But now the reeds shall hang on yonder tree, Oh! were I made by some transforming pow'r 45 The captive bird that sings within thy bow'r! Then might my voice thy list'ning ears employ, And I those kisses he receives enjoy. And yet my numbers please the rural throng, For you the swains their fairest flow'rs design, 55 60 See what delights in sylvan scenes appear! Descending Gods have found Elysium here. In woods bright Venus with Adonis stray'd; And chaste Diana haunts the forest-shade. Come, lovely Nymph, and bless the silent hours, When swains from sheering seek their nightly bow'rs; When weary reapers quit the sultry field, 65 And crown'd with corn their thanks to Ceres yield. This harmless grove no lurking viper hides, But in my breast the serpent Love abides. IMITATIONS. Ver. 60. Descending Gods have found Elysium here.] "Habitarunt Di quoque sylvas"-Virg. "Et formosus oves ad flumina pavit Adonis." Idem. P. Here bees from blossoms sip the rosy dew, 70 The mossy fountains, and the green retreats! NOTES. 80 Ver. 73. Where'er you walk, &c.] Very much like some lines in Hudibras, but certainly no resemblance was intended : Where'er you tread, your feet shall set The primrose and the violet ; And take all lives of things from you! Bowles. Ver. 84. And headlong, &c.] Pope has carried the idea into Ver. 79, 80, VARIATIONS. extravagance, Your praise the tuneful birds to heav'n shall bear, So the verses were originally written. But the author, young as he was, soon found the absurdity which Spenser himself overlooked, of introducing wolves into England. IMITATIONS. Ver. 80. And winds shall waft, &c. P. "Partem aliquam, venti, divûm referatis ad aures ?" Virg. P. But see, the shepherds shun the noon-day heat, The lowing herds to murm'ring brooks retreat, To closer shades the panting flocks remove; Ye Gods! and is there no relief for Love? But soon the sun with milder rays descends To the cool ocean, where his journey ends. On me love's fiercer flames for ever prey, By night he scorches, as he burns by day. NOTES. 90 extravagance, when he makes the stream not only "listening," but " hang listening in its headlong fall." Mr. Stevens in his MS. notes, quotes Lucan, in a passage where the image is precisely the same, though possibly Pope never saw it: "de rupe pependit Abscissâ fixus torrens!" But as it is here used, it is too hyperbolical, and only allowable in a very young writer. An idea of this sort will only bear just touching, if I may say so; the mind then does not perceive its violence if it be brought before the eyes too minutely, it becomes almost ridiculous. This is often the fault of Cowley. Oldham has a passage of the same stamp: "For which the list'ning streams forgot to run, And trees lean'd their attentive branches down." How much more judiciously and poetically has Milton given the same idea? "Thirsis, whose artful strains have oft delay'd The huddling brook to hear his madrigal, VARIATIONS. Ver. 91. Me love inflames, nor will his fires allay. Bowles. P. IMITATIONS. Ver. 88. Ye Gods, &c.] "Me tamen urit amor, quis enim modus adsit amori ?" Virg. P. AUTUMN: THE THIRD PASTORAL,* OR HYLAS AND ÆGON. TO MR. WYCHERLEY.+ BENEATH the shade a spreading Beech displays, This mourn'd a faithless, that an absent Love, Ye Mantuan Nymphs, your sacred succour bring; 5 NOTES. * This Pastoral consists of two parts, like the viiith of Virgil: The Scene, a Hill; the Time at Sun-set. P. His intrigues with the Duchess of Cleveland, his marriage with the Countess of Drogheda, Charles the Second's displeasure on this marriage, his debts and distresses, and other particulars of his life, are well related by Dennis in a Letter to Major Pack, 1720. In Dennis's collection of Letters, published in two volumes, 1721, to which Mr. Pope subscribed, Lord Lansdown has drawn his character, as a Writer, in an elegant manner; chiefly with a view of shewing the impropriety of an epithet given to him by Lord Rochester, who called him Slow Wycherley; for that, notwithstanding his pointed wit, and forcible expression, he composed with facility and haste. Warton. Thou, whom the Nine, with Plautus' wit inspire, The art of Terence, and Menander's fire; Whose sense instructs us, and whose humour charms, Whose judgment sways us, and whose spirit warms! NOTES. Ver. 7. Thou, whom the Nine,] Mr. Wycherley, a famous author of Comedies; of which the most celebrated were the PlainDealer and Country-Wife. He was a writer of infinite spirit, satire, and wit. The only objection made to him was, that he had too much. However, he was followed in the same way by Mr. Congreve, tho' with a little more correctness. Surely with much more correctness, taste, and judgment. P. Warton. Ver. 8. The art of Terence, and Menander's fire ;] This line alludes to that famous character given of Terence, by Cæsar: "Tu quoque, tu in summis, ô dimidiate Menander, Lenibus atque utinam scriptis adjuncta foret vis So that the judicious critic sees he should have said—with Menander's fire. For what the Poet meant, was, that his friend had joined to Terence's art, what Cæsar thought wanting in Terence, namely, the vis comica of Menander. Besides,-and Menander's fire, is making that the Characteristic of Menander which was He was distinguished for having art and comic spirit in conjunction, and Terence having only the first part, is called the half of Menander. Warburton. Ver. 9. Whose sense instructs us,] He was always very careful in his encomiums not to fall into ridicule, the deserved fate of weak and prostitute flatterers, and which they rarely escape. For sense, he would willingly have said moral; propriety required it. But this dramatic Poet's moral was remarkably faulty. His plays are all shamefully profligate both in the Dialogue and Action. Warburton. |