Milton's strong pinion now not Heaven can bound, And God the Father turns a school-divine. NOTES. tical sagacity, in discovering and reforming errors in books of science, where a philosophical precision and grammatical exactness of language is employed, served but to betray him into absurd and extravagant conjectures, whenever he attempted to reform the text of a poet; whose diction he was always for reducing to the prosaic rules of logical severity; and whenever he found what a great master of speech calls verbum ardens, he was sure not to leave it till he had thoroughly quenched it in his critical standish. But to make philology amends, he was a perfect master of all the mysteries of the ancient rhythmus. The most important of his works, as a scholar, is his Critique on the Epistles of Phalaris; and the least considerable, his Remarks on the Discourse concerning Free-thinking. Yet the first, with all its superiority of learning, argument, and truth, was borne down by the vivacity and clamour of a party, which (as usual) carried the public along with them: while the other, employed only in the easy and trifling task of exposing a very dull and very ignorant rhapsodist, was as extravagantly extolled. For it was his odd fortune (as our poet expresses it) to pass for "A wit with dunces, and a dúnce with wits:" whereas, in truth, he was neither one nor the other. The injustice that had been done him in the first case, made him always speak, amongst his friends, of the blind partiality of the public, in the latter, with the contempt it deserved. For however he might sometimes mistake his own force, he was never the dupe of the public judgment; of which, a learned prelate, now living, gave me this instance: He accidentally met Bentley in the days of Pha laris; P Inter quæ verbum emicuit si forte decorum, et 'Indignor quidquam reprehendi, non quia crassè Compositum, illepidève putetur, sed quia nuper; Nec veniam antiquis, sed honorem et proemia posci. "Rectè necne crocum floresque perambulet Atta NOTES. laris; and after having complimented him on that noble piece of criticism (the Answer to the Oxford writers,) he bade him not be discouraged at this run upon him: for though they had got the laughers on their side, yet mere wit and raillery could not hold it out long against a work of so much learning. To which the other replied: "Indeed, Dr. S. I am in no pain about the matter. For it is a maxim with me, that no man was ever written out of reputation, but by himself." Warburton. Ver. 109. Sprat,] Rightly put at the head of the small wits. He is now known to most advantage as the friend of Mr. Cowley. His learning was comprised in the well rounding of a period; for, as Seneca said of Triarius: "Compositione verborum belle cadentium multos Scholasticos delectabat, omnes decipiebat." As to the turn of his piety and genius, it is best seen by his last Will and Testament, where he gives God thanks that he, who had been bred neither at Eton nor Westminster, but at a little country school by the churchyard side, should at last come to be a bishop. But the honour of being a Westminster school-boy some have at one age, and some at another; and some all their life long. Our grateful bishop, though he had it not in his youth, yet it came upon him in his old age. Warburton. Ver. 110. Like twinkling stars] Among the trash that fills those six volumes, called Dryden's Miscellanies, are several copies of verses so dull and despicable, that they would hardly gain admittance in a modern monthly magazine: "Unfinish'd things one knows not what to call.” Dodsley's six volumes are on the whole superior. Milton, in his Second Defence, has very severely proscribed the common writers of miscellaneous poems: ." Poetas equidem verè dictos, et diligo et But for the wits of either Charles's days, The mob of gentlemen who wrote with ease, Sprat, Carew, Sedley, and a hundred more, Like twinkling stars the Miscellanies o'er, One simile, that Psolitary shines In the dry desert of a thousand lines, 110 Or "lengthen'd thought that gleams through many a page, Has sanctified whole poems for an age. 'I lose my patience, and I own it too, 115 When works are censured, not as bad but new; While if our elders break all reason's laws, 'On Avon's bank, where flowers eternal blow, If I but ask, if any weed can grow, NOTES. 