Page:The Annual Register 1758.djvu/444

 430 A N N U A L R E G I S T E R, i75«-

ro the Re^. Dr. Warburton, Dean of Brijiol on reading hit Difertation en the Sixth Book of Virgil.

By Richard B-^r^ng-^r, E/q.

IN Learning's maze low critics ftray, An^ blindly bold miftakc their way: Supplying want of talte and fenfe "With confidence and falfe pretence ; Still darker each dark pafTage make. Then confecrate their own miftake ; Till by their notes with learning fraught O'erlaid expires the haplefs thoaght.

Thus med'cine qoacks prefume to give. And murder thofe they mean to live.

Such, Virgil, fuch, for many an age Have mangled thy celeftial page ; Thy nobler meaning left unknown. And, harder ftill, impos'd their own : ^ Sure in that * hell, which you defign'd For mifcrcants vile of ev'ry kind. Bad critics well deferve a place. Nor mercy e'er fhould find, nor grace; Tranflators too thofe realms fliould hold, "Who put off drofs inftead of gold : Chief ihofe who thy bright Mufe difgrace. And hide with ftains her beauteous face. There creeping f Lauderdale (liould be. Cold t Trapp, and murd'ring f Ogilby- But fee ! again the heav'n-born maid With joy triumphant lifts her head ! For to confute, evpofe, chaftife. Behold ! her great avenger rife ! Behold ! great bard, thy fame to clear. Behold ! thy Warburton appear !

And worthy he in thofe bleft plains % To fhare the blifs which Virtue gains. With thofe who toil'd to blefs mankind. And form to Wifdom's lore the mind. Where Tullv, Plato, range the glade ^ With Thine and % Pitt's attendant IhaJe.

As the fam'd || chief could ne'er have feeil The regions fway'd by Pluto's Queen, Vv^ihout that wo. d'rous XX branch whofe rind Radiant with gold immortal ftiin'd :

• Vide Sixth Book, t Tr i>nators of VirgU. § Vide Sixth Book. J A moft exceUent Tranflatw of Virgil's ^neKJ. || ^neas, XX Vide Sixth ^°^-j^^y ,