He had been made the subject of ridicule by Swift, Steele, Addison and others.—Croker.
[527] Milton, Par. Lost, v. ver. 261, calls the telescope "the glass of Galileo," who first employed it to observe the heavens.
[528] Phebe in As You Like It, Act iii. Sc. 5, says to her despised and despairing lover,
Thou tell'st me there is murder in mine eye.
[529] The compliment was meant to be serious, but is marred by its extravagance. "Millions" is too hyperbolical.
[530] Spenser in his 75th Sonnet:
Not so, quoth I: let baser things devise
To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:
My verse your virtues rare shall eternise,
And in the heavens write your glorious name.
And Cowley, in his imitation of Horace, Ode iv. 2:
He bids him live and grow in fame
Among the stars he sticks his name.—Wakefield.
[531] Wakefield says "there is an affectation and ambiguity in this account which he does not comprehend." The uncertainty with which Pope speaks, refers to his doubt of the identity of the lady celebrated by the duke. Enough of "ambiguity and affectation" remains, which would have been no mystery to Wakefield if he had been aware that Pope's object was to deceive.