lately in the Marquis of Buckingham's Collection at Stowe,

ARGYLL, the State's whole Thunder born to wield,
And shake alike the Senate and the Field:

Or WYNDHAM, juft to Freedom and the Throne,
The Master of our Paffions, and his own.

Names, which I long have lov'd, nor lov'd in vain,
Rank'd with their Friends, not number'd with their

Train;

And if yet higher the proud Lift fhould end,

91

Still let me fay ! No Follower, but a Friend.

Yet

NOTES.

The two lines on Argyle are faid to have been added, on the Duke's declaring in the House of Lords, on occasion of some of Pope's fatires, that if any man dared to use his name in an invective, he would run him through the body, and throw himself on the mercy of his Peers, who, he trufted, would weigh the

vocation.

pro

Bolingbroke's Letter to Wyndham is one of the most curious of his works, and it gave a deadly and incurable blow to the folly and madness of Jacobitifm. WARTON.

VER. 84. CHESTERFIELD forget,] His character was much funk by the publication of the loofe and libertine Letters to his Son. WARTON.

VER. 88. WYNDHAM,] Sir William Wyndham, Chancellor of the Exchequer under Queen Anne, made early a confiderable figure; but fince a much greater, both by his ability and eloquence, joined with the utmoft judgment and temper.

VER. 88. Or WYNDHAM, just to] In former Editions,

POPE.

WARTON.

Or WYNDHAM arm'd for FreedomVER. 88. Freedom and the Throne,] We must always remember that the facred appellation of Patriot, is always adopted by disappointment, but it seems almost ludicrous that it should be fo perpetually in the mouth of the high Tory Party, fuch as Bolingbroke, &c.

VER. 92. And if yet higher, &c.] He was at that time honoured with the esteem and favour of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. WARBURTON.

Yet think not, Friendship only prompts my lays;

I follow Virtue; where the fhines, I praise :
Point she to Priest or Elder, Whig or Tory,
Or round a Quaker's Beaver caft a Glory.
I never (to my forrow I declare)

95

Din'd with the MAN of Ross, or my LORD MAY'R.

NOTES.

Some,

Frederic Prince of Wales; who poffeffed many of what the King of Pruffia called, ces qualités fociables qui s'allient fi rarement avec la morgué et la grandeur des Souveraines WARTON. VER. 93. Still let me fay! No Follower, but a Friend ] i. e. Unrelated to their parties, and attached only to their perfons.

WARBURTON.

VER. 99 the MAN of Ross,] Kirle, the celebrated Man of Rofs, was educated at Baliol College Oxford, where there is a curious Tankard, infcribed with his name, which he left as a prefent to the College; it is often fhewn as a curiofity, in confequence of the fplendor given to his name, by Pope's numbers.

The Tankard stands about 10 inches high from the ground, being fupported by three legs, in the shape of Lions.

The handle is formed by the figure of a Dolphin, and the cover lifted up by a figure of an Hedge hog, which was Kirle's Crest.

Upon the cover of the Tankard, the arms of Baliol College. In the centre, the Arms of the Donor, above which are the words "Poculum Charitatis :" and underneath, the following Infcription:

"Ex dono Jhannis Kirle de Roffe, in Agro Herefordienfi et hujus Collegii Sono Commenfalis.”

The date of the year, in which the gift was made, is, contrary to the ufual form, omitted.

VER. 99. my LORD MAY'R.] Sir John Barnard, Lord Mayor in the year of the Poem, 1738. A citizen eminent for his virtue, public fpirit, and great talents in Parliament. An excellent Man, Magiftrate, and Senator. In the year 1747, the City of London, in memory of his many and fignal fervices to his Country, erected a statue to him. But his image had been placed long before in the heart of every good Man. WARBURTON,

Some, in their choice of Friends (nay, look not

grave)

Have ftill a fecret Bias to a Knave:

To find an honeft man I beat about,

And love him, court him, praise him, in or out.
F. Then why fo few commended?

P. Not fo fierce;

Find
you the Virtue, and I'll find the Verse.
But random Praife-the task can ne'er be done;
Each Mother asks it for her booby Son,

100

105

Each Widow asks it for the Best of Men,

110

For him fhe weeps, for him fhe weds agen.
Praise cannot stoop, like Satire, to the ground;
The Number may be hang'd, but not be crown'd.
Enough for half the Greatest of these days,
To 'fcape my Cenfure, not expect my Praise.
Are they not rich? what more can they pretend?
Dare they to hope a Poet for their Friend?
What RICHLIEU wanted, LOUIS fcarce could gain,
And what young AMMON wifh'd, but wifh'd in vain.
No

NOTES.

115

VER. 102. To find an honest man, &c.] In this search, in which he was very fincere, it would have been well if he had not fometimes trufted to the reports of others, who had less penetration, but more paffions to gratify. WARBURTON.

VER. 112. Enough for half the Greatest] Dr. Warton asks, whether this is not too high language? He might well ask. Pope puts me in mind here, of what we read of the beautiful, but fearful ferpent, in a rich African landscape, that lifts his head above the tall grafs, as if he thought himfelf the lord of the Earth.

VER. 116 What RICHLIEU wanted,] A curious and uncom. mon fact is mentioned by the learned Abbé Longuerue, Part ii. P. 5. That Cardinal Richlieu had, from time to time, fits of infanity,

3