FOOTNOTES:[1]Notwithstanding the many praises lavished on this celebrated nobleman as a poet, by Dryden, by Addison, by Bolingbroke, by our Author, and others, yet candid criticism must oblige us to confess, that he was but a feeble imitator of the feeblest parts of Waller. After having been secretary at war, 1710, controller and treasurer to the household, and of her majesty's privy council, and created a peer, 1711, he was seized as a suspected person, at the accession of George I., and confined in the Tower. Whatever may be thought of Lord Lansdowne as a poet, his character as a man was highly valuable. His conversation was most pleasing and polite; his affability, and universal benevolence, and gentleness, captivating; he was a firm friend and a sincere lover of his country. This is the character I received of him from his near relation, the late excellent Mrs. Delany.—Warton.[2]Thus Hopkins, in his History of Love:Ye woods and wilds, serene and blest retreats,At once the lovers' and the Muses' seatsTo you I fly.—Wakefield.[3]Originally thus:Chaste goddess of the woods,Nymphs of the vales, and Naïads of the flood,Lead me through arching bow'rs, and glimin'ring glades,Unlock your springs.—Pope.Dryden's Virgil, Geor. ii. 245:Once more unlock for thee the sacred spring.Æn. x. 241:Now, sacred sisters, open all your spring.—Wakefield.[4]Neget quis carmina Gallo? Virg.—Warburton.[5]Evidently suggested by Waller:Of the first Paradise there's nothing found,Yet the description lasts.—Holt White.Addison's Letter from Italy:Sometimes misguided by the tuneful throng,I look for streams immortalised in song,That lost in silence and oblivion lie;Dumb are their fountains, and their channels dry;Yet run for ever by the muse's skill,And in the smooth description murmur still.—Wakefield.[6]There is an inaccuracy in making the flame equal to a grove. It might have been Milton's flame.—Warton.Addison's Letter from Italy:O, could the muse my ravished breast inspireWith warmth like yours, and raise an equal fire.—Wakefield.[7]This is borrowed from the lines, quoted by Bowles, in which Denham alludes to the founder of Windsor Castle being as doubtful as was the birth-place of Homer:Like him in birth, thou should'st be like in fame,As thine his fate, if mine had been his flame.[8]From Waller:As in old chaos heav'n with earth confused,And stars with rocks together crushed and bruised.—Wakefield.[9]Evidently from Cooper's Hill:Here Nature, whether more intent to pleaseUs, or herself, with strange varieties,Wisely she knew the harmony of things,As well as that of sounds, from discord springs.Such was the discord which did first disperseForm, order, beauty through the universe.—Warton.[10]There is a levity in this comparison which appears to me unseasonable, and but ill according with the serene dignity of the subject.—Wakefield.[11]Originally thus:Why should I sing our better suns or air,Whose vital draughts prevent the leech's care,While through fresh fields th' enlivening odours breathe,Or spread with vernal blooms the purple heath?—Pope.The first couplet of the lines in Pope's note, was from Dryden's epistle to his kinsman:He scapes the best, who, nature to repair,Draws physic from the fields, in draughts of vital air.[12]Milton's Allegro, ver. 78:Bosomed high in tufted trees.—Wakefield.[13]Milton, Par. Lost, iv. 248:Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balms.This fancy was borrowed from the ancients. According to Ovid (Met. x. 500), Myrrha, changed into a tree, weeps myrrh, and the sisters of Phæton (Met. ii. 364), transformed into poplars, shed tears which harden in the sun, and turn into amber.[14]This fabulous mixture of stale images, Olympus and the Gods, is, in my opinion, extremely puerile, especially in a description of real scenery. Pan, Pomona, and the rest, mere representative substitutions, give no offence.—Wakefield.[15]The making the hills nobler than Olympus with all its gods, because the gods appeared "in their blessings" on the humbler mountains of Windsor, is a thought only to be excused in a very young writer.—Bowles.[16]The word "crowned" is exceptionable; it makes Pan crowned with flocks.—Warton.Pope, in his manuscript, has underscored "Pan with flocks," and "crowned," and set a mark against the line, as if he had detected, and intended to remove, the defect.[17]Dryden's Translations from Ovid:A dismal desert, and a silent waste.Pope weakened the line in varying it. "Dreary desert" and "gloomy waste" are synonymous, but "silent" adds a distinct idea to "dismal."[18]The Forest Laws.—Pope.The killing a deer, boar, or hare, was punished with the loss of the delinquent's eyes.—Warton.Thierry believes that the forest laws had a more serious object than to secure for the king a monopoly of sport. The chief intention was to keep the newly conquered Saxons from going armed under the pretext that they were in pursuit of game. Hence the penalty was of a nature to incapacitate the offender for military service.[19]This is in imitation of Waller:Prove all a desert! and none there make stayBut savage beasts, or men as wild as they.—Wakefield.Sir William Temple says of the forests on the continent that theygive a shadeTo savage beasts who on the weaker prey,Or human savages more wild than they.Wakefield remarks that there is an inaccuracy in Pope's couplet, since the "savage laws" to which the pronoun "they" in part refers, were the mode in which the severity of the king displayed itself.[20]The representation is erroneous. The "air, floods, and wilds" were not "dispeopled." The forest laws occasioned an increase in the quantity of game, which was preserved more carefully when it became the property of the privileged few, and was no longer liable to be exterminated by the many. Pope is not consistent with himself, for he afterwards complains that "while the subject starved thebeastwasfed."[21]Originally thus in the MS.:From towns laid waste, to dens and caves they ran(For who first stooped to be a slave was man).—Warburton.The conceit is childish, because dens and caves are the residence of these brutes at all times, and therefore their retreat to these places constitutes no argument of their aversion to slavery. And the following couplet is by no means worthy of the poet.—Wakefield.[22]According to this doctrine no nation can lie free in which lawless beasts are subjugated by man.[23]Pope puts "the elements" for the creatures which inhabited them.[24]In the first edition it was,The swain with tears to beasts his labour yields,which defined the poet's idea more clearly. He changed the expression to avoid the recurrence of the same word when he introduced "beast" into the next couplet.[25]Addison's Letter from Italy:The poor inhabitant beholds in vainThe reddening orange, and the swelling grain:Joyless he sees the growing oils and wines,And in the myrtle's fragrant shade repines:Starves, in the midst of nature's bounty curst,And in the loaden vineyard dies for thirst.—Holt White.This passage, which describes the misery entailed upon the Italian peasants by an oppressive government, plainly suggested the lines of Pope. The death from thirst, which Addison adds to the death from starvation, is too great an exaggeration. Water could always be had.[26]No wonder savages or subjects slain—But subjects starved, while savages were fed.It was originally thus, but the word "savages" is not properly applied to beasts, but to men; which occasioned the alteration.—Pope.[27]Translated fromTempla adimit divis, fora civibus, arva colonis,an old monkish writer, I forget who.—Pope.[28]Alluding to the destruction made in the New Forest, and the tyrannies exercised there by William I.—Pope.I have the authority of three or four of our best antiquarians to say, that the common tradition of villages and parishes, within the compass of thirty miles, being destroyed, in the New Forest, is absolutely groundless, no traces or vestiges of such being to be discovered, nor any other parish named in Doomsday Book, but what now remains.—Warton.The argument from Doomsday Book is of no weight if, as Lingard asserts, the New Forest was formed before the registration took place. William was an eager sportsman. "He loved the beasts of chase," says the Saxon chronicle, "as if he had been their father," and the source of his love was the pleasure he took in killing them. His hunting grounds, however, were ample without the New Forest, and Thierry thinks that his motive in forming it may have been political. The wooded district, denuded of a hostile population, and stretching to the sea, would have afforded shelter to the Normans in the event of a reverse, and enabled them to disembark in safety.[29]Addison's Campaign:O'er prostrate towns and palaces they pass,Now covered o'er with weeds, and hid in grass.[30]Donne, in his second Satire,When winds in our ruined abbeys roar.—Wakefield.[31]It is a blemish in this fine passage that a couplet in the past tense should be interposed for the sake of the rhyme, in the midst of a description in the present tense.