[Footnote 50: Pope had at first written,
If Sylvia smiles she brightens all the shore,
The sun's outshined, and nature charms no more.
This he submitted to Walsh. Pope. "Quaere, whether to say the sun is
outshined be too bold and hyperbolical?" Walsh. "For pastoral it is."
Pope. "If it should be softened with _seems_? Do you approve any of
these alterations?
If Sylvia smile, she brightens all the shore,
{ All nature seems outshined, and charms no more.
{ Light seems outshined, and nature charms no more.
{ And vanquished nature seems to shine no more.
Quaere, which of these three?" Walsh. "The last of these three I like
best."]
[Footnote 51: Cowley, Davideis, iii. 553:
Hot as ripe noon, sweet as the blooming day,
Like July furious, but more fair than May.--WAKEFIELD.]
[Footnote 52: An allusion to the royal oak, in which Charles II. had
been hid from the pursuit after the battle of Worcester.--POPE.
This wretched pun on the word "bears" is called "dextrous" by Wakefield,
but Warton says that it is "one of the most trifling and puerile
conceits" in all Pope's works, and is only exceeded in badness by the
riddle "which follows of the thistle and the lily."]
[Footnote 53: The contraction "I'll," which often occurs in these
pastorals, is familiar and undignified.--WAKEFIELD.]
[Footnote 54: It was thus in the manuscript:
Nay, tell me first what region canst thou find
In which by thistles lilies are outshined?
If all thy skill can make the meaning known,
The prize, the victor's prize, shall be thy own.--WAKEFIELD.
Pope submitted the first two lines to Walsh in conjunction with the
version in the text. "Quaere, which of these couplets is better
expressed, and better numbers? and whether it is better here to use
_thistle_ or _thistles_, _lily_ or _lilies_, singular or plural? The
epithet _more happy_ refers to something going before." Walsh. "The
second couplet [the text] is best; and singular, I think better than
plural."]
[Footnote 55: Alludes to the device of the Scots' monarchs, the thistle,
worn by Queen Anne; and to the arms of France, the _fleur de lys_. The
two riddles are in imitation of those in Virg. Ecl. iii. 106:
Dic quibus in terris inscripti nomina regum
Nascantur flores, et Phyllida solus habeto.--POPE.
Thus translated by Dryden;
Nay, tell me first in what new region springs
A flow'r that bears inscribed the names of kings;
And thou shalt gain a present as divine
As Phoebus' self, for Phyllis shall be thine.
Either the commentators on Virgil have not hit upon the true solution of
his riddles, or they are not at all superior to the parody of Pope.]
[Footnote 56: This is from Virg. Ecl. iii. 109: