Our fons fhall fee it leifurely decay,

First turn plain rash, then vanish quite away.

45

This thing has travell'd, fpeaks each language too, And knows what's fit for ev'ry ftate to do; Of whose best phrafe and courtly accent join'd, He forms one tongue, exotic and refin'd. Talkers I've learn'd to bear; Motteux I knew, Henley himself I've heard, and Budgel too. The Doctor's Wormwood style, the Hash of tongues A Pedant makes, the ftorm of Gonfon's lungs, The whole Artill'ry of the terms of War,

50

And (all thofe plagues in one) the bawling Bar: 55
Thefe I could bear; but not a rogue fo civil,
Whose tongue will compliment you to the devil.
A tongue, that can cheat widows, cancel scores,
Make Scots fpeak treason, cozen subtlest whores,
With royal Favourites in flatt'ry vie,

And Oldmixon and Burnet both outlie.

бо

He fpies me out; I whisper, Gracious God! What fin of mine could merit fuch a rod? That all the shot of dullness now must be From this thy blunderbuss discharg'd on me! 65 Permit (he cries) no ftranger to your fame To crave your fentiment, if's your name. What Speech esteem you moft?"The King's," faid I. But the best words?" O, Sir, the Dictionary." You miss my aim; I mean the most acute, And perfect Speaker?" Onflow, paft difpute."

NOTES.

70

But,

and amiable manners, of the prefent Speaker, Mr. Addington, 1795. It is a curious fact in the Hiftory of English Liberty,

that

Nay, but of men, most sweet Sir? Beza then,
Some Jefuits, and two reverend men

Of our two academies I nam'd.

Here

He ftopt me, and faid, Nay your Apostles were
Good pretty Linguifts; fo Panurgus was,
Yet a poor Gentleman; all these may pass
By travail. Then, as if he would have fold
His tongue, he prais'd it, and fuch wonders told,
That I was fain to fay, If you had liv'd, Sir,
Time enough to have been Interpreter

To

NOTES.

that the very first person who was raised by the Commons to the dignity of their Speaker, was a member who had been imprisoned by Edward the Third, for attacking his Minifters and his Mistress in Parliament.

VER. 73. But Hoadly for a period] Party occafioned this cenfure on a Writer, whofe ftyle, it must be confeffed, was fometimes, but not always, (as for inftance, in his Treatife on the Sacrament,) languid and diffufe: but who, having spent his life in defending the British Conftitution, the Revolution, and the Succeffion of the House of Hanover, certainly did, by no means, deserve to be ftyled, as he lately hath been, "That Republican Prelate, Bishop Hoadly." The late excellent Bishop of London, Dr. Lowth, thought very differently of him, and calls him, in his admirable Life of Wickham, "The great Advocate of Civil and Religious Liberty."

VER. 73. A period of a mile.] Aftadium of Euripides was a standing joke amongst the Greeks. By the fame kind of pleasantry, Cervantes has called his Hero's countenance, a face of half a league long; which, because the humour, as well as the measure of the expreffion, was exceffive, all his tranflators have judiciously agreed to omit; without doubt paying due attention to that fober rule of Quintilian, licet omnis hyperbole fit ultra fidem, non tamen debet effe ultra MODUM. SCRIBL.

But, Sir, of writers? « Swift for closer style,
"But Ho**y for a period of a mile."
Why yes, 'tis granted, thefe indeed may pass:
Good common linguift, and fo Panurge was;

Nay troth th' Apostles (tho' perhaps too rough)
Had once a pretty gift of Tongues enough:
Yet thefe were all poor Gentlemen! I dare

Affirm, 'twas Travel made them what they were.

Thus other talents having nicely shown, He came by fure transition to his own:

75

80

NOTES.

