Let the poor fools enjoy their follies, love None of their pleasures; nor will ask thee why LXI. AN EXECRATION UPON VULCAN. ND why to me this? thou lame Lord of What had I done that might call on thine Or urge thy greedy flames thus to devour With clowns and tradesmen, kept thee clos'd in horn.2. 1 And why to me, &c.] This poem has no date affixed to it: it was printed in 4to. and 12mo. 1640, and again in the folio of that year; the present text has been formed from a careful collation of all the copies. There is a degree of wit and vivacity in these verses which does no little credit to the equanimity of the poet, who speaks of a loss so irreparable to him, not only with forbearance, but with pleasantry and good humour. The lame lord is from Catullus : Scripta tardipedi deo daturum Infelicibus ustulanda flammis. 2 With clowns and tradesmen kept thee clos'd in horn.] This is a joke of very ancient standing: Heus tu, qui Vulcanum conclusum in cornu geris! Plaut. Amphytr. WHAL. 'Twas Jupiter that hurl'd thee headlong down, Had I wrote treason here, or heresy, Conceal'd, or kept there, that was fit to be, Had I compiled from Amadis de Gaul, Of eggs, and halberds, cradles, and a herse, 3 3 Acrostichs, and telestichs, &c.] All these fooleries in verse were practised ages ago, by writers who atoned for want of genius by the labour of their compositions. This is Whalley's remark, and it was undoubtedly so; but the folly was again become epidemic, in consequence of the publication of Puttenham's Arte of English On such my serious follies: but, thou'lt say, Or, if thou needs would'st trench upon her power, Singe capons, or crisp pigs, dropping their eyes; Had tickled thy large nostrils; many a ream, Thou shouldst have cried, and all been proper stuff With pieces of the Legend; the whole sum Poetrie, in which "these prettie conceits, eggs, altars, wings, lozenges, rondels, and piramids" are recommended to the poet's imitation. "At the beginning" (he says)" they will seeme nothing pleasant to the English eare; but time and usage will make them acceptable inough.' The MS. of this piece in the British Museum reads, with more variety, "Clothe spices, or guard sweet-meats from the flies." With pieces of the Legend.] The Lives of the Saints: these are well coupled with the Jewish and Mahomedan dreams. The Tristrams, Lancelots, Turpins, and the Peers, To Merlin's marvels, and his Cabal's loss, Their seals, their characters, hermetic rings, These, hadst thou pleas'd either to dine or sup, 8 But, in my desk, what was there to accite I dare not say a body, but some parts There were of search, and mastery in the arts. 6 The art of kindling the true coal by Lungs; With Nicolas' Pasquils, Meddle with your match, And the strong lines that do the times so catch.] Lungs (see vol. iv. p. 45) were the unhappy drudges kept by the alchemists to blow their true (i. e. their beechen) coal; for bellows were not used by them. Nicolas is probably Nic. Breton, a voluminous publisher, who has many little pieces under the name of Pasquil: such as Pasquil's Passion, Pasquil's Mad-cap, &c. In the pointing this line, the MS. in the British Museum has been followed. The strong lines, &c., are the political satires which were now dispersed in great numbers, and caught the times but too successfully. The weekly courants, with Paul's seal, &c.] A sarcastical allusion to the stories fabricated by the idle walkers in St. Paul's, and weekly detailed by Butter and others as authentic intelligence. For the prophet Ball, see vol. v. p. 227. 8 a meal for Vulcan to lick up.] Thus Pope : "From shelf to shelf see greedy Vulcan roll, All the old Venusine, in poetry, And lighted by the Stagerite, could spy, Was there made English; with a grammar too, Or goddess, could be patient of thy face. 9 All the old Venusine, &c.] He alludes to his translation of Horace's Art of Poetry, illustrated with notes from Aristotle's Poetics. The translation is preserved; and much of what seemed to have been intended for the notes is likewise to be met with in the Discoveries: the Grammar is also preserved, and printed. WHAL. Literature sustained no little loss by the destruction of the Art of Poetry, illustrated, as it appears to have been, by a perpetual commentary from Aristotle. If any part of the Discoveries were appended as notes, to the translation, it could not be very considerable. What we have now, forms, I believe, but a small part of the original matter; consisting of occasional recollections only, set down, as they occurred, and several of them evidently of a late date. The translation itself, perhaps, is not what it was at first; for the two copies of it which have reached us, and which may be only transcripts of transcripts, differ from each other in numberless instances. Whalley is evidently wrong also in what he says of the Grammar. The perfect copy was destroyed; and all that is come down to us are mere fragments; parts, indeed, of the original materials, but dislocated, and imperfect. |