Plate XV.

Vol. III. facing p.182.

N. Blakey inv.et del.

Ravent Sculp

What brought S." Visto's ill-got Wealth to waste? Some Dæmon whisperd Visto! have a Taste!...

Ep: on saste:

Think we all these are for himself? no more
Than his fine Wife, alas! or finer Whore.

For what has Virro painted, built, and planted?
Only to show, how many Tastes he wanted. 14
What brought Sir Vifto's ill got wealth to waste?
Some Dæmon whisper'd, "Vifto! have a Tafte."
Heav'n vifits with a Tafte the wealthy fool,
And needs no Rod but Ripley with a Rule.

See! sportive fate, to punish aukward pride,
Bids Bubo build, and fends him such a Guide : 20

NOTES.

rope of natural curiofities; | most of it; and fo indeed both men of great learning and humanity. P.

VER. 12. Than his fine Wife, alas! or finer Whore.] By the Author's manner of putting together these two different Utenfils of falfe Magnificence, it appears, that, properly speaking, neither the Wife nor the Whore is the real object of modern tafte, but the Finery only: And whoever wears it, whether the Wife or the Whore, it matters not; any further than that the latter is thought to deserve it beft, as appears from her having

becomes, by accident, the more fashionable Thing of the two. SCRIBL.

VER. 18. Ripley] This man was a carpenter, employed by a firft Minister, who raised him to an Architect, without any genius in the art; and after fome wretched proofs of his infufficiency in public Buildings, made him Comptroller of the Board of works. P.

VER. 19. See! Sportive fate, to punish aukward pride,] Pride is one of the greatest mischiefs, as well as absurdities of our nature;

A ftanding fermon, at each year's expence,
That never Coxcomb reach'd Magnificence!

You fhow us, Rome was glorious, not profuse, And pompous buildings once were things of Use. Yet fhall (my Lord) your juft, your noble rules 25 Fill half the land with Imitating-Fools;

Who random drawings from your sheets fhall take, And of one beauty many blunders make;

VARIATIONS.

After 22, in the MS.

Muft Bishops, Lawyers, Statesmen, have the skill
To build, to plant, judge paintings, what you will ?
Then why not Kent as well our treaties draw,
Bridgman explain the Gofpel, Gibbs the Law?

NOTES.

him into the public contempt and ridicule, which his native badnefs of heart fo well deferves.

and therefore, as appears | fate or fortune to bring both from prophane and facred Hiftory, has ever been the more peculiar object of divine vengeance. But aukward Pride intimates fuch abilities in its owner, as eafes us of the apprehenfion of much mischief from it; fo that the poet fuppofes fuch a one fecure from the ferious refentment of Heaven, though it may permit

VER. 23. The Earl of Burlington was then publifhing the Defigns of Inigo Jones, and the Antiquities of Rome by Palladio. P.

VER. 28. And of one beauty many blunders make;] Because the road to Tafte,

Load fome vain Church with old Theatric ftate,
Turn Arcs of triumph to a Garden-gate;

Reverse your Ornaments, and hang them all

30

On fome patch'd dog-hole ek'd with ends of wall;
Then clap four flices of Pilafter on't,

That, lac'd with bits of ruftic, makes a Front.
Shall call the winds thro' long Arcades to roar, 35
Proud to catch cold at a Venetian door;
Conscious they act a true Palladian part,
And if they starve, they starve by rules of art.
Oft have you hinted to your brother Peer,
A certain truth, which many buy too dear:
Something there is more needful than Expence,
And fomething previous ev'n to Tafte-'tis Sense:
Good Senfe, which only is the gift of Heav'n,
And tho' no Science, fairly worth the seven:

NOTES.

like that to Truth, is but one; and those to Error and Abfurdity a thousand.

VER. 30. Turn Arcs of triumph to a Garden-gate ;] This abfurdity feems to have arifen from an injudicious imitation of what thefe Builders might have heard of,

40

at the entrance of the antient Gardens of Rome: But they don't confider, that thofe were public Gardens, given to the people by fome great man after a triumph; to which, therefore, Arcs of this kind were very fuitable ornaments.

A Light, which in yourself you must perceive; 45
Jones and Le Nôtre have it not to give.

To build, to plant, whatever you intend,
To rear the Column, or the Arch to bend,
To fwell the Terras, or to fink the Grot;
In all, let Nature never be forgot.
But treat the Goddess like a modest fair,
Nor over-drefs, nor leave her wholly bare;
Let not each beauty ev'ry where be spy'd,
Where half the skill is decently to hide.

50

He gains all points, who pleasingly confounds, 55 Surprizes, varies, and conceals the Bounds.

NOTES.

VER. 46. Inigo Jones, the celebrated Architect, and M. Le Nôtre, the deAgner of the best Gardens of France. P.

of a modeft fair; and you begin to hate and nauseate her as a proftitute.

VER. 54. Where half the Skill is decently to hide.] If the poet was right in comparing the true drefs of Næture to that of a modeft fair,

VER. 53. Let not each beauty ev'ry where be spy'd,] For when the fame beauty obtrudes itself upon you o-it is a plain confequence, ver and over; when it meets you full at whatever place you ftop, or to whatever point you turn, then Nature lofes her proper charms

that one half of the defigner's art must be, decently to bide; as the other half is, gracefully to discover.