15 Perhaps, by its own ruins fav'd from flame, 20 Ambition figh'd: She found it vain to trust Their ruins perifh'd, and their place no more! A narrow ORB each crowded conqueft keeps, 25 30 The Medal, faithful to its charge of fame, Through climes and ages bears each form and name : In one short view fubjected to our eye Gods, Emp'rors, Heroes, Sages, Beauties, lie. NOTES. With VER. 18. And give to Titus old Vefpafian's due.] A fine infinuation of the want both of taste and learning in Antiquaries; whofe ignorance of characters misleads them (fupported only by a name) against reafon and history. WARBURTON VER. 19. Ambition figh'd:] Such fhort perfonifications have a great effect." Silence was pleas'd," fays Milton; which personification is taken, though it happens not to have been observed by any of his commentators, from the Hero and Leander of Mufæus, v. 280. WARTON. With fharpen'd fight pale Antiquaries pore, NOTES. 35 40 Theirs VER. 35. With fharpen'd fight pale Antiquaries pore,] Microfcopic glaffes, invented by Philofophers to discover the beauties in the minuter works of Nature, ridiculously applied by Antiquaries to detect the cheats of counterfeit medals. WARBURTON. VER. 37. This the blue varnish, that the green endears,] i. e. This a collector of filver; that, of brafs coins. WARBURTON. VER. 39. To gain Pefcennius] The lively and ingenious Young fays, in his 4th Satire, "How his eyes languish! how his thoughts adore That painted coat which Jofeph never wore! He shews, on holidays, a facred pin, That touch'd the ruff that touch'd Queen Befs's chin." How much wit has been wafted and mifplaced in endeavouring to ridicule antiquarians, whofe ftudies are not only pleafing to the imagination, but attended with many advantages to fociety, especially fince they have been improved, as they lately have been, with fingular taste and propriety, in elucidating what, after all, is the most interesting and important part of all history—the history of manners! WARTON. VER. 41. Poor Vadius,] See his history, and that of his Shield, in the Memoirs of Scriblerus. WARBURTON. Vadius was Dr. Woodward. I cannot conceive why Pope fhould have so often attempted to ridicule him. Their ftudies were totally different; there could be neither envy nor jealousy. Pope introduced him in his unfortunate farce, "Three Weeks after Marriage," written in conjunction with Gay. 45 Theirs is the Vanity, the Learning thine: Touch'd by thy hand, again Rome's glories fhine; And all her faded garlands bloom a-new. NOTES. Nor VER. 43. And Curio, reflefs, &c.] The Hiftorian Dio has given us a very extraordinary inftance of this Virtuofo-tafte. He tells us, that one Vibius Rufus, who, in the reign of Tiberius, was the fourth husband to Cicero's widow, Terentia, then upwards of an hundred years old, used to value himself on his being poffeffed of the two noblest pieces of Antiquity in the world, TULLY'S WIDOW and CÆSAR'S CHAIR, that Chair in which he was assasfinated in full Senate. WARBURTON. VER. 44. Sighs for an Otho,] Charles Patin was banished from the Court, because he fold Louis XIV. an Otho that was not genuine. Patin's Treatife on Medals is a good one. Ficoroni, the celebrated virtuofo at Florence, faid to Mr. Spence, "Addison did not go any great depth in the study of medals; all the knowledge he had of that kind, I believe, he received of me; and I did not give him above twenty leffons on that subject." WARTON. VER. 48. her faded] In Winkelman's Hiftory of Art among the Ancients, is to be found perhaps the best account of the gradual decay of painting, architecture, and medals, that can be read; abounding with many inftances of the fate that has befallen. many exquifite pieces of art. Amongst the reft he fays, that when the Auftrians took Madrid, Lord Galloway fearched for a very celebrated Bufto of Caligula, that he knew Cardinal G. Colonna had conveyed to Spain; which fine Bufto he at laft found in the Efcurial, where it ferved for a weight of the church-clock. What Winkelman fays of the Laocoon, vol. ii. fect. 3. is a capital piece of criticism and just taste; which he finishes by mentioning a matchless abfurdity, worthy of the country where it is to be found, that in the Caftle of St. Ildephonfo in Spain, there is a Relief of this group of Laocoon and his fons, with a figure of Cupid fluttering over their heads, as if flying to their affiftance. As to the revival of arts in Italy, 'we have lately been gratified with a curious account of this important event, in the elegant History of the Life of Lorenzo de Medici, their chief restorer and protector. See, particularly, chapter'ix. p. 196. WARTON Nor blush, these studies thy regard engage; Oh when shall Britain, conscious of her claim, 50 55 How Plato's, Bacon's, Newton's looks agree; ба Or in fair feries laurel'd Bards be shown, NOTES. Then VER. 49. Nor blush, these ftudies thy regard engage ;] A senseless affectation, which fome Authors of eminence have betrayed; who, when fortune or their talents have raised them to a condition to do without those arts, for which only they gained our esteem, have pretended to think letters below their character. This falfe fhame M. Voltaire has very well, and with proper indignation, expofed in his account of Mr. Congreve : "He had one defect, which was, his entertaining too mean an idea of his first profeffion, (that of a Writer,) though it was to this he owed his fame and fortune. He spoke of his works as of trifles that were beneath him; and hinted to me, in our first conversation, that I should visit him upon no other footing than that of a gentleman who led a life of plainness and fimplicity. I answered, that had he been fo unfortunate as to be a mere gentleman, I fhould never have come to see him; and I was very much disgusted at so unfeasonable a piece of vanity.' Letters concerning the English Nation, xix. WARBURTON. VER. 53. Oh when shall Britain, &c.] A compliment to one of Mr. Addison's papers in the Spectator, on this fubject. WARBURTON. Then fhall thy CRAGGS (and let me call him mine) On the caft ore, another Pollio, fhine; With aspect open, fhall erect his head, And round the orb in lasting notes be read, NOTES. 65 " Who VER. 62. A Virgil there,] Copied evidently from Tickell to Addifon on his Rofamond: "Which gain'd a Virgil and an Addison." This elegant copy of Verses was fo acceptable to Addison, that it was the foundation of a lasting friendship betwixt them. Tickell deferves a higher place among poets than is ufually allotted to him. WARTON. VER. 67. Statefman, yet friend to Truth, &c.] It should be remembered, that this poem was compofed to be printed before Mr. Addifon's Difcourfe on Medals, in which there is the following cenfure of long legends upon coins: "The firft fault I find with a modern legend is its diffufiveness. You have sometimes the whole fide of a medal over-run with it. One would fancy the Author had a defign of being Ciceronian-but it is not only the tediousness of these inscriptions that I find fault with; fuppofing them of a moderate length, why muft they be in verfe? We fhould be surprised to fee the title of a ferious book in rhyme." Dial. iii. WARBURTON. VER. 67. Statefman,] These nervous and finished lines were afterwards infcribed as an epitaph on this worthy man's monument in Westminster Abbey, with the alteration of two words in the laft verfe, which there ftands thus: "Prais'd, wept, and honour'd by the Mufe he lov'd.” It was Craggs, who, having raifed himself by his abilities, in the most friendly manner offered our Author a pension of three hundred pounds per annum. Though Pope enlifted under the banner of Bolingbroke, in what was called the country party, and in violent oppofition to the measures of Walpole, yet his clear and good sense enabled him to fee the follies and virulence of all parties; and it was his favourite |