These Fate referv'd to grace thy reign divine, 275 Foreseen by me, but ah! with-held from mine.

VARIATIONS.

reasons to be truly critical; but what I am infinitely concerned at is, that fo many Errors have escaped the learned Editor: a few whereof we shall here amend, out of a much greater number, as an inftance of our regard to this dear relick.

ACT I. SCENE I.

I have his letters of a modern date,
Wherein by Julio, good Camillo's fon
(Who as he fays, [] fhall follow hard upon,
And whom I with the growing hour [ ] expect)
He doth follicit the return of gold,

To purchase certain horfe that like him well.

This place is corrupted: the epithet good is a meer infignificant expletive, but the alteration of that fingle word restores a clear light to the whole context, thus,

I have his letters of a modern date,
Wherein, by July, (by Camillo's fon,
Who, as he faith, fhall follow hard upon,
And whom I with the growing hours expect)
He doth follicit the return of gold.

Here you have not only the Perfon specified, by whofe hands the return was to be made, but the moft neceffary part, the Time by which it was required. Camillo's fon was to follow hard upon-What? Why upon July-Horfe that like him well, is very abfurd: Read it, without contradiction,

Horse, that he likes well.

ACT I. at the End.

--I muft ftoop to gain her,

Throw all my gay Comparisons afide,

And turn my proud additions out of fervice;

faith Henriquez of a maiden of low condition, objecting his high quality: What have his Comparisons here to do? Correct it boldly,

Throw all my gay Caparifons afide,

And turn my proud additions out of fervice.

In Lud's old walls tho' long I rul'd, renown'd Far as loud Bow's ftupendous bells refound;

VARIATIONS:

ACT II. SCENE I.

All the verse of this Scene is confounded with profe:
O that a man

Could reafon down this Feaver of the blood,
Or footh with words the tumult in his heart!
Then Julio, I might be indeed thy friend.

Read -this fervor of the blood,

Then Julio, I might be in deed thy friend. marking the juft oppofition of deeds and words.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

How his eyes pake fire !-faid by Violante, obferving how the luftful fhepherd looks at her. It must be, as the fenfe plainly demands,

How his eyes take fire!

And measure every piece of youth about me! Ibid. That, tho' I wore difguifes for fome ends.

She had but one difguife, and wore it but for one end. Reftore it, with the alteration but of two letters,

That, tho' I were difguifed for fome end.

ACT IV. SCENE II.

To oaths no more give credit,

To tears, to vows; false both!

Falfe Grammar I'm fure. Both can relate but to two things: and fee! how eafy a change fets its right?

I could fhew you that very word Troth, in Shakespear, a hun

dred times.

Ibid. For there is nothing left thee now to look for,
That can bring comfort, but a quiet grave.

This I fear is of a piece with None but itself can be its parallel: for the grave puts an end to all forrow, it can then need no com fort. Yet let us vindicate Shakespear where we can: I make po doubt he wrote thus,

280

Tho' my own Aldermen confer'd the bays,
To me committing their eternal praise,
Their full-fed Heroes, their pacific May'rs,
Their annual trophies, and their monthly wars:
Tho' long my Party built on me their hopes,
For writing Pamphlets, and for roafting Popes:
Yet lo! in me what authors have to brag on! 285
Reduc'd at last to hiss in my own dragon.
Avert it Heav'n! that thou, my Cibber, e'er
Should'ft wag a serpent-tail in Smithfield fair!

VARIATIONS.

For there is nothing left thee now to look for,
Nothing that can bring quiet, but the grave.

Which reduplication of the word gives a much stronger emphafis to Violante's concern. This figure is call'd Anadyflofis. I could fhew you a hundred just such in him, if I had nothing elfe to do. SCRIBL.

After v. 284. in the former Edd. followed,

Diff'rent our parties, but with equal grace
The Goddess fmiles on Whig and Tory race.
REMARK S.

VER. 266, 267. Booth and Cibber were joint managers, of the Theatre in Drury-lane.

VER. 268. On grinning dragons thou shalt mount the wind.] In his Letter to Mr. P. Mr. C. folemnly declares this not to be literally true. We hope therefore the reader will understand it allegorically only.

VER. 282. Annual trophies, on the Lord-mayor's day; and monthly wars in the Artillery ground.

VER. 283. Tho' long my party] Settle, like, most Partywriters, was very uncertain in his political principles. He was employed to hold the pen in the Character of a popish fucceffr, but afterwards printed his Narrative on the other fide. He had

Like the vile straw that's blown about the streets,

The needy Poet sticks to all he meets,

290

Coach'd, carted, trod upon, now loose, now fast,
And carry'd off in fome Dog's tail at laft.
Happier thy fortunes! like a rolling ftone,

Thy giddy dulnefs ftill fhall lumber on,

Safe in its heavinefs, fhall never ftray,

295

But lick up ev'ry blockhead in the way.

Thee fhall the Patriot, thee the Courtier tafte, And ev'ry year be duller than the laft.

VARIATIONS.

VER. 295. Safe in its heaviness, &c.] in the former Edd.

Too fafe in inborn heaviness to stray;

And lick up ev'ry blockhead in the

way.

Thy Dragons, Magiftrates, and Peers fhall tafte,
And from each fhew rife duller than the laft.
Till rais'd from booths, &c.

REMARKS.

managed the ceremony of a famous Pope-burning on Nov. 17, 1680. then became a trooper in King James's army, at Hounflow-heath. After the Revolution he kept a booth at Bartholomew-fair, where, in the droll called St. George for England, he acted in his old age in a Dragon of green leather of his own invention; he was at laft taken into the Charter-house, and there died, aged fixty years.

VER. 297. Thee fhall the Patriot, thee the Courtier tafte,] It ftood in the first edition with blanks, ** and **. Concanen was fure" they muft needs mean no body but King GEORGE "and Queen CAROLINE; and faid he would infift it was fo,

till the poet cleared himself by filling up the blanks otherwife, agreeably to the context, and confiftent with his alle

"Till raised from booths, to Theatre, to Court,

Her feat imperial Dulness shall transport.

Already Opera prepares the way,

300

The fure fore-runner of her gentle fway:
Let her thy heart, next Drabs and Dice, engage,
The third mad paffion of thy doting age.
Teach thou the warb'ling Polypheme to roar, 305
And scream thyself as none e'er scream'd before!
To aid our cause, if Heav'n thou can'ft not bend,
Hell thou shalt move; for Fauftus is our friend:
Pluto with Cato thou for this fhalt join,
And link the Mourning Bride to Proferpine. 310

REMARKS.

"giance." Pref. to a Collection of verfes, effays, letters, &c. againft Mr. P. printed for A, Moor, p. 6.

VER. 305. Polypheme] He tranflated the Italian Opera of Polifemo; but unfortunately loft the whole jeft of the ftory. The Cyclops afks Ulyffes his name, who tells him his name is Noman: After his eye is put out, he roars and calls the Brother Cyclops to his aid: They enquire who has hurt him? he anfwers Noman; whereupon they all go away again. Our ingenious Tranflator made Ulyffes anfwer, I take no name, whereby all that follow'd became unintelligible. Hence it appears that Mr. Cibber (who values himself on fubfcribing to the English Tranflation of Homer's Iliad) had not that merit with refpect to the Odyffey, or he might have been better inftructed in the Greek Pun-nology.

VER. 308, 309, Fauftus, Pluto, &c.] Names of miserable Farces, which it was the cuftom to act at the end of the best Tragedies, to spoil the digeftion of the audience.