No Pow'r the Mufe's Friendship can command
No Pow'r when Virtue claims it, can withfland:
To Cato, Virgil pay'd one honeft line;
O let my Country's Friends illumine mine!

-What are you thinking? F. Faith the thought's no fin,

I think your Friends are out, and would be in.
P. If merely to come in, Sir, they go out,
The way they take is strangely round about :
F. They too may be corrupted, you'll allow?
P. I only call those Knaves who are so now.
Is that too little? Come then, I'll comply-
Spirit of Arnall! aid me while I lie.

;

120

125

COBHAM'S

NOTES.

fanity, during which no perfon was permitted to approach him but a few confidents, and efpecially Bois-Robert. He gave, fays Segrais, p. 170. one hundred and twenty thousand crowns a year in penfions to men of learning and fcience. The hiftory of his founding the French Academy is well known; which is frequently faid to have polished and fixed the French language. But Malherbe, their first correct writer, died before the inftitution of this Academy. WARTON.

VER. 116. Louis fearce cold gain,] By this expreffion finely infinuating, that the great Boileau always falls below himself in thofe paffages where he flatters his Master. Of which he gives us an inftance in Ver. 231. where the topic of adulation is execeding childish and extravagant. WARBURTON.

"The relentless defpotism of Louis," fays a certain eloquent writer," was proudly arrayed in manners, gallantry, fplendor, magnificence, and even covered over with the impofing robes of fcience and literature."-But the defpotifm was notwithstanding relent efs. WARTON.

VER. 121. O let my Country's Friends ilumine mine! Warburton calls this a pretty expreffion, alluding to the old practice of iluminating MSS. with gold and vermilion !!!

VER. 128. Come then, I'll comply] Here is a moft happy imitation of Perfius, and of Boileau;

-Per

COBHAM'S a Coward, POLWARTH is a Slave,
And LYTTELTON a dark defigning Knave,
ST. JOHN has ever been a wealthy Fool-
But let me add, Sir ROBERT's mighty dull,

130

Has

NOTES.

-Per me equidem funt omnia protinus alba,
Nil moror; euge omncs, omnes, bene miræ eritis res:
Hoc juvat?
Perfius, Sat. 1. v. 110.

And thus Boileau, Sat. ix. v. 287.

Puifque vous le voulez, je vais changer de stile, Je le declare done, Quinault eft un Virgile. Pradon comme un foleil en nos ans a paru Pelletier ecrit mieux qu' Ablancourt ni Patru. Cotin a fes fermons trainant toute la terre, Fend les flots d'auditeurs pour aller à fa chaire. But Pope has plainly the fuperiority by the artful and ironical compliments paid to his friends. WARTON.

VER. 129 Spirit of Arnall!] Look for him in his place, Dunc. B. ii. Ver. 315.

POPE.

VER. 129. Spirit of Arnall!] Arnall was one of the writers for Sir Robert Walpole, and got by his writing, &c a very large fum, an account of which may be seen in the notes to the Dunciad. Some of his letters now before me, for the fight of which I am indebted to Mr. Coxe, fhew him to have been a fhrewd and fenfible man. What is curious in one, he talks very highly of his honour and veracity. He was vain-glorious and important in his own ideas; as Pope, with much less reafon : what he got, he spent as fast as it came, and many of his letters to Sir Robert fhew great poverty and diftrefs. They are full of earnest petitions for preferment, money, &c. He had a filver Ink-ftand, which he was proud of difplaying, and boasted it was a prefent from his FRIEND WALPOLE! His diftrefs at laft, brought on by his own impru dence, induced him, it is fuppofed, to commit suicide.

Communicated by Mr. Coxe.

VER. 130. POLWARTH] The Hon. Hugh Hume, Son of Alex ander Earl of Marchmont, Grandfon of Patric Earl of Marchmout, and diftinguished, like them, in the cause of Liberty. POPE.

135

Has never made a Friend in private life,
And was, befides, a Tyrant to his Wife.
But pray, when others praise him, do I blame?
Call Verres, Wolfey, any odious name?
Why rail they then, if but a Wreath of mine,
Oh All-accomplish'd ST. JOHN ! deck thy shrine?