[32]Originally:And wolves with howling fill, &c.The author thought this an error, wolves not being common in England at the time of the Conqueror.—Pope.[33]"The temples," "broken columns," and "choirs," of the poet, suppose a much statelier architecture than belonged to the rude village churches of the Saxons. With the same exaggeration the hamlets which stood on the site of the New Forest are converted by Pope into "cities," and "towns."[34]William did not confine his oppression to the weak and succumb to the strong. The statement that he was "awed by his nobles" is opposed to the contemporary testimony of the Saxon chronicle. "No man," says the writer, "durst do anything against his will; he had earls in his bonds who had done against his will, and at last he did not spare his own brother, Odo; him he set in prison." "His rich men moaned," says the chronicler again, "and the poor men murmured, but he was so hard that he recked not the hatred of them all."[35]The language is too strong. "When his power or interest was concerned," says Lingard, "William listened to no suggestions but those of ambition or avarice, but on other occasions he displayed a strong sense of religion, and a profound respect for its institutions." While resisting ecclesiastical usurpation, and depriving individuals who were disaffected or incompetent, of their preferment, he upheld the church and its dignitaries, and left both in a more exalted position than he found them.[36]It is incorrect to say that William was denied a grave. As his body was about to be lowered into the vault in the church of St. Stephen, which he had founded at Caen, a person named Fitz-Arthur forbade the burial, on the plea that the land had been taken by violence from his father, but the prelates having paid him sixty shillings on the spot, and promised him further compensation, the ceremony was allowed to proceed.[37]"An open space between woods," is Johnson's definition of "lawn," which is the meaning here, and at ver. 21 and 149. The term has since been appropriated to the dressed green-sward in gardens.[38]Richard, second son of William the Conqueror.—Pope.Richard is said by some to have been killed by a stag in the New Forest, by others to have been crushed against a tree by his horse.[39]This verse is taken from one of Denham's in his translation of the Second Æneis:At once the taker, and at once the prey.—Wakefield.[40]The oak under which Rufus was shot, was standing till within these few years.—Bowles.A stone pillar now marks the spot.—Croker.[41]In the New Forest, where the cottages had been swept away by William. "Succeeding monarchs" did not, as Pope implies, suffer encroachments on the forest out of pity for their subjects. The concession was extorted. Some of the provisions of Magna Charta were directed against the increase of the royal forests and against the "evil customs" maintained with respect to them.[42]Mountains hitherto unknown to the flocks, who were now for the first time permitted to feed there.[43]Miraturque novas frondes et non sua poma. Virg.—Warburton.Virgil is treating of grafts, and says that the parent stock, when the slips grow, wonders at leaves and fruit not its own. Here the imagination keeps pace with the description, but stops short before the notion that the trees in the forest wondered to behold the crops of corn.[44]He doubtless had in his eye, Vir. Æn. i. 506:Latonæ tacitum pertentant gaudia pectus.—Wakefield.Dryden's translation:And feeds with secret joy her silent breast.In Virgil the silent exultation is felt by a mother, who, in an assembly of nymphs, marks the superior beauty of her goddess daughter. There was not the same reason why the swain should keep secret the transport he felt at the sight of wheat fields.[45]Originally:O may no more a foreign master's rage,With wrongs yet legal, curse a future age!Still spread, fair liberty! thy heav'nly wings,Breathe plenty on the fields, and fragrance on the springs.—Pope.The last couplet was suggested by Addison's Letter to Lord Halifax:O Liberty, thou goddess heav'nly bright,Profuse of bliss, and pregnant with delight!Eternal pleasures in thy presence reign,And smiling plenty leads thy wanton train.[46]Addison's Campaign:Their courage dwells not in a troubled floodOf mounting spirits, and fermenting blood.[47]"Thickest woods" till Warburton's edition. The epithet "gameful," to express that the woods were full of game, seems to be peculiar to Pope.[48]Originally:When yellow autumn summer's heat succeeds,And into wine the purple harvest bleeds,The partridge feeding in the new-shorn fields,Both morning sports and evening pleasures yields.—Pope.Richardson transcribes from the margin of Pope's MS. "Qu. if allowable to describe the season by a circumstance not proper to our climate, the vintage?" And the line which speaks of the making of wine was no doubt altered to obviate this objection.[49]Dryden's Sigismonda and Guiscardo:Watchful to betrayWith inward rage he meditates his prey.—Holt White.[50]From Virgil, Geo. iv. 176:si parra licet componere magnis.If little things with great we may compare. Dryden.—Wakefield.[51]It stood thus in the first editions:Pleased in the general's sight, the host lie downSudden before some unsuspecting town;The young, the old, one instant make our prize,And o'er their captive heads Britannia's standard flies.—Warburton.Pope, as Wakefield observes, has joined together in the simile in the text the inconsistent notions of a town surprised, and a town taken by the regular approaches of a siege. "The passage," adds Wakefield, "as it originally stood was free from this heterogeneous intermixture, and by a little polish might have been made superior to the present reading."[52]Richardson gives a more descriptive line from the manuscript:Exults in air and plies his whistling wings.The poet doubtless substituted the later version, because the expression "whirring pheasant" conveyed the same idea as "whistling wings."[53]This fine apostrophe was probably suggested by that of Virgil on the ox dying of the plague:Now what avails his well-deserving toil. Dryden.—Wakefield.[54]Steevens quotes Pictæque volucres. Virg. Painted birds. Dryden.—Bowles.Pope probably took the phrase from Paradise Lost, where the birds are described as spreading "their painted wings." In transferring the expression he overlooked the fact that the wings are not the part of the pheasant to which the epithet "painted" is especially applicable.[55]Originally thus:When hoary-winter clothes the years in white,The woods and fields to pleasing toils invite.—Pope.[56]The reflection is misplaced; for dogs by nature chase hares, and man avails himself of their instinctive propensities.[57]Originally:O'er rustling leaves around the naked groves.—Warburton.This is a better line.—Warton.[58]Wakefield understood Pope to mean that the trees shaded the doves, and he objected that leafless trees could not properly be said to overshadow. Steevens pointed out that it was the doves, on the contrary, which overshadowed the trees, by alighting on them in flocks. The ambiguity was caused by Pope's bad and inveterate habit of putting the accusative case before the verb.[59]The fowler lifts his levelled tube on high.—Pope.He owed the line in the text to Dryden's Virgil, Geor. ii. 774.And bends his bow, and levels with his eyes."Tube" is an affected term for a gun, but the word is adopted by Cowper and Campbell. Thomson, in his lines on partridge-shooting, was not afraid to call the gun by its own name, and yet is more poetical than Cowper, Campbell, or Pope:the gunGlanced just and sudden from the fowler's eye,O'ertakes their sounding pinions.The last expression is nobly descriptive.[60]Præcipites altá vitam sub nube relinquunt. Virg.—Warburton.So before Pope, Philips in his Cider:——they leave their little lives above the clouds.—Steevens.[61]It is singular, that in a poem on a forest, the majestic oak, the deer, and many other interesting and characteristic circumstances, should be all thrown in the distant ground, whilst objects much less appropriate, the fisher, the fowler, &c. are brought forward.—Bowles.[62]The active use of the word hope, though authorised by Dryden, appears to my taste intolerably harsh and affected.—Wakefield.[63]"Volume," except in its application to books, now carries with it an idea of magnitude. In Pope's day it was still used in its strictly etymological sense. When Milton, in his personification of Sin (Par. Lost, ii. 651), says that sheended foul in many a scaly foldVoluminous and vast,"voluminous" is the synonym for "many a scaly fold," and not for the conjoint epithet "vast."[64]Wakefield points out that Pope borrowed the language from Lauderdale's translation of the fourth Georgic, where he says of the bees that they are "bedropped with gold," or from Milton's description of the fish, whichsporting with quick glanceShow to the sun their waved coats dropt with gold.