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The Sire saw, one by one, his virtues wake: 285
The Mother begg'd the blessing of a Rake.
Thou gav'st that ripeness, which so soon began,
And ceas'd so soon, he ne'er was boy, nor man.
Thro' School and College, thy kind cloud o'er-cast,
Safe and unseen the young Æneas pass'd; 290
Thence bursting glorious, all at once let down,
Stunn'd with his giddy larum half the town.
Intrepid, then, o'er seas and lands he flew :
Europe he saw, and Europe saw him too.

REMARKS.

Ver. 288. he ne'er was boy, nor man.] Nature hath bestowed on the human species two states or conditions, infancy and manhood. Wit sometimes makes the first disappear, and folly, the latter; but true dulness annihilates both. For, want of apprehension in boys, preventing that conscious ignorance and inexperience which produce the awkward bashfulness of youth, makes them assured; and want of imagination makes them grave. But this gravity and assurance, which is beyond boyhood, being neither wisdom nor knowledge, do never reach to manhood. SCRIBL. W. Ver.290. unseen the young Æneas pass'd; Thence bursting glorious,] See Virg. Æneid. i.

"At Venus obscuro gradientes aëre sepsit,

Et multo nebulæ circum Dea fudit amictu,

Cernere ne quis eos;-1. neu quis contingere possit;

2. Molirive moram ;-aut 3. veniendi poscere causas." Where he enumerates the causes why his mother took this care of him to wit, 1. that no body might touch or correct him: 2. might stop or detain him: 3. examine him about the progress he had made, or so much as guess why he came there. P. W.

Ver. 294. Europe he saw,] The pernicious effects of too early travelling are here ridiculed and exposed with equal good sense and charming poetry. Warton.

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 284. A dauntless infant, never scar'd with God.]

"sine Dis animosus infans."

HOR.

P.†

There all thy gifts and graces we display,
Thou, only thou, directing all our way,
To where the Seine, obsequious as she runs,
Pours at great Bourbon's feet her silken sons;
Or Tyber, now no longer Roman, rolls,
Vain of Italian arts, Italian souls;

295

300

To happy convents, bosom'd deep in vines,
Where slumber abbots, purple as their wines;
To isles of fragrance, lily-silver'd vales,
Diffusing languor in the panting gales;
To lands of singing, or of dancing slaves,
Love-whisp'ring woods, and lute-resounding waves;

REMARKS.

305

Ver. 301. To happy convents,] I cannot forbear saying, though indeed every reader of taste will perceive the thing, that Pope has never written, nor indeed does our language afford, six more delicious lines. The three compound epithets, which are more in number than he ever has used so near each other, have a fine effect, and are most happily constructed. So also is greatly-daring, in line 318. Ver. 302, Abbots, purple as their wines, is from Rousseau, the poet. Warton.

Ver. 303. lily-silver'd vales,] Tuberoses.

P.t

Ver. 305. To lands of dancing slaves,] In the year 1413, when the city of Paris was in the utmost desolation, in the murders and proscriptions of the Great, by the uncontrolled fury of a mad populace, who had destroyed one half of the Court, and had kept the other half, with the King and Dauphin, prisoners in the palace, devoted to destruction. At this dreadful juncture, the insolence of one Jacqueville, the Captain of the mob, has been the occasion of bringing down to us a circumstance very declarative of the singular temper of this gay nation. As that fellow, with his guards at his heels, was going his rounds, to see that the work of ruin went on without interruption, when he came to the Palace he went abruptly up into the apartments, where he found the Dauphin and the principal Lords and Ladies of the Court dancing, as in the midst of peace and security: on which, with

the

But chief her shrine where naked Venus keeps,
And Cupids ride the Lion of the deeps;
Where, eas'd of fleets, the Adriatic main
Wafts the smooth eunuch and enamour'd swain.
Led by my hand, he saunter'd Europe round,
And gather'd ev'ry vice on Christian ground;
Saw ev'ry Court, heard ev'ry King declare
His royal sense of Op'ras or the Fair;
The stews and palace equally explor'd,
Intrigu'd with glory, and with spirit whor'd;
Tried all hors-d'œuvres, all liqueurs defin'd;
Judicious drank, and greatly-daring din'd;
Dropp'd the dull lumber of the Latin store,
Spoil'd his own language, and acquir'd no more;
All classic learning lost on classic ground;
And last turn'd Air, the echo of a sound!

