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Here fwells the shelf with Ogilby the great:
There, ftamp'd with arms, Newcastle shines compleat
Here all his fuff'ring brotherhood retire,

And 'fcape the martyrdom of jakes and fire;
125 A Gothick Vatican! of Greece and Rome
Well-purg'd, and worthy Withers, Quarles, and Blome
But high above, more folid Learning fhone,
The Clafficks of an Age that heard of none,
There Caxton flept, with Wynkin at his fide,
330 One clafp'd in wood, and one in ftrong cow-hide.
There fav'd by fpice, like mummies, many a year,s
Old Bodies of Philofophy appear.

REMARKS.

VERSE 131r. Ogilby the great John Ogilby was one, who from a late initiation into literature, made fuch a progrefs as might well tile him the Prodigy of his time! fending into the world fo many Large Volumes! His tranflations of Homer and Virgil, done to the life, and with fuch excellent Sculptures! and (what added great grace to his works) he printed them all on Special good Paper, and in a very good Letter. WINSTANLY, Lives of Poets.

VERSE 122. There, ftamp'd with arms, Newcastle (hines compleat. The Dutchefs of Newcastle was one who bufied herself in the ravishing delights of Poetry, leaving to pofterity in print three ample Volumes of her ftudious endeavours. WINSTANLY, ibid. Langbaine reckons up eight Folio's of her Grace's; which were ufually adorn'd with gilded Covers, and had her Coat of Arms upon them.

S

VERSE 126. — Worthy Withers, Quarles, and Blome.] It was printed in the furreptitious Editions, Wly, W who were Perfons eminent for good life; the one writ the Life of Christ in verfe; the other fome valuable pieces in the lyrick kind on pious fubjects. The line is here reftor'd according to its Original.

George Withers was a great pretender to poetical zeal against the vices of the times, and abufed the greateft Perfonages in power, which brought upon him frequent correction. The Marshalsea and Newgate were no ftrangers to him. WINSTANLY. Quarles was as dull a writer, but an honefter man. Blome's books are remarkable for their cuts.

VERSE 129. Caxton.] A Printer in the time of Edw. 4. Rich. 3. and Hen. 7. Wynkin de Word, his fucceffor in that of Hen.. 7, and 8. The former tranflated into profe Virgil's Aneis as a Hiftory; of which he fpeaks in his Proeme in a very fingular manner, as of a book hardly known. Vid. Append. Tibbald quotes a rare paffage from him in Mift's Journal of March 16, 1728. concerning a firaunge and mervayl loufe beafte called Sagittarye, which he would have Shakespear to mean mather than Tencer, the Archer celebrated by Homer;

335

De Lyra here a dreadful front extends,

And there, the groaning fhelves Philemon bends.
Of these twelve volumes, twelve of ampleft size,
Redeem'd from tapers and defrauded pyes,
Infpir'd he feizes; These an altar raise:
An hetacomb of pure, unsully'd lays

That altar crowns: A folio Common-place
140. Founds the whole pyle, of all his works the bafe;
Quarto's, Octavo's, fhape the leff'ning pyre,
And last, a little Ajax tips the fpire.

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Then he. Great Tamer of all human art! First in my care, and nearest at my. heart: 145 Dulness! whofe good old cause I yet defend, With whom my Mufe began, with whom fhall end O thou, of business the directing foul,

To human heads like byass to the bowl,
Which as more pond'rous makes their aim more true,
150 Obliquely wadling to the mark in view.
O ever gracious to perplex'd mankind!

Who spread a healing mift before the mind,
And, left we err by Wit's wild, dancing light,
Secure us kindly in our native night.

15:5 Ah! ftill o'er Britain stretch that peaceful wand,
Which lulls th' Helvetian and Batavian land.

REMARK S.

VERSE 133. Nich. de Lyra, or Harpsfeld, a very voluminous Com mentator, whofe works in five vaft Folio's were printed in 1472.

VERSE 134. Fhilemon Holland, Dr. in Phyfick. He tranflated fa many books, that a man would think he had done nothing elfe, infomuch, that he might be call'd Tranflator General of his age. The books alone of his turning into English, are fufficient to make a Country. Gentleman a compleat Library. WINSTANLY.

VERSE 142. A little Ajax.] In duodecimo, tranflated from Sopho cles by Tibbald.

VERSE 146. With whom my Mufe began, with whom shall end. Virg. Ecl. 8. A te principium, tibi definet from Theoc.

Ἐκ Διὸς ἀρχῶμεθα, καὶ εἰς Δία λήγετε, Μεσαι

So Horace,

Prima dicte mihi, fumma dicende camœna,

Where rebel to thy throne if Science rife,

She does but fhew her coward face and dies: There, thy good Scholiafts with unweary'd pains 160 Make Horace flat, and humble Maro's strains; Here ftudious I unlucky moderns fave;

Nor fleeps one error in its father's grave,
Old puns restore, loft blunders nicely feek,
And crucify poor Shakespear once a week.
165 For thee I dim these eyes, and stuff this head,
With all fuch reading as was never read;
For thee fupplying, in the worst of days,
Notes to dull books, and prologues to dull plays;
For thee explain a thing till all men doubt it,
170 And write about it, Goddefs, and about it;
So fpins the filkworm small its flender store,
And labours, 'till it clouds itself all o'er.
Not that my quill to Critiques was confin'd,.
My Verse gave ampler leffons to mankind;
175 So graveft precepts may fuccefslefs prove,
But fad examples never fail to move.

As forced from wind-guns, lead itself can fly,.
And pond'rous flugs cut fwiftly thro' the sky;

REMARKS.