What? fhall each fpurgall'd Hackney of the day,
When Paxton gives him double Pots and Pay, 141
Or each new-penfion'd Sycophant, pretend
To break Windows if I treat a Friend;
Then wifely plead, to me they meant no hurt,
But 'twas my Guest at whom they threw the dirt?
Sure, if I spare the Minister, no rules
146

my

Of Honour bind me, not to maul his Tools
Sure, if they cannot cut, it may be faid
His Saws are toothlefs, and his Hatchet's Lead.
It anger'd TURENNE, once upon a day,
To fee a Footman kick'd that took his pay:
But when he heard th' Affront the Fellow
Knew one a Man of Honour, one a Knave;
The prudent Genʼral turn'd it to a jest,

And begg'd, he'd take the pains to kick the rest: 155

Which

gave,

150

NOTES.

VER. 143. To break my Windows] Which was done when Lord Bolingbroke and Lord Bathurft were one day dining with him at Twickenham. All the great perfons celebrated in these Satires were in violent oppofition to government. It is rather fingular that he has not mentioned Mr. Pitt, one of the moft able and most formidable; efpecially with his friends Lyttelton, Cobham, and Pulteney. WARTON.

Which not at present having time to do

F. Hold Sir! for God's fake, where's th' Affront to

you ?

et

160

Against your worship when had S-k* writ? Or P-ge† pour'd forth the Torrent of his Wit? Or grant the Bard whofe diftich all commend [In Pow'r a Servant, out of Pow'r a Friend] To W-le guilty of fome venial fin; What's that to you who ne'er was out nor in? The Priest whofe Flattery be-dropt the Crown, How hurt he you? he only ftain'd the Gown.

NOTES.

VER. 159. Or P-ge] Judge Page, who is faid to have treated delinquents too roughly. WARTON. VER. 160. the Bard] A verfe taken out of a poem to Sir R. W. POPE. VER. 161. In Pow'r] Lord Melcombe was the Author of this line, in an Epiftle to Sir Robert Walpole. WARTON.

Mr. Wyndham, to whom I am so much indebted, informs me, that Lord Melcombe took the very fame Epiftle he had written to Sir Robert, and fome years afterwards, when circumstances were changed, addreffed it to Lord Bute.

VER. 164. The Priest, &c.] Spoken not of any particular prieft, but of many priests. POPE.

Peace! flattering Bishop, lying Dean!
This Portrait only faints the Queen!

Meaning Dr. Alured Clarke, who wrote a Panegyric on Queen Caroline. The two following unpublished lines of our Author, have been communicated to me by a learned friend, on a picture of this Queen, drawn by Lady Burlington:

Sherlock.

A comet happening to appear when Cardinal Mazarine lay on his death-bed, fome of his many abject flatterers infinuated, that it

had

VOL. IV.

And

And how did, pray, the florid Youth offend,
Whofe Speech you took, and gave it to a Friend?
P. Faith, it imports not much from whom it came;
Whoever borrow'd, could not be to blame,
Since the whole Houfe did afterwards the fame. 170
Let Courtly Wits to Wits afford fupply,
As Hog to Hog in huts of Weftphaly;

If one through Nature's Bounty or his Lord's,
Has what the frugal dirty foil affords,

From him the next receives it, thick or thin,
As pure a mefs almoft as it came in

The bleffed benefit, not there confin'd,

Drops to the third, who nuzzles close behind;
From tail to mouth, they feed and they caroufe:
The laft full fairly gives it to the Houfc.

166

NOTES.

175

180

F. This

had reference to him, and his deftiny. The Cardinal pleasantly anfwered, "Gentlemen, the comet does me too much honour.” Tenifon preached a very fulfome funeral Eulogium of Nell Gwyn. WARTON.

VER. 166. And how did, &c.] This feems to allude to a complaint made Ver. 71. of the preceding Dialogue. POPE.

VER. 166. florid Youth] Lord Hervey, alluding to his painting himself.

VER. 172. As Pog to Hog] Our modern Authors write plays as they feed hogs in Weftphaly, where but one eats pease or acorns, and all the reft feed upon his, and one another's excrements." Thoughts on Various Subjects, vol. ii. p. 497. Though those remarks were not published in the life time of Pope, yet the Author of them, Mr. Thyer, informs us, that Mr. Longueville, in whose cuftody they were, communicated them to Atterbury, from whom Pope might hear of them. It is impoffible any two writers could cafually hit an image fo very peculiar and uncommon.

upon

WARTON.