A Patriot is a Fool in ev'ry age, Whom all Lord Chamberlains allow the Stage: These nothing hurts; they keep their Fashion still, And wear their strange old Virtue, as they will. 45 If "Who's the Man so near any ask you, His Prince, that writes in Verse, and has his ear?" Why, answer, LYTTLETON, and I'll engage The worthy Youth shall ne'er be in a rage: But were his Verses vile, his Whisper base, You'd quickly find him in Lord Fanny's case. Sejanus, Wolsey, hurt not honest FLEURY, But well may put some Statesmen in a fury. NOTES. 50 Ver. 47. Why, answer, LYTTLETON,] George Lyttleton, Secretary to the Prince of Wales, distinguished both for his writings and speeches in the spirit of liberty. P. 66 Ver. 51. Sejanus,] This profligate minister prevailed on the Senate to order a book of Crematius Cordus, in praise of Brutus and Cassius, to be burnt. This prohibition naturally increased the circulation of the work. "Libros cremandos," says Tacitus, censuere patres; sed manserunt occultati, etenim punitis ingeniis, gliscit auctoritas." "The punishing of wits enhances their authority," says Lord Bacon; " and a forbidden writing is thought to be a certain spark of truth, that flies up in the faces of them who seek to tread it out." Ver. 51. Sejanus, Wolsey,] The one the wicked minister of Tiberius; the other of Henry VIII. The writers against the Court usually bestowed these and other odious names on the Minister, without distinction, and in the most injurious manner. See Dial. II. ver. 137. P. Ver. 51. FLEURY,] Cardinal, and Minister to Louis XV. It was a Patriot-fashion, at that time, to cry up his wisdom and honesty. P. Ver. 51. honest FLEURY,] Fontenelle who had been acquainted with the Cardinal before his ministry, visiting him and finding him in his usual serenity and gaiety of temper, said to him, possible that your Eminence still continues to be happy?" The "Is it Laugh then at any, but at Fools or Foes; These you but anger, and you mend not those. Laugh at your Friends, and, if your Friends are sore, So much the better, you may laugh the more. To Vice and Folly to confine the jest, Sets half the world, God knows, against the rest; At Sense and Virtue, balance all agen. P. Dear Sir, forgive the Prejudice of Youth: 56 60 65 NOTES. short Billets which the Cardinal wrote to Fontenelle, and which are preserved in the 11th Vol. of his Works, are full of wit, elegance, and pleasantry. A person who had seen many courts, and been acquainted with many ministers, says, "I cannot refrain from combating the opinion, which supposes prodigious abilities, and a genius almost divine, in those who have governed Empires with some degree of success. It is not a superior penetration that makes statesmen; it is their character. All men, how inconsiderable soever their share of sense may be, see their own interest nearly alike. A citizen of Bern or Amsterdam, in this respect, is equal to Sejanus, Ximenes, Buckingham, Richelieu, or Mazarine; but our own conduct, and our enterprises, depend absolutely on our own natural dispositions; and our success depends upon fortune. A curious account is given of the rise and fortunes of Cardinal Fleury, in the first volume of St. Simon's Memoirs, by which it appears that it was with great difficulty Louis XIV. who thought the manners o Fleury, at that time, too dissipated for a grave ecclesiastic, was prevailed on by the Archbishop of Paris, to give him the Bishopric of Frejus, his first great preferment. Ver. 66. Henley-Osborn,] See them in their places in the Dunciad. P. The Honey dropping from Favonio's tongue, The Flow'rs of Bubo, and the Flow of Y-ng! And all the well-whipt Cream of Courtly Sense, 70 The S-te's, and then H-vy's once agen. come, that easy, Ciceronian style, So Latin, yet so English all the while, NOTES. Ver. 69. The gracious Dew] Alludes to some Court sermons, and florid panegyrical speeches; particularly one very full of puerilities and flatteries; which afterward got into an address in the same pretty style; and was lastly served up in an Epitaph, between Latin and English, published by its author. P. Ver. 69. The gracious Dew of Pulpit Eloquence,] Our moral Bard was no great adept in Theology, nor did he enter into the depths of Pulpit Eloquence. This rendered his judgment of things, on certain occasions, but slight and superficial. It is plain here he gibeth at this master-stroke of Pulpit Eloquence: but Master Doctor Thomas Playfere might have taught him better. This eminent Court Divine, in his Spital sermon, preached in the year 1595, layeth open the whole Mystery. "The voice of a Preacher (saith he, himselfe a powerful Preacher) ought to be the voice of a Crier, which should not pipe to make the People