VERSE 162. Nor fleeps one error Old puns reftore, loft blun ders, &c. As where he laboured to prove Shakspear guilty of terri ble Anacronifms, or low Conundrums, which time had cover'd ; and converfant in fuch authors as Caxton and Winkin, rather than in Homer or Chaucer. Nay fo far had he loft his reverence to this incomparable author, as to fay in print, He deferved to be whipt. An infolence which nothing fure can parallel! but that of Dennis, who can be proved to have declared before Company, that Shakespear was 4. Rafcal. O tempora! Ọ mores! SCRIBLERUS.

VERSE 164. And crucify poor Shakespear once a week] For fome time, once a week or fortnight, he printed in Mift's Journal a fingle remark or poor conjecture on fome word or painting of Shakespear.

VERSE 166. With all fuch reading as was never read.] Such as Caxton above-mentioned. The three Destructions of Troy by Wynkin, and other like clafficks.

VERSE 168. Notes to dull books, and prologues to dull plays.] As to Cook's Hefiod, where fometimes a note, and fometimes even half a note. are carefully owned by him: And to Moore's Comedy of the Rival Mades, and other authors of the fame rank: Thefe were people who writ about the year 1726.

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As clocks to weight their nimble motion owe,
180 The wheels above urg'd by the load below;
Me, Emptiness and Dulness could infpire,
And were my Elafticity and Fire,

Had heav'n decreed fuch works a longer date,
Heav'n had decreed to fpare the Grubstreet-state.
185 But fee great Settle to the duft descend,
And all thy cause and empire at an end!
Cou'd Troy be fav'd by any single hand,
His gray-goofe-weapon must have made her ftand.
But what can I? my Flaccus cast aside,

o Take up th' Attorney's (once my better) Guide?
Or rob the Roman geefe of all their glories,
And fave the state by cackling to the Tories?

REMARKS.

VERSE 189. My Flaccus.] A familiar manner of fpeaking ufed by modern Criticks of a favourite Author. Mr. T. might as justly speak thus of Horace, as a French wit did of Tully feeing his work in a li brary, Ah! mon cher Ciceron! Je le connois bien: ceft le mem quem Mare Tulle.

VERSE 190. Take up th' Attorney's Guide.] In allufion to his fir profeffion of an Attorney.

VERSE 191. Or rob the Roman geefe, &c.] Relates to the well known ftory of the geefe that faved the Capitol, of which Virgil, An 8. Atq; hie aurais volitans argenteus anjer Porticibus, Gallos in limine adeffe canebat. A paffage I have always fufpected. Who fees not the Antithefs of auratus ant argenteus to be unworthy the Virgilian Majefty? and what abfurdity to fay, a Goofe fings? canebat? Virgil gives a contrary character of the voice of this filly bird, in Ecl. 9.argutos interftrepere anfer olores. Read it therefore adeffe ftrepebat. And why auratis porticibus? Does nor the very verfe preceeding this inform us, Romuleo recens horrebat regio culmo, is this Thatch in one line, and Gold in another, confiftent? I fcruple not (repugnantibus omnibus manufcriptis) to correct it, auritis, Horace ufes the fame epithet in the fame sense,

Auritas fidibus canoris

Ducere quercus.

And to say, that Walls have Ears, is common even to a proverb.

IMITATION S.

SCRIBL

VERSE 183. Had heav'n decreed fuch works a longer date,
Virg. Æn. 2

Me fi calicola voluiffent ducere vitam

"Has mihi fervaffent fedes

VERSE 187. Could Troy be faved His gray:goose-weapon,d Yag. ibid.

Si Pergama dextra

Defendi poffent, etiam hac defenfa fuiffent.

Yes, to my Country I my pen confign,

Yes, from this moment, mighty Mift! am thine, 195 And rival, Curtius! of thy fame and zeal,

O'er head and ears plunge for the publick weal
Adieu my children! better thrus expire

Un-ftall'd, unfold; thus glorious mount in fire
Fair without spot; than greas'd by grocer's hands,
200 Or fhipp'd with Ward to ape and monkey lands,
Or wafting ginger, round the ftreets to go,
And visit alehouse where ye firft did grow.

With that, he lifted thrice the sparkling brand, And thrice he dropt it from his quiv'ring hand : 205 Then lights the structure, with averted eyes; The rowling smoke involves the facrifice.

REMARK S.

VERSE 194. Mighty Mift!] Nathaniel Mift was publisher of famous Tory Paper (fee notes on 1. 3) in which this Author was fometimes permitted to have a part.

VERSE 197. Adieu my Children! 3 This is a tender and paffionate Apoftrophe to his own Works which he is going to facrifice, agree able to the nature of man in great affliction, and reflecting like a parent, on the many miserable fates to which they would otherwife be fubject.

-Felix Priameia virgo !

Juffa mori: qua fortitus non pertulit ullos,
Nec victoris heri tetigit captiva cubile!

Nos patria incenfa, diverfa per aquora vecte, &c.

Virg. Æn. 3.

VERSE 200. Or fhipp'd with Ward to ape and monkey land.] Edward Ward, a very voluminous Poet in Hudibraftick Verfe, but best known by the London Spy, in Profe. He has of late Years kept a publick house in the City (but in a genteel way) and with his wit, humour, and good liquor (Ale) afforded his guests a pleasurable entertainment, especially thofe of the High-Church party. JACOB Lives of Poets, vol. 2. p. 225. Great numbers of his works are yearly fold into the Plantations.

IMITATIONS.

VERSE 200. And visit Alehouse.] Waller on the Navy,
Thofe towers of Oak o'er fertile plains may go,

And vifit Mountains where they once did grow.

VERSE 203. He lifted thrice the sparkling brand, and thrice be 1 Ovid of Althea on the like occafion, burning her Off

dropt it. Spring,

Met. 8. Tum conata quater flammis imponere torremy
Capta quater tenuit

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