The Works of Alexander Pope Part 63

[Footnote 42: St. John iv. 37. "_One soweth, and another reapeth_."--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 43: Isaiah x.x.xv. 1.--POPE. "_The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose._"]

[Footnote 44: Virg. Ecl. iv. 28:

Molli paulatim flavescet campus arista, Incultisque rubens pendebit sentibus uva, Et durae quercus sudabunt roscida mella.

"_The fields shall grow yellow with ripened ears, and the red grape shall hang upon the wild brambles, and the hard oak shall distil honey like dew._"

Isaiah x.x.xv. 7. "_The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: In the habitation where dragons lay, shall be gra.s.s with reeds and rushes._" Chap. lv. ver. 13. "_Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle-tree._"--POPE.]

[Footnote 45: Pope has been happy in introducing this circ.u.mstance.--WARTON.]

[Footnote 46: Isaiah xli. 19, and chap. lv. 13.--POPE. "_I will set in the desert the fir-tree, and the pine, and the box-tree together._"]

[Footnote 47: Virg. Ecl. iv. 21:

Ipsae lacte domum referent distenta capelae Ubera, nec magnos metuent armeuta leones.-- Occidet et serpens, et fallax herba veneni Occidet.

"_The goats shall bear to the fold their udders distended with milk: nor shall the herds be afraid of the greatest lions. The serpent shall die, and the herb that conceals poison shall die._"

Isaiah xi. 6, 7, 8. "_The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together: and a little child shall lead them. And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the den of the c.o.c.katrice._"--POPE.]

[Footnote 48: The similarity of the rhymes in this couplet to those of the preceding is a blemish to this pa.s.sage.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 49: Isaiah lxv. 25.--POPE. "_The lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat._"]

[Footnote 50: Pope's line may have been suggested by Ovid's description of the transformation of Cadmus and his wife into snakes. Of Cadmus it is said, Met. iv. 595, that

ille suae lambebat conjugis ora;

and of husband and wife, when the change in both was complete, that

Nunc quoque nec fugiunt hominem, nec vulnere laedunt.]

[Footnote 51: Originally,

And with their forky tongue and pointless sting shall play.

Wakefield conjectures that Pope altered the line from having learnt the erroneousness of the vulgar belief that the sting of the serpent is in its tail. The expression he subst.i.tuted in the text is borrowed from Dryden's Palamon and Arcite, quoted by Wakefield:

And troops of lions innocently play.]

[Footnote 52: Salem is used for Jerusalem in Psalm lxxvi. 2.]

[Footnote 53: Isaiah lx. 1.--POPE. "_Arise, s.h.i.+ne; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee._"]

[Footnote 54: The thoughts of Isaiah, which compose the latter part of the poem, are wonderfully elevated, and much above those general exclamations of Virgil, which make the loftiest parts of his Pollio:

Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo --toto surget gens aurea mundo!

--incipient magni procedere menses!

Aspice, venture laetentur ut omnia saeclo! &c.

The reader needs only to turn to the pa.s.sages of Isaiah, here cited.--POPE.]

[Footnote 55: The open vowel _thy eyes_ is particularly offensive.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 56: Isaiah lx. 4.--POPE. "_Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side._"]

[Footnote 57: Isaiah lx. 3.--POPE. "_And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising._"]

[Footnote 58: Dryden in his Aureng-Zebe:

What sweet soe'er Sabaean springs disclose.--STEEVENS.

Saba, in Arabia, was noted for its aromatic products. Thus Milton, Par.

Lost, iv. 161:

Sabaean odours from the spicy sh.o.r.e Of Araby the blest.]

[Footnote 59: Isaiah lx. 6.--POPE. "_All they from Sheba shall come; they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall show forth the praises of the Lord._"]

[Footnote 60: Broome, in Pope's Miscellanies, p. 104:

A stream of glory, and a flood of day.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 61: Isaiah lx. 19, 20.--POPE. "_The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee; but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy G.o.d thy glory._"]

[Footnote 62: Cynthia is an improper, because a cla.s.sical word.--WARTON.

Sandys' Ovid:

Now waxing Phoebe filled her wained horns.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 63: Here is a remarkably fine effect of versification. The poet rises with his subject, and the correspondent periods seem to flow more copious and majestic with the grandeur and sublimity of the theme.--BOWLES.]

[Footnote 64: This fine expression is borrowed from Dryden's Ode on Mrs.

Killegrew:

Thou wilt have time enough for hymns divine, Since heaven's eternal year is thine.--WAKEFIELD.]

[Footnote 65: Isaiah li. 6, and chap. liv. 10.--POPE. "_The heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, but my salvation shall be for ever.--For the mountains shall depart, and the hills shall be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee._"]

WINDSOR FOREST.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE GEORGE, LORD LANDSDOWN.