Art from that fund each just supply provides; Some, to whom heav'n in wit has been profuse, Though meant each other's aid, like man and wife. 1 In the early editions, That art is best which most resembles her, Which still presides, yet never does appear. 2 Dryden's Virgil, Æn. vi. 982 : one common soul Inspires, and feeds, and animates the whole.-WAKEFIELD. 3 So Ovid, exactly, Metam. iv. 287: causa latet; vis est notissima.-WAKEFIELD. Duke of Buckingham's Essay on Poetry : A spirit which inspires the work through- As that of nature moves the world about; In all editions before the quarto of 1743, it was, There are whom heav'n has blest with store of wit, Yet want as much again to manage it. The idea was suggested by a sentence in Sprat's Account of Cowley: "His fancy flowed with great speed, and therefore it was very fortunate to him that his judgment was equal to manage it." Pope gave a false sparkle to his couplet by first using "wit" in one sense and then in another. "Wit to manage wit," says the author of the Supplement to the Profound, "is full as good as one tongue's tiring another. Any one may perceive that the writer meant that judgment should manage wit; but as it stands it is pert." Warburton observes that Pope's later version magnified the contradiction; for he who had already "a profusion of wit," was the last person to need more. 5 "Ever are at strife," was the reading till the quarto of 1743. 6 We shall destroy the beauty of the passage by introducing a most insipid parallel of perfect sameness, if we understand the word "like" as introducing a simile. It is merely as if he had said: "Pegasus, as a generous horse is accustomed to do, shows his spirit most under restraint." Our author might have in view a couplet of Waller's, in his verses on Roscommon's Poetry: Direct us how to back the winged horse, 7 Dryden's preface to Troilus and Nature, like liberty,' is but restrained She drew from them what they derived from heav'n.' And taught the world with reason to admire. To dress her charms, and make her more beloved: ? Translation of Boileau's Art of 3 Nec enim artibus editis factum est ut argumenta inveniremus, sed dicta sunt omnia antequam præciperentur; mox ea scriptores observata et collecta ediderunt. Quintil.-POPE. 4 This seems to have been suggested by a couplet in the Court Prospect of Hopkins: How are these blessings thus dispensed and To us from William, and to him from 5 After this verse followed another, to complete the triplet, in the first impressions: Set up themselves, and drove a sep'rate trade.-WAKEFIELD. 6 A feeble line of monosyllables, consisting of ten low words.-WAR TON. The entire passage seems to be constructed on some remarks of Dryden in his Dedication to Ovid: "Formerly the critics were quite another species of men. They were defenders of poets, and commentators on their works, to illustrate obscure beauties, to place some passages in a better light, to redeem others from malicious interpretations. Are our auxiliary forces turned our enemies? Are they from our seconds become principals against us?" The truth of Pope's assertion, as to the matter of fact, will not bear a rigorous inquisition, as I believe these critical persecutors of good poets to have been extremely few, both in ancient and modern times.-WAKEFIELD. So modern 'pothecaries, taught the art Nor time nor moths e'er spoiled' so much as they; Write dull receipts how poems may be made; You then whose judgment the right course would steer, Know well each ancient's proper character; His fable, subject, scope in ev'ry page; The prescription of the physician was formerly called his bill. Johnson, in his Dictionary, quotes from L'Estrange, "The medicine was prepared according to the bill," and Butler, in Hudibras, speaks of him who took the doctor's bill, And swallowed it instead of the pill. The story ran that a physician handed a prescription to his patient, saying, "Take this," and the man immediately swallowed it. 2 This is a quibble. Time and moths spoil books by destroying them. The commentators only spoiled them by explaining them badly. The editors were so far from spoiling books in the same sense as time, that by multiplying copies they assisted to preserve them. 3 Soame and Dryden's Translation of Boileau's Art of Poetry: Keep to each man his proper character; From diff'rent climates diff'ring customs The principle here is general. Pope, in terms and in fact, applied it only 110 115 120 to the ancients. Had he extended the precept to modern literature he would have been cured of his delusion that every deviation from the antique type arose from unlettered tastelessness. In the first edition, You may confound, but never criticise, which was an adaptation of a line from Lord Roscommon : You may confound, but never can translate. 