Had heav'n decreed fuch works a longer date, And all thy cause and empire at an end! His gray-goofe-weapon must have made her ftand. 185 Take up th' Attorney's (once my better) Guide? 190 REMARK S V. 189. My Flaccus.] Á familiar manner of speaking used by modern Criticks of a favourite Author.. Mr. T. might as juftly speak thus of Horace, as a French wit did of Tully, feeing his works in a library. Ah! mon cher Ciceron! Je le connois bien: c'est le meme que Marc Tulle. V. 190. Take up th'Attorney's Guide.] In allufion to his first profeffion of an Attorney. V. 191. Or rob the Roman geefe, &c.] Relates to the well-known ftory of the geefe that faved the Capitol, of which Virgil, Æn. 8. Atq; bic auratis volitans argenteus arfer Porticibus, Gallos in limine adeffe canebat. A paffage I have always fufpected. Who fees not the IMITATIONS. V. 183. Had heav'n decreed fuch works a longer date, &c.] Virg. Æn. 2. Me fi calicola voluiffent ducere vitam, Has mihi fervaffent fedes. V. 187. Could Troy be fav'd weapon.] Virg. ibid. Si Pergama dextra His gray-gocfe Defendi poffent, ctiam hac defenfa fuiffent. Yes, to my Country I my pen confign, Yes, from this moment, mighty Mift! am thine, O'er head and ears plunge for the publick weal. REMARK S. 195 antithefis of auratis and argenteus to be unworthy the Virgilian Majefty? and what abfurdity to fay a goofe fings? canebat. Virgil gives a contrary character of the voice of this filly bird in Ecl. 9. argutos interftrepere anfer olores. Read it therefore adeffe ftrepebat. And why auratis porticibus? Does not the very verfe preceding this inform us, Romuleo recens borrebat regio culmo. Is this thatch in one line, and gold in another, confiftent? I fcruple not (repugnantibus omnibus manufcriptis) to correct it, auritis. Horace ufes the fame epithet in the fame senfe, Auritas fidibus canoris Ducere quercus. And to fay that walls have ears is common even to a proverb. SCRIBL. V. 194. Mighty Mift!] Nathaniel Mift was publifher of a famous Tory Paper (fee notes on 1. 3.) in which this Author was fometimes permitted to have a part. V. 197. Adieu my children!] This is a tender and paffionate apoftrophe to his own works which he is IMITATIONS. V. 197. Adieu my children! &c.] Virg. Æn. 3- Fuffa mori: quæ fortitus non pertulit ullos, Nos patriâ incensâ, diverfa per æqua vitæ, &c. Fair without spot; than greas'd by grocer's hands, With that, he lifted thrice the sparkling brand, REMARK S. 205 going to facrifice, agreeable to the nature of man in great affliction, and reflecting like a parent on the many miferable fates to which they would otherwise be fubject. V. 200. Or fhipp'd with Ward to ape and monkey land.] Edward Ward, a very voluminous Poet in hu dibraftick verse, but beft known by the London Spy, in profe. He has of late years kept a publick house in the City (but in a genteel way) and with his wit, humour, and good liquor (Ale) afforded his guests a pleasurable entertainment, especially thofe of the highchurch party. JACOB Lives of Poets, vol. 2. p. 225. Great numbers of his works are yearly fold into the Plantations. IMITATIONS. V. 202. And vifit aleboufe.] Waller on the Navy, Thofe towers of oak o'er fertile plains may go, And vifit mountains where they once did grow. V. 203. He lifted thrice the sparkling brand, And thrice he dropt it -] Ovid of Althea on the like occafion, burning her offfpring, Tum conata quater flammis imponere torrem, Met. 8. 4 The opening clouds difclofe each work by turns, And laft, his own cold fchylus took fire. 219 REMARK S. V. 208. Now flames old Memnon, now Rodrigo burns, In one quick flash fee Proferpine expire.] Memnon, a hero in the Perfian Princess, very apt to take fire, as appears by thefe lines with which he begins the play. By heaven it fires my frozen blood with rage, And makes it fcald my aged trunk. Rodrigo, the chief perfonage of the Perfidious Brother (a play written between 7. and a Watchmaker.) The Rape of Proferpine, one of the Farces of this author, in which Ceres fetting fire to a corn-field, endangered the burning of the Play-house. V. 210. And last, his own cold Efchylus took fire. He had been (to ufe an expreffion of our Poet) about Eschylus for ten years, and had received fubfcriptions, for the fame, but then went about other books. The character of this tragic Poet is Fire and Boldness in a high degree, but our author fuppofes it very much cooled by the tranflation: upon fight of a fpecimen of which was made this Epigram, Alas! poor Efchylus! unlucky Dog! Whom once a Lobster kill'd, and now a Log. But this is a grievous error, for Efchylus was not flain by the fall of a Lobster on his head, but of a Tortoise, fe Val. Max. 1.9. cap. 12. SCRIBL IMITATIONS. V. 208. Now flames old Memnon, &c] Virg. Æn. 2. Then gufh'd the tears, as from the Trojan's eyes Rowz'd by the light, old Dulness heav'd the head; Then fnatch'd a fheet of Thulè from her bed, REMARK 6. V. 212. When the last blaze fent Ilion to the skies.] See Virgil En. 2. where I would advise the reader to peruse the story of Troy's deftruction, rather than in Wynkin. But I caution him alike in both, to beware of a moft grievous error, that of thinking it was brought about by I know not what Trojan Horfe; there never having been any fuch thing. For firft it was not Trojan, being made by the Greeks, and fecondly it was not a Horse, but a Mare. This is clear from many verfes in Virgil, Uterum armato milite complent Inclufos Utero Danaos Can a horfe be faid Utero geftire? Again, Atq; utero fonitum quater arma dedere. Nay is it not exprefly faid, Standit fatalis machina muros Fæta armis How is it poffible the word fata can agree with a horfe? and indeed can it be conceived, that the chafte and Virgin Goddefs Pallas would employ her felf in forming and fashioning the Male of that fpecies ? But this fhall be proved to a demonstration in our Virgil Reftored. SCRIBLER. V. 214. Thule.] An unfinished poem of that name, of which one sheet was printed fifteen years ago; by A. Ph. a northern author. It is an ufual method of putting out a fire, to caft wet fheets upon it: Some critics have been of opinion, that this fheet was of the nature of the Asheftos, which cannot be confumed by fire; but I rather think it only an allegorical`allufion to the coldness and heaviness of the writing. M |