The Temple of Fame: A Vision/Notes

by Alexander Pope

 

NOTES.

 

OME modern Criticks, from a pretended Refinement of Taste, have declar'd themselves unable to relish allegorical Poems. 'Tis not easy to penetrate into the meaning of this Criticism; for if Fable be allow'd one of the chief Beauties, or as Aristotle calls it, the very Soul of Poetry, 'tis hard to comprehend how that Fable should be the less valuable for having a Moral. The Ancients constantly made use of Allegories: My Lord Bacon has compos'd an express Treatise in proof of this, entitled, The Wisdom of the Antients; where the Reader may see several particular Fictions exemplify'd and explain'd with great Clearness, Judgment and Learning. The Incidents indeed, by which the Allegory is convey'd, must be vary'd, according to the different Genius or Manners of different Times: and they should never be spun too long, or too much clogg'd with trivial Circumstances, or little Particularities. We find an uncommon Charm in Truth, when it is convey'd by this Side-way to our Ʋnderstanding; and 'tis observable, that even in the most ignorant Ages this way of Writing has found Reception. Almost all the Poems in the old Provençal had this Turn; and from these it was that Petrarch took the Idea of his Poetry. We have his Trionfi in this kind; and Boccace pursu'd in the same Track. Soon after Chaucer introduc'd it here, whose Romaunt of the Rose, Court of Love, Flower and the Leaf, House of Fame, and some others of his Writings are Master-pieces of this sort. In Epick Poetry, 'tis true, too nice and exact a Pursuit of the Allegory is justly esteem'd a Fault; and Chaucer had the Discernment to avoid it in his Knight's Tale, which was an Attempt towards an Epick Poem. Ariosto, with less judgment, gave intirely into it in his Orlando; which tho' carry'd to an Excess, had yet so much Reputation in Italy, that Tasso (who reduc'd Heroick Poetry to the juster Standard of the Ancients) was forc'd to prefix to his Work a scrupulous Explanation of the Allegory of it, to which the Fable it-self could scarce have directed his Readers. Our Country|man Spencer follow'd, whose Poem is almost intirely allegorical, and imitates the manner of Ariosto rather than that of Tasso. Upon the whole, one may observe this sort of Writing (however discontinu'd of late) was in all Times so far from being rejected by the best Poets, that some of them have rather err'd by insisting in it too closely, and carrying it too far: And that to infer from thence that the Allegory it self is vicious, is a presumptuous Contradiction to the Judgment and Practice of the greatest Genius's, both ancient and modern.

Pag. 11. ver. 3. So Zembla's Rocks, &c.

Tho' a short Verisimilitude be not requir'd in the Descriptions of this visionary and allegorical kind of Poetry, which admits of every wild Object that Fancy may present in a Dream, and where it is sufficient if the moral Meaning atone for the Improbability: Yet Men are naturally so desirous of Truth, that a Reader is generally pleas'd, in such a Case, with some Excuse or Allusion that seems to reconcile the Description to Probability and Nature. The Simile here is of that sort, and renders it not wholly unlikely that a Rock of Ice should remain for ever, by mentioning something like it in the Northern Regions, agreeing with the Accounts of our modern Travellers.

P. 12. ver. 1. Four Faces had the Dome, &c.

The Temple is describ'd to be square, the four Fronts with open Gates facing the different Quarters of the World, as an Intimation that all Nations of the Earth may alike be receiv'd into it. The Western Front is of Grecian Architecture: the Dorick Order was peculiarly sacred to Heroes and Warriors. Those whose Statues are here mention'd, were the first Names of old Greece in Arms and Arts.

Pag. 13. ver. 3. There great Alcides, &c.

This Figure of Hercules is drawn with an eye to the Position of the famous Statue of Farnese.

Pag. 14. ver. 4. And the great Founder of the Persian Name.

Cyrus was the Beginner of the Persian, as Nihus was of the Assyrian Monarchy. The Magi and Chaldeans (the chief of whom was Zoroaster) employ'd their Studies upon Magick and Astrology, which was in a manner almost all the Learning of the antient Asian People. We have scarce any Account of a moral Philosopher except Confucius, the great Lawgiver of the Chinese, who liv'd about two thousand Years ago.

Pag. 15. ver. 2. Egypt's Priests, &c.

