Now (shame to Fortune!) an ill Run at Play VARIATIONS. Var. Tibbald] Yet this Tibbald, contemptible as he is here represented to be, was assisted in his edition of Shakspeare by Warburton, published in six volumes octavo; and he mentions, as he well might, Warburton's assistance, as a great support of his work. This edition of Tibbald was justly esteemed the best, till those of Malone and Steevens appeared. W. REMARKS. Ver. 109. Bays form'd by nature, &c.] It is hoped the poet here hath done full justice to his Hero's character, which it were a great mistake to imagine was wholly sunk in stupidity: he is allowed to have supported it with a wonderful mixture of Vivacity. This character is heightened according to his own desire, in a Letter he wrote to our author. "Pert and dull at least you might have allowed me. What am I only to be dull, and dull still, and again, and for ever?" He then solemnly appealed to his own conscience, " that he could not think himself so, nor helieve that our Poet did; but that he spoke worse of him than he could possibly think; and concluded it must be merely to shew his Wit, or for some Profit or Lucre for himself." Life of C. C. chap. vii. and Letter to Mr. P. pag. 15. 40. 53. And to shew his claim to what the Poet was so unwilling to allow him, of being pert as well as dull, he declares he will have the last word; which occasioned the following Epigram: Quoth Cibber to Pope, Tho' in verse you foreclose, Poor Colley, thy reas'ning is none of the strongest, For know, the last Word is the Word that lasts longest. W. It is a singular fact in the History of the English Stage, that the very first comedy, acted after the libertine times of the restoration, in which any decency, purity of manners, and respect to the honour of the marriage-bed, were preserved, was this very Cibber's Love's Last Shift. It was received with the greatest applause, particularly the scene of reconcilement in the last act. The candid Abbè d'Olivet in tom. ii, of his pleasing History of the French Academy, page 145, has zealously defended the abilities and character of Chapelain, the Cibber of Boileau. `It was at the desire of Malherbe and Vaugelas that Chapelain Swearing and supperless the Hero sate, 115 Blasphem'd his Gods, the Dice, and damn'd his Fate, Then gnaw'd his Pen, then dash'd it on the ground, Sinking from thought to thought, a vast profound! Plung❜d for his sense, but found no bottom there, Yet wrote and flounder'd on, in mere despair. 120 Round him much Embryo, much Abortion lay, Much future Ode, and abdicated Play; VARIATIONS. Ver. 121. Round him much Embryo, &c.] In the former Editions thus, He roll'd his eyes that witness'd huge dismay, IMITATIONS. Var. He roll'd his eyes that witness'd huge dismay,] "round he throws his eyes, W. That witness'd huge affliction and dismay." Milt. b. i. The progress of a bad poet in his thoughts being (like the progress of the Devil in Milton) through a Chaos, might probably suggest this imitation. W. REMARKS. wrote the famous preface to the Adone of Marino. And it was he who corrected the very first composition of Racine, whose Ode to the new Queen introduced him to Colbert, and procured him a pension. And it is remarkable, that Chapelain should be the person who first pointed out to Cardinal Richelieu, and the poets whom he employed, the necessity of observing the Three Unities in a drama. It is observable that Boileau at first had introduced Pelletier into his satires; and afterward inserted the name of Collitet, in lines inapplicable to the latter. So unlucky were both these great poets, in the changes they made of the objects of their satire! Nonsense precipitate, like running Lead, That slipp'd thro' Cracks and Zig-zags of the Head'; Fruits of dull Heat, and Sooterkins of Wit. In pleasing memory of all he stole, 125 How here he sipp'd, how there he plunder'd snug, There hapless Shakspeare, yet of Tibbald sore, REMARKS. Ver. 118. Sinking from thought] From Lord Rochester on man, "Stumbling from thought to thought." Ver. 125. All that on Folly]" To dwell too much on the Follies, Blunders, and Blemishes, of bad and despicable Dunces (says Plutarch with his usual humanity), reminds one of Philip's project of collecting together all the most abandoned and incorrigible villains he could find, to people a new city which he had built, and called Poneropolis." Ver. 129. How here he sipp'd,] Congreve borrowed much from Ben Jonson (of whom he was remarkably fond), particularly the character of Bluff, and the first scene of the fifth Act of the Way of the World, betwixt Lady Wishfort and her Maid Foible; where