[47] In the first edition,
Not all those realms could for such crimes suffice.
Pope might have done more to improve this prosaic couplet.
[48] Pope borrowed from the translation of Stephens:
How wast thou lost
In thine own joys, proud tyrant then, when all
About thee were thy slaves.
[49] It should be "discontented."—Warton.
[50] This couplet was interpolated by Pope and seems to have been suggested by his hostility to the revolution of 1688. Nor does Statius call the populace "vile," or say that they are always "discontented," or that they are "still prone to change, though still the slaves of state." Neither does he say that they "are sure to hate the monarch, they have," but he says that their custom is to love his successor, which is a sentiment more in accordance with experience.
[51] "Exiled" because the king who was not reigning had to leave the country during his brother's year of power.
[52] The warriors who were the produce of the dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus fought among themselves till only five were left.
[53] "Unrivalled," as the context shows, is not here a term of commendation, but merely signifies that the monarch had no equal in rank or power.