hanges in the state," "the falls of
favourites," and "old mismanagements" were a more universal topic of
conversation.]

[Footnote 125:

But such a grete congregation
Of folke as I saw roame about,
Some within, and some without.
Was never seen, ne shall be eft--
And every wight that I saw there
Rowned everich in others ear
A newe tyding privily,
Or elles he told it openly
Right thus, and said, Knowst not thou
That is betide to night now?
No, quoth he, tell me what
And then he told him this and that, &c.--POPE.]

[Footnote 126:

Thus north and south
Went every tiding fro mouth to mouth,
And that encreasing evermo,
As fire is wont to quicken and go
From a sparkle sprong amiss,
Till all the citee brent up is.--POPE.]

[Footnote 127: Dryden, Ovid, Met. xii.:

Fame sits aloft.

In Ovid the scene is laid in the house of Fame. Pope lays it in the
house of Rumour, and having left Fame enthroned in her own temple, he
now represents her as permanently "sitting aloft" in a totally different
edifice.]

[Footnote 128:

And sometime I saw there at once,
A lesing and a sad sooth saw
That gonnen at adventure draw
Out of a window forth to pace--
And no man be he ever so wrothe,
Shall have one of these two, but bothe, &c.--POPE.]

[Footnote 129: The hint is taken from a passage in another part of the
third book, but here more naturally made the conclusion, with the
addition of a moral to the whole. In Chaucer, he only answers, "he came
to see the place;" and the book ends abruptly, with his being surprized
at the sight of a man of great authority, and awaking in a
fright.--POPE.

This is an imperfect representation. While Chaucer is standing in the
House of Fame, a person goes up to him,

And saide, Friend, what is thy name,
Artow come hither to have fame?

The poet disclaims any such intention, and protests that he has no
desire that his name should be known to a single soul. He is then asked
what he does there, and he replies that he who brought him to the place
promised him that he should learn new and wonderful things, in which, he
says, he has been disappointed, for he was aware before that people
coveted fame, though he was not hitherto acquainted with the dwelling of
the goddess, nor with her appearance and condition. His interrogator
answers that he perceives what it is he desires