dance, but mourne to make them weep. Hence it is, that in the oulde law, none that was blinde, or had anie blemishe in his eye, might serve at the Aulter; because for that impediment in his eye he could not well shew his inwarde sorrowing by his outward weeping. And when they offered up their first-borne, who was ordinarily in every family their Prieste, or their Preacher, they offered also with him a paire of turtle-doves or two young pigeons. That paire of turtle-doves did signify a paire of mournfull eyes: those two younge pigeons did signifie likewise two weeping eyes: And at that offering they prayed for their first-borne, that afterward he might have such eyes himselfe. For indeed, as Austin witnesseth, THERE IS MORE GOOD TO BE DONE with sighing than with speaking, with weeping than with words. Plus gemitibus quam sermonibus, plus fletu quam affatu." Scribl. W. As, tho' the Pride of Middleton and Bland, 75 NOTES. Ver. 75. Pride of Middleton] The life of Tully, the most important of his works, procured Dr. Middleton a great reputation, and a great sum of money, which he generously gave to his nieces. It is a most pleasing and useful work, and gives a comprehensive view of a most interesting period in the Roman History, and of the characters principally concerned in those important events. It may be worth observing, that he is much indebted, without acknowledging it, to a curious book little known, entitled, G. Bellendini, Scoti, de Tribus Luminibus Romanorum, Libri 16. Parisiis. Apud Tassanum du Bray: 1634. Folio; dedicated to King Charles. It comprehends a history of Rome from the foundation of the city to the time of Augustus, drawn up in the very words of Cicero, without any alteration of any expression. In this book Middleton found every part of Cicero's own history in his own words, and his works arranged in chronological order, without farther trouble. The impression of this work being shipped for England, was lost in the vessel, which was cast away, and only a few copies remained that had been left in France. I venture to say, that the style of Middleton, which is commonly esteemed very pure, is blemished with many vulgar and cant terms; such as, 66 Pompey had a month's mind; on that score; these advances; this squeamishness;" &c. He has not been successful in the translations of those many Epistles of Tully which he has inserted; which, however curious, yet break the thread of the narration. Mongault and Melmoth have far exceeded him in their excellent translations of those pieces. Ver. 75. and Bland,] He had been master of Eton College, and a friend of Sir Robert Walpole. He translated into Latin, with much purity and elegance, the Soliloquy of Cato in the beginning of the fifth act of that Tragedy. Ver. 76. All Boys may read, and Girls may understand!] i. e. full of school phrases and Anglicisms. W. Ver. 78. Nation's Sense ;] The cant of Politics at that time. W. Or teach the melancholy Muse to mourn, No Gazetteer more innocent than I 80 85 And let, a God's-name, ev'ry Fool and Knave NOTES. Ver. 80. CAROLINA] Queen consort to king George II. She died in 1737. Her death gave occasion, as is observed above, to many indiscreet and mean performances unworthy of her memory, whose last moments manifested the utmost courage and resolution. P. Ver. 82. and all her Children blest!] No subtle commentary can torture these words to mean any thing but the most poignant sarcasm on the behaviour of this great personage to her son on her death-bed. A very severe copy of verses was circulated at the time, said to be written by Lord Chesterfield, which ended thus: "And unforgiving unforgiven, died!" at the same time our Author himself wrote the following couplet on the same subject: "Here lies wrapt up in forty thousand towels The only proof that C*** had bowels." So that our Author's own Note is at variance with his Text, as is a Letter written to Mr. Allen. Ver. 84. No Gazetteer more innocent than I.] The Gazetteer is one of the low appendices to the Secretary of State's office; and his business is to write the Government's newspaper, published by authority. Sir Richard Steele for some time had this post; and he describes the condition of it very well, in the Apology for himself and his writings: "My next appearance as a writer was in the quality of the lowest Minister of State, to wit, in the office of Gazetteer; where I worked faithfully, according to order, without ever erring against the rule observed by all Ministers, to keep that paper very innocent and very insipid. It was to the reproaches I heard every Gazette-day against the writer of it, that I owe the fortitude of being remarkably negligent of what People say, which I do not deserve." W. |
