Shall call the winds thro' long arcades to roar, 35 Proud to catch cold at a Venetian door; NOTES. thefe ftupendous maffes, deemed fo abfurd by men accustomed to the apparent as well as real strength of Grecian Architecture. Had it been only a wanton exercise of the Artist's fkill, to fhew he could give real strength without the appearance of any, we might indeed admire his fuperior science, but we must needs condemn his ill judgment. But when one confiders, that this furprizing lightness was neceffary to complete the execution of his idea of a Sylvan place of worfhip, one cannot fufficiently admire the ingenuity of the con trivance. This too will account for the contrary qualities in what I call the Saxon Architecture. These artists copied, as has been faid, from the churches in the Holy Land, which were built on the models of the Grecian Architecture; but corrupted by prevailing barbarifm; and ftill further depraved by a religious idea. The first places of Chriftian worship were Sepulchres and fubterraneous caverns, low and heavy from neceffity. When Chriftianity became the Religion of the State, and fumptuous Temples began to be erected, they yet, in regard to the firft pious ages, preferved the maffive Style: made ftill more venerable by the Church of the holy Sepulchre; where this style was, on a double account, followed and aggravated. Such as is here defcribed was GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. And it would be no difcredit to the warmest admirers of Jones and Palladio to acknowledge it has its merit. They muft at leaft confefs it had a nobler birth, though an humbler fortune, than the GREEK and ROMAN ARCHITECTURE.— The Reader may fee Sir Chriftopher Wren's account of this matter from fome papers of his, published fince the printing this, in a book called Parentalia, pag. 273-297-306-7-8 -355, and then judge for himself. VER. 30. Turn Arcs of Triumph to a Garden-gate;] This abfurdity feems to have arifen from an injudicious imitation of what thefe Builders might have heard of, at the entrance of the antient Gardens of Rome : But they do Conscious they act a true Palladian part, And if they starve, they starve by rules of art. COMMENTARY. VER. 39. Oft have you hinted to your brother Peer, and in this artful manner begins the body of the Epiftle. I. The first part of it (from Ver. 38 to 99.) delivers rules for attaining to the MAGNIFICENT in juft expence; which is the fame in Building and Planting, that the SUBLIME is in Painting and Poetry; and, confequently, the qualities neceffary for the attainment of both must be analogous. 1. The first and fundamental, he shews (from Ver. 38 to 47.) to be SENSE; "Good Senfe, which only is the gift of Heav'n; "And tho' no Science, fairly worth the feven." And for that reafon; not only as it is the foundation and parent of them all, and the conftant regulator and director NOTES. not confider, that those were public Gardens, given to the people by fome great man after a triumph; to which, therefore, Arcs of this kind were very fuitable ornaments. VER. 36. Proud to catch cold at a Venetian door.] In the foregoing inftances, the Poet expofes the abfurd imitation of foreign and difcordant manners in public buildings; here he turns to the ftill greater abfurdity of taking their models. from a difcordant climate, in their private: which folly, he fuppofes, may be more easily redressed, as men will be fooner brought to feel for themselves than to fee for the public. Something there is more needful than Expence, To build, to plant, whatever you intend, COMMENTARY. of their operations, or, as the Poet better expresses it,-of every art the foul; but likewife as it alone can, in case of need, very often fupply the offices of every one of them. VER. 47. To build, to plant, &c.] 2. The next quality, for dignity and ufe, is TASTE, and but the next: For, as the Poet truly obferves, there is—fomething previous ev'n to Tafte tis Senfe; and this in the order of things: For Senfe is a taste and true conception of Nature; and Tafte is a sense or true conception of beautiful Nature; but we must first know the effences of things, before we can judge truly of their qualities: The bufinefs of Tafte, therefore, in the pursuit of magnificence, is, as the Poet fhews us (from Ver. 46 to 65.) 1. (to Ver. 51.) To catch or lay hold on Nature, where the appears moft in her charms. 2. (to Ver. 57.) To adorn her, when taken, as best suits her dignity and quality; that is, to drefs her in the light and modest habit of a Virgin, not load her with the gaudy ornaments of a Prostitute. This rule obferved, will prevent a tranfgreffion in the following, which is, not to let all her beauties be seen at once, but in fucceffion; for that advantage is infeparable from a graceful and welldreffed perfon. 3. (to Ver. 65.) To take care that the or NOTES. VER. 46. Inigo Jones the celebrated Architect, and Mr. Le Nôtre, the defigner of the beft Gardens of France. P. To fwell the Terras, or to fink the Grot; But treat the Goddess like a modest fair, Nor over-dress, nor leave her wholly bare ; 50 COMMENTARY. naments be well directed to that part, which it is your purpose to adorn; and, as in dreffing out a modeft Fair (which is the Poet's own comparison) the colours are fuited to her complexion; the ftuff, to the proportion of her perfon; and the fashion, to her air and fhape; fo in ornamenting a Villa, the rife or fall of waters fhould correspond to its acclivities or declivities; the artificial hills or vales to its cover or expofure; and the manner of calling in the country, to the difpofition of its afpect. But again, as in the illustration, whatever be the variety in colour, ftuff, or fashion, they must still be fo fuited with refpect to one another, as to produce an agreement and harmony in their affemblage: fo woods, waters, mountains, vales, and viftas, muft, amidst all their diversity, be fo difpofed with a relation to each other, as to create a perfect fymmetry refulting from the whole; and this, the Genius of NOTES. VER. 53. Let not each beauty ev'ry where be spy'd.] For when the fame beauty obtrudes itself upon you over and over; when it meets you full at whatever place you stop, or to whatever point you turn, then Nature lofes her proper charms of a modeft fair; and you begin to hate and naufeate her as a prostitute. VER. 54. Where half the skill is decently to hide.] If the Poet was right in comparing the true dress of Nature to that of a modeft fair, it is a plain confequence, that one half of the defigner's art muft be, decently to hide; as the other half is gracefully to difcover, He gains all points, who pleasingly confounds, 55 Surprizes, varies, and conceals the Bounds. Confult the Genius of the Place in all; That tells the Waters or to rise, or fall ; COMMENTARY. the place, when religiously confulted, will never fail to inform us of; who, as the Poet fays, "Now breaks, or now directs, th' intending lines; "Paints as you plant, and, as you work, defigns.” And this is a full and complete defcription of the office of Tafte. NOTES. VER. 57. Confult the Genius of the Place, &c. to defigns, Ver. 64.] The perfonalizing or rather deifying the Genius of the place, in order to be confulted as an Oracle, has produced one of the nobleft and most fublime descriptions of Design, that Poetry could exprefs. Where this Genius, while prefiding over the work, is reprefented by little and little, as advancing from a fimple advifer, to a creator of all the beauties of improved Nature, in a variety of bold metaphors and alJufions, all rifing one above another, till they complete the unity of the general idea. First, the Genius of the place tells the waters, or only fimply gives directions: Then he helps th' ambitious bill, or is a fellow labourer: Then again he Scoops the circling Theatre, or works alone, or in chief. Afterwards, rifing faft in our idea of dignity, he calls in the country, alluding to the orders of princes in their progrefs, when accuftomed to difplay all their ftate and magnificence: His character then grows facred, he jains willing woods, a metaphor taken from one of the offices of the priesthood; till at length, he becomes a Divinity, and creates and prefides over the whole : |