[65]"The wat'ry plain" from thecampi liquentesof Virgil, is an expression of Dryden's in his translation of Ovid, Met. i., and elsewhere. Drayton in his Polyolbion has the tyrant pike.—Wakefield."The luce, or pike," says Walton, "is the tyrant of the fresh waters."[66]Originally thus:But when bright Phœbus from the twins invitesOur active genius to more free delights,With springing day we range the lawns around.—Pope.[67]"Sylvanwar," is an expression borrowed from writers who described the chase of ferocious beasts,—the lion, tiger, and boar. The language is inapplicable to the pursuit of such timid creatures as the hare, deer, and fox.[68]Translated from Statius.Stare adeo miserum est, pereunt vestigia milleAnte fugam, absentemque ferit gravis ungula campum.These lines Mr. Dryden, in his preface to his translation of Fresnoy's Art of Painting, calls wonderfully fine, and says "they would cost him an hour, if he had the leisure, to translate them, there is so much of beauty in the original," which was the reason, I suppose, why Mr. Pope tried his strength with them.—Warburton.[69]"Threatening" is an inappropriate epithet for the sloping hills up which the hunters rode in the neighbourhood of Windsor.[70]Instead of this couplet, Pope had written in his early manuscript,They stretch, they sweat, they glow, they shout around;Heav'n trembles, roar the mountains, thunders all the ground.He was betrayed into this bombast, which his better taste rejected, by the attempt to carry on the hyperbolical strain of Statius.[71]Queen Anne.—Warburton.Congreve's Prologue to the Queen:For never was in Rome nor Athens seenSo fair a circle, and so bright a queen.[72]This use of the word "reign" for the territory ruled over, instead of for the sway of the ruler, was always uncommon, and is now obsolete. Queen Anne is mentioned in connection with the chase and the "immortal huntress," because her favourite diversion before she grew unwieldy and inactive, was to follow the hounds in her chaise.[73]Better in the manuscript:And rules the boundless empire of the main.By the alteration Pope increased the compliment to Anne by making her the light of the earth as well as mistress of the forest and the sea. Wakefield thinks that this application to the queen of the offices of Diana as goddess of the woods, the luminary of the night, and the chief agent in the production of the tides, is happily conceived, but the moon and the monarch were "the light of the earth "and "empress of the main" in such different senses, that the line is a trivial play upon words.[74]In the last edition published in Pope's lifetime, the four previous lines, with the variation of "sunny heaths" for "airy wastes," were printed in a note, and their place in the text was supplied by a single couplet:Here, as old bards have sung, Diana strayed,Bathed in the springs, or sought the cooling shade.Wakefield suggests that Pope rejected this latter line, as not being suited to the prevailing character of the English climate, but at ver. 209 he represents the goddess as often "laving" in the Lodona, and to bathe and luxuriate in shade are surely common enough in England.[75]Dr. Warton says, "that Johnson seems to have passed too severe a censure on this episode of Lodona; and that a tale in a descriptive poem has a good effect." Johnson does not object to a tale in a descriptive poem. He objects only to the triteness of such a tale as this.—Bowles.[76]Dryden's Translations from Ovid:The nicest eye did no distinction know,But that the goddess bore a golden bow.[77]Nec positu variare comas; uni fibula vestem,Vitta coercuerat neglectos alba capillos. Ovid.—Warburton.[78]This thought of the quiver sounding is found both in Homer and Virgil.—Wakefield.Pope remembered Dryden's translation of Virgil, Æneis, xi. 968:Diana's arms upon her shoulder sounds.And xi. 1140:A gilded quiver from his shoulder sounds.[79]Dryden's Æneis, xii. 108:The lover gazed, and burning with desire,The more he looked the more he fed the fire.[80]Ut fugere accipitrem penna trepidante columbæ,Ut solet accipiter trepidas agitare columbas. Ovid, Met. lib. v.—Warburton.Sandys' translation:As trembling doves the eager hawks eschew;As eager hawks the trembling dovers pursue.
[1]Notwithstanding the many praises lavished on this celebrated nobleman as a poet, by Dryden, by Addison, by Bolingbroke, by our Author, and others, yet candid criticism must oblige us to confess, that he was but a feeble imitator of the feeblest parts of Waller. After having been secretary at war, 1710, controller and treasurer to the household, and of her majesty's privy council, and created a peer, 1711, he was seized as a suspected person, at the accession of George I., and confined in the Tower. Whatever may be thought of Lord Lansdowne as a poet, his character as a man was highly valuable. His conversation was most pleasing and polite; his affability, and universal benevolence, and gentleness, captivating; he was a firm friend and a sincere lover of his country. This is the character I received of him from his near relation, the late excellent Mrs. Delany.—Warton.
[1]Notwithstanding the many praises lavished on this celebrated nobleman as a poet, by Dryden, by Addison, by Bolingbroke, by our Author, and others, yet candid criticism must oblige us to confess, that he was but a feeble imitator of the feeblest parts of Waller. After having been secretary at war, 1710, controller and treasurer to the household, and of her majesty's privy council, and created a peer, 1711, he was seized as a suspected person, at the accession of George I., and confined in the Tower. Whatever may be thought of Lord Lansdowne as a poet, his character as a man was highly valuable. His conversation was most pleasing and polite; his affability, and universal benevolence, and gentleness, captivating; he was a firm friend and a sincere lover of his country. This is the character I received of him from his near relation, the late excellent Mrs. Delany.—Warton.
[2]Thus Hopkins, in his History of Love:Ye woods and wilds, serene and blest retreats,At once the lovers' and the Muses' seatsTo you I fly.—Wakefield.
[2]Thus Hopkins, in his History of Love:
Ye woods and wilds, serene and blest retreats,At once the lovers' and the Muses' seatsTo you I fly.—Wakefield.
Ye woods and wilds, serene and blest retreats,At once the lovers' and the Muses' seatsTo you I fly.—Wakefield.
[3]Originally thus:Chaste goddess of the woods,Nymphs of the vales, and Naïads of the flood,Lead me through arching bow'rs, and glimin'ring glades,Unlock your springs.—Pope.Dryden's Virgil, Geor. ii. 245:Once more unlock for thee the sacred spring.Æn. x. 241:Now, sacred sisters, open all your spring.—Wakefield.
[3]Originally thus:
Chaste goddess of the woods,Nymphs of the vales, and Naïads of the flood,Lead me through arching bow'rs, and glimin'ring glades,Unlock your springs.—Pope.
Chaste goddess of the woods,Nymphs of the vales, and Naïads of the flood,Lead me through arching bow'rs, and glimin'ring glades,Unlock your springs.—Pope.
Dryden's Virgil, Geor. ii. 245:
Once more unlock for thee the sacred spring.
Once more unlock for thee the sacred spring.
Æn. x. 241:
Now, sacred sisters, open all your spring.—Wakefield.
Now, sacred sisters, open all your spring.—Wakefield.
[4]Neget quis carmina Gallo? Virg.—Warburton.
[4]Neget quis carmina Gallo? Virg.—Warburton.
[5]Evidently suggested by Waller:Of the first Paradise there's nothing found,Yet the description lasts.—Holt White.Addison's Letter from Italy:Sometimes misguided by the tuneful throng,I look for streams immortalised in song,That lost in silence and oblivion lie;Dumb are their fountains, and their channels dry;Yet run for ever by the muse's skill,And in the smooth description murmur still.—Wakefield.
[5]Evidently suggested by Waller:
Of the first Paradise there's nothing found,Yet the description lasts.—Holt White.
Of the first Paradise there's nothing found,Yet the description lasts.—Holt White.
Addison's Letter from Italy:
Sometimes misguided by the tuneful throng,I look for streams immortalised in song,That lost in silence and oblivion lie;Dumb are their fountains, and their channels dry;Yet run for ever by the muse's skill,And in the smooth description murmur still.—Wakefield.
Sometimes misguided by the tuneful throng,I look for streams immortalised in song,That lost in silence and oblivion lie;Dumb are their fountains, and their channels dry;Yet run for ever by the muse's skill,And in the smooth description murmur still.—Wakefield.
[6]There is an inaccuracy in making the flame equal to a grove. It might have been Milton's flame.—Warton.Addison's Letter from Italy:O, could the muse my ravished breast inspireWith warmth like yours, and raise an equal fire.—Wakefield.
[6]There is an inaccuracy in making the flame equal to a grove. It might have been Milton's flame.—Warton.
Addison's Letter from Italy:
O, could the muse my ravished breast inspireWith warmth like yours, and raise an equal fire.—Wakefield.
O, could the muse my ravished breast inspireWith warmth like yours, and raise an equal fire.—Wakefield.
