CHARACTER OF ADDISON. A man's true merit is not hard to find; And own'd that nine such poets made a Tate. How did they fume, and stamp, and roar, and chafe, And swear not Addison himself was safe. Peace to all such! But were there one whose fires True genius kindles, and fair fame inspires; Like Cato, give his little senate laws, While wits and templars every sentence raise, 12 Each man's secret standard in his mind, (That casting-weight pride adds to emptiness) This, who can gratify? for who can guess? Exquisite discernment, as exquisitely expressed. This is the whole secret of arrogance, and (in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred) of ordinary sullenness and exaction. The standard is invisible, and no arbiter is allowed. 13 The bard whom pilfer'd pastorals renown, This was Ambrose Philips, a man of genius, whose half-jesting, half-serious poems in short verses were of a delicacy not sufficiently appreciated; and whose mistake in pastoral writing was, at all events, not so bad as Pope's, who never forgave the superiority awarded to him in that direction by Steele and others. What is meant by the pastorals being “pilfered," I forget; if that they were imitated from Spenser and others, Pope's may be said to have been all pilfered from classical commonplaces. The accusation of the half-crown is, of course, not true; and if it were, would be no disgrace but to the accuser and the bookseller. Suppose Philips had described Pope as the man Who turns a page of Greek for eighteen-pence! The tales here alluded to were the delightful Persian Tales, translated from the French of Petit de la Croix. They are of genuine Eastern origin, and worthy brothers of the enchanting Arabian Nights. 14 Who would not weep, if Atticus were he.—It is well known and obvious that this character of Atticus was meant for Addison. A doubt has existed whether Pope was right in supposing Addison to have been jealous; and perhaps he was not: but the coldness, reserve, and management, in the disposition of the lord of Button's Coffee-house, not unnaturally gave rise to the suspicion : and the exquisite expression of the language in which it is conveyed has all the eloquence of belief. CHARACTER OF THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM. Behold what blessings wealth to life can lend, And see what comfort it affords our end. In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half hung, 15 Great Villiers lies-alas! how chang'd from him, Of mimick'd statesmen, and their merry king. No fool to laugh at, which he valued more. 15 In the worst inn's worst room, &c.—It is a pity that Pope wrote this character of Buckingham after Dryden's; for, though celebrated and worth repeating, it is very inferior, and, in the details, of very questionable truth. In fact, the superlative way of talking throughout it (the "worst inn's worst room," "the introduction of the "George and Garter," &c.) is in a manifest spirit of exaggeration, and defeats the writer's object. A gentleman of the Fairfax connexion, who was a retainer of the Duke's, and wrote a memoir of him, says that he died in his own house. CHARACTER OF THE DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH. But what are these to great Atossa's mind? 16 No thought advances, but her eddy brain, live : To heirs unknown descends th' unguarded store, 16 Great Atossa's mind. The Duchess of Marlborough, widow of the great Duke,-famous for her ambition and arbitrary temper, and the ascendency which she lost over Queen Anne. |