Fierce as a startled adder, swell'd, and said, REMARKS. General of that name, who burned Corinth, and committed the curious statues to the captain of a ship, assuring him, "that if any were lost or broken, he should procure others to be made in their stead :" by which it should seem (whatever may be pretended) that Mummius was no Virtuoso. P. W. Who, or from whence, was Mummius? we know as little of him, thus abruptly brought out, as of Annius in the preceding passage, ver. 347. It is painful, but necessary, to make an observation on such a fault in our poet. To say the name alluded to Egyptian Mummies, is frigid enough! I have been lately informed, that by Mummius was meant Dr. Mead, a man too learned and too liberal to be thus satirized. Warton. Dr. Warton was probably misinformed on this head. Pope was not in the habit of abusing those anonymously whom he openly praised. He had a high opinion of Dr. Mead, whom he occasionally consulted, as appears by the lines, I'll do what Mead and Cheselden advise, To save these limbs and to preserve these eyes. Ver. 371. fool-renown'd,] A compound epithet in the Greek manner, renowned by fools, or renowned for making fools. P. W. Ver. 372. Cheops] A King of Egypt, whose body was certainly to be known, as being buried alone in his Pyramid, and is therefore more genuine than any of the Cleopatras. This Royal Mummy, being stolen by a wild Arab, was purchased by the Consul of Alexandria, and transmitted to the Museum of Mummius; for proof of which he brings a passage in Sandys's Travels; where that accurate and learned voyager assures us that he saw the sepulchre empty, which agrees exactly (saith he) with the time of the theft above-mentioned.-But he omits to observe that Herodotus tells us it was empty in his time. P. W. Ver. 375. "Speak'st thou of Syrian Princes? &c.] The strange story following, which may be taken for a fiction of the poet, is justified by a true relation in Spon's Voyages. Vaillant (who wrote the History of the Syrian Kings, as it is to be found on medals) True, he had wit, to make their value rise; "Witness, great Ammon! by whose horns I swore, (Replied soft Annius,) this our paunch before REMARKS. medals) coming from the Levant, where he had been collecting various coins, and being pursued by a Corsair of Sallee, swallowed down twenty gold medals. A sudden Bourasque freed him from the Rover, and he got safe to land with the medals in his belly. On his road to Avignon he met two physicians, of whom he demanded assistance. One advised purgations, the other, vomits. In this uncertainty he took neither, but pursued his way to Lyons; where he found his ancient friend, the famous physician and antiquary, Dufour, to whom he related his adventure. Dufour, without staying to inquire about the uneasy symptoms of the burthen he carried, first asked him, whether the medals were of the higher Empire? He assured him they were. Dufour was ravished with the hope of possessing so rare a treasure; he bargained with him on the spot for the most curious of them; and was to recover them at his own expense. P. W. Ver. 383. each Demi-god,] They are called so on their coins. P.† Ver.387. "Witness, great Ammon!] Jupiter Ammon is called to witness, IMITATIONS. Ver. 383. Receiv'd each Demi-god,] "Emissumque imâ de sede Typhoëa terræ Ovid. Cœlitibus fecisse metum; cunctosque dedisse w.t Still bears them, faithful; and that thus I eat, '390 The Goddess smiling seem'd to give consent; 395 So back to Pollio, hand in hand, they went. Then, thick as locusts black'ning all the ground, A tribe, with weeds and shells fantastic crown'd, Each with some wond'rous gift approach'd the Pow'r, A Nest, a Toad, a Fungus, or a Flow'r. But far the foremost, two, with earnest zeal, 400 The first thus open'd: "Hear thy suppliant's call, Great Queen, and common Mother of us all! REMARKS, witness, as the father of Alexander, to whom those Kings succeeded in the division of the Macedonian Empire, and whose Horns they wore on their Medals. P. W. Ver. 394. Douglas] A physician of great learning and no less taste; above all, curious in what related to HORACE; of whom he collected every edition, translation, and comment, to the number of several hundred volumes. P. W. Ver. 397. Then, thick as locusts] The similitude of Locusts does not refer more to the numbers than to the qualities of the Virtuosi: who not only devour and lay waste every tree, shrub, and green leaf in their course of experiments; but suffer neither a moss nor fungus to escape untouched. SCRIBL. W. Ver. 403. "Hear thy suppliant's call,] The character and speech of the Florist in this passage, and those of the Butterfly-Hunter, verse 421 to verse 436, cannot escape the attention and applause of the elegant and judicious reader. Why, therefore, it will be said, point them out? Verse 418, "where no carnation fades," is particularly Fair from its humble bed I rear'd this Flow'r 405 410 Did Nature's pencil ever blend such rays, REMARKS. person Warton. particularly happy, and appropriated to the character of the speaking. Ver. 409. and nam'd it Caroline :] It is a compliment which the Florists usually pay to Princes and great personages, to give their names to the most curious flowers of their raising. Some have been very jealous of vindicating this honour; but none more than that ambitious gardener at Hammersmith, who caused his favourite to be painted on his sign, with this inscription, This is my Queen Caroline. P. W. IMITATIONS. Ver. 405. Fair from its humble bed, &c.—nam'd it Caroline: Quam mulcent auræ, firmat Sol, educat imber, P.† Warton. Oh! punish him, or to th' Elysian shades Queen. 425 "Of all th' enamell'd race, whose silv'ry wing Waves to the tepid zephyrs of the spring, Or swims along the fluid atmosphere, Once brightest shone this child of Heat and Air. I saw, and started from its vernal bow'r, The rising game, and chac'd from flow'r to flow'r. It fled, I follow'd; now in hope, now pain; It stopp'd, I stopp'd; it mov'd, I mov'd again. At last it fix'd, 'twas on what plant it pleas'd, And where it fix'd, the beauteous bird I seiz'd: 430 Rose or Carnation was below my care; I meddle, Goddess! only in my sphere. I tell the naked fact without disguise, And, to excuse it, need but shew the prize; Whose spoils this paper offers to your eye, Fair ev'n in death! this peerless Butterfly." "My sons! (she answer'd) both have done your parts: Live happy both, and long promote our arts. IMITATIONS. 435 Ver. 421. "Of all th' enamell'd race,] The poet seems to have an eye to Spenser, Muiopotmos: "Of all the race of silver-winged flies Ver. 427, 428. It fled, I follow'd; &c.] It started back; but pleas'd, I soon return'd, MILTON. |