[7]This is borrowed from the lines, quoted by Bowles, in which Denham alludes to the founder of Windsor Castle being as doubtful as was the birth-place of Homer:Like him in birth, thou should'st be like in fame,As thine his fate, if mine had been his flame.
[7]This is borrowed from the lines, quoted by Bowles, in which Denham alludes to the founder of Windsor Castle being as doubtful as was the birth-place of Homer:
Like him in birth, thou should'st be like in fame,As thine his fate, if mine had been his flame.
Like him in birth, thou should'st be like in fame,As thine his fate, if mine had been his flame.
[8]From Waller:As in old chaos heav'n with earth confused,And stars with rocks together crushed and bruised.—Wakefield.
[8]From Waller:
As in old chaos heav'n with earth confused,And stars with rocks together crushed and bruised.—Wakefield.
As in old chaos heav'n with earth confused,And stars with rocks together crushed and bruised.—Wakefield.
[9]Evidently from Cooper's Hill:Here Nature, whether more intent to pleaseUs, or herself, with strange varieties,Wisely she knew the harmony of things,As well as that of sounds, from discord springs.Such was the discord which did first disperseForm, order, beauty through the universe.—Warton.
[9]Evidently from Cooper's Hill:
Here Nature, whether more intent to pleaseUs, or herself, with strange varieties,Wisely she knew the harmony of things,As well as that of sounds, from discord springs.Such was the discord which did first disperseForm, order, beauty through the universe.—Warton.
Here Nature, whether more intent to pleaseUs, or herself, with strange varieties,Wisely she knew the harmony of things,As well as that of sounds, from discord springs.Such was the discord which did first disperseForm, order, beauty through the universe.—Warton.
[10]There is a levity in this comparison which appears to me unseasonable, and but ill according with the serene dignity of the subject.—Wakefield.
[10]There is a levity in this comparison which appears to me unseasonable, and but ill according with the serene dignity of the subject.—Wakefield.
[11]Originally thus:Why should I sing our better suns or air,Whose vital draughts prevent the leech's care,While through fresh fields th' enlivening odours breathe,Or spread with vernal blooms the purple heath?—Pope.The first couplet of the lines in Pope's note, was from Dryden's epistle to his kinsman:He scapes the best, who, nature to repair,Draws physic from the fields, in draughts of vital air.
[11]Originally thus:
Why should I sing our better suns or air,Whose vital draughts prevent the leech's care,While through fresh fields th' enlivening odours breathe,Or spread with vernal blooms the purple heath?—Pope.
Why should I sing our better suns or air,Whose vital draughts prevent the leech's care,While through fresh fields th' enlivening odours breathe,Or spread with vernal blooms the purple heath?—Pope.
The first couplet of the lines in Pope's note, was from Dryden's epistle to his kinsman:
He scapes the best, who, nature to repair,Draws physic from the fields, in draughts of vital air.
He scapes the best, who, nature to repair,Draws physic from the fields, in draughts of vital air.
[12]Milton's Allegro, ver. 78:Bosomed high in tufted trees.—Wakefield.
[12]Milton's Allegro, ver. 78:
Bosomed high in tufted trees.—Wakefield.
Bosomed high in tufted trees.—Wakefield.
[13]Milton, Par. Lost, iv. 248:Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balms.This fancy was borrowed from the ancients. According to Ovid (Met. x. 500), Myrrha, changed into a tree, weeps myrrh, and the sisters of Phæton (Met. ii. 364), transformed into poplars, shed tears which harden in the sun, and turn into amber.
[13]Milton, Par. Lost, iv. 248:
Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balms.
Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balms.
This fancy was borrowed from the ancients. According to Ovid (Met. x. 500), Myrrha, changed into a tree, weeps myrrh, and the sisters of Phæton (Met. ii. 364), transformed into poplars, shed tears which harden in the sun, and turn into amber.
[14]This fabulous mixture of stale images, Olympus and the Gods, is, in my opinion, extremely puerile, especially in a description of real scenery. Pan, Pomona, and the rest, mere representative substitutions, give no offence.—Wakefield.
[14]This fabulous mixture of stale images, Olympus and the Gods, is, in my opinion, extremely puerile, especially in a description of real scenery. Pan, Pomona, and the rest, mere representative substitutions, give no offence.—Wakefield.
[15]The making the hills nobler than Olympus with all its gods, because the gods appeared "in their blessings" on the humbler mountains of Windsor, is a thought only to be excused in a very young writer.—Bowles.
[15]The making the hills nobler than Olympus with all its gods, because the gods appeared "in their blessings" on the humbler mountains of Windsor, is a thought only to be excused in a very young writer.—Bowles.
[16]The word "crowned" is exceptionable; it makes Pan crowned with flocks.—Warton.Pope, in his manuscript, has underscored "Pan with flocks," and "crowned," and set a mark against the line, as if he had detected, and intended to remove, the defect.
[16]The word "crowned" is exceptionable; it makes Pan crowned with flocks.—Warton.
Pope, in his manuscript, has underscored "Pan with flocks," and "crowned," and set a mark against the line, as if he had detected, and intended to remove, the defect.
[17]Dryden's Translations from Ovid:A dismal desert, and a silent waste.Pope weakened the line in varying it. "Dreary desert" and "gloomy waste" are synonymous, but "silent" adds a distinct idea to "dismal."
[17]Dryden's Translations from Ovid:
A dismal desert, and a silent waste.
A dismal desert, and a silent waste.
Pope weakened the line in varying it. "Dreary desert" and "gloomy waste" are synonymous, but "silent" adds a distinct idea to "dismal."
[18]The Forest Laws.—Pope.The killing a deer, boar, or hare, was punished with the loss of the delinquent's eyes.—Warton.Thierry believes that the forest laws had a more serious object than to secure for the king a monopoly of sport. The chief intention was to keep the newly conquered Saxons from going armed under the pretext that they were in pursuit of game. Hence the penalty was of a nature to incapacitate the offender for military service.
[18]The Forest Laws.—Pope.
The killing a deer, boar, or hare, was punished with the loss of the delinquent's eyes.—Warton.
Thierry believes that the forest laws had a more serious object than to secure for the king a monopoly of sport. The chief intention was to keep the newly conquered Saxons from going armed under the pretext that they were in pursuit of game. Hence the penalty was of a nature to incapacitate the offender for military service.
[19]This is in imitation of Waller:Prove all a desert! and none there make stayBut savage beasts, or men as wild as they.—Wakefield.Sir William Temple says of the forests on the continent that theygive a shadeTo savage beasts who on the weaker prey,Or human savages more wild than they.Wakefield remarks that there is an inaccuracy in Pope's couplet, since the "savage laws" to which the pronoun "they" in part refers, were the mode in which the severity of the king displayed itself.
[19]This is in imitation of Waller:
Prove all a desert! and none there make stayBut savage beasts, or men as wild as they.—Wakefield.
Prove all a desert! and none there make stayBut savage beasts, or men as wild as they.—Wakefield.
Sir William Temple says of the forests on the continent that they
give a shadeTo savage beasts who on the weaker prey,Or human savages more wild than they.
give a shadeTo savage beasts who on the weaker prey,Or human savages more wild than they.
Wakefield remarks that there is an inaccuracy in Pope's couplet, since the "savage laws" to which the pronoun "they" in part refers, were the mode in which the severity of the king displayed itself.
[20]The representation is erroneous. The "air, floods, and wilds" were not "dispeopled." The forest laws occasioned an increase in the quantity of game, which was preserved more carefully when it became the property of the privileged few, and was no longer liable to be exterminated by the many. Pope is not consistent with himself, for he afterwards complains that "while the subject starved thebeastwasfed."
[20]The representation is erroneous. The "air, floods, and wilds" were not "dispeopled." The forest laws occasioned an increase in the quantity of game, which was preserved more carefully when it became the property of the privileged few, and was no longer liable to be exterminated by the many. Pope is not consistent with himself, for he afterwards complains that "while the subject starved thebeastwasfed."
[21]Originally thus in the MS.:From towns laid waste, to dens and caves they ran(For who first stooped to be a slave was man).—Warburton.The conceit is childish, because dens and caves are the residence of these brutes at all times, and therefore their retreat to these places constitutes no argument of their aversion to slavery. And the following couplet is by no means worthy of the poet.—Wakefield.
