Of all mad creatures, if the learn'd are right, 105 There are, who to my perfon pay their court: I cough like Horace, and, tho' lean, am short; 116 Ammon's great fon one shoulder had too high, Such Ovid's nofe, and "Sir! you have an Eye"--Go on, obliging creatures, make me fee, All that difgrac'd my Betters, met in me. VARIATIONS. Ver. 111. in the MS. For fong, for filence fome expect a bribe; NOTES, 120 VER. 118. Sir, you have an Eye.] It is remarkable, that amongst the compliments on his infirmities and deformities, he mentions his eye, which was fine, fharp, and piercing. It was done to intimate, that flattery was as odious to him when there was fome ground for commendation, as when there was none. Say for my comfort, languishing in bed, Great Homer dy'd three thousand years ago. Why did I write? what fin to me unknown Dipt me in ink, my parents', or my own? 126 As yet a child, nor yet a fool to fame, I lifp'd in numbers, for the numbers came. VARIATION S. After Ver. 124. in the MS. But, Friend, this shape, which You and Curl * admire, His Father was crooked, *Curl fet up his head for a fign. NOTES. VER. 127. As yet a child, &c.] He used to fay, that he began to write verfes further back than he could remember. When he was eight years old, Ogilby's Homer fell in his way, and delighted him extremely; it was followed by Sandys' Ovid; and the raptures these then gave him were so strong, that he spoke of them with pleasure ever after. About ten, being at school at Hide-park-corner, where he was much neglected, and fuffered to go to the Comedy with the greater boys, he turned the tranfactions of the Iliad into a play, made up of a number of fpeeches from Ogilby's tranflation, He had the address tacked together with verses of his own. to perfuade the upper boys to act it; he even prevailed on VOL. IV. C I left no calling for this idle trade, No duty broke, no father disobey'd. 130 The Mufe but ferv'd to eafe fome friend, not Wife, To help me thro' this long disease, my Life, To fecond, ARBUTHNOT! thy Art and Care, And teach, the Being you preferv'd, to bear. But why then publish? Granville the polite, 135 And knowing Walsh, would tell me I could write; Well-natur'd Garth inflam'd with early praise, And Congreve lov'd, and Swift endur'd my lays; NOTES. the Master's Gardener to reprefent Ajax, and contrived to have all the actors dreffed after the pictures in his favourite Ogilby. At twelve he went with his father into the Forest: and then got first acquainted with the Writings of Waller, Spencer, and Dryden ; in the order I have named them. On the first fight of Dryden, he found he had what he wanted. His Poems were never out of his hands; they became his model; and from them alone he learnt the whole magic of his verfification. This year he began an epic poem; the fame which Bp. Atterbury, long afterwards, perfuaded him to burn. Befides this, he wrote, in thofe early days, a Comedy and Tragedy, the latter taken from a story in the legend of St. Genevieve. They both defervedly underwent the fame fate. As he began his Paftorals foon after, he used to say pleafantly, that he had literally followed the example of Virgil who tells us, Cum canerem reges et prælia, &c. VER. 130. no father dif bey'd.] When Mr. Pope was yet a child, his Father, though no Poet, would fet him to make English verfes. He was pretty difficult to please, and would often, fend the boy back to new turn them. When they were to his mind, he took great pleasure in them, and would. fay, Theje are good 1 hyme:. The courtly Talbot, Somers, Sheffield read, pure Description held the place of Sense? NOTES. VER. 139. Talbot, &c.] All these were Patrons or Admirers of Mr. Dryden; though a scandalous libel against him, entitled, Dryden's Satyr to his Mufe, has been printed in the name of the Lord Somers, of which he was wholly ignorant. These are the perfons to whofe account the Author charges the publication of his firft pices: perfons, with whom he was converfant (and he adds beloved) at 16 or 17 years of age; an early period for fuch acquaintance. The catalogue might be made yet more illuftrious had he not confined it to that time when he writ the Paftorals and Windfor Foreft, on which he passes a fort of Cenfure in the lines following, "While pure Description held the place of Senfe," &c. P. VER. 146. Burnets, &c.] Authors of fecret and fcandalous History. P. Ibid. Burnets, Oldmixons, and Cooks.] By no means Authors of the fame clafs; though the violence of party might hurry them into the fame mistakes. But if the first offended this way, it was only through an honeft warmth of temper, that allowed too little to an excellent understanding. The other two, with very bad heads, had hearts ftill worse. VER. 148. While pure Defcription held the place of Senfe?] He uses pure equivocally, to fignify either cbafe or empty; Like gentle Fanny's was my flow'ry theme, 150 If want provok'd, or madness made them print, NOTES. and has given in this line what he esteemed the true Character of descriptive pietry, as it is called. A compofition, in his opinion, as abfurd as a feaft made up of fauces. The office of a pictorefque imagination is to brighten and adorn good fenfe; fo that to employ it only in defeription, is like childrens delighting in a prifm for the fake of its gaudy colours; which. when frugally managed, and artfully difpofed, might be made to reprefent and illuftrate the nobleft objects in nature. VER. 150. A painted meadow, or a purling ftream,] is a verfe of Mr. Addison. P. Ibid. A painted Mistress, or a purling Stream.] The Rape of the Lock, and Windfor-Fereft. VER. 163. thefe ribalds.] How defervedly this title is given |