Note 251 — AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM. (continued 2)
Reading edition
This stroke of satire is literally taken from Boileau:
Gardez-vous d'imiter ce rimeur furieux, Qui, de ses vains écrits, lecteur harmonieux, Aborde en récitant quiconque le salue, Et poursuit de ses vers les passants dans la rue. Il n'est temple si saint, des anges respecté, Qui soit contre sa muse un lieu de sûreté.
Which lines allude to the impertinence of a French poet called Du Perrier, who finding Boileau one day at church, insisted upon repeating to him an ode during the elevation of the host.—Warton.
Boileau tells the incident of an individual poetaster. Pope generalises the exceptional trait, and represents it to have been the usual practice of foppish critics to talk criticism at the altar. The probability is that he had never known an instance. The line "For fools rush in," is certainly fashioned, says Bishop Hurd, on Shakespeare, Richard iii. Act 1, Sc. 3:
Wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch.