grow 70 Nature fhall join you; Time fhall make it COMMENTARY. have fupplied. 3. A third advantage is, that you are then always fure to have Nature on your fide. Nature fhall join you The expreffion is important, when we are bid to begin with Senfe we were fhewn how this would lead us to Tafte, in the purfuit of Nature: but now that he bids us to go on with Sense, or fill to follow it, after having arrived at Tafte, he tells us, that Nature will then join us of her own accord: This has a great beauty, which arifes from the Philofophic Truth of the obfervation. For, as we obferved before,-Senfe being a right conception of Nature; and Tafle a right conception of beautiful Nature; when these are in conjunction, Nature can stand out no longer, but prefents herself to you without further pains or fearch. VER. 71. Without it, proud Versailles ! &c.] To illuftrate this doctrine, the poet next shews us (from 70 to 99) that with NOTES. VER. 70. The feat and gardens of the Lord Viscount Cobham in Buckinghamshire. P. VER. 72. And Nero's Terraces defert their walls:] The expreffion is very fignificant. Had the Walls been faid to desert the Terraces, this would have given us the image of a destruction, effected by time only; which had been foreign to the poet's intention; who is here fpeaking of the punishment of unfupported Tafte, in the defigned fubverfion of it, either by good or bad, as it happens; one of which is fure to do its bufinefs, and that foon; therefore it is with great propriety, he fays, that the Terraces defert their walls, which implies purpofe and violence in their fubverfion. The vast Parterres a thousand hands shall make, Lo! COBHAM comes, and floats them with a Lake: Or cut wide views thro' Mountains to the Plain, 75 You'll wish your hill or shelter'd seat again. COMMENTARY. out this continued fupport of Good Senfe, things even of the highest Taste and utmost Magnificence, fuch as the Buildings of Verfailles, the Gardens of Villario, and the Groves of Sabinus, (which are the inftances he gives) all, in a very little time, come to nothing, and no wonder. For the exercife of Tafte wITHOUT SENSE is, where something that is not beautiful Nature is miftaken for it; and ornamented as beautiful Nature should be: These ornaments, therefore, being deftitute of all real fupport, must be continually subject to change. Sometimes the owner himself will grow weary of them (as in the cafe of Villaric) and find at laft, that Nature is to be preferred before them, Tir'd of the scene Paterres and Fountains yield, He finds at laft he better likes a Field, Sometime, again, the Heir (like Sabinus's) will be changing a bad Tafte for a worse, One boundless green, or flourish'd capet views, So that mere Tale ftanding expofed between the true and fulje. like the decent man, between the rigidly virtuous, and thoroughly profigate, hated and defpifed by both, can never long support itfelf; and with this the first part of the Epiftle concludes. NOTES. VER. 74. Lo! COBHAM comes, and floats them with a Lake : } An high compliment to the noble perfon on whom it is beftowed, as making him the fubftitute of Good Senfe.-This office, in the original plan of the poem, was given to another Man of TASTE; who not having the SENSE to fee a compliment was intended him, convinced the poet it did not belong to him. VER. 75, 76. Or cut wide views thro' Mountains to the Plain, You'll wish your bill or shelter'd feat again.] This was Ev'n in an ornament its place remark, Nor in an Hermitage fet Dr. Clarke. 80 Behold Villario's ten-years toil compleat; His Quincunx darkens, his Efpaliers meet; The Wood fupports the Plain, the parts unite, And strength of Shade contends with strength of Light; NOTES. done in Hertfordshire, by a wealthy citizen, at the expence of above 5000l. by which means (merely to overlook a dead plain) he let in the north-wind upon his house and parterre, which were before adorned and defended by beautiful woods. P. VER. 78,fet Dr. Clarke.] Dr. S. Clarke's bufto placed by the Queen in the Hermitage, while the Dr. duely frequented the Court. P. But he fhould have added-with the innocence and difinterestedness of an Hermit. VER. 81, 82. The Wood fupports the Plain, the parts unite, And frength of Shade contends with ftrength of Light.] The imagery is here taken from Painting in the judicious execution of the Pencil, and in the happy improvement of it by time. To understand what is meant by fupporting (which is a term of art common both to Planting and Painting) we must confider what things make the natural defect or weaknefs of a rude uncultivated Plain; and these are, the having a difagreeable flatnefs, and the not having a proper termination. But a Wood, rightly difpofed, takes away the one, and gives what is wanting of the other. The parts unite. The utmost which art can do, when it does its full office, is to give the work a confent of parts; but it is time only that can make the union here fpoken of. So in painting, the fkill of the mafter can go no further, in the chromatic part, than to fet thofe colours together, which have a natural friendship and fympathy for each other: But nothing but time can unite and incorporate their tints: And strength of Shade contends with frength of Light. A waving Glow the bloomy beds difplay, 85 Tir'd of the scene Parterres and Fountains yield, He finds at laft he better likes a Field, 99 Thro' his young Woods how pleas'dSabinus stray'd, Or fat delighted in the thick'ning shade, With annual joy the red'ning fhoots to greet, Or fee the stretching branches long to meet! His Son's fine Tafte an op'ner Vista loves, Foe to the Dryads of his Father's groves; NOTES. 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 ftrength 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 groupe of objects, fhould be fo managed, by a fubordination of the groups to the unity of defign, as that the whole together may afford one great shade and light. VER. 84. Blushing in bright diverfities of day,] i. e. The feveral colours of the grove in bloom, give feveral different tints to the lights and fhades, 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; tho' it be too apt, in its flights, to leave 96 One boundless Green, or flourish'd Carpet views, Where all cry out, "What fums are thrown away! COMMENTARY. II. VER. 99. At Timon's Villa, &c.] As the first part ended with expofing the works of Taste without Senfe, the fecond begins with a description (from 98 to 173) of false Magnificence WITHOUT EITHER SENSE OR TASTE, in the gardens, buildings, table furniture, library, and way of living of Lord Timon who, in none of these, could distinguish between greatness and vaftness, between regularity and form, between dignity and state, NOTES, ; 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 perverfity 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 greatness 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 destroy the nobler Foreft-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 to comprize the principles of a falfe Taste of Magnificence, and to exemplify what was faid before, that nothing but Good Senfe can attain it. P. I |