Weakness or Delicacy; all fo nice, That each may feem a Virtue, or a Vice. In Men, we various Ruling Paffions find; In Women, two almost divide the kind; Thofe, only fix'd, they first or last obey, 205 The Love of Pleasure, and the Love of Sway. 210 Men, VARIATIONS. VER. 207. in the first Edition, In fev'ral Men, we fev'ral Paffions find; NOTES. being bred to difguife: but if we confider that female education is the art of teaching, not to be, but to appear, we fhall have no rea fon to find fault with the exactnefs of the expreffion. WARBURTON. VER. 207. The former part having fhewn, that the particular Characters of Women are more various than thofe of Men, it is nevertheless obferved, that the general Characteristic of the fex, as to the ruling Paffion, is more uniform. POPE. VER. 208. In Women, two] I cannot think our Author would fuffer by a minute comparison of this Epiftle with the most shining and applauded morfels of the tenth fatire of Boileau, which undoubtedly are his portraits of the affected female Pedant, ver. 439. The Gamefter, ver. 215. His Jealous Lady, ver. 378. The Haughty Lady of Family, ver. 470. And above all, what Boileau himself valued moft, the Devout Lady and her Director, ver. 558. Boileau was feverely attacked for this Epiftle by Perrault; but was powerfully defended by the great Arnauld, a rigid moralift, and alfo by La Bruyere. WARTON. VER 211. This is occafioned partly by their Nature, partly by their Education, and in fome degree by Neceffity. POPE. Men, fome to Bus'nefs, fome to Pleasure take; But ev'ry Woman is at heart a Rake: Men, fome to Quiet, fome to public Strife; 216 But ev'ry Lady would be Queen for life. Yet mark the fate of a whole Sex of Queens! Beauties, like Tyrants, old and friendlefs grown, Worn out in public, weary ev'ry eye, 220 225 Nor leave one figh behind them when they die. 230 Pleasures NOTES. VER. 216. But ev'ry Woman is at heart a Rake:] This line has given offence: but in behalf of the Poet we may observe, that what he says amounts only to this, "Some men take to business, fome to pleasure; but every woman would willingly make pleasure her bufinefs;" which being the proper periphrafis of a Rake, he ufes that word, but of courfe includes in it no more of the Rake's ill qualities than is implied in this definition, of one who makes pleafure his business. WARBURTON. VER. 219. What are the Aims and the Fate of this fex.-I. As to Power. POPE. VER. 229. Worn out in public,] Copied from Young, Satire 5. written eight years before this Epiftle appeared; "Worn in the public eye, give cheap delight To throngs, and tarnish to the fated fight." WARTON. Pleasures the fex, as children Birds, pursue, It 235 At laft, to follies Youth could scarce defend, See how the World its Veterans rewards! A Youth of Frolics, an old Age of Cards; 240 NOTES. Fair VER. 231.-II. As to Pleasure. РОРЕ. VER. 234. To covet flying,] It is impoffible not to recollect the witty fimile of Young, Sat. 5. “Pleasures are few, and fewer we enjoy ; Pleasure, like quickfilver, is bright and coy; WARTON. VER. 244. A Youth of Frolics,] The antithefis, so remarkably ftrong in thefe lines, was a very favourite figure with our Poet: he has indeed used it but in too many parts of his Works; nay, even in his translation of the Iliad, where it ought not to have been admitted, and which Dryden has but rarely used in his Virgil. Our Author feldom writes many words together without an antithefis. It must be allowed fometimes, to add ftrength to a fentiment by an oppofition of images: but, too frequently repeated, it becomes tirefome and difgufting. Rhyme has almoit a natural Fair to no purpose, artful to no end, Young without Lovers, old without a Friend; Alive, ridiculous; and dead, forgot! Ah! Friend! to dazzle let the Vain defign; 245 To raise the Thought, and touch the Heart, be 66 a natural tendency to betray a writer into it but the puret authors have defpifed it, as an ornament pert and puerile, and epigrammatic. Seneca, Pliny, Tacitus, and later authors, abound in it. Quintilian has fometimes ufed it with much fuccefs, as when he speaks of ftyle; magna, non nimia; fublimis, non abrupta; fevera, non triftis; læta, non luxuriofa; plena, non tumida." And fometimes Tully; as, "vicit pudorem libido, timorem audacia, rationem amentia." But thefe writers fall into this mode of speaking but feldom, and do not make it their conAant and general manner. Thofe moderns, who have not acquired a true tafte for the fimplicity of the beft ancients, have generally run into a frequent ufe of point, oppofition, and contraft. They who begin to ftudy painting, are ftruck at firft with the pieces of the most vivid colouring; they are almost ashamed to own that they do not relish and feel the modeft and referved beauties of Raphael. The exact proportion of St. Peter's at Rome occafions it not to appear fo great as it really is. It is the fame in writing; but by degrees we find that Lucan, Martial, Juvenal, Q. Curtius, and Florus, and others of that ftamp, who abound in figures that contribute to the falfe florid, in luxuriant metaphors, in pointed conceits, in lively antithefes, unexpectedly darting forth, are contemptible for the very caufes which once excited our admiration. It is then we relish Terence, Cæfar, and Xenophon. VER. 249. Advice for their true Interest. WARTON. POPE. So when the Sun's broad beam has tir'd the fight, Oh! bleft with Temper, whofe unclouded ray ; 255 260 265 And NOTES. VER. 253. So when the Sun's] There are not, perhaps, in the whole compass of the English language, four lines more exquifitely finished; not a fyllable can be altered for the better; every word feems to be the only proper one that could have been used. So pure and pellucid is the style, "Ut pura nocturno renidet Luna mari!" WARTON. VER. 256. And unobferv'd] Nothing can be more poetical than this imagery, or more artfully conducted. Every epithet is appropriated to heighten the figure, and embellish the verfe. RUFFHEAD. VER. 268. though China fall.] Addifon has touched this fubject with his ufual exquifite humour, in the Lover, No. 10. p. 291. of his Works, 4to. quoting Epictetus. to comfort a lady that labours under this heavy calamity. WARTON. |