With what a shifting 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.
z Farewell the ftage! if just as thrives the play,
The filly bard grows fat, or falls away.

b

C

a There ftill remains, to mortify a Wit, The many-headed Monster of the Pit: A fenfelefs, worthlefs, and unhonour'd croud; Who, to disturb their betters mighty proud, Clatt'ring their sticks before ten lines are spoke, Call for the Farce, the Bear, or the Black-joke. What dear delight to Britons Farce affords ! Ever the tafte of Mobs, but now d 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 difcourfe,. Back fly the scenes, and enter foot and horfe; 315 Pageants on pageants, in long order drawn, Peers, Heralds, Bishops, Ermin, Gold and Lawn;

C

300

305

310

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 stage 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; seu
Diverfum confufa genus panthera camelo,
Sive & elephas albus vulgi converteret ora.
Spectaret populum ludis attentius ipfis,
Ut fibi praebentem mimo fpectacula plura:
Scriptores autem narrare putaret afello

Fabellam furdo. nam quae i pervincere voces
Evaluere fonum, referunt quem noftra theatra?
* Garganum mugire putes nemus, aut mare Tufcum.
Tanto cum ftrepitu ludi fpectantur, et artes,

1

1 Divitiaeque peregrinae: quibus m oblitus actor Cum ftetit in fcena, concurrit dextera laevae. Dixit adhuc aliquid? nil fane. Quid placet ergo? n Lana Tarentino violas imitata veneno.

h

Ac ne forte putes me, quae facere ipse 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

g

k

The Champion too! and, to complete the jest,
Old Edward's Armour beams on Cibber's breast.
With f laughter fure Democritus had dy'd,
Had he beheld an Audience gape fo wide.
Let Bear or Elephant be e'er fo white,
The people, fure, the people are the fight!
Ah lucklefsh Poet! ftretch thy lungs and roar,
That Bear or Elephant fhall heed thee more;
While all its throats the Gallery extends,
And all the Thunder of the Pit afcends!
Loud as the Wolves, on Orcas' ftormy steep,
Howl to the roarings of the Northern deep.
Such is the fhout, the long-applauding note,
At Quin's high plume, or Oldfield's ' petticoat;
Or when from Court a birth-day suit bestow'd,
Sinks them loft Actor in the tawdry load.
Booth enters-hark! the Universal peal!
"But has he spoken?" Not a fyllable.
What shook the stage, and made the people stare?
"Cato's long Wig, flow'r'd gown, and lacquer'd chair.
Yet left you think I railly more than teach,
Or praise malignly Arts I cannot reach,

335

320

325

330

NOTES.

contention, the Armour of one of the Kings of England was borrowed from the Tower, to drefs the Champion. P. VER. 328. Orcas' ftormy steep] The fartheft Northern Promontory of Scotland, oppofite to the Orcades. P.

Ille per extentum funem mihi poffe videtur

Ire poeta; meum qui pectus inaniter angit,

Irritat, mulcet, falfis terroribus implet,

Ut magus; et modo me Thebis, modo ponit Athenis.

? Verum age, et his, qui se lectori credere malunt,

Quam fpectatoris faftidia ferre fuperbi,

Curam impende brevem: fi munus Apolline dignum

Vis complere libris; et vatibus addere calcar,

Ut ftudio majore petant Helicona virentem.

! Multa quidem nobis facimus mala faepe poetae, (Ut vineta egomet caedam mea) cum tibi librum

Solicito damus, aut feffo: cum laedimur, unum

t

NOTES.

VER. 347. To Thebes, to Athens, etc.] i. e. is equally knowing in the manners of the most different people; and has the kill to employ those manners with decorum.

345

Let me for once prefume t'inftruct the times,
To know the Poet from the Man of rhymes:
'Tis he, who gives my breaft a thousand pains,
Can make me feel each Paffion that he feigns;
Inrage, compofe, with more than magic Art,
With Pity, and with Terror, tear my heart;
And fnatch me, o'er the earth, or thro' the air,
To Thebes, to Athens, when he will, and where.
P But not this part of the Poetic state
Alone, deferves the favour of the Great:
Think of thofe Authors, Sir, who would rely
More on a Reader's fenfe, than Gazer's eye.
Or who fhall wander where the Mufes fing?
Who climb their mountain, or who tafte their spring?
How fhall we fill a a Library with Wit,

When Merlin's Cave is half unfurnish'd yet?

340

350

355

My Liege! why Writers little claim your thought, I guess; and, with their leave, will tell the fault: We Poets are (upon a Poet's word)

Of all mankind, the creatures most abfurd:

The feafon, when to come, and when to go, 360 To fing, or ceafe to fing, we never know;

NOTES.

VER. 354. a Library] Munus Apolline dignum. The Balatine Library then building by Auguftus. P.

VER. 355. Merlin's Cave] A Building in the Royal Garden of Richmond, where is a fmal, but choice Collection of Books. P.