FR.

'TIS

EPILOGUE

TO THE

SATIRES.

WRITTEN IN MDCCXXXVIII.

DIALOGUE II.

Is all a Libel-Paxton (Sir) will fay.

P. Not yet, my Friend! to-morrow 'faith it may;

And for that very cause I print to-day.
How should I fret to mangle ev'ry line,
In rev'rence to the fins of Thirty-nine?

5

Vice

NOTES.

VER. 1. 'Tis all a Libel] The liberty of the Prefs was about this time thought to be in danger; and Milton's noble and nervous discourse on this fubject, intitled, Areopagitica, was reprinted in an octavo pamphlet, with a preface written by Thomfon, the poet." If we think to regulate printing," fays Milton, "thereby to rectify manners, we muft regulate all recreations and paftimes, all that is delightful to man. No mufic must be heard, no fong be set or fung, but what is grave and Doric.He who is made judge to fit upon the birth or death of books, whether they may be wafted into this world or not, had need to be a man above the common measure, both studious, learned, and judicious." WARTON.

VER. 1. Paxton] Late folicitor to the Treasury.

WARBURTON.

1

Vice with fuch Giant ftrides comes on amain,
Invention strives to be before in vain ;
Feign what I will, and paint it e'er so strong,
Some rifing Genius fins up to my Song.

F. Yet none but you by Name the guilty lafh; 10
Ev'n Guthry faves half Newgate by a Dash.
Spare then the Person, and expose the Vice.

P. How, Sir! not damn the Sharper, but the Dice? Come on then, Satire! genʼral, unconfin❜d, Spread thy broad wing, and foufe on all the kind. Ye Satesmen, Priefts, of one Religion all! 16 Ye Tradefmen, vile, in Army, Court, or Hall! Ye Rev'rend Atheists. F. Scandal! name them, Who? P. Why that's the thing you bid me not to do.

Who

NOTES.

VER. 8. Feign what I will, &c.] The Poet has here introduced an oblique apology for himself with great art. You attack perfonal characters, fay his enemics. No, replies he, I paint merely from my invention; and then, to prevent a likeness, I aggravate the features. But alas! the growth of vice is so monftrously fudden, that it rifes up to a refemblance before I can get from the prefs. WARBURTON.

VER. 11. Ev'n Guthry] The Ordinary of Newgate, who publifhes the Memoirs of the Malefactors, and is often prevailed upon to be so tender of their reputation, as to fet down no more than the initials of their name. POPE.

VER. 13. How, Sir ! not damn the Sharper, but the Dice?] It is pity that the liveliness of the reply cannot excuse the bad reason. ing: The dice, though they rhyme to vice, can never stand for it; which his argument requires they fhould do. For dice are only the inftruments of fraud; but the question is not, whether the infirument, but whether the a committed by it, fhould be expofed, inftead of the perfon. WARBURTON.

Who ftarv'd a Sifter, who forfwore a Debt,
I never nam'd; the Town's enquiring yet.
The pois'ning Dame-F. You mean-P. I don't.
F. You do.

P. See, now I keep the Secret, and not you!
The bribing Statefman-F. Hold, too high you go.
P. The brib'd Elector-F. There you stoop too low.
P. I fain

20

NOTES..

VER. 21. the Town's enquiring yet.] So true is Swift's observation on perfonal fatire; "I have long obferved, that twenty miles from London nobody understands hints, initial letters, or town-facts and passages; and in a few years not even those who live in London." See verse 238 below, for two aferisks, not filled up or known. WARTON.

If the Town" be inquiring yet," it is plain, Pope made his bare furmife, the foundation of the fevereft fatire.

VER. 22. F. You mean-P. I don't.] The fame friend is here again introduced making such remonftrances as before. And feveral parts of the dialogue here are more rapid and short, and approach nearer to common conversation, than any lines he had ever-before written; and are examples of that ftyle mentioned by Horace,

-parcentis viribus, atque Extenuantis eas confultò."

WARTON.

VER. 24. The bribing Statesman] Corruption was the univerfal cry at this period, and it had been repeated fo long, that people began to think the removal of Sir Robert Walpole would introduce a fort of happiness into the political world, like that of the "millenium :"

No taxes, no corruption, no bribery.

Dodington, who was upon terms of the greatest kindness and intimacy with the Walpoles, to fecure his election at Portsmouth, had no fcruple in making Sir Robert Walpole (to whom he had before addreffed his poetical Epiftle, as to the Saviour of the Nation) the burden of his fong, in the following ballad, which, in the MS. he fays, was made in his road to Portsmouth, with a view to the Election there 1741.

VOL. IV.

P. I fain would please you, if I knew with what; Tell me, which Knave is lawful Game, which not? Muft great Offenders, once efcap'd the Crown, Like Royal Harts, be never more run down? Admit your Law to fpare the Knight requires, 30 As beasts of Nature may we hunt the Squires?

Suppofe

NOTES.

STANZAS, 1740, on the road to Portsmouth.

Now, Britain, is the Crifis of thy fate,
Against Corruption make a glorious ftand;
Unite thy Sons ere yet it be too late,
The fear'd Corruptor deluges the land.

View the heap'd pile with undefiring eyes,
Thy danger from thy bafenefs flows alone;
Be honeft,-by his fpell the Sorcerer dies,
And what he meant thy ruin, proves his own.

Survey thy King,-juft, valiant, and fincere.
Is this a prince we must be brib'd to ferve?
Ah no! the bribe betrays the wretch's fear,
And fhows he's confcious what his crimes deferve.

Since then the difference of their fouls we fee,
One form'd for glory, one to bribe and rob,
Let George's Friends be honest all and free,
The fervile and corrupt, be friends to BʊBB.

VER. 29. Like Royal Harts, &c.] Alluding to the old Game laws; when our Kings spent all the time they could spare from human flaughter, in Woods and Forefts. WARBURTON.

VER. 31. As beafs of Nature may we hunt the Squires ?] The expreffion is rough, like the fubject, but without reflection: For if beafts of Nature, then not beasts of their own making; a fault too frequently objected to country Squires. However, the Latin is nobler; Fere nature, Things uncivilized, and free. Fere, as the Critics fay, being from the Hebrew, Pere, Afinus filveftris. SCRIBLERUS.

Suppose I cenfure-you know what I mean-
To fave a Bishop, may I name a Dean?

F. A Dean, Sir? No: his Fortune is not made,
You hurt a man that's rifing in the Trade.

P. If not the Tradef:nan who set up to-day,
Much lefs the 'Prentice who to-morrow may.
Down, down, proud Satire! though a realm be
fpoil'd,

Arraign no mightier Thief than wretched Wild;
Or, if a Court or Country's made a job,
Go drench a Pickpocket, and join the Mob.

But, Sir, I beg you (for the Love of Vice!)
The matter's weighty, pray confider twice;
Have you lefs pity for the needy Cheat,
The

35

40

poor and friendless Villain, than the Great? 45 Alas! the fmall Difcredit of a Bribe

Scarce hurts the Lawyer, but undoes the Scribe.
Then better fure it Charity becomes

To tax Directors, who (thank God) have Plums;
Still

NOTES.

VER 35. You hurt a man] In a former Edition there was the following note on this line: "For as the reasonable De la Bruyere obferves, Qui ne fait être une Erafme, doit penser à être Eveque." Dr. Warburton omitted it after he got a feat on the Bench. WARTON.

VER. 39, wretched Wild ;] Jonathan Wild, a famous Thief, and Thief-Impeacher, who was at laft caught in his own train, and hanged.

POPE.