You grow correct that once with Rapture writ, Decay of Parts, alas! we all muft feel Why now, this moment, don't I fee NOTES. 5 you steal? 'Tis ftyle, without flatnefs The fatire in thefe pieces is of the strongest kind; fometimes, direct and declamatory, at others, ironical and oblique. It must be owned to be carried to excess. Our country is represented as totally ruined, and overwhelmed with diffipation, depravity, and corruption. Yet this very country, fo emasculated and debafed by every fpecies of folly and wickednefs, in about twenty years afterwards, carried its triumphs over all its enemies, through all the quarters of the world, and astonished the most diftant nations with a display of uncommon efforts, abilities, and virtue. So vain and groundless are the prognostications of poets, as well as politicians. It is to be wifhed, that a genius could be found to write an One Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty-one, as a counter-part to these two Dialogues, which were more diligently laboured, and more frequently corrected than any of our Author's compofitions. I have often heard Mr. Dodsley fay, that he was employed by the Author to copy them fairly. Every line was then written twice over; a clean tranfcript was then delivered to Mr. Pope, and when he afterwards fent it to Mr. Dodsley to be printed, he found every line had been written twice over a fecond time. Swift tells our Author, thefe Dialogues are equal, if not fuperior, to any part of his works. They are, in truth, more Horatian, than the profeffed Imitations of Horace. They at firft were intitled, from the year in which they were publifhed, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Thirty-eight. They were afterwards called, fantastically enough, Epilogue to the Satires, as the Epiftle It is remarkto Arbuthnot was intitled Prologue to the Satires. able that the first was published the very same morning with Johnfon's admirable London; which Pope much approved, and fearched diligently for the Author, who lived then in obfcurity. London had a fecond edition in a week. Pope has himself given more notes and illuftrations on thefe Dialogues than on any other of his poems. WARTON. VER. 2 fee nothing in't.] He used this colloquial (I will not fay barbarifm, but) abbreviation, to imitate familiar conversation. WARTON. 'Tis all from Horace; Horace long before ye Said, "Tories call'd him Whig, and Whigs a Tory;" And taught his Romans, in much better metre, "To laugh at Fools who put their truft in Peter." But Horace, Sir, was delicate, was nice; Bubo obferves, he lafh'd no fort of Vice: Horace would fay, Sir Billy ferv'd the Crown, Blunt could do bus'nefs, H-ggins knew the Town; In Sappho touch the Failings of the Sex, In rev'rend Bishops note fome small Neglects, 15 NOTES. And VER. 9, 10. And taught his Romans, in much better metre, "To laugh at Fools who put their truft in Peter."] The general turn of the thought is from Boileau, "Avant lui, Juvénal avoit dit en Latin, VER. 12. Bubo obferves,] Some guilty perfon, very fond of making fuch an observation. POPE. Bubo is faid to mean Mr. Doddington, afterward Lord Melcombe. WARTON. Pope has before claffed together "Sir Will, and Bubo." See note on that line, Prologue to the Satires. VER. 13 Horace would fay,] The bufinefs of the friend here introduced is to diffuade our Poet from personal invectives. But he dexterously turns the very advice he is giving into the bitterest fatire. Sir Billy was Sir William Young, who, from a great fluency, was often employed to make long fpeeches till the minifter's friends were collected in the House. WARTON. VER. 14. H-ggins] Formerly Gaoler of the Fleet prison, enriched himself by many exactions, for which he was tried and expelled. РОРЕ. He was the father of the Author of the abfurd and profaïc Tranflation of Arioflo; an account of him is given in the Anecdotes of Hogarth. WARTON. And own, the Spaniard did a waggish thing, Who cropt our Ears, and sent them to the King. 21 Could please at Court, and make AUGUSTUS fmile: And VARIATIONS. After Ver. 26. in the MS. There's honeft Tacitus once talk'd as big, But is he now an independant Whig? Mr. Thomas Gordon, who was bought off by a place at Court. NOTES. VER. 15. In Sappho touch] In former Editions, Sir George of fome flight gallantries fufpect. WARTON. VER. 18. Who cropt our Ears,] Said to be executed by the Captain of a Spanish Ship on one Jenkins, a