Make Mercury confefs, and 'peach 600 Thofe Thieves which he himself did teach. They'll find, i' th' Phyfiognomies O' th' Planets, all Men's Deftinies Like him that took the Doctor's Bill, And fwallow'd it instead o' th' Pill; 605 Caft the Nativity o' th' Question, And from Pofitions to be gueft on, As fure as if they knew the moment Of Native's Birth, tell what will come on't. They'll feel the Pulfes of the Stars, "Mars is in the middle of Heaven; because Mars being the Patron of Pirates, He threateneth the taking and robbing the Ship by Them." 66 .599, 600. Make Mercury confefs, and 'peach-Thofe Thieves, which he himself did teach.] Mercury was the God of Merchants and of Thieves; and therefore he is commonly pictur'd with a Purse in his hand. vide Sexti Philofoph. Pyrrh. Hypot. lib. 3. p. 154. edit. 1621. Antiquity explain'd, by Montfaucon, vol. 1. part 1. book 3, ch. 8. p. 78. tranflated by Mr. Humphreys. Fr. Vallefii, lib. de Sacra Philofophia, cap. 31. p. 281. Gaffendus's Vanity of Judiciary Aftrology, P. 37, 113. fee an account of Mercury's Thefts. Mr. G. Sandys's Notes upon the 2d book of Ovid's Metamorphofis, p. 42. Notes upon Creech's Lucretius, vol. 2. edit. 1714. p. 589. Dr. James Young's Sidrophel Vapulans, 1699. p. 36. Tatler N° 56. .603, 604. Like him that took the Doctor's Bill— And fwallow'd it inftead o' th' Pill.] The Countryman's Swallowing the Paper on which the Prefcription was written, upon the Phyfician's ordering him to take it; was literally true. See Hen. Stephens's Prep. Treatise to a Defence of Herodotus, publish'd 1607, p. 24.) This Man did by the Doctor's Bill, as Clayton did, when he claw'd the pudding, by eating Bag and all; (Ray's Proverbs, 2d edit. p. 282.) and why might not this operate upon a strong imagination, as well as the ugly Parfon in Oldham, (fee Remains, 1703. p. 108.) "The very fight of whom in "a Morning (he obferves,) would work beyond Jalap, or Rhuburb; "and that a Doctor prescribed him to one of his Patients as a remedy against Coftivenefs." or what is mentioned by Dr. Daniel Turner, (fee book de Morbis Cutaneis, chap. 12. 3a edit. p. 165.) who informs us, "That the bare imagination of a Purging Potion has wrought 66 610 To find out Agues, Coughs, Catarrhs; And tell what Crifis does divine The Rot in Sheep, or Mange in Swine; What makes Men great, what Fools or Knaves. 620 There they say right, and like true Trojans. 66 "wrought fuch an alteration on the Blood and Humours of fundry Perfons, as to bring on several Stools like those they call Phyfical: "and he mentions a young Gentleman his Patient, who having oc"cafion to take many Vomits; had such an antipathy to them, that "ever after, he could vomit as ftrongly by the force of imagination, "by the bare fight of an Emetic Bolus, drinking Foffet-drink at the "fame time, as moft could do by Medicine." The application of a Clyfter-pipe, without the Clyfter, has had the fame effect upon others. See Montaign's Effays, vol. 1. book 1. chap. 20. p. 122. *.605. Caft the Nativity o' th' Queftion,] Mr. Smith of Harleston, is of opinion, that when any one came to an Aftrologer to have his Child's Nativity cast, and had forgot the Hour and Minute when it was born, which were neceffary to be known, in order to the erecting a Scheme for the purpofe; the Figure-cafter looking upon the Enquirer as wholly influenced, entirely guided by the Stars in the affair, took the pofition of the Heavens the minute the question was afk'd, and form'd his Judgment accordingly of the Child's future Fortune; juft as if the Child had been born the very fame moment that the Question was put to the Conjurer. .614. What makes them Cuckolds.] "This is worthy of our re“membrance, that in the Revolution of the Planets, if the Moon come to that place where Saturn was in the root, then the Perfon "shall marry an old wither'd Crone, and in all likelihood despise " and cuckold her. Gaffendus's Vanity of Judiciary Aftrology, c. 16. P. 104. .619. No more than can the Aftrologians.] i. e. The Aftrologers themselves can no more dispose of (i. e. deceive) a Wife man, than E 2 can This Ralpho knew, and therefore took Thus was th'accomplish'd Squire endu'd With Gifts and Knowledge, per'lous fhrewd. 