[387] 'Wake the dull church, and lull the ranting stage:' i.e. dissipate the devotion of the one by light and wanton airs; and subdue the pathos of the other by recitative and sing-song.--W. [388] 'Narcissus:' Lord Hervey. [389] 'Bold Benson:' this man endeavoured to raise himself to fame by erecting monuments, striking coins, setting up heads, and procuring translations of Milton; and afterwards by as great passion for Arthur Johnston, a Scotch physician's version of the Psalms, of which he printed many fine editions. See more of him, book iii. v. 325.--P. W. [390] 'The decent knight:' Sir Thomas Hanmer, who was about to publish a very pompous edition of a great author, at his own expense.--P. W. [391] 'So by each bard an alderman,' &c.: alluding to the monument of Butler erected by Alderman Barber. [392] 'The Samian letter:' the letter Y, used by Pythagoras as an emblem of the different roads of Virtue and Vice. 'Et tibi quae Samios diduxit litera ramos.'--Pers. P. W. [393] 'House or Hall:' Westminster Hall and the House of Commons.--W. [394] 'Master-piece of man:' viz., an epigram. The famous Dr South declared a perfect epigram to be as difficult a performance as an epic poem. And the critics say, 'An epic poem is the greatest work human nature is capable of.'--P. W. [395] 'Gentle James:' Wilson tells us that this king, James I., took upon himself to teach the Latin tongue to Carr, Earl of Somerset; and that Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador, would speak false Latin to him, on purpose to give him the pleasure of correcting it, whereby he wrought himself into his good graces.--P. W. See Fortunes of Nigel. [396] 'Locke:' in the year 1703 there was a meeting of the heads of the University of Oxford to censure Mr Locke's Essay on Human Understanding, and to forbid the reading it. See his Letters in the last edit.--P. W. [397] 'Crousaz:' see Life. [398] 'The streams:' the River Cam, running by the walls of these colleges, which are particularly famous for their skill in disputation.--P. W. [399] 'Sleeps in port:' viz., 'now retired into harbour, after the tempests that had long agitated his society.' So Scriblerus. But the learned Scipio Maffei understands it of a certain wine called port, from Oporto a city of Portugal, of which this professor invited him to drink abundantly. Scip. Maff., _De Compotationibus Academicis_.--P. W. [400] 'Letter:' alluding to those grammarians, such as Palamedes and Simonides, who invented single letters. But Aristarchus, who had found out a double one, was therefore worthy of double honour.--Scribl. W. [401] 'Digamma:' alludes to the boasted restoration of the Aeolic digamma, in his long-projected edition of Homer. He calls it something more than letter, from the enormous figure it would make among the other letters, being one gamma set upon the shoulders of another.--P. W. [402] 'Cicero:' grammatical disputes about the manner of pronouncing Cicero's name in Greek.--W.