Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

Wicked as Pages, who in early years

40

Act fins which Prifca's Confeffor fcarce hears.
Ev'n those I pardon, for whofe finful fake
Schoolmen new tenements in Hell muft make;
Of whose strange crimes no Canonift can tell
In what Commandment's large contents they dwell.
One, one man only breeds, my just offence;
Whom crimes gave wealth, and wealth gave im-
pudence:

Time, that at last matures a clap to pox,
Whose gentle progrefs makes a calf an ox,
And brings all natural events to pass,
Hath made him an Attorney of an Ass.

45

50

No young Divine, new benefic'd, can be

More pert, more proud, more positive than he.
What further could I wish the fop to do,

But turn a wit and scribble verses too;

Pierce the foft labʼrinth of a Lady's ear

55

With rhymes of this per cent. and that per year?

Or

NOTES.

VER. 44. In what Commandment's large contents they dwell.] The Original is more humorous:

"In which Commandment's large receit they dwell."

As if the Ten Commandments were fo wide, as to ftand ready to receive every thing within them, that either the Law of Nature, or the Gafpels, enjoins. A just ridicule on those practical Commentators, as they are called, who include all moral and religious duties within the Decalogue. Whereas their true original fenfe is much more confined; being a fhort fummary of moral duty fitted for a fingle people, upon a particular occafion, and to serve temporary ends. WARBURTON.

VER. 48. makes a calf an ox,] An unaccountable blunder in our Author. As if an ox was in his natural state. WARTON.

More, more than ten Sclavonians fcolding, more
Than when winds in our ruin'd Abbyes roar.
Then fick with Poetry, and poffeft with Muse
Thou waft, and mad I hop'd; but men which chuse
Law practice for mere gain; bold foul repute
Worfe than imbrothel'd ftrumpets prostitute.
Now like an owl-like watchman he muft walk,
His hand still at a bill; now he must talk

Idly, like prifoners, which whole months will fwear,
That only furetyfhip hath brought them there,
And to ev'ry fuitor lye in every thing,
Like a King's Favourite-or like a king.
Like a wedge in a block, wring to the barre,
Bearing like affes, and more fhamelefs farre
Than carted whores, lie to the grave Judge; for
Bastardy abounds not in the King's titles, nor
Simony and Sodomy in Church-men's lives,

As these things do in him; by these he thrives.

NOTES.

Shortly

VER. 61. Language, which Boreas –] The Original has here a very fine ftroke of Satire,

"Than when winds in our ruin'd Abbyes roar."

The frauds with which that work (fo neceffary for the welfare both of religion and the state) was begun; the rapine with which it was carried on; and the diffoluteness in which the plunder aris ing from it was wafted, had fcandalized all fober men; and dis. pofed fome, even of the best Proteftants, to wifh, that some part of that immenfe wealth, arifing from the fuppreffion of the Monafteries, had been referved for charity, hofpitality, and even for the fervice of religion. WARBURTON.

VER. 74. For not in Chariots Peter] Pope might have applied the words of Horace to this eternal Peter, with as much propriety as he did to his friend Bolingbroke:

Prima dicte mihi, fummâ dicende camanâ !

Or court a Wife, spread out his wily parts,

Like nets, or lime-twigs, for rich Widows' hearts;
Call himself Barrister to ev'ry wench,

And wooe in language of the Pleas and Bench? 60
Language, which Boreas might to Aufter hold,
More rough than forty Germans when they scold
Curs'd be the wretch, so venal and so vain:
Paltry and proud, as Drabs in Drury-lane.
'Tis fuch a bounty as was never known,

If PETER deigns to help you to your own:
What thanks, what praise, if Peter but fupplies!
And what a folemn face, if he denies !

65

Grave, as when pris'ners shake the head and fwear
'Twas only Suretyship that brought them there. 70
His Office keeps your Parchment fates entire,
He starves with cold to fave them from the fire;
For you he walks the streets through rain or duft,
For not in Chariots Peter puts his truft;
For you he fweats and labours at the laws,
Takes God to witness he affects your cause,
And lies to ev'ry Lord, in ev'ry thing,
Like a King's Favourite-or like a King.
These are the talents that adorn them all,

75

From wicked Waters ev'n to godly **

80

Not more of Simony beneath black gowns,
Nor more of Bastardy in heirs to Crowns.

In

NOTES.

VER. 78. Like a King's Favourite] A line from the Original, as alfo line 60; which shews that Donne, if he had properly attended to it, could have 'written harmoniously.

WARTON.

Shortly (as th' fea) he'll compafs all the land,
From Scots to Wight, from Mount to Dover strand,
And spying heirs melting with Luxury,

Satan will not joy at their fins as he :
For (as a thrifty wench fcrapes kitchen-ftuffe,
And barrelling the droppings, and the fnuffe
Of wafting candles, which in thirty year,
Reliquely kept, perchance buys wedding chear)
Piecemeal he gets lands, and fpends as much time
Wringing each acre, as maids pulling prime.
In parchment then, large as the fields, he draws
Afsurances, big as gloss'd civil laws,

So huge that men (in our times forwardness)
Are Fathers of the Church for writing less.
Thefe he writes not; nor for these written payes,

Therefore spares no length (as in those first dayes
When Luther was profeft, he did defire

Short Pater-nofters, saying as a Fryar

NOTES.

Each

VER. 105. So Luther, &c.] Our Poet, by judiciously transpos ing this fine fimilitude, has given new luftre to his Author's thought. The Lawyer (fays Dr. Donne) enlarges his legal inftruments, to the bignefs of glofs'd civil Laws, when it is to convey property to himself, and to fecure his own ill-got wealth. But let the fame Lawyer convey property to you, and he then omits even the necessary words; and becomes as concife and loose as the hafty poftils of a modern Divine. So Luther, while a Monk, and by his Inftitution, obliged to fay Mafs, and pray in person for others, thought even his Pater-nofler too long. But when he fet up for a Governor in the Church, and his business was to direct others how to pray for the fuccefs of his new Model; he then lengthened the Pater nofter by a new clause. This reprefentation of the first part of his conduct was to ridicule his want of devotion; as the other, where he tells us, that the ad.

In fhillings and in pence at first they deal;
And steal fo little, few perceive they steal;
Till, like the Sea, they compass all the land,
From Scots to Wight, from Mount to Dover ftrand:
And when rank Widows purchase luscious nights,
Or when a Duke to Jansen punts at White's,

away;

85

go

Or City-heir in mortgage melts
Satan himself feels far lefs joy than they.
Piecemeal they win this acre first, then that,
Glean on, and gather up
and gather up the whole estate.
Then strongly fencing ill-got wealth by law,
Indenture, Cov'nants, Articles they draw,
Large as the fields themselves, and larger far
Than civil Codes, with all their Gloffes, are;
So vaft, our new Divines, we must confess,
Are Fathers of the Church for writing less.
But let them write for you, each rogue impairs
The deeds, and dextroufly omits, fes heires : . 100
No Commentator can more flily pass

O'er a learn'd, unintelligible place;

95

Or, in quotation, fhrewd Divines leave out

Those words, that would against them clear the doubt.

So Luther thought the Pater-nofter long,

When doom'd to fay his beads and Even-fong;

NOTES.

105

But

dition was the power and glory clause, was to satirize his ambition '; and both together, to infinuate that from a Monk, he was become totally fecularized.-About this time of his life Dr. Donne had à frong propenfity to the Roman Catholic Religion, which apVOL. IV.

T

peare

« PredošláPokračovať »