[21]Originally thus in the MS.:
From towns laid waste, to dens and caves they ran(For who first stooped to be a slave was man).—Warburton.
From towns laid waste, to dens and caves they ran(For who first stooped to be a slave was man).—Warburton.
The conceit is childish, because dens and caves are the residence of these brutes at all times, and therefore their retreat to these places constitutes no argument of their aversion to slavery. And the following couplet is by no means worthy of the poet.—Wakefield.
[22]According to this doctrine no nation can lie free in which lawless beasts are subjugated by man.
[22]According to this doctrine no nation can lie free in which lawless beasts are subjugated by man.
[23]Pope puts "the elements" for the creatures which inhabited them.
[23]Pope puts "the elements" for the creatures which inhabited them.
[24]In the first edition it was,The swain with tears to beasts his labour yields,which defined the poet's idea more clearly. He changed the expression to avoid the recurrence of the same word when he introduced "beast" into the next couplet.
[24]In the first edition it was,
The swain with tears to beasts his labour yields,
The swain with tears to beasts his labour yields,
which defined the poet's idea more clearly. He changed the expression to avoid the recurrence of the same word when he introduced "beast" into the next couplet.
[25]Addison's Letter from Italy:The poor inhabitant beholds in vainThe reddening orange, and the swelling grain:Joyless he sees the growing oils and wines,And in the myrtle's fragrant shade repines:Starves, in the midst of nature's bounty curst,And in the loaden vineyard dies for thirst.—Holt White.This passage, which describes the misery entailed upon the Italian peasants by an oppressive government, plainly suggested the lines of Pope. The death from thirst, which Addison adds to the death from starvation, is too great an exaggeration. Water could always be had.
[25]Addison's Letter from Italy:
The poor inhabitant beholds in vainThe reddening orange, and the swelling grain:Joyless he sees the growing oils and wines,And in the myrtle's fragrant shade repines:Starves, in the midst of nature's bounty curst,And in the loaden vineyard dies for thirst.—Holt White.
The poor inhabitant beholds in vainThe reddening orange, and the swelling grain:Joyless he sees the growing oils and wines,And in the myrtle's fragrant shade repines:Starves, in the midst of nature's bounty curst,And in the loaden vineyard dies for thirst.—Holt White.
This passage, which describes the misery entailed upon the Italian peasants by an oppressive government, plainly suggested the lines of Pope. The death from thirst, which Addison adds to the death from starvation, is too great an exaggeration. Water could always be had.
[26]No wonder savages or subjects slain—But subjects starved, while savages were fed.It was originally thus, but the word "savages" is not properly applied to beasts, but to men; which occasioned the alteration.—Pope.
[26]
No wonder savages or subjects slain—But subjects starved, while savages were fed.
No wonder savages or subjects slain—But subjects starved, while savages were fed.
It was originally thus, but the word "savages" is not properly applied to beasts, but to men; which occasioned the alteration.—Pope.
[27]Translated fromTempla adimit divis, fora civibus, arva colonis,an old monkish writer, I forget who.—Pope.
[27]Translated from
Templa adimit divis, fora civibus, arva colonis,
Templa adimit divis, fora civibus, arva colonis,
an old monkish writer, I forget who.—Pope.
[28]Alluding to the destruction made in the New Forest, and the tyrannies exercised there by William I.—Pope.I have the authority of three or four of our best antiquarians to say, that the common tradition of villages and parishes, within the compass of thirty miles, being destroyed, in the New Forest, is absolutely groundless, no traces or vestiges of such being to be discovered, nor any other parish named in Doomsday Book, but what now remains.—Warton.The argument from Doomsday Book is of no weight if, as Lingard asserts, the New Forest was formed before the registration took place. William was an eager sportsman. "He loved the beasts of chase," says the Saxon chronicle, "as if he had been their father," and the source of his love was the pleasure he took in killing them. His hunting grounds, however, were ample without the New Forest, and Thierry thinks that his motive in forming it may have been political. The wooded district, denuded of a hostile population, and stretching to the sea, would have afforded shelter to the Normans in the event of a reverse, and enabled them to disembark in safety.
[28]Alluding to the destruction made in the New Forest, and the tyrannies exercised there by William I.—Pope.
I have the authority of three or four of our best antiquarians to say, that the common tradition of villages and parishes, within the compass of thirty miles, being destroyed, in the New Forest, is absolutely groundless, no traces or vestiges of such being to be discovered, nor any other parish named in Doomsday Book, but what now remains.—Warton.
The argument from Doomsday Book is of no weight if, as Lingard asserts, the New Forest was formed before the registration took place. William was an eager sportsman. "He loved the beasts of chase," says the Saxon chronicle, "as if he had been their father," and the source of his love was the pleasure he took in killing them. His hunting grounds, however, were ample without the New Forest, and Thierry thinks that his motive in forming it may have been political. The wooded district, denuded of a hostile population, and stretching to the sea, would have afforded shelter to the Normans in the event of a reverse, and enabled them to disembark in safety.
[29]Addison's Campaign:O'er prostrate towns and palaces they pass,Now covered o'er with weeds, and hid in grass.
[29]Addison's Campaign:
O'er prostrate towns and palaces they pass,Now covered o'er with weeds, and hid in grass.
O'er prostrate towns and palaces they pass,Now covered o'er with weeds, and hid in grass.
[30]Donne, in his second Satire,When winds in our ruined abbeys roar.—Wakefield.
[30]Donne, in his second Satire,
When winds in our ruined abbeys roar.—Wakefield.
When winds in our ruined abbeys roar.—Wakefield.
[31]It is a blemish in this fine passage that a couplet in the past tense should be interposed for the sake of the rhyme, in the midst of a description in the present tense.
[31]It is a blemish in this fine passage that a couplet in the past tense should be interposed for the sake of the rhyme, in the midst of a description in the present tense.
[32]Originally:And wolves with howling fill, &c.The author thought this an error, wolves not being common in England at the time of the Conqueror.—Pope.
[32]Originally:
And wolves with howling fill, &c.
And wolves with howling fill, &c.
The author thought this an error, wolves not being common in England at the time of the Conqueror.—Pope.
[33]"The temples," "broken columns," and "choirs," of the poet, suppose a much statelier architecture than belonged to the rude village churches of the Saxons. With the same exaggeration the hamlets which stood on the site of the New Forest are converted by Pope into "cities," and "towns."
[33]"The temples," "broken columns," and "choirs," of the poet, suppose a much statelier architecture than belonged to the rude village churches of the Saxons. With the same exaggeration the hamlets which stood on the site of the New Forest are converted by Pope into "cities," and "towns."
[34]William did not confine his oppression to the weak and succumb to the strong. The statement that he was "awed by his nobles" is opposed to the contemporary testimony of the Saxon chronicle. "No man," says the writer, "durst do anything against his will; he had earls in his bonds who had done against his will, and at last he did not spare his own brother, Odo; him he set in prison." "His rich men moaned," says the chronicler again, "and the poor men murmured, but he was so hard that he recked not the hatred of them all."
[34]William did not confine his oppression to the weak and succumb to the strong. The statement that he was "awed by his nobles" is opposed to the contemporary testimony of the Saxon chronicle. "No man," says the writer, "durst do anything against his will; he had earls in his bonds who had done against his will, and at last he did not spare his own brother, Odo; him he set in prison." "His rich men moaned," says the chronicler again, "and the poor men murmured, but he was so hard that he recked not the hatred of them all."
[35]The language is too strong. "When his power or interest was concerned," says Lingard, "William listened to no suggestions but those of ambition or avarice, but on other occasions he displayed a strong sense of religion, and a profound respect for its institutions." While resisting ecclesiastical usurpation, and depriving individuals who were disaffected or incompetent, of their preferment, he upheld the church and its dignitaries, and left both in a more exalted position than he found them.
[35]The language is too strong. "When his power or interest was concerned," says Lingard, "William listened to no suggestions but those of ambition or avarice, but on other occasions he displayed a strong sense of religion, and a profound respect for its institutions." While resisting ecclesiastical usurpation, and depriving individuals who were disaffected or incompetent, of their preferment, he upheld the church and its dignitaries, and left both in a more exalted position than he found them.
