To all their dated backs he turns you round; 135 NOTES. 145 VER. 142. The false taste in Mufic, improper to the subjects, as of light airs in churches, often practifed by the organist, &c. P. VER. 142. That fummons you to all the Pride of Pray'r :] This abfurdity is very happily expreffed; Pride, of all human follies, being the first we should leave behind us when we approach the facred altar. But he who could take Meanness for Magnificence, might eafily mistake Humility for Meannefs. VER. 145. And in Painting (from which even Italy is not free) of naked figures in churches, &c. which has obliged fome Popes to put draperies on fome of those of the beft masters. P. VER. 146. Where fprawl the Saints of Verrio or Laguerre,] This was not only faid to deride the indecency and aukward pofition of the figures, but to infinuate the want of dignity in the fubjects. Raphael's pagans, as the devils in Milton, act a nobler part than the Gods and Saints of ordinary poets On gilded clouds in fair expanfion lie, NOTES. and painters. The cartons at Hampton-Court are talked of 'by every body; they have been copied, engraved, and criticifed; and yet fo little ftudied or confidered, that in the nobleft of them, of which likewife more has been faid than of all the reft, we are as much strangers to St. Paul's audience in the Areopagus, as to thofe he preached before at Theffa Ionica or Beroa." .. The story from whence the painter took his fubject is this; "St. Paul came to Athens, was encountered by the Epicurcans and Stoics, taken up by them to the court of Areopagus, before which he made his apology; and "amongst his converts at this time, were Dionyfius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris." On this fimple plan he exercises his invention. Paul is placed on an eminence in the act of speaking, the audience round him in a circle; and a statue of Mars in the front of his temple, denotes the Scene of Action. The first figure has been taken notice of for the force of its expreffion. We fee all the marks of conviction, and refignation to the will of the divine Messenger. But I do not know, that it has been fufpected, that a particular character was here reprefented. And yet the Platonic countenance, and the female attendant, fhew plainly, that the painter defigned DIONYSIUS, whom Ecclefiaftical ftory makes of this fect; and to whom facred history has given this companion. For the woman is DAMARIS, mentioned with him, in the Acts, as a joint convert. Either the Artist mistook his text, and fuppofed her converted with him at this audience; or, what is more likely, he purpofely committed the indecorum of bringing a woman into the Areopagus, the better to mark out his Dionyfius; a character of great fame in the Romish Church, from a mystic voluminous impoftor, who has assumed his titles Next to this PLATONIST of open vifage and extended arms, is a figure deeply collected within himself, immerfed in thought, and ruminating on what he hears. Con To reft, the Cushion and foft Dean invite, Who never mentions Hell to ears polite. 150 NOTES. formable to his ftate, his arms are buried in his garment, and his chin repofing on his bofom; in a word, all his lineaments denote the STOIC; the symbol of which fect was, Ne te quafiveris extra. Adjoining to him is an old man, with a fqualid beard and habit, leaning on his crouch, and turning his eyes upwards on the Apostle; but with a countenance fo four and canine, that one cannot hesitate a moment in pronouncing him a CYNIC. The next that follows, by his elegance of drefs, and placid air of raillery and neglect, betrays the EPICUREAN: As the other which stands close by him, with his finger on his lips, denoting filence, plainly marks out a follower of PYTHAGORAS. After these come a groupe of figures, cavilling in all the rage of difputation, and criticifing the divine Speaker, Thefe plainly defign the ACADEMICS, the genius of whofe fchool was to debate de quolibet ente, and never come to a conclufion. Without the Circle, and behind the principal figures, are a number of young faces, to represent the scholars and disciples of the feveral fects. These are all before the Apostle. Behind him are two other figures: one regarding the Apostle's action, with his face turned upwards; in which the paffions of malicious zeal and difappointed rage are fo ftrongly marked, that we needed not the red bonnet, to fee he was a Jewish Rabbi. The other is a pagan