studied.

The poet contradicts himself with regard to the principle he is here
laying down in lines 271-272 where he laughs at Dennis for

Concluding all were desperate sots and fools
Who durst depart from Aristotle's rules.]

[Line 180: Homer nods--_Quandoque bonus dormitat
Homerus_, 'even the good Homer nods'--Horace, _Epistola ad
Pisones_, 359.]

[Lines 183, 184: Secure from flames.--The poet probably
alludes to such fires as those in which the Alexandrine and Palatine
Libraries were destroyed. From envy's fiercer rage.--Probably he
alludes to the writings of such men as Maevius (see note to line 34) and
Zoilus, a sophist and grammarian of Amphipolis, who distinguished
himself by his criticism on Isocrates, Plato, and Homer, receiving the
nickname of _Homeromastic_ (chastiser of Homer). Destructive
war--Probably an allusion to the irruption of the barbarians into
the south of Europe. And all-involving age; that is, time. This is
usually explained as an allusion to 'the long reign of ignorance and
superstition in the cloisters,' but it is surely far-fetched, and more
than the language will bear.]

[Lines 193, 194:

'Round the whole world this dreaded name shall sound,
And reach to worlds that must not yet be found,"--COWLEY.]