120 et colo, et audiendo sæpe delector; istos vero versiculorum nugivendos quis non oderit? quo genere nihil stultius, aut vanius, aut corruptius, aut mendacius. Laudant, vituperant, sine delectû, sine discrimine, judicio, aut modo, nunc principes, nunc plebeios, doctos juxta atque indoctos, probos an improbos perinde habent; prout Cantharus, aut spes nummuli, aut fatuus ille furor inflat, ac rapit." A sensible French writer makes the very same complaint that our author has done in verse 116. Some shining passages, and a few striking lines, were sufficient to recommend a whole piece. The weakness and meanness of many other lines were excused, on being considered only as made merely for connecting the former, and therefore they were called, as we learn from Marolles's Memoirs, des Vers de Passages. Du Bos, Sect. 7. The reading such works, says Bayle, is like the journey of a caravan over the deserts of Arabia, which often goes twenty or thirty leagues together without finding a single fruit-tree or fountain. This thought has a close resemblance to the 111th line of our poet. Warton. Fabula, si dubitem, clament periisse pudorem Cuncti penè patres; ea cum reprehendere coner, Quæ 'gravis Esopus, quæ doctus Roscius egit. Vel quia nil 'rectum, nisi quod placuit sibi, ducunt, Vel quia turpe putant parere minoribus, et quæ Imberbi didicere, senes perdenda fateri. NOTES. Ver. 122. Which Betterton's grave action dignified, The epithet gravis, when applied to a tragedian, signifies dignity of gesture and action; and in this sense the imitator uses the word grave: nothing being more destructive of his character than ranting, the common vice of stage-heroes, from which this admirable actor was entirely free. The epithet well-mouth'd, a term of the chase, here applied to his successor, was not given without a particular design, and to insinuate, that there was as wide a difference between their performances, as there is between scientific music and the harmony of brute sounds, between elocution and vociferation. This compliment was paid to BETTERTON, as the earliest of our author's friends; whom he no less esteemed (as Cicero did ROSCIUS) for the integrity of his life and manners, than for the excellence of his dramatic performance. Our author lived to see with pleasure, though after a considerable interruption, these qualities again revive and unite in the person of a third accomplished actor,* the present ornament of the English theatre. Warburton. Ver. 122. Which Betterton's grave] There are few characters drawn with such precision, life, nature, and truth, as what Cibber has given us of Betterton, in the fourth chapter of his life. It required no small mastery of language, and knowledge of the difficult art of acting, to be able to convey to the reader an exact and complete idea of the manner in which Betterton so admirably personated the characters of Othello, Hamlet, Hotspur, Brutus, and Macbeth. It were to be wished the same justice could be done *Mr. Garrick. . One tragic sentence if I dare deride Which Betterton's grave action dignified, Or well-mouth'd Booth with emphasis proclaims, (Though but, perhaps, a muster-roll of names,) How will our fathers rise up in a rage, 125 And swear all shame is lost in George's age! NOTES. done to Mr. Garrick, who perhaps would not suffer much by a comparison with Betterton. It is at least to be lamented that Dr. Johnson should speak so contemptuously, as he has done more than once, of the profession and abilities of his friend and pupil. Booth was educated at Westminster school, under the celebrated Dr. Busby, who had himself a great love of theatrical representations; and whose early praises of Booth for performing the Pamphilus of Terence, determined him to try his fortune on the stage. His first appearance was in the part of Oroonoko, on the Irish theatre; and in London, that of Maximus in Valentinian. He was reckoned second to Betterton after he had performed Artaban in Rowe's Ambitious Step Mother, and Pyrrhus in the Distressed Mother. But Othello was thought his masterpiece. He was a man of considerable literature, strict integrity, and amiable manners. His figure was clumsy, he stooped, had a large head, and very short arms. Roscius squinted. The lines 122 and 123, on Betterton and Booth, contain too feeble an encomium on the merits of these two excellent actors. Warton. Ver. 124. a muster-roll of names,] An absurd custom of several actors, to pronounce with emphasis the mere proper names of Greeks and Romans, which (as they call it) fill the mouth of the player. Ver. 129, 130.] Inferior to the original: as ver. 133-4 excel Warburton. it. Pope. |