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Some praise at morning what they blame at night;
But always think the last opinion right.

A Mufe by thefe is like a mistress us'd,

431

This hour fhe's idoliz'd, the next abus'd

While their weak heads like towns unfortify'd,
'Twixt fenfe and nonfenfe daily change their fide.
Ask them the cause; they're wiser still, they say! 436
And still to-morrow's wifer than to-day.

We think our fathers fools; fo wife we grow ;
Our wifer fons, no doubt, will think us fc.
Once School-divines this zealous ifle o'erfpread; 440
Who knew moft Sentences, was deepeft read;
Faith, Gofpel, all, feem'd made to be difputed,
And none had fenfe enough to be confuted:
Scotifts and Thomifts, now, in peace remain,
Amidft their kindred cobwebs in Duck-lane.

COMMENTARY.

445

ftitute fchool divinity in their place-The genius of which kind of learning; the character of its profeffors; and the fate, which, fooner or later, always attends whatsoever is wrong or falfe, the poet fums up in thofe four lines;

"Faith, Gospel, all feem'd made to be difputed, etc. And in conclufion, he obferves, that perhaps this mischief from love of novelty, might not be fo great, did it not, along with the Critic, infect the Writer likewife; who, when he finds his readers difpofed to take ready Wit on the standard of current Folly, never troubles himself to think of better payment.

NOTES.

VER. 444. Scotifts] So denominated from Johannes Duns Scotus. This Hero fuffered a miferable reverse of fortune at Oxford in the time of Henry VIII. That grave Antiquary, Mr. Antony Wood (in the vindication of himself and

If Faith itself has diff'rent dresses worn,

What wonder modes in Wit fhould take their turn?
Oft, leaving what is natural and fit,

The current folly proves the ready wit;

VARIATIONS.

VER. 447. Between this and ver. 448.

The rhyming Clowns that gladded Shakespear's age,
No more with crambo entertain the stage.
Who now in Anagrams their Patron praise,
Or fing their Mistress in Acroftic lays?
Ev'n pulpits pleas'd with merry puns of yore;
Now all are banish'd to th' Hibernian fhore!
Thus leaving what was natural and fit,
The current folly prov'd their ready wit;
And authors thought their reputation fafe,

Which liv'd as long as fools were pleas'd to laugh.

NOTES.

his writings from the reproaches of the Bishop of Salisbury) fadly laments the deformation, as he calls it, of that Univerfity by the King's Commiffioners; and even records the blafphemous fpeeches of one of them, in his own words

"We have fet DUNCE in Boccardo, with all his blind "Gloffers, faft nailed up upon pofts in all common "houses of easement." Upon which our venerable Antiquary thus exclaims: "If fo be, the Commiffioners had "fuch difrefpect for that most famous Author J. Duns, who was so much admired by our predeceffors, and fo DIFFICULT TO BE UNDERSTOOD, that the Doctors of thofe "times, namely Dr. William Roper, Dr. John Kynton, "Dr. William Mowfe, etc. profeffed, that, in twenty"eight years ftudy, they could not understand him

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rightly, What then had they for others of inferior "note ?". What indeed! But then, If fo be, that most famous J. Duns was fo difficult to be understood (for that this is a moft claffical proof of his great worth, is paft all doubt) I should conceive our good old Antiquary to be a

And authors think their reputation fafe,
Which lives as long as fools are pleas'd to laugh.
Some valuing those of their own fide or mind,
Still make themselves the measure of mankind:

COMMENTARY.

450

VER. 452. Some valuing thofe of their own fide or mind, etc.] 3. The third and laft inftance of partiality in the learned, is Party and Faction. Which is confidered from ver. 45 to 474. where he fhews how men of this turn deceive themfelves, when they load a writer of their own fide with commendation. They fancy they are paying tribute to merit, when they are only facrificing to felf-love. But this is not the worst. He further fhews, that this partySpirit has often very ill effects on Science itself; while, in

NOTES.

little mistaken. And that the nailing up this Proteus of the fchools was done by the Commiffioners in honour of the moft famous Duns: There being no other way of catching the fenfe of fo flippery and dodging an Author, who had eluded the pursuit of three of their most renowned Doctors in full cry after him, for eight and twenty years together. And this Boccardo in which he was confined, feemed very fit for the purpofe; it being obfer.ed, that men are never more ferious and thoughtful than in that place of retirement. SCRIBL.

