210

Now pox on those who fhew a Court in wax!
It ought to bring all Courtiers on their backs:
Such painted puppets! fuch a varnish'd race
Of hollow gew-gaws, only drefs and face!
Such waxen noses, stately staring things—
No wonder fome folks bow, and think them Kings.
See! where the British youth, engag'd no more
At Fig's, at White's, with felons, or a whore,
Pay their last duty to the Court, and come
All fresh and fragrant to the drawing-room;
In hues as gay, and odours as divine,
As the fair fields they fold to look fo fine.
"That's Velvet for a King!" the flatt'rer fwears;
'Tis true, for ten days hence 'twill be King Lear's. ́
Our Court may justly to our stage give rules,
That helps it both to fools-coats and to fools.
And why not players ftrut in courtiers clothes?
For these are actors too, as well as thofe :
Wants reach all states; they beg but better dreft,
And all is fplendid poverty at best.

220

215

225 Painted

NOTES.

licenfing plays, which about this time occafioned great debates in the House of Lords, and a very fpirited and remarkable speech of Lord Chesterfield in behalf of play writers: "Wit," faid he,

6:

my Lords, is the property of those who have it; and very often the only property they have. Thank Heaven, my Lords, we are otherwise provided for." The firft play that was prohibited by this act, was Guftavus Vafa, by Brooke; the next was the Ed. ward and Eleonora of Thomfon. WARTON.

VER. 220. our flage give rules,] Alluding to the Authority of the Lord Chamberlain.

WARBURTON.

Shall find their wardrobes inventory. Now
The Ladies come. As pirates (which do know
That there came weak fhips fraught with Cutchanel)
The men board them; and praise (as they think) well,
Their beauties; they the mens wits; both are bought.
Why good wits ne'er wear fcarlet gowns, I thought
This caufe, These men, mens wits for fpeeches buy,
And women buy all red which scarlets dye.
He call'd her beauty lime-twigs, her hair net :
She fears her drugs ill-lay'd, her hair loose set.
Would not Heraclitus laugh to fee Macrine
From hat to fhoe, himself at door refine,
As if the Prefence were a Mofque and lift
His fkirts and hofe, and call his clothes to fhrift,
Making them confefs not only mortal

Great ftains and holes in them, but venial
Feathers and duft, wherewith they fornicate:
And then by Durer's rules furvey the state
Of his each limb, and with strings the odds tries
Of his neck to his leg, and waste to thighs.
So in immaculate clothes, and Symmetry
Perfect as Circles, with fuch nicety

NOTES.

VER. 227. Like frigates fraught] Here is a very close refemblance to the picture of Dalilah, in Samfon Agonies:

As

Of Javan or Gadire,

With all her bravery on, and tackle trim,
Sails filled, and ftreamers waving?

WARTON.

Painted for fight, and effenc'd for the smell, Like frigates fraught with spice and cochine❜l, Sail in the Ladies: how each pyrate eyes So weak a veffel, and fo rich a prize! Top-gallant he, and fhe in all her trim, He boarding her, the ftriking fail to him: "Dear Countefs! you have charms all hearts to hit!" And "Sweet Sir Fopling! you have so much wit!” Such wits and beauties are not prais'd for nought, For both the beauty and the wit are bought. 'Twould burst ev'n Heraclitus with the spleen, To fee thofe anticks, Fopling and Courtin: The Prefence feems, with things fo richly odd, The mofque of Mahound, or fome queer Pa-god. See them survey their limbs by Durer's rules, Of all beau-kind the best proportion'd fools! Adjust their clothes, and to confeffion draw Those venial fins, an atom, or a straw;

230

235

240

But

NOTES.

VER. 240. by Durer's rules,] The best Painter Germany ever produced; he was patronized and beloved by Maximilian I. and by Charles V. and, what was of more confequence to an artist, by Raphael himself, who fent him feveral defigns, and his own portrait. He formed himfelf on no other painter, had a manner of his own, which indeed was hard; he wanted grace, and had not ftudied the antique, and copied only common nature and the forms before him. He attended not to Coftume. His Madonna's were dreft like German ladies, and his Jews had beards and mustacchios. See a most judicious Criticism on the Works and Talents of Albert Durer, by a living painter of great genius and learning, Mr. Fufeli, in the third volume of that entertaining publication, intitled, Anecdotes of fome diftinguished Perfons, p. 234. WARTON.

As a young Preacher at his first time
goes
To preach, he enters, and a lady which owes
Him not fo much as good-will, he arrests,
And unto her protests, protests, protests,

So much as at Rome would ferve to have thrown
Ten Cardinals into the Inquifition;

And whispers by Jefu fo oft, that a
Purfuevant would have ravish'd him away
For faying our Lady's Pfalter. But 'tis fit
That they each other plague, they merit it.
But here comes Glorious that will plague them both,
Who in the other extreme only doth

Call a rough carelesness, good fashion
Whofe cloak his fpurs tear, or whom he fpits on,
He cares not, he. His ill words do no harm
To him; he rushes in, as if Arm, arm,

He meant to cry; and though his face be as ill
As theirs which in old hangings whip Christ, still
He strives to look worfe; he keeps all in awe;
Jefts like a licens'd fool, commands like law.

Tyr'd,

NOTES.

VER. 256. or Gonfon] Sir John Gonfon, the famous police magiftrate, was as celebrated in his day, in the annals of Justice, as one of his fucceffors in office, Sir John Fielding, has been fince. His portrait is introduced in Hogarth's Harlot's Progrefs.

VER. 262. The Captain's honeft,] Much refembling Noll Bluff, in Congreve's Old Batchelor, who was copied from Thrafo, and alfo from Ben Jonfon.

WARTON.

But oh! what terrors must distract the foul
Convicted of that mortal crime, a hole;
Or fhould one pound of powder less bespread
Those monkey-tails that wag behind their head.
Thus finifh'd, and corrected to a hair,

They march, to prate their hour before the Fair.
So first to preach a white-glov'd Chaplain goes, 250
With band of Lily, and with cheek of Rose,
Sweeter than Sharon, in immac❜late trim,
Neatness itself impertinent in him.

255

Let but the Ladies fmile, and they are blest :
Prodigious! how the things protest, protest :
Peace, fools, or Gonfon will for Papists seize you,
If once he catch you at your Jefu! Jefu!

259

Nature made ev'ry Fop to plague his brother, Juft as one Beauty mortifies another. But here's the Captain that will plague them both, Whofe air cries Arm! whofe very look's an oath : The Captain's honest, Sirs, and that's enough, Tho' his foul's bullet, and his body buff. He fpits fore-right; his haughty chest before, Like batt'ring rams, beats open ev'ry door: And with a face as red, and as awry, As Herod's hang-dogs in old Tapestry, Scarecrow to boys, the breeding woman's curfe, Has yet a ftrange ambition to look worse; Confounds the civil, keeps the rude in awe, Jefts like a licens'd fool, commands like law.

Frighted,

245

265

270