"The race by vigour, not by vaunts, is won; He left huge Lintot, and outstript the wind. REMARKS. 60 65 present (such as Achilles receives from Thetis, and Æneas from Venus) at once instructive and prophetical. After this he is unrivalled and triumphant. The tribute our Author here pays him is a grateful return for several unmerited obligations: many weighty animadversions on the public affairs, and many excellent and diverting pieces on private persons, has he given to his name. If ever he owed two verses to any other, he owed Mr. Curl some thousands. He was every day extending his fame, and enlarging his writ IMITATIONS. v. 60. So take the bindmost, Hell.] "Occupet extremum scabies; mihi turpe relinquiest." Hor, de Arte. 7. 61, &c. Something like this is in Homer, Iliad X. ver. 220, of Diomed. Two different manners of the same author in his similies are also imitated in the two following; the first, of the Bailiff, is short, unadorned (and as the critics well know) from familiar life; the second, of the Water-fowl, more extended, picturesque, and from rural life. The 59th verse is likewise a literal translation of one in Homer.. v. 64, 65. On feet and wings, and flies, and wades, and hops; So lab'ring on, with shoulders, bands, and bead.] -So eagerly the Fiend "O'er bog, o'er steep, thro' streight, rough, dense, or rare, "With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, "And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies.' Milton, Book II. With arms expanded Bernard rows his state, 71 Her ev'ning cates before his neighbour's shop); REMARKS. ings; witness innumerable instances; but it shall suffice only to mention the Court Poems, which he meant to publish as the work of the true writer, a lady of quality; but being first threatened, and afterwards punished for it by Mr. Pope, he generously transferred it from her to him, and ever since printed it in his name. The single time that ever he spoke to C. was on that affair, and to that happy incident he owed all the favours since received from hint: so true is the saying of Dr. Sydenham, "That any one shall "be, at some time or other, the better or the worse for "having but seen or spoken to a good or bad man.” v. 70.---Curl's Corinna.] This name, it seems, was taken by one Mrs. T-----, who procured some private IMITATIONS. v. 67, 68. With arms expanded, Bernar'd rows his state, And left-legg'd Jacob seems to emulate. Milton, of the motion of the swan, "His state with oary feet." And Dryden, of another's---With two left legs--.73. Here fortun'd Curl to slide.] 66 Labitur infelix, caesis ut forte juvencis "Fusus humum, viridesque super inadefeceret herbas, v. 74. And Bernard Bernard!1 -Ut littus, Hyla! Hyla! omne sonaret." Virg. Ecl. vi. Obscene with filth the miscreant lies bewray'd, 75 Then first (if poets aught of truth declare) The catiff Vaticide conceiv'd a pray'r. Hear, Jove! whose name my baids and I adore, A place there is, betwixt earth, air, and seas, In office here fair Cloacina stands, And ministers to Jove with purest hands. REMARKS. 85 90 letters of Mr. Pope, while almost a boy, to Mr. Cromwell, and sold them without the consent of either of those gentlemen, to Curl, who printed them in 12mo, 1727. He discovered her to be the publisher, in his Key, p. 11. We only take this opportunity of mentioning the manner in which those letters got abroad, which the author was ashamed of as very trivial things, full not only of levities, but of wrong judgements of nien and books, and only excuseable from the youth and inexperience of the writer. IMITATIONS. v. 83. A place there is letwist air, earth, and seas.] "Orbe locus medio est, inter terrasque, fretumque, "Coelestesque plagas." Ovid. Met. 1 96 Forth from the heap she pick'd her vot'ry's pray'r, Of link-boys vile, and watermen obscene; Repasses Lintot, vindicates the race, Nor heeds the brown dishonours of his face. And now the victor stretch'd his eager hand IMITATIONS. . 108. Nor beeds the brown dishonours of his face.] v. 111. A shapeless shade, &c.] 161110 100 105 Virg. Æn. V. ---Effugit imago Virg. Æn. VI. "Par levibus ventis, volucrique simillima somno." . 114 His papers light, fly diverse, toss'd in" air.] Virgil, An. VI. of the Sibyls' leaves: 66 Carmina-- "Turbata volent rapidis ludibria ventis." prey, Songs, sonnets, epigrams, the winds uplift, 115 120 Heav'n rings with laughter: of the laughter vain, Dulness, good Queen, repeats the jest again. Three wicked imps, of her own Grub-street choir, She deck'd like Congreve, Addison, and Prior; Mears, Warner, Wilkins, run: delusive thought! Breval, Bond, Besaleel, the varlets caught. Curl stretches after Gay, but Gay is gone, He grasps an empty Joseph for a John: REMARKS. 126 v. 116. Evans, Young, and Swift. Some of those per sons whose writings, epigrams, or jests, he had owned. v. 124-like Congreve, Addison, and Prior.] These authors being such whose names will reach posterity, we shall not give any account of them, but proceed to those of whom it is necessary.---Besaleel Morris was author of some satires on the translators of Homer, with many cther things printed in newspapers---" Bond writ a "satire against Mr. P---, Capt. Breval was author of "The Confederates, an ingenious dramatic perform66 ance, to expose Mr. P. Mr. Gay, Dr. Arbuthnot, "and some ladies of quality," says Curl, Key, p. ri. v. 125. Mears, Warner, Wilkins. Bounsellers, and printers of so much anonymous stuff. v. 128. Joseph Gay.] A ficti ious name, put by Curl before several pamphlets, which made them pass with many for Mr. Gay's---The ambiguity of the word Joseb, which likewise signifies a loose upper coat, gives much pleasantry to the idea. Volume I. M |