Ibid. Thomifts,] From Thomas Aquinas, a truely great Genius, who, in those blind ages, was the fame in Theology, that our Friar Bacon was in natural Philofophy: lefs happy than our countryman in this, that he foon became furrounded with a number of dark Gloffers, who never left him till they had extinguished the radiance of that light, which had pierced thro' the thickest night of Monkery, the thirteenth century, when the Waldenfes were fuppreffed, and Wickliffe not yet rifen.

VER. 445. Duck-lane.] A place where old and fecondhand books were fold formerly, near Smithfield. P. VER. 450. And Authors think their reputation fafe,

Which lives as long as fools are pleas'd to laugh.].

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And public faction doubles private hate.
Pride, Malice, Folly, against Dryden rose,
In various shapes of Parfons, Critics, Beaus;

But fenfe furviv'd when merry jefts were paft; 460
For rifing merit will buoy up at last.

Might he return, and bless once more our eyes,
New Blackmores and new Milbourns muft arife:
Nay should great Homer lift his awful head,
Zoilus again would start up from the dead.
Envy will merit, as its fhade pursue;

But like a fhadow, proves the Substance true:

COMMENTARY.

465

fupport of Faction, it labours to deprefs fome rifing Genius, that was, perhaps, raifed by Nature, to enlighten his age and country. By which he would infinuate, that all the bafe and viler paffions feek refuge, and find fupport in, party madness.

NOTES.

This is an admirable fatire on thofe called Authors in fashion; the men who get the laugh on their fide. He shews, on how pitiful a bafis their reputation ftands, the changeling difpofition of fools to laugh, who are always carried away with the last joke.

VER. 463. Milbourn.] The Rev. Mr. Luke Milbourn. Dennis ferv'd Mr. Pope in the fame office. And indeed the attendance of thefe flaves is neceffary to render the triumphs of a Genius complete. They are of all times, and on all occafions. Sir Walter Raleigh had Alexander Rofs; Chillingworth had Cheynel; Milton a first Edwards; and Locke a fecond; neither of them related to the third EDWARDS of Lincoln's-Inn. They were Divines VOL. I.

M

For envy'd Wit, like Sol eclips'd, makes known
Th' oppofing body's groffnefs, not its own.
When first that fun too pow'rful beams difplays,
It draws up vapours which obfcure its rays;
But ev❜n those clouds at laft adorn its way,
Reflect new glories and augment the day.

471

Be thou the first true merit to befriend; His praife is loft, who ffays 'till all commend. 475

COMMENTARY.

VER. 4-4. Be thou the firft, etc.] The poet having now gone thro' the last cause of wrong Judgment, and root of all the reft, PARTIALITY; and ended his remarks upon it with a detection of the two rankeft kinds, those which arife cut of PARTY-RAGE and ENVY; takes the occafion, which this affords him, of clofing his fecond divifion in the moft graceful manner, [from ver. 473 to 560.] by concluding from the premifes, and calling upon the TRUE CRITIC to be careful of his charge, which is the protection and Jupport of Wit. For, the defence of it from malevolent cenfure is its true protection; and the illuftration of its beauties, is its true fupport.

He first fhews, the Critic ought to do this fervice without delay: And on thefe motives. 1. Out of regard to himself: For there is fome merit in giving the world notice of an excellence; but little or none, in pointing, like an Index, to the beaten road of admiration. 2. Out of regard to the Poem: For the fhort duration of modern works requires, NOTES.

of parts and learning; This a Critic without one or the other. Yet (as Mr. Pope fays of Luke Milbourn) the fairest of all critics; for having written against the Editor's remarks on Shakespear, he did him juftice in printing, at the fame time, fome of his own.

VER. 468. For envy'd Wit, like Sol eclips'd, etc.] This fimilitude implies a fact too often verified; and of which we need not feek abroad for examples. It is this, that frequently thofe very Authors, who have at firft done all they

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