Superior to the original, on account of the lively and unexpected satire at the end of each of the two first lines; a high improvement of Cupido mihi pacis.

10. Cervius iratus leges minitatur & urnam;

Canidia Albutî, quibus est inimica, venenum ;
Grande malum Turius, si quid se judice certas*.

Slander or poison dread from Delia's rage;
Hard words, or hanging, if your judge be Page.†

It is difficult to say which passage is the more spirited. But what follows in Pope,

Its proper power to hurt each creature feels,

is inferior to

utque

Imperet hoc natura potens, sic collige mecum.
Dente lupus, cornu taurus petit; unde nisi intus
Monstratum ?+-

* Ver. 46.

† Ver. 81.

Ver. 51.

But

But then again these two lines,

So drink with Walters, or with Chartres eat;
They'll never poison you; they'll only cheat,*

is expressed with an archness, and a dryness, beyond the original, that follows:

Scævæ vivacem crede nepoti

Matrem; nil faciet sceleris pia dextera (mirum
Ut neque calce lupus quemquam, nec dente petit bos)
Sed mala tollet anum vitiato melle cicuta.†

11. Ne longum faciam: seu me tranquilla senectus
Expectat, seu mors atris circumvolat alis ;
Dives, inops; Romæ, seu fors ita jusserit exul;
Quisquis erit vitæ scribam color.

Then, learned Sir! (to cut the matter short,)
Whate'er my fate, or well or ill at court;
Whether old age, with faint, but chearful, ray,
Attends to gild the ev'ning of my day;
Or death's black wing already be display'd,
To wrap me in the universal shade;

Whether the darken'd rooms to muse invite,
Or whiten❜d wall provoke the skewer to write;
In durance, exile, Bedlam, or the Mint,
Like Lee or Budgell, I will rhyme and print.§

The

* Ver. 89.

+ Ver. 53. + Ver. 54. § Ver. 91.

The brevity and force of the original is evaporated in this long and feeble paraphrase. The third, and three succeeding lines, are languid and verbose, and some of the worst he has written.

12.

Quid cum est Lucilius ausus

Primus in hunc operis componere carmina morem,
Detrahere & pellem, nitidus quà quisque per ora
Cederet, introrsum turpis.*—

What? arm'd for virtue when I point the pen,
Brand the bold front of shameless guilty men,
Dash the proud gamester from his gilded car,
Bare the mean heart, that lurks beneath a star;
Can there be wanting, to defend her cause,
Lights of the Church, or guardians of the laws?†

That strain I heard was of a higher mood,—

Our au

than the original pretends to assume. thor's Horace differs as much from his original as does his Homer; yet both will be always read with great pleasure and applause.

13. Could pension'd Boileau lash, in honest strain
Flatt'rers and bigots ev'n in Louis' reign ?§

BOILEAU

* Ver. 64.

+ Ver. 105.

Milton's Lycidas, 87.

§ Ver. 111.

BOILEAU acted with much caution and circumspection, when he first published his Lutrin, here alluded to; and endeavoured to cover and conceal his subject, by a preface intended to mislead his reader from the real scene of action; which preface is mentioned in the first volume of this Essay, page 214; but it ought to be observed, that he afterwards, in the year 1683, threw aside this disguise; openly avowing the occasion that gave rise to the poem, the scene of which was not Bourges, or Pourges, as before he had said, but Paris itself; the quarrel he celebrated being betwixt the Treasurer* and the Chanter of the Holy Chapel in that city. canons were so far from being offended, that they shewed their good sense and good temper by joining in the laugh. Upon which Boileau compliments them, and adds, that many of that society were persons of so much wit and learning, that he would as soon consult them upon

The

his

works,

* His name was Barrin; that of the Treasurer was Claude Auvri, Bishop of Coutance, in Normandy. The quarrel began in July, 1667. See Letters of Brossette to Boileau. A Lyon. 1770. Page 242, v. 1.

works, as the members of the French Aca

demy.*

14. Quin ubi se a vulgo & scenâ in secreta remorânt
Virtus Scipiadæ & mitis sapientia Læli,

Nugari cum illo, & discincti ludere, donec
Decoqueretur olus, soliti

There my retreat the best companions grace;
Chiefs out of war, and statesmen out of place:
There St. John mingles with my friendly bowl,
The feast of reason, and the flow of soul:

And he, whose lightning pierc'd th' Iberian lines,
Now forms my quincunx, and now ranks my vines,
Or tames the genius of the stubborn plain,

Almost as quickly as he conquer'd Spain.

I know not whether these lines, spirited and splendid as they are, give us more pleasure than the natural picture of the great Scipio and Lælius, unbending themselves from their high § occupations, and descending to common, and

even

* Oeuvres de M. Boileau Despreaux, par M. de Saint Marc. Tom. ii. 177, Paris, 1747.

† Ver. 71.

Ver. 125.

Whose character is finely touched by that sweet expres

sion, mitis sapientia.