Part 27

The roof was fretted gold.--WAKEFIELD.]

Both the castle, and the tower And eke the hall, and every bower

was of beryl, which Pope transfers to the inside of the building. Chaucer says of the interior that

Every wall Of it, and floor, and roof, and all Was plated half a foote thick Of gold.

This gold was covered, as grass clothes a meadow, with jewelled ornaments

Fine, of the finest stones fair That men read in the Lapidaire.]

From the arched roof Pendent by subtle magic many a row Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed With Naptha and Asphaltus, yielded light As from a sky.--WAKEFIELD.]

A dragon's fiery form belied the god.--BOWLES.]

How o'er himself as o'er the world he reigns.]

Pope followed the narrative of Diodorus. Plutarch says that Timoleon did not strike the blow, but stood by weeping, and giving his passive countenance to the assassins. Some of the Corinthians applauded, and some execrated his conduct. He was soon overtaken with remorse, and shunning the haunts of men he passed years in anguish of mind.]

Here too the wise and good their honours claim, Much-suff'ring heroes of less noisy fame.

Pope did not perceive that in the attempt to improve the poetry he had introduced an inconsistency. He winds up the preceding group of patriots with the "wise Aurelius," whom he celebrates as an example of "unbounded virtue," and the "much-suffering heroes" could not be instances of "less guilty fame" than a man whose virtue was unbounded. The classification was probably suggested by Addison's Vision in the Tatler of the Three Roads of Life, and having his original in his mind when he composed his poem, Pope avoided the inconsistency which he subsequently imported into the passage. "The persons," says Addison, "who travelled up this great path, were such whose thoughts were bent upon doing eminent services to mankind, or promoting the good of their country. On each side of this great road were several paths. These were most of them covered walks, and received into them men of retired virtue, who proposed to themselves the same end of their journey, though they chose to make it in shade and obscurity."]

He was condemned to death B. C. 317, at the age of 85, on the charge of treason to his country. Mistrusting the ability of Athens to maintain its independence, he connived at the dominion of the Macedonian kings. Many of those who admit his integrity contend that his policy was mistaken and unpatriotic. His party regained the ascendancy after his death, honoured his remains with a public funeral, and erected a statue of brass to his memory.]

Agis, king of Sparta, was celebrated for his attempt to restore the ancient Spartan regulations. Especially he was anxious to resume the excess of land possessed by the rich and divide it among the poor. He failed in his design, and was dethroned, and beheaded. At his execution one of the officers of justice shed tears. "Lament me not," said Agis; "I am happier than my murderers."]

This was a trite device, and is poorly applied in the present instance. "The manner and character of the writings" of Homer, Virgil, Pindar, Horace, Aristotle, and Cicero could hardly have been described in a vaguer and more common-place way.]

From the dees many a pillere, Of metal that shone not full clere, &c. Upon a pillere saw I stonde That was of lede and iron fine, Him of the sect Saturnine, The Ebraike Josephus the old, &c. Upon an iron piller strong, That painted was all endelong, With tigers' blood in every place, The Tholosan that highte Stace, That bare of Thebes up the fame, &c.--POPE.]

Full wonder hye on a pillere Of iron, he the great Omer, And with him Dares and Titus, &c.--POPE.]

There saw I stand on a pillere That was of tinned iron cleere, The Latin poete Virgyle, That hath bore up of a great while The fame of pious Æneas. And next him on a pillere was Of copper, Venus' clerk Ovide, That hath y-sowen wondrous wide The great God of Love's name-- Tho saw I on a pillere by Of iron wrought full sternely, The greate poet Dan Lucan, That on his shoulders bore up than As high as that I mighte see, The fame of Julius and Pompee. And next him on a pillere stoode Of sulphur, like as he were woode, Dan Claudian, sothe for to tell, That bare up all the fame of hell, &c.--POPE.

Since Homer is placed by Chaucer upon a pillar of iron, he places Virgil upon iron tinned over, to indicate that the Æneis was based upon the Iliad and was both more polished and less vigorous. The sulphur upon which Claudian stands, is typical of the hell he described in his poem on the Rape of Proserpine. Ovid, the poet of love, is put upon a pillar of copper, because copper was the metal of Venus; and Lucan, like Homer, has a pillar of iron allotted to him because he celebrated in his Pharsalia the wars of Cæsar and Pompey, and, as Chaucer says,

Iron Martes metal is, Which that god is of battaile.]

There too in living sculpture might be seen The mad affection of the Cretan queen.]

He sinks into the cords with solemn pace, To give the swelling tones a bolder grace.--WAKEFIELD.]

Spiritum Graiæ tenuem camoenæ,

as another which follows, to

Exegi monumentum ære perennius.

The action of the doves hints at a passage in the fourth ode of his third book:

Me fabulosæ Vulture in Apulo Altricis extra limen Apuliæ, Ludo fatigatumque somno, Fronde nova puerum palumbes Texêre; mirum quod foret omnibus-- Ut tuto ab atris corpore viperis Dormirem et ursis; ut premerer sacra Lauroque, collataque myrto, Non sine Dîs animosus infans.

Which may be thus Englished: