Tentavit quoque rem, fi digne vertere poffet:
Et placuit fibi, natura fublimis et acer :

Nam P fpirat tragicum fatis, et feliciter audet:

૧

Sed turpem putat infcite metuitque lituram.

Creditur, ex medio quia res arceffit, habere Sudoris minimum; fed habet Comoedia tanto

S

Plus oneris, quanto veniae minus. s afpice, Plautus

t

Quo pacto partes tutetur amantis ephebi,

Ut patris attenti, lenonis ut infidiofi:

VER. 290. Aftræa,] A Name taken by Mrs. Behn, Authorefs of feveral obfcene Plays, etc.

P.

Ibid. The ftage how loofely does Ajiraa tread,] The fine

Show'd us that France had fomething to admire. 275
Not but the P Tragic spirit was our own,
And full in Shakespear, fair in Otway fhone:
But Otway fail'd to polish or refine,

And fluent Shakespear scarce effac'd a line.
Ev'n copious Dryden wanted, or forgot,
The last and greatest Art, the Art to blot.
Some doubt, if equal pains, or equal fire
The humbler Mufe of Comedy require.
But in known Images of life, I guess

The labour greater, as th' indulgence less.
Obferve how feldom ev'n the beft fucceed:
Tell me if Congreve's Fools are Fools indeed?
What pert, low Dialogue has Farqu❜ar writ!

t

How Van wants grace, who never wanted wit!

V

The stage how loosely does Aftræa tread,

Who fairly puts all Characters to bed!

And idle Cibber, how he breaks the laws,

To make poor Pinky eat with vast applause!
But fill their purfe, our Poet's work is done,
Alike to them, by Pathos or by Pun.

O you! whom y Vanity's light bark conveys
On Fame's mad voyage by the wind of praise,

NOTES.

280

285

290

295

metaphor of non aftricto, greatly improved by the happy ambiguity of the word loosely

VER. 296. O you whom Vanity's light bark conveys,

* L

Exanimat lentus fpectator, fedulus inflat:

Sic leve, fic parvum eft, animum quod laudis avarum

Subruit, ac reficit: valeat res ludicra, fi me

Palma negata macrum, donata reducit opimum.

Saepe etiam audacem fugat hoc terretque poetam ; Quod numero plures, virtute et honore minores,

b

Indocti, ftolidique, et depugnare parati

Si difcordet eques, media inter carmina pofcunt

C

Aut urfum aut pugiles: his nam plebecula gaudet.

d

Verum equitis quoque jam migravit ab aure voluptas

Omnis, ad incertos oculos, et gaudia vana.

Quatuor aut plures aulaea premuntur in horas;

e

Dum fugiunt equitum turmae, peditumque catervae :

Mox trahitur manibus regum fortuna retortis;

NOTES.

The metaphor is fine, but inferior to the Original, in many respects.

ventofo gloria curru,

has a happy air of ridicule heightened by its allufion to the Roman Triumph. It has a great beauty too, taken in a more serious light, as representing the Poet a Slave to Fame or Glory,

Quem tulit ad fcenam-Gloria.

With what a fhifting gale your course you ply,
For ever funk too low, or born too high !
Who pants for glory finds but short repose,

A breath revives him, or a breath o'erthrows.
* Farewell the ftage! if juft as thrives the play,
The filly bard grows fat, or falls away.

a There ftill remains, to mortify a Wit, The many-headed Monster of the Pit:

b

d

300

305

310

A fenfeless, worthlefs, and unhonour'd croud;
Who, to disturb their betters mighty proud,
Clatt'ring their fticks before ten lines are spoke,
Call for the Farce, the Bear, or the Black-joke.
What dear delight to Britons Farce affords !
Ever the taste of Mobs, but now of Lords;
(Tafte, that eternal wanderer, which flies
From heads to ears, and now from ears to eyes.)
The Play ftands ftill; damn action and discourse,
Back fly the scenes, and enter foot and horfe; 315
Pageants on pageants, in long order drawn,
Peers, Heralds, Bishops, Ermin, Gold and Lawn ;

NOTES.

as was the custom in their triumphs. In other refpects it has the preference. It is more juft. For a Poet makes his first entrance on the ftage not, immediately, to Triumph, but to try his Fortune. However,

Who pants for Glory, etc. is much fuperior to the Original.

VER. 313. From heads to ears, and now from ears to eyes.] From Plays to Operas, and from Operas to Pantomines.

Effeda feftinant, pilenta, petorrita, naves;
Captivum portatur ebur, captiva Corinthus.
f Si foret in terris, rideret Democritus; feu
Diverfum confufa genus panthera camelo,
Sive elephas albus vulgi converteret ora.
Spectaret populum ludis attentius ipfis,

Ut fibi praebentem mimo spectacula plura:
Scriptores autem narrare putaret afello

h

Fabellam furdo. nam quae i pervincere voces
Evaluere fonum, referunt quem noftra theatra?

k

* Garganum mugire putes nemus, aut mare Tufcum.

1

Tanto cum ftrepitu ludi fpectantur, et artes,

m

1 Divitiaeque peregrinae: quibus oblitus actor

Cum ftetit in fcena, concurrit dextera laevae.
Dixit adhuc aliquid? nil fane. Quid placet ergo?
n Lana Tarentino violas imitata veneno.

Ac ne forte putes me, quae facere ipfe recufem,
Cum recte tractent alii, laudare maligne ;

NOTES.

VER. 319. Old Edward's Armour beams on Cibber's breaft.] The Coronation of Henry VIII. and Queen Anne Boleyn, in which the Playhouses vied with each other to reprefent all the pomp of a Coronation. In this noble