Till

VER. 75. So Panurge was;] It is furprizing that Rabelais, whose book is the most cutting satire on the Pope, the Church, and the principal events of his time, fhould have efcaped severe cenfure and punishment. Garagantuas is decifively Francis I. and Henry II. is Pantagruel; and Charles V. Pierocole. Swift, who formed himself on Rabelais, has exactly copied the famous speech of Panurge, in the Tale of the Tub, where Lord Peter, giving to Martin and John a piece of dry bread, tells them, it contains beef, partridge, capons, and the beft wine of Burgundy. Rabelais, like Swift, loved politics. See his Letters from Rome, when he accompanied the Cardinal Bellay, Embassador of Francis I. to Pope Paul III. Rabelais imitated, in many paffages, the Litera Virorum Obfcurorum.

VER. 78. Yet thefe wer: all poor Gentlemen!] Our Poet has here added to the humour of his Original. Donne makes his threadbare Traveller content himself under his poverty, with the reflection, that even Panurge himself (the great Traveller and Linguist in Rabelais) went a-begging. There is infinite wit in this paffage of Donne, yet very licentious, in coupling the Apostles and Panurge in this buffoon manner.

ર

W.

By adding the words, "a pretty gift of Tongues," Pope has made it ftill more licentious.

To Babel's Bricklayers, fure the Tower had ftood.
He adds, If of Court life you knew the good,
You would leave loneness. I faid, Not alone
My loneness is; but Spartanes fashion

To teach by painting drunkards doth not laft
Now, Aretines pictures have made few chaste;
No more can Princes Courts (though there be few
Better pictures of vice) teach me virtue.

He like to a high-stretcht Lutestring squeaks, O Sir, 'Tis sweet to talk of Kings. At Westminster, Said I, the man that keeps the Abbey-tombs,

And for his price, doth with whoever comes
Of all our Harrys and our Edwards talk,

From King to King, and all their kin can walk :
Your ears fhall hear nought but Kings; your eyes meet
Kings only: The way to it is King's-street.
He fmack'd, and cry'd, He's bafe, mechanique, coarfe,
So are all your Englishmen in their discourse.

NOTES.

Are

VER. 95. Aretine has made;] Alluding to the infamous Sonnets which this celebrated Italian wit compofed to accompany the Sixteen obfcene Figures that were defigned by Julio Romano, who, as well as Titian, was his friend; and engraved by Marc Antonio Raimondi. By writing which, Aretine loft the favour and countenance of Leo the Tenth, and Clement VII. but was afterwards reftored to the favour of the Medici Family, and wrote fome books of devotion. The lines written for his epitaph fhew his character fufficiently:

Qui giace l'Aretin poeta Tofco,

Che diffe mal d'ogn'un fuor che dio,

Scufandofi col dir non lo conofco.

Mazzuchelli, vol. i. p. 1012.

VER. 104. From King to King] Much fuperior to the Original,

where is a vile conceit,

"The way to it is King's-street."

Till I cry'd out, You prove yourself so able,
Pity! you was not Druggerman at Babel;
For had they found a linguist half fo good,

I make no question but the Tow'r had stood.

85

Obliging Sir! for Courts you fure were made: "Why then for ever bury'd in the shade?

"Spirits like you, fhould fee and fhould be feen,

"The King would fmile on you-at least the

Queen."

Ah gentle Sir! you Courtiers fo cajole us

But Tully has it, Nunquam minus folus :

And as for Courts, forgive me, if I say

90

95

No leffons now are taught the Spartan way:
Tho' in his pictures Luft be full difplay'd,
Few are the Converts Aretine has made;
And tho' the Court fhow Vice exceeding clear,
None fhould, by my advice, learn Virtue there.
At this entranc'd, he lifts his hands and eyes,
Squeaks like a high-stretch'd luteftring, and replies;
Oh, 'tis the sweetest of all earthly things

"To gaze on Princes, and to talk of Kings !" Then, happy Man who shows the Tombs! faid I, He dwells amidst the Royal Family;

100

105

He ev'ry day, from King to King can walk, Of all our Harries, all our Edwards talk, And get by speaking truth of monarchs dead, What few can of the living, Eafe and Bread. "Lord, Sir, a mere Mechanic! strangely low, "And coarse of phrase,-your English all are fo. "How

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