Elkanah Settle, celebrated as Doeg in Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel, wrote Successio in honor of the incoming Brunswick dynasty. Warburton (or possibly Pope) in a note on Dunciad, I. 181, says that the poem was 'written at fourteen years old, and soon after printed.' A good instance of Pope's economy of material will be found in the passage upon which that note bears: an adaptation of lines 4, 17 and 18 of this early poem. It was first published in Lintot's Miscellanies, 1712.

BEGONE, ye Critics, and restrain your spite, Codrus writes on, and will forever write. The heaviest Muse the swiftest course has

gone,

As clocks run fastest when most lead is on;
What tho' no bees around your cradle flew,
Nor on your lips distill'd their golden dew;
Yet have we oft discover'd in their stead
A swarm of drones that buzz'd about your
head.

When you, like Orpheus, strike the warbling lyre,

Attentive blocks stand round you and admire.

Wit pass'd thro' thee no longer is the

same,

As meat digested takes a diff'rent name; But sense must sure thy safest plunder be,

Since no reprisals can be made on thee. Thus thou may'st rise, and in thy daring flight

(Tho' ne'er so weighty) reach a wondrous height.

So, forc'd from engines, lead itself can fly,

And pond'rous slugs move nimbly thro' the sky.

Sure Bavius copied Mævius to the full,
And Charilus taught Codrus to be dull;
Therefore, dear friend, at my advice give
o'er

This needless labour; and contend no more
To prove a dull succession to be true,
Since 't is enough we find it so in you.

THE FIRST BOOK OF STATIUS'S THEBAIS

TRANSLATED IN THE YEAR 1703

Though Pope ascribes this translation to 1703, there is evidence that part of it was done as early as 1699. It was finally revised and published in 1712, but Courthope asserts that 'it is fair to assume that the body of the composition is preserved in its original form.'

ARGUMENT

Edipus, King of Thebes, having, by mistake, slain his father Laius, and married his mother Jocasta, put out his own eyes, and resign'd the realm to his sons Eteocles and Polynices. Being neglected by them, he makes his prayer to the Fury Tisiphone, to sow debate betwixt the brothers. They agree at last to reign singly, each a year by turns, and the first lot is obtain'd by Eteocles. Jupiter, in a council of the gods, declares his resolution of punishing the Thebans, and Argives also, by means of a marriage betwixt Polynices and one of the daughters of Adrastus King of Argos. Juno opposes, but to no effect; and Mercury is sent on a message to the shades, to the ghost of Laius, who is to appear to Eteocles, and provoke him to break the agreement. Polynices, in the mean time, departs from Thebes by night, is overtaken by a storm, and arrives at Argos; where he meets with Tideus, who had fled from Calidon, having kill'd his brother. Adrastus entertains them, having receiv'd an oracle from Apollo that his daughters should be married to a boar and a lion, which he understands to be meant of these strangers, by whom the hides of those beasts were worn, and who arrived at the time when

And join'd reluctant to the galling yoke,
Alike disdain with servile necks to bear
Th' unwonted weight, or drag the crooked
share,

But rend the reins, and bound a diff'rent way,

And all the furrows in confusion lay:
Such was the discord of the royal pair 190
Whom fury drove precipitate to war.
In vain the chiefs contrived a specious way
To govern Thebes by their alternate sway:
Unjust decree! while this enjoys the state,
That mourns in exile his unequal fate,
And the short monarch of a hasty year
Foresees with anguish his returning heir.
Thus did the league their impious arms re-
strain,

But scarce subsisted to the second reign.
Yet then no proud aspiring piles were

rais'd,

200