False as his gems, and canker'd as his coins, Came, cramm'd with capon, from where Pollio dines. Soft as the wily fox is seen to creep, 351 Where bask on sunny banks the simple sheep, 360 'Grant, gracious goddess! grant me still to cheat, O may thy cloud still cover the deceit ! Thy choicer mists on this assembly shed, But pour them thickest on the noble head. So shall each youth, assisted by our eyes, See other Cæsars, other Homers rise; Through twilight ages hunt the Athenian fowl, Which Chalcis gods, and mortals call an owl: Now see an Attys, now a Cecrops clear, Nay, Mahomet! the pigeon at thine ear: Be rich in ancient brass, though not in gold, And keep his Lares, though his house be sold; To headless Phœbe his fair bride postpone, Honour a Syrian prince above his own; Lord of an Otho, if I vouch it true; Bless'd in one Niger, till he knows of two.' 370 REMARKS. Ver. 347. Annius,] The name taken from Annius the monk of Viterbo, famous for many impositions and forgeries of ancient manuscripts and inscriptions, which he was prompted to by mere vanity: but our Annius had a more substantial motive. Ver. 363. Attys and Cecrops.] The first king of Athens, of whom it is hard to suppose any coins are extant; but not so improbable as wnat follows, that there should be any of Mahomet, who forbade all images; and the story of whose pigeon was a monkish fable. Nevertheless, one of these Anniuses made a counterfeit medal of that impostor, now the collection of a learned nobleman. Mummius o'erheard him; Mummius, fool-renown'd Who like his Cheops stinks above the ground, Fierce as a startled adder, swell'd and said, Rattling an ancient sistrum at his head: 380 'Speak'st thou of Syrian princes? Traitor baso! Mine, goddess! mine is all the horned race. True, he had wit, to make their value rise : From foolish Greeks to steal them, was as wise; More glorious yet, from barbarous hands to keep, When Sallee rovers chased him on the deep. Then taught by Hermes, and divinely bold, Down his own throat he risk'd the Grecian gold. Received each demi-god, with pious care, Deep in his entrails-I revered them there; I bought them, shrouded in that living shrine, And, at their second birth, they issue mine' REMARKS. Ver. 371. Mummius.] This name is not merely an allusion to the Mummius he was so fond of, but probably refer red to the Roman general of that name, who burned Corinth, and committed the curious statues to the captain of a ship, assuring him, 'that if they were lost or broken, he should procure others to be made in their stead;' by which it should seem (whatever may be pretended) that Mummius was no virtuoso. Ibid. Fool-renown'd,] A compound epithet in the Greek manner, renowned by fools, or renowned for making fools. Ver. 372. Cheops.] A king of Egypt whose body was certainly to be known, as being buried alone in his pyramid, and is therefore more genuine than any of the Cleopatras. This royal mummy, being stolen by a wild Arab, was purchased by the consul of Alexandria, and transmitted to the museum of Mummius; for proof of which he brings a passage in Sandy's Travels, where that accurate and learned voyager assures us that he saw the sepulchre empty, which agrees exactly, saith he, with the time of the theft abovementioned. But he omits to observe that Herodotus tells the same thing of it in his time. Ver. 375. Speak'st thou of Syrian princes? &c.] The strange story following, which may be taken for a fiction of the poet, is justified by a true relation in Spon's Voyages. Vaillant (who wrote the History of the Syrian kings as it is to be found on medals) coming from the Levant, where he had been collecting various coins, and being pursued by a 390 Witness, great Ammon! by whose horns I swore, Replied soft Annius, ' this our paunch before Still bears them faithful; and that thus I eat, Is to refund the medals with the meat. To prove me, goddess! clear of all design, Bid me with Pollio sup, as well as dine : There all the learn'd shall at the labour stand, And Douglas lend his soft, obstetric hand.' The goddess, smiling, seem'd to give consent; So back to Pollio, hand in hand they went. Then thick as locusts blackening all the ground, A tribe with weeds and shells fantastic crown'd, Each with some wondrous gift approach'd the power, A nest, a toad, a fungus, or a flower. But far the foremost, two, with earnest zeal, And aspect ardent, to the throne appeal. 400 The first thus open'd: 'Hear thy suppliant's call, Great queen, and common mother of us all! Fair from its humble bed I rear'd this flower, Suckled, and cheer'd, with air, and sun, and shower REMARKS. corsair of Sallee, swallowed down twenty gold medals. A sudden borasque freed him from the rover, and he got to land with them in his belly. On his road to Avignon he met two physicians, of whom he demanded assistance. One advised purgations, the other vomits. In this uncertainty he took neither, but pursued his way to Lyons, where he found his ancient friend the famous physician and antiquary Dufour, to whom he related his adventure. Dufour, without staying to inquire about the uneasy symptoms of the burthen he carried, first asked him, whether the medals were of the higher empire? He assured him they were. Dufour was ravished with the hope of possessing so rare a treasure; he bargained with him on the spot for the most curious of them, and was to recover them at his own expense Ver. 387. Witness great Ammon!] Jupiter Ammon is called to witness, as the father ot Alexander, to whom those kings succeeded in the division of the Macedonian empire, and whose horns they wore on their medals. Ver. 394. Douglas.] A physician of great learning and no less taste; above all, curious in what related to Horace, of whom he collected every edition, translation, and comment, to the number of several hundred volumes. |