A waving Glow the bloomy beds display,
Blushing in bright diversities of day,

With filver-quiv'ring rills mæander'd o'er--- 85
Enjoy them, you! Villario, can no more;
Tir'd of the scene Parterres and Fountains yield,
He finds at last he better likes a Field.

Thro' his young Woods how pleas'd Sabinus
ftray'd,

Or fat delighted in the thick'ning fhade,

With annual joy the red'ning fhoots to greet,
Or fee the stretching branches long to meet!

NOTE S.

90

and fympathy for each other: But nothing but time cap unite and incorporate their tints:

"And ftrength of Shade contends with ftrength of Light."

And now the work becomes a very picture; which the Poet informs us of, in the fublime way of poetical inftruction, by fetting that picture before our eyes; and not merely a picture, but a perfect picture, in which the lights and fhades, not only bear a proportion to one another in their force (which is implied in the word contends) but are both at their height (which the word frength fignifies.) As the use of the fingular number, in the terms Shade and Light, alludes to another precept of the art; that not only the fhades and lights fhould be great and broad, but that the maffes of the clair-obfcure, in a group of objects, fhould be fo managed, by a fubordination of the groupes to the unity of defign, as that the whole together may afford one great fhade and light.

VER. 84. Blufbing in bright diverfities of day,] i. e. The feveral colours of the grove in bloom, give feveral different, tints to the lights and fhades.

1

His Son's fine Taste an op❜ner Vista loves,

Foe to the Dryads of his Father's groves;

96

One boundless Green, or flourish'd Carpet views,
With all the mournful family of Yews;
The thriving plants, ignoble broomsticks made,
Now sweep thofe Alleys they were born to shade.
At Timon's Villa let us pafs a day,

Where all cry out, "What fums are thrown 66 away !"

COMMENTARY.

II.

100

VER. 99. At Timon's Villa, &c.] As the first part ended with expofing the works of Tafle without fenfe, the fecond be

NOTES.

VER. 94. Foe to the Dryads of his Father's groves;] Finely intimating, by this fublime claffical image, that the Father's tafte was enthufiaftical; in which paffion there is always fomething great and noble; though it be too apt, in its flights, to leave fenfe behind it: and this was the good man's cafe. But his Son's was a poor defpicable fuperftition, a low fombrous paffion, whofe perversity of Tafte could only gratify itself.

"With all the mournful family of Yews."

VER. 95. The two extremes in parterres, which are equally faulty; a boundless Green, large and naked as a field, or a flourish'd Carpet, where the greatnefs and nobleness of the piece is leffened by being divided into too many parts, with fcroll'd works and beds, of which the examples are frequent.

P.

VER. 96.-mournful family of Yews;] Touches upon the ill tafte of those who are fo fond of Ever-greens (particularly Yews, which are the most tonfile) as to deftroy the nobler Forest-trees, to make way for fuch little ornaments as Pyramids of dark-green continually repeated, not unlike a Funeral proceffion. P.

VER. 99. At Timon's Villa] This defcription is intended

So proud, fo grand; of that stupendous air,
Soft and Agreeable come never there.
Greatness, with Timon, dwells in fuch a draught
As brings all Brobdignag before your thought.
To compafs this, his building is a Town, 105
His pond an Ocean, his parterre a Down:
Who but must laugh, the Mafter when he fees,
A puny insect, shiv'ring at a breeze!

COMMENTARY,

gins with a defcription (from Ver. 98 to 173.) of falfe magnificence WITHOUT EITHER SENSE OR TASTE, in the gardens, buildings, table furniture, library, and way of living of Lord Timen; who, in none of thefe, could diftinguish be tween greatness and vaftnefs; between regularity and form; between dignity and ftate; or between learning and pedantry. But what then? fays the Poet, refuming here the great principle of his Philofophy (which thefe moral Epiftles were written to illuftrate, and confequently on which they are all regulated) tho'

"Heav'n vifits with a Taste the wealthy Fool,

"And needs no Rod

yet the punishment is confined as it ought; and the evil is turned to the benefit of others: For

hence the Poor are cloath'd, the Hungry fed; Health to himfelf, and to his Infants bread, "The Lab'rer bears; what his hard heart denies, His charitable vanity fupplies."

NOTES.

to comprize the principles of a falfe Tafte of Magnificence, and to exemplify what was faid before, that nothing but Good Senfe can attain it. P.

VER. 104.-all Brobdignag] A region of giants, in the fa tires of Gulliver.

Lo, what huge heaps of littleness around!
The whole, a labour'd Quarry above ground. 110
Two Cupids squirt before: a Lake behind
Improves the keenness of the Northern wind.
His Gardens next your admiration call,

On ev'ry fide you look, behold the Wall!
No pleasing Intricacies intervene,

No artful wildness to perplex the scene;

115

Grove nods at grove, each Alley has a brother, And half the platform just reflects the other. The fuff'ring eye inverted Nature fees,

Trees cut to Statues, Statues thick as trees; 120

NOTES.

VER. 109. Lo, what huge heaps of littleness around!] Grandeur in building, as in the human frame, does not take its denomination from the body, but the foul of the work: when the foul therefore is loft or incumbered in its invelope, the unanimated parts, how huge foever, are not members of grandeur, but mere heaps of littleness.

VER. 117, 118. Grove nods at grove, each Alley has a brother, And half the platform juft reflects the other.] This is exactly the two puddings of the citizen, in the foregoing fable, only ferved up a little more magnificently: But both on the fame abfurd principle of wrong tafte, viz. That one can never have too much of a good thing.

Ibid. Grove nods at grove, &c.] The exquifite humour of this expreffion arifes folely from its fignificancy. These groves, that have no meaning, but very near relationship, can exprefs themselves only like twin-ideots by nods;

-nutant ad mutua Palmæ

Fœdera

With here a Fountain, never to be play'd;

And there a Summer-house, that knows no fhade;
Here Amphitrite fails thro' myrtle bow'rs;
There Gladiators fight, or die in flow'rs;
Unwater'd see the drooping fea-horse mourn,
And swallows rooft in Nilus' dufty Urn.

126

My Lord advances with majestic mien, Smit with the mighty pleasure, to be seen: But foft---by regular approach---not yet--First thro' the length of yon hot Terrace sweat; And when up ten deep flopes you've drag'd your thighs,

131

Juft at his Study-door he'll blefs your eyes. His Study! with what Authors is it stor❜d? In Books, not Authors, curious is my Lord;

NOTES.

as the Poet fays, which juft ferves to let us understand, that they know one another, as having been nurfed, and brought up by one common parent.

VER. 124. The two Statues of the Gladiator pugnans and Gladiator moriens.

P.

VER. 130. The Approaches and Communication of house with garden, or one part with another, ill-judged, and in

convenient. P.

VER. 133. His Study! &c.] The falfe Tafte in Books; a fatire on the vanity in collecting them, more frequent in men of Fortune than the study to understand them. Many delight chiefly in the elegance of the print, or of the binding; fome have carried it fo far, as to cause the upper fhelves to be filled with painted books of wood; others pique themselves fo much upon books in a language they do not understand, as to exclude the moft ufeful in one they do. P.