625 Never did trusty Squire with Knight, Or Knight with Squire e'er jump more right. Their Arms and Equipage did fit, As well as Vertues, Parts, and Wit: Their Valours too were of a rate, 630 And out they fally'd at the Gate: Few Miles on Horfeback had they jogged, But Fortune unto them turn'd dogged; For they a fad Adventure met, can the Stars. What makes the obfcurity, is the ufing the word difpofe in two fenfes; to fignify influence, where it relates to the Stars; and [deceive] where it relates to the Aftrologers. (Mr. W.) *.622. The other Course-] i. e. Religious Impoftures; by which the Author finely infinuates, that even Wise men at that time were deceiv'd by those Pretences. This Ralpho knew, and therefore took (Mr. W.) .625,626. Never did trufty Squire with Knight-Or Knight with Squire, &c-] 'Twas Cervantes's obfervation upon Don Quixote, and Sancho Pancha; (vol. 3. chap. 2. p. 18.) "That one would think "that They had been cast in the fame Mold." .637,638. We should as learned Poets ufe, — Invoke th' Assistance of fome Mufe.] The Poet cannot permit the usual Exordium of an Epick Poem to pafs by him unimitated; though he immediately ridicules the Cuftom, the Invocation he ufes is very fatyrical, and reaches abundance of Writers: and his compliance with the Cuftom, was owing to a ftrong propenfity he found in himself to ridicule it. (Mr. B.) See Invocation of the Mufes, Bysfoe's Art of Poetry, th edit. p. 70, &c. and a Sneer upon this Cuftom, Mr. S. Wefley's Poems, 2 edit. p. 157. See original of Exordiums. Mr. Pope's Note upon Homer's Iliad, book 1. p. 4. 3a edit. .641. We think, &c.] It should be They think, i.e. the Criticks for the Author in . 645, one that fits our purpose most, declares the Muses are not all alike. (Mr. W.) Of which anon we mean to treat; 645 Thou that with Ale, or viler Liquors, 645,646. Thou that with Ale or viler Liquors, Didft infpire Withers, &c.] See an account of Withers, Note upon Dunciad, book 1,. 126. Bishop Kennet's Register and Chronicle, p. 644, 649. These Gentlemen might in Mr. Shakespear's Style, (fee his Play intituled, Much ado about Nothing, vol. 1. p. 478.) be born under a Rhyming Planet, and yet the Mill of the Dutch Mechanic (Spectator, No 220.) for making Verses, might have ferv'd their purpose full as well. They certainly fall under the Cenfure of Cervantes, (fee Preface to the 4th vol. of Don Quixote.) Ib. Pryn.] Anthony Wood gives the following account of Mr. Pryn's elegant Apparatus for the follicitation of the Muses."his cuftom was, when he ftudied, to put on a long quilted Cap, "which came an inch over his Eyes-feldom eating any dinner, "would every three hours or more be manching a roll of Bread; "and now and then refresh his exhaufted Spirits with Ale brought "him by his fervant." Athen. Oxon. vol. 2. col. 315. (Mr. W.) Mr. Cowley in his Mifcellanies (fee Dunciad Varior. 1729, Note on verfe 101. book 1.) fpeaks of him as follows. One lately did not fear Without the Mufes leave to plant Verfe here, Brave And force them, tho' it was in fpite Of Nature, and their Stars, to write; Brave Ferfey Mufe! and He's for his high Stile, An other Poet speaks of Withers and Pryn in the following manner. Warbling thro' the Nofe a Hymn of Love; When fage George Withers, and grave William Pryn, On Mr. Cleaveland, by A. B. Ib. and Vickars.] See an account of John Vickars, and his Poetry, Wood's Athene Oxon. vol. 2. 2d edit. col. 152. and Fowlis's Hiftory of wicked Plots, &c. p. 179. *Vickars was a man of as great interest and authority in the late Reformation, as Pryn, or Withers, and as able a Poet: he translated Virgil's Æneids into as horrible Travesty in earnest as the French Scarroon did in Burlesque, and was only out-done in his way by the politique Author of Oceana. 649. fullen Writs,] For Satyrical Writings, well exprefs'd, as implying, That fuch Writers as Withers, Pryn and Vickars, had no more than Ill-nature towards making a Satyrift. (Mr. W.) 653,654. The Praifes of the Author penn'd- B' himself, or wit enfuring Friend;] A Sneer upon the too common practice of thofe times, in prefixing of panegyrical verfes, to the moft ftupid performances; fee an account of Vicars's Mischief's Mystery, &c. Wood's Athene Oxon. vol. 2. .657. All that is left o' th' Forked Hill,] Parnaffus, alluding to it's Two Tops. Nec fonte Labia prolui Caballino |