That not in Fancy's maze he wander'd long, The dull, the proud, the wicked, and the mad; The blow unfelt, the tear he never shed; NOTES. 340 345 350 preaux. I never saw so amiable an imagination, fo gentle graces, fo great variety, fo much wit, and so "refined knowledge of the world, as in this little perform"ance." MS. Let. Oct. 15, 1726. VER. R. 341. But foop'd to Truth] The term is from falconry; and the allufion to one of those untamed birds of fpirit, which fometimes wantons at large in airy circles before it regards, or floops to, its prey. VER. 350. the lye fo oft oe'rthrown] As, that he received fubfcriptions for Shakespear, that he fet his name to Mr. Broome's verfes, &c. which, tho' publicly dif proved were nevertheless shamelessly repeated in the Libels, and even in that called the Nobleman's Epifile. P. VER. 351. Th' imputed trash] Such as profane Pfalms, Court-Poems, and other fcandalous things, printed in his Name by Curl and others. P. The morals blacken'd when the writings scape, 355 The whisper, that to greatness still too near, Alike my scorn, if he fucceed or fail, A hireling fcribler, or a hireling peer, He gain his Prince's ear, or lose his own. NOTES. 365 VER. 354. Abuse, on all he lov'd, or lov'd him, Spread.] Namely on the Duke of Buckingham, the Earl of Burlington, Lord Bathurft, Lord Bolingbroke, Bishop Atterbury, Dr. Swift, Dr. Arbuthnot, Mr. Gay, his Friends, his Parents, and his very Nurfe, afperfed in printed papers, by James Moore, G. Ducket, L. Welfted, Tho. Bentley, and other obfcure perfons. P. VER. 359. For thee, fair Virtue! welcome ev'n the laft!] This line is remarkable for presenting us with the most amiable image of fteady Virtue, mixed with a modest concern for his being forced to undergo the severest proofs of his love for it, which was the being thought hardly of by his SOVEREIGN. Yet foft by nature, more a dupe than wit, Sappho can tell you how this man was bit: Foe to his pride, but friend to his distress: So humble, he has knock'd at Tibbald's door, Has drunk with Cibber, nay has rhym'd for Moor. VARIATIONS. VER. 368. in the MS. Once, and but once, his heedless youth was bit, He writ no Libels, but my Lady did : Great odds in am'rous or poetic game, Where Woman's is the fin, and Man's the fhame. NOTES. 370 VER. 374. ten years] It was fo long after many libels before the Author of the Dunciad published that poem, till when, he never writ a word in anfwer to the many fcurrilities and falfehoods concerning him. P. VER. 375. Welfted's Lye.] This man had the impudence to tell in print, that Mr. P. had occafioned a Lady's death, and to name a perfon he never heard of. He also publifh'd that he libell'd the Duke of Chandos; with whom (it was added) that he had lived in familiarity, and received from him a prefent of five hundred pounds: the falfehood of both which is known to his Grace. Mr. P. never received any prefent, farther than the fubfcription for Homer, from him, or from Any great Man whatsoever. P. To please a Mistress one afpers'd his life; NOTES. 376 380 VER. 378. Let Budgel] Budgel, in a weekly pamphlet called the Bee, beftowed much abuse on him, in the imagination that he writ fome things about the Laft Will of Dr. Tindal, in the Grubftreet Journal; a Paper wherein he never had the leaft hand, direction, or supervisal, nor the least knowledge of its Author. P. VER. 379 except his Will] Alluding to Tindal's Will: by which, and other indirect practices, Budgell, to the exclufion of the next heir, a nephew, got to himfelf almost the whole fortune of a man entirely unrelated to him. VER. 381. His father, mother, &c.] In fome of Curl's and other pamphlets, Mr. Pope's father was faid to be a Mechanic, a Hatter, a Farmer, nay a Bankrupt. But, what is ftranger, a Nobleman (if fuch a Reflection could be thought to come from a Nobleman) had dropt an allufion to that pitiful untruth, in a paper called an Epiftle to a Doctor of Divinity: And the following line, Hard as thy Heart, and as thy Birth obfcure, had fallen from a like Courtly pen, in certain Verfes to the Imitation of Horace. Mr. Pope's Father was of a Gentleman's Family in Oxfordshire, the head of which was the Earl of Downe, whofe fole Heiress married the Earl of Lindsey-His mother was the daughter of William Turnor, Efq. of York: She had three brothers, one of whom was killed, another died in the fervice of King Charles; the eldeft following his fortunes, and becoming Yet why? that Father held it for a rule, It was a fin to call our neighbour fool: That harmless Mother thought no wife a whore: If there be force in Virtue, or in Song. 386 Of gentle blood (part shed in Honour's cause, While yet in Britain Honour had applause) Each parent fprung-A. What fortune, pray?-P. Their own, And better got, than Beftia's from the throne. Born to no Pride, inheriting no Strife, Nor marrying Discord in a noble wife, Stranger to civil and religious rage, 390 The good man walk'd innoxious thro' his age. 395 NOTES. a general officer in Spain, left her what eftate remained after the fequeftrations and forfeitures of her familyMr. Pope died in 1717, aged 75; She in 1733, aged 93, a very few weeks after this poem was finished. The following infcription was placed by their fon on their Monument in the parish of Twickenham, in Middle fex, D. O. M. ALEXANDRO. POPE. VIRO. INNOCVO. PROBO. PIO. ET. EDITHAE. CONIVGI. INCVLPABILI. PARENTIBVS. BENEMERENTIBVS. FILIVS. FECIT. |