The Learning of the old Egyptian Priests consisted for the most part in Geometry and Astronomy: They also preserv'd the History of their Nation. Their greatest Hero upon Record is Sesostris, whose Actions and Conquests may be seen at large in Diodorus, &c. He is said to have caus'd the Kings he vanquish'd to draw him in his Chariot. The Posture of his Statue, in these Verses, is correspondent to the Description which Herodotus gives of one of this Prince's Statues remaining in his own time.

Pag. 15. ver. 11. Of Gothick Structure was the Northern Side.

The Architecture is agreeable to that part of the World. The Learning of the Northern Nations lay more obscure than that of the rest. Zamolxis was the Disciple of Pythagoras, who taught the Immortality of the Soul to the Scythians. Odin, or Woden, was the great Legislator and Hero of the Goths. They tell us of him that being subject to Fits, he persuaded his Followers, that during those Trances he receiv'd Inspirations from whence he dictated his Laws. He is said to have been the Inventor of the Runic Characters.

Pag. 16. ver. 5. Druids and Bards, &c.

These were the Priests and Poets of those People, so celebrated for their savage Virtue. Those heroick Barbarians accounted it a Dishonour to die in their Beds, and rush'd on to certain Death in the Prospect of an After-Life, and for the Glory of a Song from their Bards in Praise of their Actions.

Pag. 17. ver. ult. The Youth that all things but himself subdu'd.

Alexander the Great: The Tiara was the Crown peculiar to the Asian Princes: His Desire to be thought the Son of Jupiter Ammon caus'd him to wear the Horns of that God, and to represent the same upon his Coins, which was continu'd by several of his Successors.

Pag. 18. ver. 10. Timoleon glorious in his Brother's Blood.

Timoleon had sav'd the Life of his Brother Timophanes in the Battel between the Argives and Corinthians; but afterwards kill'd him when he affected the Tyranny, preferring his Duty to his Country to all the Obligations of Blood.

Pag. 19. ver. 3.——He whom Athens did expel,
In all things just, but when he sign'd the Shell.

Aristides, who for his great Integrity was distinguish'd by the Appellation of the Just. When his Countrymen would have banish'd him by the Ostracism, where it was the Custom for every Man to sign the Name of the Person he voted to Exile in an Oyster-Shell; a Peasant, who could not write, came to Aristides to do it for him, who readily sign'd his own Name. Vide Plutarch. See the same Author of Phocion, Agis, &c.

Pag. 19. ver. 9. But in the Center of the hallow'd Quire, &c.

In the midst of the Temple, nearest the Throne of Fame, are plac'd the greatest Names in Learning of all Antiquity. These are describ'd in such Attitudes as express their different Characters. The Columns on which they are rais'd are adorn'd with Sculptures, taken from the most striking Subjects of their Works; which are so executed, as that the Sculpture bears a Resemblance in its Manner and Character, to the Manner and Character of their Writings.

Pag. 21. ver. 13. Four Swans sustain, &c.

Pindar being seated in a Chariot, alludes to the Chariot-races he celebrated in the Grecian Games. The Swans are the Emblems of the Ode, as their soaring Posture intimates the Sublimity and Activity of his Genius. Neptune presided over the Isthmian, and Jupiter over the Olympian Games.

Pag. 22. ver. 13. Pleas'd with Alcæus Manly Rage t' infuse
The softer Spirit of the Sapphick Muse.

This expresses the mixt Character of the Odes of Horace. The second of these Verses alludes to that Line of his:

Spiritum Graiæ tenuem Camoenæ.

As another which follows, to that,

Exegi Monumentum ære perennius.

The Action of the Doves hints at a Passage in the 4th Ode of his third Book.

Me fabulosæ Vulture in Appulo,
Altricis extra limen Apuliæ,
Ludo fatigatumque somno,
Fronde nova puerum Palumbes
Texêre; mirum quod foret omnibus—
Ut tuto ab atris corpore viperis
Dormirem & ursis: ut permerer sacra

Lauroque, collataque myrto,
Non sine Dis animosus infans.

Which may be thus English'd;

While yet a Child, I chanc'd to stray,
And in a Desart sleeping lay;
The savage Race withdrew, nor dar'd
To touch the Muses future Bard:
But Cytheræa's gentle Dove
Myrtles and Bays around me spread,
And crown'd your Infant Poet's Head,
Sacred to Musick and to Love.

 

 

FINIS.

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