[36]It is incorrect to say that William was denied a grave. As his body was about to be lowered into the vault in the church of St. Stephen, which he had founded at Caen, a person named Fitz-Arthur forbade the burial, on the plea that the land had been taken by violence from his father, but the prelates having paid him sixty shillings on the spot, and promised him further compensation, the ceremony was allowed to proceed.
[36]It is incorrect to say that William was denied a grave. As his body was about to be lowered into the vault in the church of St. Stephen, which he had founded at Caen, a person named Fitz-Arthur forbade the burial, on the plea that the land had been taken by violence from his father, but the prelates having paid him sixty shillings on the spot, and promised him further compensation, the ceremony was allowed to proceed.
[37]"An open space between woods," is Johnson's definition of "lawn," which is the meaning here, and at ver. 21 and 149. The term has since been appropriated to the dressed green-sward in gardens.
[37]"An open space between woods," is Johnson's definition of "lawn," which is the meaning here, and at ver. 21 and 149. The term has since been appropriated to the dressed green-sward in gardens.
[38]Richard, second son of William the Conqueror.—Pope.Richard is said by some to have been killed by a stag in the New Forest, by others to have been crushed against a tree by his horse.
[38]Richard, second son of William the Conqueror.—Pope.
Richard is said by some to have been killed by a stag in the New Forest, by others to have been crushed against a tree by his horse.
[39]This verse is taken from one of Denham's in his translation of the Second Æneis:At once the taker, and at once the prey.—Wakefield.
[39]This verse is taken from one of Denham's in his translation of the Second Æneis:
At once the taker, and at once the prey.—Wakefield.
At once the taker, and at once the prey.—Wakefield.
[40]The oak under which Rufus was shot, was standing till within these few years.—Bowles.A stone pillar now marks the spot.—Croker.
[40]The oak under which Rufus was shot, was standing till within these few years.—Bowles.
A stone pillar now marks the spot.—Croker.
[41]In the New Forest, where the cottages had been swept away by William. "Succeeding monarchs" did not, as Pope implies, suffer encroachments on the forest out of pity for their subjects. The concession was extorted. Some of the provisions of Magna Charta were directed against the increase of the royal forests and against the "evil customs" maintained with respect to them.
[41]In the New Forest, where the cottages had been swept away by William. "Succeeding monarchs" did not, as Pope implies, suffer encroachments on the forest out of pity for their subjects. The concession was extorted. Some of the provisions of Magna Charta were directed against the increase of the royal forests and against the "evil customs" maintained with respect to them.
[42]Mountains hitherto unknown to the flocks, who were now for the first time permitted to feed there.
[42]Mountains hitherto unknown to the flocks, who were now for the first time permitted to feed there.
[43]Miraturque novas frondes et non sua poma. Virg.—Warburton.Virgil is treating of grafts, and says that the parent stock, when the slips grow, wonders at leaves and fruit not its own. Here the imagination keeps pace with the description, but stops short before the notion that the trees in the forest wondered to behold the crops of corn.
[43]
Miraturque novas frondes et non sua poma. Virg.—Warburton.
Miraturque novas frondes et non sua poma. Virg.—Warburton.
Virgil is treating of grafts, and says that the parent stock, when the slips grow, wonders at leaves and fruit not its own. Here the imagination keeps pace with the description, but stops short before the notion that the trees in the forest wondered to behold the crops of corn.
[44]He doubtless had in his eye, Vir. Æn. i. 506:Latonæ tacitum pertentant gaudia pectus.—Wakefield.Dryden's translation:And feeds with secret joy her silent breast.In Virgil the silent exultation is felt by a mother, who, in an assembly of nymphs, marks the superior beauty of her goddess daughter. There was not the same reason why the swain should keep secret the transport he felt at the sight of wheat fields.
[44]He doubtless had in his eye, Vir. Æn. i. 506:
Latonæ tacitum pertentant gaudia pectus.—Wakefield.
Latonæ tacitum pertentant gaudia pectus.—Wakefield.
Dryden's translation:
And feeds with secret joy her silent breast.
And feeds with secret joy her silent breast.
In Virgil the silent exultation is felt by a mother, who, in an assembly of nymphs, marks the superior beauty of her goddess daughter. There was not the same reason why the swain should keep secret the transport he felt at the sight of wheat fields.
[45]Originally:O may no more a foreign master's rage,With wrongs yet legal, curse a future age!Still spread, fair liberty! thy heav'nly wings,Breathe plenty on the fields, and fragrance on the springs.—Pope.The last couplet was suggested by Addison's Letter to Lord Halifax:O Liberty, thou goddess heav'nly bright,Profuse of bliss, and pregnant with delight!Eternal pleasures in thy presence reign,And smiling plenty leads thy wanton train.
[45]Originally:
O may no more a foreign master's rage,With wrongs yet legal, curse a future age!Still spread, fair liberty! thy heav'nly wings,Breathe plenty on the fields, and fragrance on the springs.—Pope.
O may no more a foreign master's rage,With wrongs yet legal, curse a future age!Still spread, fair liberty! thy heav'nly wings,Breathe plenty on the fields, and fragrance on the springs.—Pope.
The last couplet was suggested by Addison's Letter to Lord Halifax:
O Liberty, thou goddess heav'nly bright,Profuse of bliss, and pregnant with delight!Eternal pleasures in thy presence reign,And smiling plenty leads thy wanton train.
O Liberty, thou goddess heav'nly bright,Profuse of bliss, and pregnant with delight!Eternal pleasures in thy presence reign,And smiling plenty leads thy wanton train.
[46]Addison's Campaign:Their courage dwells not in a troubled floodOf mounting spirits, and fermenting blood.
[46]Addison's Campaign:
Their courage dwells not in a troubled floodOf mounting spirits, and fermenting blood.
Their courage dwells not in a troubled floodOf mounting spirits, and fermenting blood.
[47]"Thickest woods" till Warburton's edition. The epithet "gameful," to express that the woods were full of game, seems to be peculiar to Pope.
[47]"Thickest woods" till Warburton's edition. The epithet "gameful," to express that the woods were full of game, seems to be peculiar to Pope.
[48]Originally:When yellow autumn summer's heat succeeds,And into wine the purple harvest bleeds,The partridge feeding in the new-shorn fields,Both morning sports and evening pleasures yields.—Pope.Richardson transcribes from the margin of Pope's MS. "Qu. if allowable to describe the season by a circumstance not proper to our climate, the vintage?" And the line which speaks of the making of wine was no doubt altered to obviate this objection.
[48]Originally:
When yellow autumn summer's heat succeeds,And into wine the purple harvest bleeds,The partridge feeding in the new-shorn fields,Both morning sports and evening pleasures yields.—Pope.
When yellow autumn summer's heat succeeds,And into wine the purple harvest bleeds,The partridge feeding in the new-shorn fields,Both morning sports and evening pleasures yields.—Pope.
Richardson transcribes from the margin of Pope's MS. "Qu. if allowable to describe the season by a circumstance not proper to our climate, the vintage?" And the line which speaks of the making of wine was no doubt altered to obviate this objection.
[49]Dryden's Sigismonda and Guiscardo:Watchful to betrayWith inward rage he meditates his prey.—Holt White.
[49]Dryden's Sigismonda and Guiscardo:
Watchful to betrayWith inward rage he meditates his prey.—Holt White.
Watchful to betrayWith inward rage he meditates his prey.—Holt White.
[50]From Virgil, Geo. iv. 176:si parra licet componere magnis.If little things with great we may compare. Dryden.—Wakefield.
[50]From Virgil, Geo. iv. 176:
si parra licet componere magnis.If little things with great we may compare. Dryden.—Wakefield.
si parra licet componere magnis.If little things with great we may compare. Dryden.—Wakefield.
[51]It stood thus in the first editions:Pleased in the general's sight, the host lie downSudden before some unsuspecting town;The young, the old, one instant make our prize,And o'er their captive heads Britannia's standard flies.—Warburton.Pope, as Wakefield observes, has joined together in the simile in the text the inconsistent notions of a town surprised, and a town taken by the regular approaches of a siege. "The passage," adds Wakefield, "as it originally stood was free from this heterogeneous intermixture, and by a little polish might have been made superior to the present reading."
