Her Birth, her Beauty, Crowds and Courts confefs, Chafte Matrons praise her, and grave Bishops bless; In NOTES. fion for the Rabble; which fhe did in fo arch a manner, and complained of the indignities fhe fuffered in fo ridiculous a tone, that she became an abfolute favourite of the people. After a complete course of infamy and prostitution, the next place we hear of her is at Alexandria, in great poverty and distress: from whence (as it was no wonder) fhe was willing to remove. And to Conftantinople fhe came; but after a large circuit through the East, where she worked her way by a free courfe of proftitution. JUSTINIAN was at this time confort in the Empire with his Uncle Juftin; and the management of affairs entirely in his hands. He no fooner faw Theodora than he fell defperately in love with her; and would have married her immediately, but that the Emprefs Euphemia, a Barbarian, and unpolite, but not illiberal in her nature, was then alive. And fhe, although fhe rarely denied him any thing, yet obftinately refused giving him this inftance of her complaifance. But fhe did not live long : and then nothing but the ancient Laws, which forbad a Senator to marry with a common prostitute, hindered Juftinian from executing this extraordinary project. These he obliged Justin to revoke; and then, in the face of the fun, married his dear Theodora. A terrible example (fays the Hiftorian) and an encouragement to the most abandoned licence. And now, no fooner was THEODORA (in the Poet's phrafe) OWNED by Greatness, than fhe, whom not long before it was thought unlucky to meet, and a pollution to touch, became the idol of the Court. There was not a single Magiftrate (fays Procopius) that expressed the leaft indignation at the fhame and difhonour brought upon the ftate; not a fingle Prelate that shewed the leaft defolation for the public fcandal. They all drove to Court fo precipitately, as if they were ftriving to prevent one another in her good graces. Nay, the very foldiers were emulous of the honour of becoming the Champions of her virtue. As for the common People, who had fo long been the spectators of her fervility, her buffoonry, and her prostitution, they all in a body threw themfelves at her feet, as Alaves at the footstool of their Mistress. In a word, there was no man, of what condition foever, who fhewed the leaft diflike of fo monstrous an elevation. In the mean time, Theodora's firft care was to fill her Coffers, which the foon did, with immenfe wealth. Το In golden Chains the willing World fhe draws, 147 Old England's Genius, rough with many a Scar, 150 Our Youth, all liv'ry'd o'er with foreign Gold, 155 Before her dance: behind her, crawl the Old! See NOTES. To this end, Juftinian and fhe pretended to differ in their party principles. The one protected the blue, and the other the green Faction; till in a long courfe of intrigue, by fometimes giving up the one to plunder and confifcation, and fometimes the other, they left nothing to either. See Procop. Anec. c. ix.-x. W. Upon this note Gibbon obferves, vol. iv. p. 26. « Without Warburton's critical Telescope, I fhould never have feen, in this general picture of triumphant vice, any perfonal allufion to Theodora." Her infamous conduct may be read in the 4th vol. of the Menagiana. What Bayle fays of J. Scaliger may be juftly applied to many of Warburton's notes. "Les commentaires qui viennent de lui font pleines de conjectures hardies, ingenieufes, et fort fcavantes; mais il n'eft gueres apparent que les auteurs ayent fongés à tout de qu'il leur fait dire. On s' eloigne de leur fens auffi bien, quand on a beaucoup d'efprit, quand on en a pas." Repub. des Lett. 1684. VER. 148. And hers the Gospel is, and hers the Laws,] i. e. She difpofed of the honours of both. W. VER. 149. Scarlet head,] Alluding to the fearlet Whore of the Apocalypfe. W. VER. 151. Lo! at the wheels] A groupe of allegorical perfons worthy the pencil of Rubens! and defcribed in expreffions worthy of Virgil! This is perhaps the nobleft paffage in all his works, without any exception whatever. See thronging Millions to the Pagod run, And offer Country, Parent, Wife, or Son! Hear her black Trumpet through the Land proclaim, See, all our Nobles begging to be Slaves! The Wit of Cheats, the Courage of a Whore, 165 All, all look up, with reverential Awe, At Crimes that 'scape, or triumph o'er the Law: While Truth, Worth, Wisdom, daily they decry"Nothing is Sacred now but Villainy." NOTES. 170 Yet VER. 162. 'Tis Av'rice all,]" So far from having the virtues, we have not even the vices of our ancestors," fays Bolingbroke. VER. 169. While Truth, Worth,] "Sitting once in my library," fays Mr. Harris, "with a friend, a worthy but melancholy man, I read him, out of a book, the following paffage: In our times it may be spoken more truly than of old, that virtue is gone; the Church is under foot; the Clergy is in error; the Devil reigneth, &c. &c. My friend interrupted me with a figh, and faid, Alas! how true! How just a picture of the times! I asked him, Of what times? Of what times? replied he, with emotion, Can you suppose any other, but the prefent? Were any before ever so bad, fo corrupt, fo, &c. Forgive me (faid I) for stopping you, The times I am reading of are older than you imagine; the sentiment was delivered above four hundred ago; its Author, Sir John Mandeville, who died in 1371." VER. 170. Nothing is Sacred now] "There is a certain lift of vices committed in all ages, (fays Sir Thomas Brown,) and declaimed against by all Authors, which will laft as long as human nature; or Yet may this Verse (if such a Verse remain) Show, there was one who held it in difdain. NOTES. or digefted into common places, may serve for any theme, and never be out of date until doomsday." They, whom envy, malevolence, melancholy, difcontent, and disappointment, have induced to think that the world is totally degenerated, and that it is daily growing worfe and worse, would do well to read a fenfible, but too much neglected, treatise of an old divine, written 1630, Hakewill's Apology, or Declaration of the Power and Providence of God. |