24. Si quis nunc mergos fuaves edixerit affos, Let me extol a cat, on oysters fed, To dine upon a cat fattened with oysters, and to crack live craw-fifh, is infinitely more pleasant and ridiculous than to eat mergos affos. But then the words extol, and recommend, fall far below edixerit; give out a decree: So Virgil, Georgic the third, line 295, does not advife but raises his fubject by faying, Incipiens ftabulis edice in mollibus herbam But on fome lucky day (as when they found fuch fuppofed occafions of the unnatural festivity and joy of a true mifer. 26. Dulcia fe in bilem vertent, ftomachoque tumultum Lenta feret pituita. When bile, and phlegm, and wind, and acid jar, Τα γαρ ανόμοια στασιάζει, fays Hippocrates: the very metaphor here employed by Horace. Two writers of science, in Greek, have used a ftyle eminently pure, precife, and elegant, Hippocrates and Euclid. 27. vides, ut pallidus omnis Cana defurgat dubiâ—†. How pale each worshipful and rev'rend gueft OUR author has been ftrangely guilty here of falfe English and falfe grammar, by using rife for rifes. The expression in the original is from Terence; in the fecond act of the Phormio. • Ver. 75. + Ver. 71. * Ver. 77. § Ver. 76. PH. Cana PH. Cæna dubia apponitur : GETA. Quid iftud verbi eft? PH. Ubi tu dubites quid fumas potiffimum. From which paffage it is worth observing, that Terence was the firft writer that used this expreffion. 28. Hos utipam inter Heroas natum tellus me prima tuliffet. Why had I not in these good times my birth, THE laft line, and the conceit of coxcomb-pyes and coxcombs, fink it below the original; which, by the way, fays Cruquius, feems to allude to that of Hefiod, Oper. & Dieb. Μηκέτ' επιτ' ωφελον εγω πεμπζοισι μετείναι 19. Das aliquid Famæ, quæ carmine gratior aurem Unworthy he, the voice of Fame to hear, Two very beautiful lines, that excel the original; though in truth the word occupat has much force. Horace again alludes to his favourite Grecians. Antifthenes philofophus, fays the old commentator, cum vidiffet adolefcentem Acroamatibus multum delectari, O te, ait, infelicem, qui fummum Acroama, hoc eft, Laudem tuam non audivifti. 30. Cur eget indignus quifquam te divite + ? How dar't thou let one worthy man be poor †? VERY fpirited, and superior to the ori ginal; for dar'ft is far beyond the mere eget. 31. Non aliquid patriæ tanto emetiris acervo §? Or to thy country let that heap be lent, As M. -o's was—but not at five per cent He could not forbear this stroke against a nobleman, whom he had been for many years accustomed to hear abused by his "Ev'n mode want may blefs your hand unfeen, "Tho' hush'd in patient wretchedness at home." Which fecond line (of Dr. Armstrong) is exquifitely tender, + Ver. 103. Ver. 118, Ver. 105. Ver. 121. moft most intimate friends. A certain parasite, who thought to please Lord Bolingbroke by ridiculing the avarice of the Duke of M. was stopt short by Lord Bolingbroke; who faid, He was fo very great a man, that I forget he had that vice. 32 Non ego, narrantem, temere edi luce profefta Quidquam, &c. THIS fpeech of Ofellus continues in the original to the end of this fatire. Pope has taken all that follows out of the mouth of Bethell, and speaks entirely in his own perfon. 'Tis impoffible not to transcribe the pleasing picture of his way of life, and the account he gives of his own table, in lines that exprefs common and familiar objects with dignity and elegance. See therefore his bill of fare, of which you will long to partake, and wish you could have dined at Twickenham. 32. 'Tis true, no turbots dignify my boards, But gudgeons, flounders, what my Thames affords : own. • Ver. 116. X + From |
