Wicked as Pages, who in early years 40 Act fins which Prifca's Confeffor fcarce hears. Time, that at last matures a clap to pox, 45 50 No young Divine, new benefic'd, can be More pert, more proud, more positive than he. 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 Idly, like prifoners, which whole months will fwear, 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; And wooe in language of the Pleas and Bench? 60 If PETER deigns to help you to your own: 65 Grave, as when pris'ners shake the head and fwear 75 From wicked Waters ev'n to godly ** 80 Not more of Simony beneath black gowns, 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, Satan will not joy at their fins as he : So huge that men (in our times forwardness) Therefore spares no length (as in those first dayes 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; away; 85 go Or City-heir in mortgage melts 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 |