[51]It stood thus in the first editions:
Pleased in the general's sight, the host lie downSudden before some unsuspecting town;The young, the old, one instant make our prize,And o'er their captive heads Britannia's standard flies.—Warburton.
Pleased in the general's sight, the host lie downSudden before some unsuspecting town;The young, the old, one instant make our prize,And o'er their captive heads Britannia's standard flies.—Warburton.
Pope, as Wakefield observes, has joined together in the simile in the text the inconsistent notions of a town surprised, and a town taken by the regular approaches of a siege. "The passage," adds Wakefield, "as it originally stood was free from this heterogeneous intermixture, and by a little polish might have been made superior to the present reading."
[52]Richardson gives a more descriptive line from the manuscript:Exults in air and plies his whistling wings.The poet doubtless substituted the later version, because the expression "whirring pheasant" conveyed the same idea as "whistling wings."
[52]Richardson gives a more descriptive line from the manuscript:
Exults in air and plies his whistling wings.
Exults in air and plies his whistling wings.
The poet doubtless substituted the later version, because the expression "whirring pheasant" conveyed the same idea as "whistling wings."
[53]This fine apostrophe was probably suggested by that of Virgil on the ox dying of the plague:Now what avails his well-deserving toil. Dryden.—Wakefield.
[53]This fine apostrophe was probably suggested by that of Virgil on the ox dying of the plague:
Now what avails his well-deserving toil. Dryden.—Wakefield.
Now what avails his well-deserving toil. Dryden.—Wakefield.
[54]Steevens quotes Pictæque volucres. Virg. Painted birds. Dryden.—Bowles.Pope probably took the phrase from Paradise Lost, where the birds are described as spreading "their painted wings." In transferring the expression he overlooked the fact that the wings are not the part of the pheasant to which the epithet "painted" is especially applicable.
[54]Steevens quotes Pictæque volucres. Virg. Painted birds. Dryden.—Bowles.
Pope probably took the phrase from Paradise Lost, where the birds are described as spreading "their painted wings." In transferring the expression he overlooked the fact that the wings are not the part of the pheasant to which the epithet "painted" is especially applicable.
[55]Originally thus:When hoary-winter clothes the years in white,The woods and fields to pleasing toils invite.—Pope.
[55]Originally thus:
When hoary-winter clothes the years in white,The woods and fields to pleasing toils invite.—Pope.
When hoary-winter clothes the years in white,The woods and fields to pleasing toils invite.—Pope.
[56]The reflection is misplaced; for dogs by nature chase hares, and man avails himself of their instinctive propensities.
[56]The reflection is misplaced; for dogs by nature chase hares, and man avails himself of their instinctive propensities.
[57]Originally:O'er rustling leaves around the naked groves.—Warburton.This is a better line.—Warton.
[57]Originally:
O'er rustling leaves around the naked groves.—Warburton.
O'er rustling leaves around the naked groves.—Warburton.
This is a better line.—Warton.
[58]Wakefield understood Pope to mean that the trees shaded the doves, and he objected that leafless trees could not properly be said to overshadow. Steevens pointed out that it was the doves, on the contrary, which overshadowed the trees, by alighting on them in flocks. The ambiguity was caused by Pope's bad and inveterate habit of putting the accusative case before the verb.
[58]Wakefield understood Pope to mean that the trees shaded the doves, and he objected that leafless trees could not properly be said to overshadow. Steevens pointed out that it was the doves, on the contrary, which overshadowed the trees, by alighting on them in flocks. The ambiguity was caused by Pope's bad and inveterate habit of putting the accusative case before the verb.
[59]The fowler lifts his levelled tube on high.—Pope.He owed the line in the text to Dryden's Virgil, Geor. ii. 774.And bends his bow, and levels with his eyes."Tube" is an affected term for a gun, but the word is adopted by Cowper and Campbell. Thomson, in his lines on partridge-shooting, was not afraid to call the gun by its own name, and yet is more poetical than Cowper, Campbell, or Pope:the gunGlanced just and sudden from the fowler's eye,O'ertakes their sounding pinions.The last expression is nobly descriptive.
[59]
The fowler lifts his levelled tube on high.—Pope.
The fowler lifts his levelled tube on high.—Pope.
He owed the line in the text to Dryden's Virgil, Geor. ii. 774.
And bends his bow, and levels with his eyes.
And bends his bow, and levels with his eyes.
"Tube" is an affected term for a gun, but the word is adopted by Cowper and Campbell. Thomson, in his lines on partridge-shooting, was not afraid to call the gun by its own name, and yet is more poetical than Cowper, Campbell, or Pope:
the gunGlanced just and sudden from the fowler's eye,O'ertakes their sounding pinions.
the gunGlanced just and sudden from the fowler's eye,O'ertakes their sounding pinions.
The last expression is nobly descriptive.
[60]Præcipites altá vitam sub nube relinquunt. Virg.—Warburton.So before Pope, Philips in his Cider:——they leave their little lives above the clouds.—Steevens.
[60]
Præcipites altá vitam sub nube relinquunt. Virg.—Warburton.
Præcipites altá vitam sub nube relinquunt. Virg.—Warburton.
So before Pope, Philips in his Cider:
——they leave their little lives above the clouds.—Steevens.
——they leave their little lives above the clouds.—Steevens.
[61]It is singular, that in a poem on a forest, the majestic oak, the deer, and many other interesting and characteristic circumstances, should be all thrown in the distant ground, whilst objects much less appropriate, the fisher, the fowler, &c. are brought forward.—Bowles.
[61]It is singular, that in a poem on a forest, the majestic oak, the deer, and many other interesting and characteristic circumstances, should be all thrown in the distant ground, whilst objects much less appropriate, the fisher, the fowler, &c. are brought forward.—Bowles.
[62]The active use of the word hope, though authorised by Dryden, appears to my taste intolerably harsh and affected.—Wakefield.
[62]The active use of the word hope, though authorised by Dryden, appears to my taste intolerably harsh and affected.—Wakefield.
[63]"Volume," except in its application to books, now carries with it an idea of magnitude. In Pope's day it was still used in its strictly etymological sense. When Milton, in his personification of Sin (Par. Lost, ii. 651), says that sheended foul in many a scaly foldVoluminous and vast,"voluminous" is the synonym for "many a scaly fold," and not for the conjoint epithet "vast."
[63]"Volume," except in its application to books, now carries with it an idea of magnitude. In Pope's day it was still used in its strictly etymological sense. When Milton, in his personification of Sin (Par. Lost, ii. 651), says that she
ended foul in many a scaly foldVoluminous and vast,
ended foul in many a scaly foldVoluminous and vast,
"voluminous" is the synonym for "many a scaly fold," and not for the conjoint epithet "vast."
[64]Wakefield points out that Pope borrowed the language from Lauderdale's translation of the fourth Georgic, where he says of the bees that they are "bedropped with gold," or from Milton's description of the fish, whichsporting with quick glanceShow to the sun their waved coats dropt with gold.
[64]Wakefield points out that Pope borrowed the language from Lauderdale's translation of the fourth Georgic, where he says of the bees that they are "bedropped with gold," or from Milton's description of the fish, which
sporting with quick glanceShow to the sun their waved coats dropt with gold.
sporting with quick glanceShow to the sun their waved coats dropt with gold.
[65]"The wat'ry plain" from thecampi liquentesof Virgil, is an expression of Dryden's in his translation of Ovid, Met. i., and elsewhere. Drayton in his Polyolbion has the tyrant pike.—Wakefield."The luce, or pike," says Walton, "is the tyrant of the fresh waters."
[65]"The wat'ry plain" from thecampi liquentesof Virgil, is an expression of Dryden's in his translation of Ovid, Met. i., and elsewhere. Drayton in his Polyolbion has the tyrant pike.—Wakefield.
"The luce, or pike," says Walton, "is the tyrant of the fresh waters."
[66]Originally thus:But when bright Phœbus from the twins invitesOur active genius to more free delights,With springing day we range the lawns around.—Pope.
[66]Originally thus:
But when bright Phœbus from the twins invitesOur active genius to more free delights,With springing day we range the lawns around.—Pope.
But when bright Phœbus from the twins invitesOur active genius to more free delights,With springing day we range the lawns around.—Pope.