REMARKS.

315

the air of a Cato, he reproached them for the levity of their behaviour, at a time when the rest of the Court were languishing in the dungeons of the common prisons.

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Ver. 308. And Cupids ride the Lion of the deeps;] The winged Lion, the Arms of Venice. This Republic heretofore the most considerable in Europe, for her naval force and the extent of her commerce; now illustrious for her Carnivals.

P. W.

Ver. 318. greatly-daring din'd;] It being indeed no small risk to eat through those extraordinary compositions, whose disguised ingredients are generally unknown to the guests, and highly inflammatory and unwholesome. P. W.

Ver. 322. And last turn'd Air, the echo of a sound!] Yet less a body than echo itself; for echo reflects sense or words at least, this gentleman only airs and tunes:

-Sonus est, qui vivit in illo. Ovid. Met.

So that this was not a metamorphosis either in one or the other, but only a resolution of the soul into its true principles; its real essence being harmony, according to the doctrine of Orpheus, the inventor

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See now, half-cur'd, and perfectly well-bred,
With nothing but a Solo in his head;
As much estate, and principle, and wit,

A's Jansen, Fleetwood, Cibber shall think fit;
Stol'n from a duel, follow'd by a nun,

And, if a Borough chuse him not, undone;
See, to my country happy I restore

325

This glorious Youth, and add one Venus more. 330 Her too receive, for her my soul adores!

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the sons of sons of sons of whores,

REMARKS.

inventor of Opera, who first performed to a select assembly of beasts. SCRIBL.

W.

Ver. 324. With nothing but a Solo in his head;] With nothing but a Solo? Why, if it be a Solo, how should there be any thing else? Palpable tautology! Read boldly an Opera, which is enough. of conscience for such a head as has lost all its Latin.

BENTL. P. W.

Ver. 326. Jansen, Fleetwood, Cibber] Three very eminent persons, all Managers of Plays; who, though not Governors by profession, had, each in his way, concerned themselves in the education of youth, and regulated their wits, their morals, or their finances, at that period of their age which is the most important, their entrance into the polite world. Of the last of these, and his talents for this end, see Book i. ver. 199, &c. P. W.

Ver. 328. And, if a Borough chuse him not,] A severe stroke Warton. on some parts of the English Parliament.

Ver. 331. Her too receive, &c.] This confirms what the learned Scriblerus advanced in his note on ver. 272, that the Governor, as well as the Pupil, had particular interest in this Lady. P. W.

Ver. 332. sons of whores,] For such have been always esteemed the ablest supports of the throne of Dulness, even by the confes

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 332. So may the sons of sons, &c.]

"Et nati natorum, et qui nascentur ab illis."

sion

Virg. Æneid. iii.

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Prop thine, O Empress ! like each neighbour throne, And make a long posterity thy own."

340

Pleas'd, she accepts the Hero and the Dame, 335
Wraps in her veil, and frees from sense of shame.
Then look'd, and saw a lazy, lolling sort,
Unseen at Church, at Senate, or at Court,
Of ever-listless Loit'rers, that attend
No cause, no trust, no duty, and no friend.
Thee too, my Paridel! she mark'd thee there,
Stretch'd on the rack of a too easy chair,
And heard thy everlasting yawn confess
The pains and penalties of idleness.
She pitied; but her pity only shed
Benigner influence on thy nodding head.

REMARKS.

345

sion of those her most legitimate sons, who have unfortunately wanted that advantage. The illustrious Vanini in his divine encomiums on our Goddess, intitled, De admirandis Naturæ Regina Deaque mortalium Arcanis, laments that he was not born a bastard : O utinam extra legitimum ac connubialem thorum essem procreatus! &c. He expatiates on the prerogatives of a free birth, and on what he would have done for the Great Mother with those advantages; and then sorrowfully concludes, At quia Conjugatorum sum soboles, his orbatus sum bonis.

W.

Ver. 341. Thee too, my Paridel!] The poet seems to speak of this young gentleman with great affection. The name is taken from Spenser, who gives it to a wandering courtly Squire, that travelled about for the same reason, for which many young Squires are now fond of travelling, and especially to Paris.

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 342. Stretch'd on the rack

And heard, &c.]

"Sedet, æternumque sedebit,

Infelix Theseus, Phlegyasque miserrimus omnes

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P. W.

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