Sits Arrogance unequall'd, in whole 515 chairs in this country; but I have fo much to Tay on this head, that I referve it for an entire letter, which perhaps may be my next. How happy are you, my friend, to diveft yourself of national prejudice, and to believe, that the Great Difpofer of Good has not confined his gifts to this or that people! fo far from making it a question (the French made it one) whether a German can have a genius; I believe you would be more pleafed than furprized to receive an Epic Poem from Lapland. I will foon give you an account of one † from a part of the world as unlikely to produce it-But it is time to put a period to this long letter.Broom whe Adieu, &c. &c. I leave Oft lolls the fon of Folly-By your leave My pafs-port do I claim and whole tongues ye, The midnight hour proclaim-both ye with voice Feeble, as are your frames, and ye with lung's Hoarfe, as the roaring boatswain, give me room! Room o'er the hollow pavement, or your poles Shall prove, but ruthes to my firmer hield. By batter'd temples! by the cornifh hug! kill Oak, Blended, or plain, whofe rich-embel-thorn'a lofts. in Is proudly capt with ornamental gold, And fraught with forms antique of ith form bass-relief.. Be mine the fturdy plant of British oak Unpolish'd, unadorn'd the folid branch Igrafp, I wield, rough infolence, give „beftilway ! rodas W calow Or thou shalt reel, beneath my nervous How arm. I doldw By thee I dare the little fnarling cur, + Meaning perhaps Fingal. The hero of the path, and levels all In alehoufe fnug, where with his gay comrade He revels blithe, and to the fiddle's tune But lo! my Line 1, GREAT SUBLIME, If golden head emboss'd, adorn'd thy mean, not factitious ones, I mean knob, H'ght country efquire, inconfiftent looks, Cockd by Jack Adams, or fome talte ful wight Of foreign growth-or when with gal- His thick fplayfoot he dignifics fuperb, cording to that ancient maxim of fignior" Horatio Flaccus (long-maker to the Auguftan Choice Spirits) he fays, Poeta nafcitur non fit; which tranflated into English means It is fit a Poet should be born fo. Therefore all thorough-bred nafcitur Poets may be known by their blood, like Running-horfès; or by their works, like the true genuine Jefuits Drops; or by their tile, as we difcover people of quality. Thus far Photinus, "Gremius, Gronovius and Hecatenus. And from their Corollarys, Theorems and Axioms inferted as above, we But here, my Oaken Towel! doft demonftrate the author of the Oaken thou beam Athwart my mind reflection's vivid ray. rent stock!! Perhaps upon its native plain it ftands, Line CRITIC'S PATE. Sheltering both bird and beaft, or on critics fkullsgous, becaufe most wed, and we cannot think Mr. Oliver Line 15, ten thousand a year has stripp'd in the street, and taken a fet-to with a drayman. Nay, it us'd' to be fréquent for a Lord · Allegorical again, by Snarling Cur and a hackney-coachman to have a trial is meant a Critic. Line 12, AND MASTIF OPEN MOUTH'D, Men of mighty erudition open mouth'd and full mouth'd, ay, and foul mouth'd fly upon every author, who won't burn incenfe to their pedagogic confequences. Line 19, SON OF FOLLY. This means not that rich young gentleman come from foolish fathers; no, on the contrary; for moft of our lacecoated youth poffefs fortunes by the cunning of their parents; or elfe the young Bucks, Bloods, and other extra Geniufes, would have found it very difficult to have even crawled upon the face of that earth, they now gallop over By Sons of Folly our author means, according to Suidas, Heinfius and Tryphonius, those who are adapted to folly, as the members of the keeping-it-up clubs, fons of jollity, and fons of true wit and humour. In whofe chairs oft loll the fons of Folly. That is, fuch men are fools to loll in chairs, when they might get out and exercise themselves fo well by walking. L. 19, BY YOUR LEAVE. It is wrong fpelt, vide Moody upon Barrington, and Barrington upon Moody. By your Lave. L. 30, BROUGHTONIAN SKILL. Mr. John Broughton, one of his Majefty's yeomen, or beef-eaters, a profef for formerly of the pugnatorial fcience, which he carry'd on with amazing fuccefs and rapidity, until an unforeseen accident flacken'd him; or, as