Captain of an English one. He cut off his ears, and bid him carry them to the King his Mafter. POPE. VER. 18 Who cropt our Ears,] This circumftance has been ludicrously called by Burke," the Fable of Captain Jenkins's Ears!" See Coxe's Memoirs. VER. 22. Screen. "Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico Tangit, et admiffus circum præcordia ludit." PERS. A metaphor peculiarly appropriated to a certain perfon in POPE. power. VER. 24. Patriots there are, &c.] This appellation was generally given to those in opposition to the Court. Though fome of them (which our Author hints at) had views too mean and interested to deserve that name. POPE. And where's the Glory? 'twill be only thought 25 The Great man never offer'd you a groat. Go fee Sir ROBERT P. See Sir ROBERT!-hum And never laugh-for all my life to come? Of Social Pleasure, ill-exchang'd for Pow'r; NOTES. 30 Seen VER 26. That Great men] A phrase, by common use, appropriated to the first Minister. POPE. VER. 27. Go fee Sir ROBERT] We must not judge of this minifter's character from the Differtation on Parties, nor from the eloquent Philippics, for eloquent they were, uttered against him in both Houfes of Parliament. Hume has drawn his portrait with candour and impartiality. And fome of his most vehement antagonifts, particularly the great Lord Chatham, lived to allow the merits of that long and pacific ministry, which so much extended the commerce, and confequently enlarged the riches of this WARTON. country. The noblest monument that has been raised to the memory of Sir Robert Walpole, has been by Mr. Coxe, who, from fources of authentic information, has moft ably illuftrated the eventful period of our History, during the administration of Sir Robert. There is not a circumftance or character connected with the Hiftory of the time, but what has received new light from that accurate and elegant hiftorian. VER. 29. Seen him I have, &c.] The pleasant, amiable character of Sir Robert in private life, is here most admirably touched. Lady M. W. Montagu's portrait of this eminent ftatesman, in his character as a private man, gives alfo a moft pleafing idea of him : On feeing a Portrait of Sir Robert Walpole. His cheerful fmile, and open honest look, Seen him, uncumber'd with the Venal tribe, He does not think me what he thinks mankind. NOTES. Come, VER. 29. Seen him I have, &c.] This, and other ftrokes of commendation in the following poem, as well as his regard to Sir Robert Walpole on all occafions, were in acknowledgment of a certain fervice he had done a friend of Mr. Pope's at his solicitation. Our Poet, when he was about seventeen, had a very ill fever in the country; which, it was feared, would end fatally. In this condition he wrote to Southcot, a Prieft of his acquaintance, then in town, to take his last leave of him. Southcot, with great affection and folicitude, applied to Dr. Radcliffe for his advice. And not content with that. he rode down poft to Mr. Pope, who was then an hundred miles from London, with the Doctor's directions; which had the defired effect. A long time after this, Southcot, who had an intereft in the Court of France, writing to a common acquaintance in England, informed him that there was a good abbey void near Avignon, which he had credit enough to get, were it not from an apprehenfion that his promotion would give umbrage to the English Court; to which he (Southcot) by his intrigues in the Pretender's fervice, was become very obnoxious. The perfon to whom this was written happening to acquaint Mr. Pope with the cafe, he immediately wrote a pleasant letter to Sir R. Walpole in the Prieft's behalf: He acquainted the Minifter with the grounds of his folicitation, and begged that this embargo, for his, Mr. P.'s fake, might be taken off; for that he was indebted to Southcot for his life; which debt muft needs be difcharged either here or in purgatory. The Minifter received the application favourably, and with much good-nature wrote to his brother, then in France, to remove the obftruction. In confequence of which Southcot got the abbey. Mr. Pope ever after retained a grateful fense of his civility. WARBURTON. To the account given in this note may be added, that in gratitude for this favour conferred on his friend, Pope presented to Mr. Horatio Walpole, afterwards Lord Walpole, a set of his Works in quarto, richly bound; which are now in the library at Wolterton. WARTON. |