[242] If Cibber was the dull fellow Pope would have had him thought, no conduct could have been more proper towards him than that which Pope here recommends. Pope seems to have anticipated Colley's subsequent resolution "to write as long" as Pope "could rail."—Bowles.
[243] Duke of Buckingham's Essay on Satire,
But who can rail so long as he can sleep?
[244] Pope may have derived this comparison from the "Epilogue, written by a person of honour," to Dryden's Secret Love:
But t'other day I heard this rhyming fop
Say critics were the whips, and he the top:
For as a top spins best the more you baste her,
So ev'ry lash you give, he writes the faster,
The author of the Epilogue was more exact than Pope, whose application of the simile is inaccurate, for the top is in full spin when it is popularly said to be asleep.
[245] Dryden's Aurengzebe:
The dregs and droppings of enervate love.—Steevens.
It has been suggested that he alludes to Wycherley.—Warton.
Whom else could the lines suit at that period, when Pope says, "Such bards we have?" If Wycherley was intended, what must we think of Pope, who could wound, in this manner, his old friend, for whom he professed so much kindness, and who first introduced him to notice and patronage.—Bowles.