LXII. AN EXECRATION UPON VULCAN. And why to me this thou lame Lord of Fire! 7 'Twas Jupiter that hurl'd thee headlong down, Had I wrote treason here, or heresy, Imposture, witchcraft, charms, or blasphemy; I had deserv'd then thy consuming looks, Perhaps to have been burned with my books. 1 And why to me, &c.] This poem has no date affixed to it: it was printed in 4to. and 12mo. 1640, and again in the folio of that year; the present text has been formed from a careful collation of all the copies. There is a degree of wit and vivacity in these verses which does no little credit to the equanimity of the poet, who speaks of a loss so irreparable to him, not only with forbearance, but with pleasantry and good humour. The lame lord is from Catullus: Scripta tardipedi deo daturum Infelicibus ustulanda flammis. With clowns and tradesmen kept thee clos'd in horn.] This is a joke of very ancient standing: Heus tu, qui Vulcanum conclusum in cornu geris! Plaut. Amphytr. WHAL. But, on thy malice, tell me, Didst thou spy Conceal'd, or kept there, that was fit to be, Did I there wound the honour of the crown, Had I compiled from Amadis de Gaul, Of eggs, and halberds, cradles, and a herse, • Acrostichs, and telestichs, &c.] All these fooleries in verse were practised ages ago, by writers who atoned for want of genius by the labour of their compositions. This is Whalley's remark, and it was undoubtedly so; but the folly was again become epidemic, in consequence of the publication of Puttenham's Arte of English Poetrie, in which "these prettie conceits, eggs, altars, wings, lozenges, rondels, and piramids" are recommended to the poet's imitation. "At the beginning" (he says) they will seeme nothing pleasant to the English eare; but time and usage will make them acceptable inough." She is the judge, thou executioner : Or, if thou needs would'st trench upon her power, Thou might'st have yet enjoy'd thy cruelty Had tickled thy large nostrils; many a ream, The Talmud and the Alcoran had come, With pieces of the Legend; the whole sum The charmed boats, and the inchanted wharfs, * The MS. of this piece in the British Museum reads, with more variety, "Clothe spices, or guard sweet-meats from the flies." With pieces of the Legend.] The Lives of the Saints: these are well coupled with the Jewish and Mahomedan dreams. VOL. VIII. E e Invisibility, and strength, and tongues; 3 These, hadst thou pleas'd either to dine or sup, I dare not say a body, but some parts And lighted by the Stagerite, could spy, 2 The art of kindling the true coal by Lungs; With Nicolas' Pasquils, Meddle with your match, And the strong lines that do the times so catch.] Lungs (see vol. iv. p. 46) were the unhappy drudges kept by the alchemists to blow their true (i. e. their beechen) coal; for bellows were not used by them. Nicolas is probably Nic. Breton, a voluminous publisher, who has many little pieces under the name of Pasquil: such as Pasquil's Passion, Pasquil's Mad-cap, &c. In the pointing this line, the MS. in the British Museum has been followed. The strong lines, &c. are the political satires which were now dispersed in great numbers, and caught the times but too successfully. 3 The weekly courants, with Paul's seal, &c.] A sarcastical allusion to the stories fabricated by the idle walkers in St. Paul's, and weekly detailed by Butter and others as authentic intelligence. For the prophet Ball, see vol. v. p. 241. a meal for Vulcan to lick up.] Thus Pope : "From shelf to shelf see greedy Vulcan roll, And lick up all the physic of the soul." 5 All the old Venusine, &c.] He alludes to his translation of The purity of Language; and, among 'Cause thou canst halt with us in arts and fire! Son of the Wind! for so thy mother, gone With lust, conceiv'd thee; father thou hadst none. Horace's Art of Poetry, illustrated with notes from Aristotle's Poetics. The translation is preserved; and much of what seemed to have been intended for the notes is likewise to be met with in the Discoveries: the Grammar is also preserved, and printed. WHAL. Literature sustained no little loss by the destruction of the Art of Poetry, illustrated, as it appears to have been, by a perpetual commentary from Aristotle. If any part of the Discoveries were appended as notes, to the translation, it could not be very considerable. What we have now, forms, I believe, but a small part of the original matter; consisting of occasional recollections only, set down, as they occurred, and several of them evidently of a late date. The translation itself, perhaps, is not what it was at first; for the two copies of it which have reached us, and which may be only transcripts of transcripts, differ from each other in numberless instances. Whalley is evidently wrong also in what he says of the Grammar. The perfect copy was destroyed; and all that is come down to us are mere fragments; parts, indeed, of the original materials, but dislocated, and imperfect. |