priest, full of anxiety for the danger of the established Worship. Thus has this great Master, in order to heighten the digpity of his fubject, brought in the heads of every fect of philofophy and religion which were most averfe to the principles, and moft oppofed to the fuccefs of the Gospel; fo that one may truly efteem this carton as the greatest effort of his divine genius. VER. 146. Verrio or Laguerre.] Verrio (Antonio) painted many ceilings, &c. at Windfor, Hampton-Court, &c. and Laguerre at Blenheim-castle, and other places. But hark! the chiming Clocks to dinner call A hundred footsteps scrape the marble Hall: The rich Buffet well-colour'd Serpents grace, And gaping Tritons spew to wash your face. NOTES. VER. 150. Who never mentions Hell to ears polite.] This is a fact; a reverend Dean preaching at Court, threatened the finner with punishment in "a place which he thought it not "decent to name in so polite an affembly." P. VER. 153. Taxes the incongruity of Ornaments, (though fometimes practifed by the ancients) where an open mouth ejects the water into a fountain, or where the fhocking images of ferpents, &c. are introduced into Grotto's or Buffets. P. VER. 153. The rich Buffet well-colour'd Serpents grace,] The circumstance of being well-colour'd fhews this ornament not only to be very abfurd, but very odious too; and has a peculiar beauty, as, in one inftance of falfe Tafte, viz. an injudicious choice in imitation, he gives (in the epithet employed) the fuggeftion of another, which is an injudicious manner of it. For those difagreeable objects which, when painted, give pleasure; if coloured after nature, in relief, become fhocking; as a toad, or a dead carcafe in wax-work: yet these things are the delight of all people of bad Tafte. However, the Ornament itself pretends to fcience, and would juftify its use by antiquity; though it betrays the most miserable ignorance of it. The Serpent, amongst the ancients, was facred, and full of venerable myfteries. Now things do not excite ideas, fo much according to their own natural impreffions, as by fictitious ones, arifing from foreign and accidental combinations; confequently the view of this animal raifed in them nothing of that abhorrence which it is wont to do in us; but on the contrary, very agreeable fenfations, correfpondent to thofe foreign affociations. Hence, and more especially, because the Serpent was the peculiar Symbol of health, it became an extreme proper ornament to the genial rooms of the antients. In the mean time, we who are strangers to all this Is this a dinner? this a Genial room? No, 'tis a Temple, and a Hecatomb. A folemn Sacrifice, perform'd in state, NOTES. 155 fuperftition, yet make ourselves liable to one much more abfurd, which is idolizing the very fashions that arose from it. So again, it was a practice amongst the Egyptians to make their fountains iffue from the mouth of a Lion, because the Nile overflows when the fun is in that fign. But when we, in a senseless affectation of tafte in the antique, imitate this fignificative ornament, which took its rife from the local peculiarities of that country, do we not deserve to be well laughed at? But if these pretenders to Tafte can fo widely mistake, it is no wonder that those who pretend to none, I mean the verbal Critics, should a little hallucinate in this matter. I remember, when the fhort Latin inscription on Shakefpear's monument was first set up, and in the very style of elegant and fimple antiquity, the News-papers were full of these Imall critics; in which the only obfervation that looked like learning, was founded in this ignorance of Tafte and Antiquity. One of these Critics objected to the word Mors (in the infcription) because the Roman writers of the pureft times fcrupled to employ it; but, in its ftead, used an improper, that is, a figurative word, or otherwise a circumlocution. But had he confidered, that it was their Superstition of lucky and unlucky words which occafioned this delicacy, he must have seen that a Chriftian writer, in a Chriftian inscription, acted with great judgment in avoiding so senseless an affectation of, what he mifcalls, claffical expreffion. VER. 155. Is this a dinner, &c.] The proud Feftivals of some men are here fet forth to ridicule, where pride destroys the ease, and formal regularity all the pleasurable enjoyment of the entertainment. P. VER. 156.-a Hecatomb.] Alluding to the hundred footsteps before. |