Top-gallant he, and she in all her trim,

230

He boarding her, she striking sail to him: "Dear Countess! you have charms all hearts to

hit!"

And "Sweet Sir Fopling! you have so much wit!"
Such wits and beauties are not praised for nought,
For both the beauty and the wit are bought. 235
'Twould burst even Heraclitus with the spleen,
To see those antics, Fopling and Courtin:
The Presence seems, with things so richly odd,
The Mosque of Mahound, or some queer Pagod.
See them survey their limbs by Durer's rules, 240
Of all beau-kind the best proportion'd fools!
Adjust their clothes, and to confession draw
Those venial sins, an atom, or a straw;
But oh! what terrors must distract the soul
Convicted of that mortal crime, a hole;
Or should one pound of powder less bespread
Those monkey-tails that wag behind their head.
Thus finish'd, and corrected to a hair,

245

They march to prate their hour before the fair.
So first to preach a white-gloved chaplain goes,250
With band of lily, and with cheek of rose,
Sweeter than Sharon, in immaculate trim,
Neatness itself impertinent in him.

Let but the Ladies smile, and they are blest:
Prodigious! how the things protest, protest: 255

NOTES.

of Albert Durer, by a living painter of great genius and learning, Mr. Fuseli, in the third volume of that entertaining publication, intitled, Anecdotes of some distinguished Persons, p. 234.

Warton.

So much as at Rome would serve to have thrown
Ten cardinals into the Inquisition;

And whispers by Jesu so oft, that a
Pursuevant would have ravish'd him away
For saying our Lady's Psalter. But 'tis fit
That they each other plague, they merit it.
But here comes Glorious that will plague them
both,

Who in the other extreme only doth

Call a rough carelessness, good fashion:

Whose cloak his spurs tear, or whom he spits on,
He cares not, he. His ill words do no harm
To him; he rushes in, as if Arm, arm,

He meant to cry; and though his face be as ill
As theirs which in old hangings whip Christ, still
He strives to look worse; he keeps all in awe;
Just like a licens'd fool, commands like law.

Tyr'd, now I leave this place, and but pleas'd so As men from gaols to execution go,

Go through the great chamber (why is it hung
With the seven deadly sins?) being among

NOTES.

Ver. 256. or Gonson] Sir John Gonson, the famous police magistrate, was as celebrated in his day, in the annals of justice, as one of his successors in office, Sir John Fielding, has been since. His portrait is introduced in Hogarth's Harlot's Progress.

Bowles. Ver. 262. The Captain's honest,] Much resembling Noll Bluff, in Congreve's Old Bachelor, who was copied from Thraso, and also from Ben Jonson. Warton.

Ver. 273. As men from jails] A line so smooth that our author thought proper to adopt it from the original. There are many such, as I have before observed, which shew, that if Donne had

taken

Peace, fools, or Gonson will for Papists seize you, If once he catch you at your Jesu! Jesu!

Nature made every fop to plague his brother, Just as one beauty mortifies another.

But here's the captain that will plague them both,
Whose air cries Arm! whose very look's an oath:
The captain's honest, Sirs, and that's enough,
Though his soul's bullet, and his body buff.
He spits fore-right; his haughty chest before,
Like battering rams, beats open every door; 265
And with a face as red, and as awry,
As Herod's hang-dogs in old tapestry,
Scarecrow to boys, the breeding woman's curse,
Has yet a strange ambition to look worse;
Confounds the civil, keeps the rude in awe,
Jests like a licensed fool, commands like law.
Frighted, I quit the room, but leave it so

270

As men from jails to execution go;
For, hung with deadly sins, I see the wall,
And lined with giants deadlier than them all: 275

NOTES.

taken equal pains, he need not have left his numbers so much more rugged and disgusting, than many of his cotemporaries, especially one so exquisitely melodious as Drummond of Hawthornden; who, in truth, more than Fairfax, Waller, or Denham, deserves to be called the first polisher of English versification. Milton read him much. And Pope copied him, not only in his Pastorals, as before observed, but in his Eloisa. A well written Life of Drummond is inserted in the fifth volume of the new edition of the Biographia Britannica, with many curious particulars imparted by Mr. Parke. Warton. Ver. 274. For, hung with deadly sins,] The room hung with old tapestry, representing the seven deadly sins.

Pope.

Those Askaparts,* men big enough to throw
Charing Cross for a bar, men that do know
No token of worth, but queen's man, and fine
Living; barrels of beef, flaggons of wine.
I shook like a spied spie-Preachers which are
Seas of wit and arts, you can, then dare,
Drown the sins of this place, but as for me
Which am but a scant brook, enough shall be
To wash the stains away: Although I yet
(With Maccabees modesty) the known merit
Of my work lessen, yet some wise men shall,
I hope, esteem my writs canonical.

NOTES.

* A giant famous in romances.

Pope.

Each man an Askapart, of strength to toss
For quoits, both Temple-bar and Charing-cross.
Scared at the grisly forms, I sweat, I fly,
And shake all o'er, like a discover'd spy.

Courts are too much for wits so weak as mine:
Charge them with heaven's artillery, bold divine!
From such alone the great rebukes endure,
Whose satire's sacred, and whose rage secure :
'Tis mine to wash a few light stains, but theirs
To deluge sin, and drown a court in tears.
Howe'er what's now Apocrypha, my wit,
In time to come, may pass for holy writ.

NOTES.

285

Ver. 286. my wit,] The private character of Donne was very amiable and interesting; particularly so, on account of his secret marriage with the daughter of Sir George More; of the difficulties he underwent on this marriage; of his constant affection to his wife, his affliction at her death, and the sensibility he displayed towards all his friends and relations. Warton.

"He was born," says Mr. Ellis, "at London in 1573, and educated at home till the eleventh year of his age. His academical residence then became divided between Oxford and Cambridge, and his studies between poetry and law. He accompanied the Earl of Essex in an expedition against Cadiz, was secretary some time to Sir Thomas Egerton, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal; and having taken orders, was promoted to be King's Chaplain, preacher of the Society of Lincoln's Inn, and Dean of St. Paul's. He died in 1631." His life is written by Isaac Walton. Bowles.

The poetic talents of Donne were not confined to satire, but were displayed to equal advantage in lyric poetry. Many of his productions in this department breathe strongly of that poetic spirit which characterizes the age of Shakespear, and in originality and vigour of sentiment are not exceeded by any passages in the foregoing satires.