5 The author, after this verse, originally inserted the following, which he has however omitted in all the editions: name Zoilus, had those been known, without a To modern customs, modern rules con- Perrault, in his Parallel between the ancients and the moderns, carped at Homer in the same spirit that Zoilus had done of old. Be Homer's works your study and delight, Read them by day, and meditate by night;' Thence form your judgment, thence your maxims bring, When first young Maro in his boundless mind 1 Horace, Ars Poet., ver. 268: vos exemplaria Græca Nocturna versate manu, versate diurna. Tate and Brady's version of the first psalm: But makes the perfect law of God His business and delight; Devoutly reads therein by day, And meditates by night, -WAKEFIELD. 2 Dryden, Virg. Geor. iv. 408 : And upward follow Fame's immortal spring. 3 Lord Roscommon's Essay on Translated Verse: Consult your author with himself compared. The word outlast is improper ; for Virgil, like a true Roman, never dreamt of the mortality of the city.WAKEFIELD. 5 Variation: When first young Maro sung of kings and aurem Vellit. Virg. Ecl. vi. 3. It is a tradition preserved by Servius, that Virgil began with writing a poem of the Alban and Roman affairs, which he found above his years, and descended, first to imitate Theocritus on rural subjects, and afterwards to 125 150 135 copy Homer in heroic poetry. — POPE. The second line of the couplet in the note was copied, as Mr. Carruthers points out, from Milton's Lycidas: Phoebus replied, and touched my trembling ears. The couplet in the text, with the variation of "great Maro" for "young Maro," was Pope's original version, but Dennis having asked whether he intended "to put that figure called a bull upon Virgil" by saying that he designed a work "to outlast immortality," the poet wrote in the margin of his manuscript "alter the seeming inconsistency," which he did, by substituting the lines in the note. In the last edition, he reinstated the "bull." The objection of Dennis was hypercritical. The phrase only expresses the double fact that the city was destroyed, and that its fame was durable. The manuscript supplies another various reading, which avoids both the alleged bull in the text, and the bad rhyme of the couplet in the note: When first his voice the youthful Maro tried, Ere Phoebus touched his ear and checked his pride. Convinced, amazed, he checks the bold design : Some beauties yet no precepts can declare, Are nameless graces which no methods teach," If, where the rules not far enough extend," (Since rules were made but to promote their end,) Th' intent proposed, that licence is a rule. May boldly deviate from the common track. 1 And did his work to rules as strict confine.-POPE. 2 Aristotle, born at Stagyra, B.C. 384.-CROKER. 3 In the manuscript a couplet follows which was added by Pope in the margin, when he erased the expression "" a work t' outlast immortal Rome : " "Arms and the Man," then rung the world around, And Rome commenced immortal at the sound 4 When Pope supposes Virgil to have properly "checked in his bold design of drawing from nature's fountain," and in consequence to have confined his work within rules as strict, As if the Stagyrite o'erlooked each line, how can he avoid the force of his own ridicule, where a little further, in this very piece, he laughs at Dennis for Concluding all were desp'rate sots and Who durst depart from Aristotle's rules.- The argument of Pope is sophistical and inconsistent. It is inconsistent, because if Virgil found Homer and nature the same, his work would not have been confined within stricter rules when he copied Homer than when he copied nature. It is sophistical, because though Homer may be always natural, all nature is not contained in his works. 5 Rapin's Critical Works, vol. ii. p. 173: "There are no precepts to teach the hidden graces, and all that secret power of poetry which passes to the heart." • Neque enim rogationibus plebisve scitis sancta sunt ista præcepta, sed hoc, quicquid est, utilitas excogitavit. Non negabo autem sic utile esse plerumque; verum si eadem illa nobis aliud suadebit utilitas, hanc, relictis magistrorum auctoritatibus, seque |