others read it, SLACK ended him., While a profeffor, he inftructed grown gentlemen of the first fashion how to throw a Cross Buttock; hit in the mark; few up an eye; tip right and left, and perform with dexterity all the other extraordinary evolutions belonging to the most eligible exercife of the filt; and fo unanimous were our perfons of diftinction, in encouraging the propagation of this moft noble fcience of offence, that it has been known, a gentleman of of fkill together, in the bruifing taste;: and the perfon of quality has fometimes behaved fo well, that it has been a drawn battle, the judges not being able: to decide which was the best man, his Honour or the Hackney-coachman. L. 39 A LOW RING TAR, Read tow'ring Tar meo periculo, not? only for the beauty of the alliteration, but becaufe Tars are always tow ring to the mait-head, or elle love to knock down towers. Low'ring Tar is a typographical error, it should be printed lower ring Tar, or a Tar belonging to the lower deck, because guns have rings to them; or it may be call'd lower deck or lower ring, as the bottom feat in a Cockpit is call'd a Ring.-Vide A, B, C, D, Annotations upon Shakespear. L. 43, VICTORY ILL TIM'D. That is an unlucky hour, because it is very ill tim'd, at any time, to meddle with the watch of this city; they are the bulwark of our evening and morning li berties; a guard more certain, even than the facred watch fowls of the capitol. All honour to our POLICE; all praise to our watchmen; they are ever wakeful to give the alarm at the first burst of fire; by their activity, every water-plug is at once laid open, as they know to a pebble where the pipes are; and are as certain of the houses where every turn-cock lives. By them upon the first shriek defencelefs women are protected from the lawlefs fons of riot, by their diligence and integrity not a trumpet now can, spider like, feize upon her 'prentice prey; our fireets no longer in an evening are infefted with fuch unhappy infamies; for it is not with the watchmen of the city of London, as it was with men of the fame occupation in Caligula's time, thofe bafe-minded Romans, took poundof the Street-wakers. age though they wear their fwords only for fhow; as we call people who can't read poor scholars not fcholars who are penniless. So these are not Gladiators fighting, but ftrutting--and only look like fighters. But I Noll Bluff beg leave to obferve, that fome people on the Lord's-day drefs like lords (the Lord help them, if I and my cudgel come thwart them) I'd make 'em lay by their fwords, and brandish their fhears, curling-irons, cupping-glaffes and stew-pans, as they ought to do, being what they were bred to, and what even at this prefent writing they get their bread by. L. 541 LEVELS ALL. This, as another great Commentator obferved upon another great Poet's Effay, is metaphysical, mistical, metaphorical, and mathematical. It means metaphyfically, a fet or fect who have lately affembled together like Methodists, Moravians, and Muggletonians, and proclaimed themfelves SIVE Ulfter's fons, which was mistical. It is metaphorical, because they intended to destroy image-worship, therefore they rushed into the gentleman's house and broke the looking-glaffes, Chinese mandarins, and Drefden China figures, and all fences, and yew-trees cut out into forms of birds, beafts and fishes, they deftroyed as idolatrous, they laid them flat or parallel to the ground mathematically, therefore they were called LEVELLERS. But Brumius and Bremius fuppofe, that these were no more than like Whig and Tory in England, two parties fet up in oppofition to each other. That the LEVELLERS were the Country party, and the ENCLOSERS were the court Faction. Line 59, HORNPIPICAL. "Tis not enough the words give no offence, The found must be an eccho to the fenfe. POPE. Not any words among all Homer's Dialects, not any word among the Arabian names for a Lion, nor any word in the catalogue of the different species of Mofs, can be so fignificant, so analogous, fo correspondent to the subject, as this word Hornpipical Hornpipical! can any perfon forbear footing it at the bare pronounciation of the word,-toll, loll, doll, de roll-I am an old man at