she minutely describes her former way of life, and upbraids her for ingratitude, evidently from the scene betwixt the two sharpers, Subtle and Face, in the Alchymist. Ver. 131. poor Fletcher's half-eat scenes,] A great number of them taken out to patch up his plays. Wns of mouw song Ver. 132. The Frippery] When I fitted up an old play, it was as a good housewife will mend old linen, when she has not better employment." Life, p. 217, OctavogunWord or loob sman Ver. 133. hapless Shakspeare, &c.] It is not to be doubted but Bays was a subscriber to Tibbald's Shakspeare. He was fre The rest on Out-side merit but presume, Or serve (like other Fools) to fill a room; 135 And Quarles is sav'd by Beauties not his own. 140 REMARKS. quently liberal this way; and, as he tells us, "subscribed to Mr. Pope's Homer, out of pure Generosity and Civility; but when Mr. Pope did so to his Nonjuror, he concluded it could be nothing but a joke." Letter to Mr. P. p. 24: This Tibbald, or Theobald, published an edition of Shakspeare, of which he was so proud himself as to say, in one of Mist's Journals, June 8, "That to expose any errors in it was impracticable." And in another, April 27, " That whatever care might for the future be taken by any other Editor, he would still give above five hundred Emendations, that shall escape them all." W. Ver. 134. Wish'd he had blotted] It was a ridiculous praise which the Players gave to Shakspeare, "that he never blotted a line." Ben Jonson honestly wished he had blotted a thousand; and Shakspeare would certainly have wished the same, if he had lived to see those alterations in his works, which, not the Actors only (and especially the daring Hero of this Poem) have made on the Stage, but the presumptuous Critics of our days in their Editions. W. Ver. 135. The rest on Out-side merit, &c.] This Library is divided into three parts; the first consists of those authors from whom he stole, and whose works he mangled; the second, of such as fitted the shelves, or were gilded for show, or adorned with pictures; the third class our author calls solid learning, old Bodies of Divinity, old Commentaries, old English Printers, or old English Translations; all very voluminous, and fit to erect altars to Dulness. W. These six lines are below the usual vein of our author; and the note upon them is véry forced and unnatural. The prints in Ogilby's China, many of them by Hollar, atone for the page. Dryden used to say that Quarles excelled him in a facility of rhyming. Here swells the shelf with Ogilby the great; There, stamp'd with arms, Newcastle shines complete: REMARKS. Ver. 141. Ogilby the great ;] "John Ogilby was one who, from a late initiation into literature, made such a progress as might well style him the prodigy of his time! sending into the world so many large volumes! His translations of Homer and Virgil done to the life, and with such excellent sculptures: and (what added great grace to his works) he printed them all on special good paper, and in a very good letter." Winstanly, Lives of Poets. W. Ver. 142. There, stamp'd, &c.] "A list of her works, which fill many folios (says Mr. Walpole), here follows: 1 "The World's Olio.-Nature's Picture drawn by Fancy's pencil to the life. In this volume (says the title) are several feigned stories of natural descriptions, as comical, tragical, and tragi-comical, poetical romantical, philosophical, and historical, &c. &c. Lond. 1656. folio. One may guess how like this portrait of Nature is, by the fantastic bill of the features.Orations of divers sorts, accommodated to divers places. Lond. 1662. folio.-Plays. Lond. 1662.-Philosophical and Physical Opinions. Lond. 1663. folio.-Observations upon Experimental Philosophy; to which is added, the Description of a New World. Lond. 1668. folio. One Mr. James Bristow began to translate some part of these philosophic discourses into Latin.-Philosophical Letters. Lond. 1664. folio.-Poems and Phancies. Lond. 1664. folio.--Sociable Letters. Lond. 1664.1 folio. The Life of the Duke her husband, &c. Lond. 1667. folio. It was translated into Latin.-Plays never before printed. Lond. 1668. folio." Her plays alone are nineteen in number, and some of them in two parts. One of them, The Blazing World, is unfinished, her Grace (which seems never else to have happened to her) finding her genius not tend to the prosecution of it. To another, called The Presence, are nine-and-twenty supernumerary scenes. In another, The Unnatural Tragedy, is a whole IMITATIONS. Ver. 140. In the former Ed. The page admires new beauties not it's own.] Miraturque novas frondes et non sua poma." |