As, forced from wind-guns, lead itself can fly,1 And ponderous slugs cut swiftly through the sky; 185 As clocks to weight their nimble motion owe, same; This, prose on stilts; that, poetry fallen lame. Heaven had decreed these works a longer date. What can I now ? my Fletcher cast aside,1 early The thought of these fout verses is found in a poem of our Author's of a very date (namely, written at fourteen years old, and soon after printed) to the Author of a poem called Successio.—Warburton. 2 "Me si cœlicolæ voluissent ducere vitam, 3 Has mihi servassent sedes."-Virg. Æn. ii.-P. "Si Pergama dextra Defendi possent, etiam hac defensa fuissent."Virg. ibid.-P. 4 A familiar manner of speaking, used by modern critics of a favourite author. Bays might as justly speak thus of Fletcher, as a French wit did of Tully, seeing his works in a library, "Ah! mon cher Ciceron! je le connois bien; c'est le même que Marc 1 200 Take up the Bible, once my better guide? Or chaired at White's amidst the Doctors sit, 210 Or rob Rome's ancient geese of all their glories, And cackling save the Monarchy of Tories ? 4 Tulle." But he had a better pride to call Fletcher his own, having made so free with him.-P. W. 1 When, according to his father's intention, he had been a Clergyman, or (as he thinks himself) a Bishop of the Church of England. Hear his own words: "At the time that the fate of King James, the Prince of Orange, and myself were on the anvil, Providence thought fit to postpone mine, till theirs were determined; but had my father carried me a month sooner to the University, who knows but that purer fountain might have washed my imperfections into a capacity of writing, instead of Plays and annual Odes, Sermons and Pastoral Letters?"-Apology for his Life, c. iii.— P. W. 2 "Dextra mihi Deus, et telum quod missile libro." Virgil, of the Gods of Mezentius.-P. W. 3 George Ridpath, author of a Whig paper called the Flying Post; Nathaniel Mist, of a famous Tory journal.-P. Not out of any preference or affection to the Tories. For what Hobbes so ingenuously confesses of himself, is true of all Party-writers whatsoever : "That he defends the supreme powers, as the Geese 3 Hold-to the Minister I more incline; o'er,1 2 215 Ev'n Ralph repents, and Henley writes no more. What then remains? Ourself. Still, still remain Cibberian forehead,3 and Cibberian brain. Peer: 220 This arch Absurd, that wit and fool delights; This Mess, tossed up of Hockley-hole1 and White's; by their cackling defended the Romans who held the Capitol; for they favoured them no more than the Gauls, their enemies, but were as ready to have defended the Gauls if they had been possessed of the Capitol."-Epist. Dedic. to the Leviathan.- War burton. 1 A band of ministerial writers, hired at the price mentioned in the note on Book ii. ver. 316; who, on the very day their patron quitted his post, laid down their paper, and declared they would never more meddle in Politics.-P. W. 2 See Book iii. 165. 3 So, indeed, all the MSS. read; but I make no scruple to pronounce them all wrong, the Laureate being elsewhere celebrated by our Poet for his great Modesty-modest Cibber. Read, therefore, at my peril, Cerberian forehead. This is perfectly classical, and, what is more, Homerical; the Dog was the ancient, as the Bitch is the modern, symbol of impudence: (Kuvòç öpμar' exwv, says Achilles to Agamemnon) which, when in a superlative degree, may well be denominated from Cerberus, the Dog with three heads. But as to the latter part of this verse, Cibberian brain, that is certainly the genuine reading. — Bentley.-Warburton. See Book iv. 532. 4 See Imitations of Horace, Bk. ii. Sat. i. 49. Where Dukes and Butchers join to wreathe my crown, At once the Bear and Fiddle of the town. 224 "O born in sin, and forth in folly brought! Works damned, or to be damned! (your father's fault) 2 Go, purified by flames ascend the sky, 4 While all your smutty sisters walk the streets. Ye shall not beg, like gratis-given Bland, 231 Sent with a Pass, and vagrant through the land; 5 Not sail with Ward to Ape-and-monkey climes, 1 This is a tender and passionate Apostrophe to his own works, which he is going to sacrifice, agreeable to the nature of man in great affliction; and reflecting, like a parent, on the many miserable fates to which they would otherwise be subject.-P. 2 "It may be observable that my muse and my spouse were equally prolific; that the one was seldom the mother of a Child, but in the same year the other made me the father of a Play. I think we had a dozen of each sort between us; of both of which kinds some died in their Infancy," &c.-Life of C. C., p. 217, 8vo edition.-P. W. 3 "Felix Priamëia virgo! Nos, patria incensa, diversa per æquora vectæ," &c. 4 It was a practice so to give the Daily Gazetteer and ministerial pamphlets (in which this B. was a writer), and to send them Post-free to all the Towns in the kingdom.-P. W. Dr. Bland, Provost of Eton. See Epilogue to Satires, i. 75. 5 "Edward Ward, a very voluminous poet in Hudibrastic verse, but best known by the London Where vile Mundungus trucks for viler rhymes: 236 Not sulphur-tipped, emblaze an Ale-house fire; 1 240 In Shadwell's bosom with eternal Rest! unborn." With that, a Tear (portentous sign of Grace !) Stole from the Master of the sevenfold Face: And thrice he lifted high the Birth-day brand,2 245 And thrice he dropped it from his quivering hand; Then lights the structure, with averted eyes: The rolling smoke involves the sacrifice. The opening clouds disclose each work by turns: Spy, in prose. He has of late years kept a publichouse in the City (but in a genteel way), and with his wit, humour, and good liquor (ale), afforded his guests a pleasurable entertainment, especially those of the High Church party.”—Jacob, Lives of Poets, vol. ii. p. 225. Great numbers of his works were yearly sold into the Plantations. Ward, in a book called Apollo's Maggot, declared this account to be a great falsity, protesting that his public-house was not in the City, but in Moorfields.-P. 1 Tate and Shadwell. Two of his predecessors in the Laurel.-Warburton. 2 Ovid, of Althea on a like occasion, burning her offspring. "Tum conata quater flammis imponere torrem, Coepta quater tenuit."-P. |
