How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #4
There mark what ills the scholar's life assail,
Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail. (159-160)
Even those bookworms—scholars—don't have such an easy time. They pursue the scholarly life because of the promise of satisfaction and reward. Instead, they find bad things—envy, poverty, and even prison (if they cheesed off the king back then with their ideas, we were likely to end up in jail).
Quote #5
His fall was destin'd to a barren strand,
A petty fortress, and a dubious hand;
He left the name at which the world grew pale,
To point a moral, or adorn a tale. (219-222)
The speaker is referring to the Swedish King Charles XII here. He was a big man, with huge ambitions and dreams. Those ambitions and dreams were very sadly diminished by the end of his life. He's exiled to a small fortress on a barren shore. Not only that, but the only thing he's remembered for ("his name") is that he ended up badly.