prefent, very weak from a violent fit of the gout, and yef. terday was the first day these four months that I have been able to bear my fhoe up at heel-what then? as foon as ever I read Hornpipical, I could not help being in dancing spirits. I must beg leave digreffively to be allowed one obfervation, which is, that as fome of the female ftage performers have improved the hornpipe to a degree of both elegance and execution scarce credible, it is impoffible to think of this branch of dancing, without mentioning that among her other merits, Mrs. VERNON is in this exhibition inimitably excellent. Line 62, KNOB. Pro nod vel noddle. See Sarmonicas his differtation upon heads-in his 7th chapter upon Caput. When he makes a phyfical distinction 'twixt Knob, Head, Brain, Box, Noddle, and Idéa-room. Line 72, VIVID RAY. Allufion to a man when he has a blow upon the skull with a stick, his eyes will ftrike fire. Line 79, STILL WILL I THANK THEE This is an inftance of the author's great benevolence, and very different from the ingratitude of thefe times, when the only method to destroy an acquaintance is to do him a favour. I cannot take my leave of the author, without congratulating him on his fuccefs in fertilifing fo barren a fubjectNon fumum ex fulgore, fed e fumo dare Lucem cogitat. HOR. And now reader, we hope we have in these interpolations and emendations behaved as true fcholiafts ought, who, although they may not give the immediate meaning of the text as the author defigned it, we give the meaning the author fhould have defigned; for the Critic's explanations are the reader's leading-ftrings, by which he is upheid and directed. VALE. The BEAUTIES of all the MAGAZINES SELECTED, For A U CONTINUATION of the AMOURS of WIT and OECONOMY. ISS OECONOMY, piqued tleman and madman, it is nothing to at her brother's behaviour, told him, the cou'd not comprehend what he would be at. He demanded a categorical answer. She complain'd he was rather too precipitate. Her unwillingness to give him a promife, made him fufpicious; as indeed it wou'd any brother, let him be ever fo prudent. He infifted on her obedience and compliance, and told her, he had a right to infift on it. OECON. A right, brother? I beg, Sir, you wont infift upon that, however, no perfon has, or thall have a right over me; and I must beg leave to obferve, that this treatment (I am forry to say it) is both impolite and indelicate. PRUDENCE. You may think so, fifter, juft now -- however, I am refolved, before we part, you fhall give me your promife, never to fee that fellow again. OECON. And I am refolved not to give you fuch a promife, if you stay here until midnight.No, brother, you'll excufe me,but I must not be compell'd. I am, thank heaven, out of my leading-ftrings; as to the young gentleman you hit me in the teeth with-PRUD. The young gentleman! the young madman, rather. OECON. Well, let him he young gentleman, or madman, or both gen - me, I affure you. Is it to be fuppos'd, that I can entertain any fondness for a ftranger?-Venus forbid !—I,—me,— no, what's his figure, or his wit, or his fpirits, to me?-to be sure he behaved` vaftly well here, and was exceffively agreeable here-but what can he be to me? do you think I can be fond of a fellow at firft fight? because he faid fome fmart things, which I must own he did, and told some stories exquifitely.- -But am I like frail mortality? although I am fent among them, as their tutor, am I to hang myself upon a fine fellow's neck for ever, because I may fancy his company for half an hour?no, brother; nay, I don't find, that even young ladies of the earth are so fond of linking themselves for life, when they like; they rather chufe, at least it is taste now, I fay, they rather chufe to admit a tenant for a month or two, than grant him a leafe for life; not that I wou'd do fo, were this perfon you are piqued against fifty times more agreeable, if poffible, than he is already.. PRUD. replied, that men of wit, were as dangerous as military men, to any young lady, whether ætherial or terrestrial; and began to give her a long ftring of advice, full of antithefes, allufions, ftrong fentiments, poignant obfervations, and fatal examples. DurP P ing |