Page images
PDF
EPUB

Vol. III. facing p-153.

What brought S. Visto's ill got Wealth to waste? Some Damon whisperd, Visto! have a Laste.

[ocr errors]

EPISTLE IV.

T

IS ftrange, the Mifer fhould his Cares employ To gain those riches he can ne'er enjoy : Is it lefs ftrange, the Prodigal fhould wafte His wealth, to purchase what he ne'er can tafte? Not for himself he fees, or hears, or eats; Artists must chufe his Pictures, Mufic, Meats: He buys for Topham, Drawings and Designs, For Pembroke Statues, dirty Gods, and Coins;

5

EPISTLE IV.] The extremes of Avarice and Profusion being treated of in the foregoing Epistle; this takes up one particular branch of the latter, the Vanity of Expence in people of wealth and quality; and is therefore a corollary to the preceding, juft as the Epiftle on the Characters of Women is to that of the Knowledge and Characters of Men. It is equally remarkable for exactness of method with the rest. But the nature of the fubject, which is lefs philofophical, makes it capable of being analyfed in a much narrower compass.

VER. 7. Topham,] A Gentleman famous for a judicious collection of Drawings.

VER. 8. For Pembroke Statues, dirty Gods, and Coins ;] The author fpeaks here not as a Philofopher or Divine, but as a Connoiffeur and Antiquary; confequently the dirty attribute here affigned these Gods of old renown, is not in disparagement of their worth, but in high commendation of their genuine pre

tenfions.

Rare monkish Manuscripts for Hearne alone,

And Books for Mead, and Butterflies for Sloane. 10
Think we all these are for himself? no more
Than his fine Wife, alas! or finer Whore.

For what has Virro painted, built, and planted?
Only to fhew, how many Taftes he wanted.

What brought Sir Visto's ill got wealth to waste ? 15
"Vifto! have a Taste."
Some Dæmon whisper'd,
Heav'n vifits with a Tafte the wealthy fool,
And needs no Rod but Ripley with a Rule.
See! fportive fate, to punish aukward pride,
Bids Bubo build, and fends him fuch a Guide :

20

VER. 10. And Books for Mead, and Butterflies for Sloane.] Two eminent Phyficians; the one had an excellent Library, the other the finest collection in Europe of natural curiofities; both men of great learning and humanity.

VER. 12. Than his fine Wife, alas! or finer Whore.] By the Author's manner of putting together these two different Utenfils of falfe Magnificence, it appears, that, properly speaking, neither the Wife nor the Whore is the real object of modern taste, but the Finary only: And whoever wears it, whether the Wife or the Whore, it matters not; any further than that the latter is thought to deferve it beft, as appears from her having most of it; and fo indeed becomes, by accident, the more fashionable Thing of the two.

VER. 18. Ripley] This man was a carpenter, employed by a first Minister, who raised him to an Architect, without any and after fome wretched proofs of his infufgenius in the art ; ficiency in public Buildings, made him Comptroller of the Board

works.

[ocr errors]

A ftanding fermon, at each year's expence,
That never Coxcomb reach'd Magnificence!

You show us, Rome was glorious, not profufe,
And pompous buildings once were things of Use.
Yet fhall (my Lord) your juft, your noble rules 25
Fill half the land with Imitating-Fools;
Who random drawings from your sheets fhall take,
And of one beauty many blunders make;
Load fome vain Church with old Theatric state,
Turn Arcs of triumph to a Garden-gate;
Reverse your Ornaments, and hang them all
On fome patch'd dog-hole ek'd with ends of wall;
Then clap four flices of Pilafter on't,

30

That, lac'd with bits of ruftic, makes a Front.
Shall call the winds thro' long arcades to roar, 35
Proud to catch cold at a Venetian door;
Conscious they act a true Palladian part,
And if they starve, they starve by rules of art.
Oft have you hinted to your brother Peer,
A certain truth, which many buy too dear:

40

VER. 23. The Earl of Burlington was then publishing the Defigns of Inigo Jones, and the Antiquities of Rome by Palladio.

VARIATIONS.

After 22. in the MS.

Muft Bishops, Lawyers, Statesmen, have the skill
To build, to plant, judge painting, what you will?
Then why not Kent as well our treaties draw,
Bridgman explain the Gofpel, Gibs the Law?

Something there is more needful than Expence,
And fomething previous ev'n to Taste---'tis Senfe:
Good Senfe, which only is the gift of Heav'n,
And tho' no Science, fairly worth the seven :
A Light, which in yourself you must perceive; 4;
Jones and Le Nôtre have it not to give.

To build, to plant, whatever you intend,

To rear the Column, or the Arch to bend,
To fwell the Terras, or to fink the Grot,
In all, let Nature never be forgot.
But treat the Goddess like a modest fair,
Nor over-drefs, nor leave her wholly bare;
Let not each beauty ev'ry where be fpy'd,
Where half the skill is decently to hide.

50

He gains all points, who pleasingly confounds, 55 Surprizes, varies, and conceals the Bounds.

Confult the Genius of the Place in all; That tells the Waters or to rise, or fall;

VER. 46. Inigo Jones the celebrated Architect, and M. L Nôtre, the defigner of the best Gardens in France.

VER. 57. Confult the Genius of the Place, etc. — to defign, 64.] The perfonalizing or rather deifying the Genius of tit place, in order to be confulted as an Oracle, has produced ce of the nobleft and moft fublime defcriptions of Defign, the poetry could exprefs. Where this Genius, while prefiding ave the work, is reprefented by little and little, as advancing from a fimple adviser, to a creator of all the beauties of improved Nature, in a variety of bold metaphors and allufions, all ritir one above another, 'till they complete the unity of the general

idea.

« PreviousContinue »