[Line 675: Longinus, a Platonic philosopher and famous rhetorician, born either in Syria or at Athens about 213 A.D., was probably the best critic of antiquity. From his immense knowledge, he was called "a living library" and "walking museum," hence the poet speaks of him as inspired by _all the Nine_--Muses that is. These were Clio, the muse of History, Euterpe, of Music, Thaleia, of Pastoral and Comic Poetry and Festivals, Melpomene, of Tragedy, Terpsichore, of Dancing, Erato, of Lyric and Amorous Poetry, Polyhymnia, of Rhetoric and Singing, Urania, of Astronomy, Calliope, of Eloquence and Heroic Poetry.] [Line 686: Rome.--For this pronunciation (to rhyme with _doom_) he has Shakespeare's example as precedent.] [Line 692: Goths.--A powerful nation of the Germanic race, which, originally from the Baltic, first settled near the Black Sea, and then overran and took an important part in the subversion of the Roman empire. They were distinguished as Ostro Goths (Eastern Goths) on the shores of the Black Sea, the Visi Goths (Western Goths) on the Danube, and the Moeso Goths, in Moesia ] [Line 693: Erasmus.--A Dutchman (1467-1536), and at one time a Roman Catholic priest, who acted as tutor to Alexander Stuart, a natural son of James IV. of Scotland as professor of Greek for a short time at Oxford, and was the most learned man of his time. His best known work is his _Colloquia_, which contains satirical onslaughts on monks, cloister life, festivals, pilgrimages etc.] [Line 696: Vandals.--A race of European barbarians, who first appear historically about the second century, south of the Baltic. They overran in succession Gaul, Spain, and Italy. In 455 they took and plundered Rome, and the way they mutilated and destroyed the works of art has become a proverb, hence the monks are compared to them in their ignorance of art and science.] [Line 697: Leo.--Leo X., or the Great (1513-1521), was a scholar himself, and gave much encouragement to learning and art.] [Line 704: Raphael (1483-1520), an Italian, is almost universally regarded as the greatest of painters. He received much encouragement from Leo. Vida--A poet patronised by Leo. He was the son of poor parents at Cremona (see line 707), which therefore the poet says, would be next in fame to Mantua, the birthplace of Virgil as it was next to it in place. "Mantua vae miserae nimium vicina Cremona."--Virg.] [Line 714: Boileau.--An illustrious French poet (1636-1711), who wrote a poem on the Art of Poetry, which is copiously imitated by Pope in this poem.] [Lines 723, 724: Refers to the Duke of Buckingham's _Essay on Poetry_ which had been eulogized also by Dryden and Dr. Garth.] [Line 725: Roscommon, the Earl of, a poet, who has the honor to be the first critic who praised Milton's _Paradise Lost_, died 1684.] [Line 729: Walsh.--An indifferent writer, to whom Pope owed a good deal, died 1710.]