115. A man of business won't 'till evening dine, &c.] Qui studet optatam cursu contingere metam, Multa tulit fecitque puer, sudavit et alsit; Abstinuit venere et vino. Nunc satis est dixisse, Ego mira poemata pango; '' ibid. From Fig's new theatre he'll miss a night,] Fig was the great man of his day; or in other words, the Humphries and Mendoza in one. ibid. The man that has both land and money too, May wonders in a trading borough do: &c.] Assentatores jubet ad lucrum ire Poeta -si carmina condes, Numquam te fallant animi sub volpe latentes. 116. Alderman Pond, a downright honest man,] Quinctilio si quid recitares, Corrige, sodes, Hoc, aiebat, et hoc melius te posse negares; : Bis terque expertum frustra: delere jubebat, * * * * Si defendere delictum, quam vertere malles ; 116. Leave you of mighty interest to brag, And poll two voices like Sir Robert Fag.] Sir R. Fag represented the Borough of Steyning, 1734, but where, or when, the circumstance here referred to happened, we have not been able to discover. ibid. Parliamenteering is a sort of itch,] Ut mala quem scabies aut morbus regius urget, Nec semel hoc fecit, nec si retractus erit, jam Indoctum doctumque fugat recitator acerbus; EPISTLE XI. Page 118. The Author of this Epistle was the only son of Edward Stillingfleet, a clergyman in Norfolk, and grandson to the Bishop of Worcester. He was educated at Norwich school, and leaving it in 1720, went to Trinity College Cambridge, where Dr. Bentley, who had been private tutor to his father, was Master. After taking his batchelor's degree, he became a `candidate for a fellowship: but, through the influence of Dr. Bentley, was rejected. On this diappointment, he left Cambridge, and travelled with Mr. Wyndham, to whom he inscribed this Epistle, and with whom he lived in the most intimate and unreserved friendship. Through the favor of the late Lord Barrington, he was appointed master of the barracks at Kensington, a place which enabled him to pursue his studies, and particularly Natural History, his favorite, with success. He died a batchelor, in the year 1771, upwards of seventy, and was buried in Saint James's church. Besides his "Tracts" and "Treatise on Music," several of his productions have been published; whilst others still remain in manuscript, which no less deserve to be known. 120. When Maevius, spite of dullness, will be bright, And teach Argyll to speak] John Duke of Argyll, who was equally celebrated as a statesman, a warrior, and an orator. 125. CLINIAS' son] Alcibiades. 129. So Ripley, till his destin'd space is fill'd, Heaps bricks on bricks, and fancies 'tis to build.] "Ripley," says Pope, "was a carpenter, employ'd by a first minister, who raised him to an architect, without any genius in the art; and after some wretched proofs of his insufficiency in public buildings, made him Comptroller to the Board of Works.' Note to Moral Essays, Ep. 1v. 1. 18. 130. As good hear Bentley dictate on epistles,] See Bentley on the Epistles of Phalaris. 130. Or Burman comment on the Grecian whistles ;] Peter Burman, a celebrated Dutch Commentator, whose laborious and minute investigations are too well known to be particularly specified. 135. Ctesipho. Nor imitate that resolute old fool, Who undertook to kick against his mule.] 136. Could Bailey's self more tenderness have shown] Nathan Bailey, compiler of both a Latin and an English Dictionary. 137. Visions of devils into monkeys turn'd,] St. Dominic, vide Jansenius (Nic.) ibid. Bottles of precious tears that saints have wept,] Of our Saviour and others, vide Ferrand. ibid. And breath a thousand years in phials kept ;] Of Joseph, vide Molinaeum. ibid. Sun-beams sent down to prop one friar's staff,] St. Cathro's, vide Colganum. ibid. And hell broke loose to make another laugh ;] St, Anthony. gathered those that dropt from him, and put them in their place again, vide Acta Sanctorum. |