[67]"Sylvanwar," is an expression borrowed from writers who described the chase of ferocious beasts,—the lion, tiger, and boar. The language is inapplicable to the pursuit of such timid creatures as the hare, deer, and fox.
[67]"Sylvanwar," is an expression borrowed from writers who described the chase of ferocious beasts,—the lion, tiger, and boar. The language is inapplicable to the pursuit of such timid creatures as the hare, deer, and fox.
[68]Translated from Statius.Stare adeo miserum est, pereunt vestigia milleAnte fugam, absentemque ferit gravis ungula campum.These lines Mr. Dryden, in his preface to his translation of Fresnoy's Art of Painting, calls wonderfully fine, and says "they would cost him an hour, if he had the leisure, to translate them, there is so much of beauty in the original," which was the reason, I suppose, why Mr. Pope tried his strength with them.—Warburton.
[68]Translated from Statius.
Stare adeo miserum est, pereunt vestigia milleAnte fugam, absentemque ferit gravis ungula campum.
Stare adeo miserum est, pereunt vestigia milleAnte fugam, absentemque ferit gravis ungula campum.
These lines Mr. Dryden, in his preface to his translation of Fresnoy's Art of Painting, calls wonderfully fine, and says "they would cost him an hour, if he had the leisure, to translate them, there is so much of beauty in the original," which was the reason, I suppose, why Mr. Pope tried his strength with them.—Warburton.
[69]"Threatening" is an inappropriate epithet for the sloping hills up which the hunters rode in the neighbourhood of Windsor.
[69]"Threatening" is an inappropriate epithet for the sloping hills up which the hunters rode in the neighbourhood of Windsor.
[70]Instead of this couplet, Pope had written in his early manuscript,They stretch, they sweat, they glow, they shout around;Heav'n trembles, roar the mountains, thunders all the ground.He was betrayed into this bombast, which his better taste rejected, by the attempt to carry on the hyperbolical strain of Statius.
[70]Instead of this couplet, Pope had written in his early manuscript,
They stretch, they sweat, they glow, they shout around;Heav'n trembles, roar the mountains, thunders all the ground.
They stretch, they sweat, they glow, they shout around;Heav'n trembles, roar the mountains, thunders all the ground.
He was betrayed into this bombast, which his better taste rejected, by the attempt to carry on the hyperbolical strain of Statius.
[71]Queen Anne.—Warburton.Congreve's Prologue to the Queen:For never was in Rome nor Athens seenSo fair a circle, and so bright a queen.
[71]Queen Anne.—Warburton.
Congreve's Prologue to the Queen:
For never was in Rome nor Athens seenSo fair a circle, and so bright a queen.
For never was in Rome nor Athens seenSo fair a circle, and so bright a queen.
[72]This use of the word "reign" for the territory ruled over, instead of for the sway of the ruler, was always uncommon, and is now obsolete. Queen Anne is mentioned in connection with the chase and the "immortal huntress," because her favourite diversion before she grew unwieldy and inactive, was to follow the hounds in her chaise.
[72]This use of the word "reign" for the territory ruled over, instead of for the sway of the ruler, was always uncommon, and is now obsolete. Queen Anne is mentioned in connection with the chase and the "immortal huntress," because her favourite diversion before she grew unwieldy and inactive, was to follow the hounds in her chaise.
[73]Better in the manuscript:And rules the boundless empire of the main.By the alteration Pope increased the compliment to Anne by making her the light of the earth as well as mistress of the forest and the sea. Wakefield thinks that this application to the queen of the offices of Diana as goddess of the woods, the luminary of the night, and the chief agent in the production of the tides, is happily conceived, but the moon and the monarch were "the light of the earth "and "empress of the main" in such different senses, that the line is a trivial play upon words.
[73]Better in the manuscript:
And rules the boundless empire of the main.
And rules the boundless empire of the main.
By the alteration Pope increased the compliment to Anne by making her the light of the earth as well as mistress of the forest and the sea. Wakefield thinks that this application to the queen of the offices of Diana as goddess of the woods, the luminary of the night, and the chief agent in the production of the tides, is happily conceived, but the moon and the monarch were "the light of the earth "and "empress of the main" in such different senses, that the line is a trivial play upon words.
[74]In the last edition published in Pope's lifetime, the four previous lines, with the variation of "sunny heaths" for "airy wastes," were printed in a note, and their place in the text was supplied by a single couplet:Here, as old bards have sung, Diana strayed,Bathed in the springs, or sought the cooling shade.Wakefield suggests that Pope rejected this latter line, as not being suited to the prevailing character of the English climate, but at ver. 209 he represents the goddess as often "laving" in the Lodona, and to bathe and luxuriate in shade are surely common enough in England.
[74]In the last edition published in Pope's lifetime, the four previous lines, with the variation of "sunny heaths" for "airy wastes," were printed in a note, and their place in the text was supplied by a single couplet:
Here, as old bards have sung, Diana strayed,Bathed in the springs, or sought the cooling shade.
Here, as old bards have sung, Diana strayed,Bathed in the springs, or sought the cooling shade.
Wakefield suggests that Pope rejected this latter line, as not being suited to the prevailing character of the English climate, but at ver. 209 he represents the goddess as often "laving" in the Lodona, and to bathe and luxuriate in shade are surely common enough in England.
[75]Dr. Warton says, "that Johnson seems to have passed too severe a censure on this episode of Lodona; and that a tale in a descriptive poem has a good effect." Johnson does not object to a tale in a descriptive poem. He objects only to the triteness of such a tale as this.—Bowles.
[75]Dr. Warton says, "that Johnson seems to have passed too severe a censure on this episode of Lodona; and that a tale in a descriptive poem has a good effect." Johnson does not object to a tale in a descriptive poem. He objects only to the triteness of such a tale as this.—Bowles.
[76]Dryden's Translations from Ovid:The nicest eye did no distinction know,But that the goddess bore a golden bow.
[76]Dryden's Translations from Ovid:
The nicest eye did no distinction know,But that the goddess bore a golden bow.
The nicest eye did no distinction know,But that the goddess bore a golden bow.
[77]Nec positu variare comas; uni fibula vestem,Vitta coercuerat neglectos alba capillos. Ovid.—Warburton.
[77]
Nec positu variare comas; uni fibula vestem,Vitta coercuerat neglectos alba capillos. Ovid.—Warburton.
Nec positu variare comas; uni fibula vestem,Vitta coercuerat neglectos alba capillos. Ovid.—Warburton.
[78]This thought of the quiver sounding is found both in Homer and Virgil.—Wakefield.Pope remembered Dryden's translation of Virgil, Æneis, xi. 968:Diana's arms upon her shoulder sounds.And xi. 1140:A gilded quiver from his shoulder sounds.
[78]This thought of the quiver sounding is found both in Homer and Virgil.—Wakefield.
Pope remembered Dryden's translation of Virgil, Æneis, xi. 968:
Diana's arms upon her shoulder sounds.
Diana's arms upon her shoulder sounds.
And xi. 1140:
A gilded quiver from his shoulder sounds.
A gilded quiver from his shoulder sounds.
[79]Dryden's Æneis, xii. 108:The lover gazed, and burning with desire,The more he looked the more he fed the fire.
[79]Dryden's Æneis, xii. 108:
The lover gazed, and burning with desire,The more he looked the more he fed the fire.
The lover gazed, and burning with desire,The more he looked the more he fed the fire.
[80]Ut fugere accipitrem penna trepidante columbæ,Ut solet accipiter trepidas agitare columbas. Ovid, Met. lib. v.—Warburton.Sandys' translation:As trembling doves the eager hawks eschew;As eager hawks the trembling dovers pursue.
[80]
Ut fugere accipitrem penna trepidante columbæ,Ut solet accipiter trepidas agitare columbas. Ovid, Met. lib. v.—Warburton.
Ut fugere accipitrem penna trepidante columbæ,Ut solet accipiter trepidas agitare columbas. Ovid, Met. lib. v.—Warburton.
Sandys' translation:
As trembling doves the eager hawks eschew;As eager hawks the trembling dovers pursue.
As trembling doves the eager hawks eschew;As eager hawks the trembling dovers pursue.