"Its proper pow'r to hurt, each creature feels; Then, learned Sir! (to cut the matter short) Whether the darken'd room to muse invite, In durance, exile, Bedlam, or the Mint, C Like Lee or Budgel, I will rhyme and print. 85 90 95 100 F. Alas, young man! your days can ne'er be long; In flow'r of age you perish for a song! NOTES. -bours; one of whom has well expressed their condition, in the following lines: "Eh! Que sait-on? Un simple badinage, Mal entendu d'un Prude, ou d'un Sot, Peut vous jetter sur un autre rivage : Pour perdre un Sage, il ne faut qu'un Bigot." W. Ver. 100. Like Lee or Budgel,] One is sorry to see Lee, a true genius, coupled with Budgel, and his insanity ridiculed. Ver. 101. your days can ne'er be long ;] The original says, "Lest any one of your powerful friends should strike you with a cold and contemptuous look."-" Racine meurt," says Voltaire," par une foiblesse grande; parcequ'un autre homme en passant dans une galerie ne l'a pas regardé. J'en suis faché ; mais le rôle de Phædre n'en est pas moins admirable." H. Quid? cum est Lucilius ausus Primus in hunc operis componere carmina morem, 'Detrahere et pellem, nitidus qua quisque per ora Cederet, introrsum turpis; num Lælius, aut qui NOTES. Ver. 104. Will club their Testers, &c.] The image is exceeding humorous; and, at the same time, betrays the injustice of their resentment, in the very circumstance of their indulging it, as it shews the Poet had said no more of their avarice than was true. His abundance of wit has made his readers backward in acknowledging his talent for humour. But the veins are equally rich; and the one flows with ease, and the other is always placed with propriety. W. Ver. 105. What? arm'd for Virtue] From this line to Ver. 140, is a passage of as much force and energy as any that can be produced in the English language, in rhyme. Ver. 110. Lights of the Church, or Guardians of the Laws ?] Because just Satire is a useful supplement to the sanctions of Law and Religion; and has therefore a claim to the protection of those who preside in the administration either of Church of State. W. Ver. 111. Could Boileau-Could Dryden] I believe neither of them would have been suffered to do this, had they not been egregious flatterers of the several Courts to which they belonged. W. Ibid. Could pension'd Boileau-Could Laureat Dryden] It was Horace's purpose to compliment the former times; and therefore he gives the virtuous examples of Scipio and Lælius: it was Mr. Pope's design to satirize the present; and therefore he gives the vicious examples of Louis, Charles, and James. Either way the instances are fully pertinent; but in the latter they have rather greater force. Only the line, "Uni æquus virtuti atque ejus amicis,' loses something of its spirit in the imitation; for the amici, referred to, were Scipio and Lælius. W. Ver. 111. Could pension'd Boileau] Boileau acted with much caution and circumspection when he first published his Lutrin here alluded to, and endeavoured to cover and conceal his subject by a preface intended to mislead his reader from the real Plums and Directors, Shylock and his Wife, e P. What? arm'd for Virtue when I point the pen, 105 111 Brand the bold front of shameless guilty men; 115 NOTES. scene of action; but it ought to be observed, that he afterward, in the year 1683, threw aside this disguise, openly avowing the occasion that gave rise to the poem, the scene of which was not Bourges or Pourges, as before he had said, but Paris itself; the quarrel he celebrated being betwixt the treasurer and the chanter of the Holy Chapel in that city. The canons were so far from being offended, that they shewed their good sense and good temper by joining in the laugh. Upon which Boileau compliments them, and adds, that many of that society were persons of so much wit and learning, that he would as soon consult them upon his Works as the members of the French Academy. The name of the chanter was Barrin; that of the treasurer, Claude Avri, bishop of Constance in Normandy. The quarrel began in July, 1667. See Letters of Brossette to Boileau: à Lyon, 1770; p. 242. v. 1.; et Œuvres de M. Boileau, Despreaux, par M. de Saint Marc, tome ii. 177. Paris, 1747. He justly says, in Louis' reign;" for his bigotry was equally contemptible and cruel; and, if we may credit St. Simon, he actually died a Jesuit. "e'en Ver. 116. Unplac'd, unpension'd, no man's heir or slave !] Mr. Pope, it is well known, made his fortune by his Homers. Lord Duxit ab oppressa meritum Carthagine nomen, Ingenio offensi? aut læso doluere Metello, Famosisque Lupo cooperto versibus? atqui Primores populi arripuit populumque tributim; Scilicet&UNI EQUUS VIRTUTI ATQUE EJUS AMICIS. "Quin ubi se a vulgo et scena in secreta remorant Virtus Scipiada et mitis sapientia Læli, NOTES. Treasurer Oxford affected to discourage that design; for so great a genius (he said) ought not to be confined to Translation. He always used Mr. Pope civilly; and would often express his concern that his religion rendered him incapable of a place. At the same time, he never spoke one word of a pension. For this offer, he was solely indebted to the Whig-Ministers. In the beginning of George I. Lord Halifax, of his own motion, sent for Mr. Pope, and told him, it had often given him concern that so great a Poet had never been distinguished; that he was glad it was now in his power to serve him; and, if he cared to accept of it, he should have a pension not clogged with any engagements. Mr. Pope thanked him, and desired time to consider of it. After three months (having heard nothing farther from that Lord) he wrote him a Letter to repeat his Thanks; in which he took occasion to mention the affair of the pension with much Indifference. So the thing dropt, till Mr. Craggs came into the Ministry. The affair of the pension was then resumed. And this Minister, in a very frank and friendly manner, told Mr. Pope, that three hundred pounds a-year were then at his service: he had the management of the secret-service money, and could pay him such a pension without its being known, or ever coming to account. But now Mr. Pope declined the offer without hesitation: only, in return for so friendly a proposal, he told the Secretary, that if at any time he wanted Money, he would draw upon him for 100 or 2001. Which liberty, however, he did not take. Mr. Craggs more than once pressed him on this head, and urged to him the conveniency of a Chariot; which Mr. Pope was sensible enough of: but the Precariousness of that supply made him very prudently decline the thoughts of an Equipage; which it was much better never to set up, than not properly to support. From Spence. W. I will or perish in the gen'rous cause : Hear this, and tremble! you who 'scape the Laws. Yes, while I live, no rich or noble knave Shall walk the World, in credit, to his grave. 120 TO VIRTUE ONLY and HER FRIENDS A FRIEND, The World beside may murmur, or commend. Rolls o'er my Grotto, and but sooths my sleep. h There, my retreat the best Companions grace, 125 Chiefs out of war, and Statesmen out of place. NOTES. Ver. 125. There, my retreat] I know not whether these lines, spirited and splendid as they are, give us more pleasure than the natural picture of the great Scipio and Lælius, unbending themselves from their high occupations, and descending to common and even trifling sports: for the old commentator says, that they lived in such intimacy with Lucilius, "ut quodam tempore Lælio circum lectos triclinii fugienti Lucilius superveniens, eum obtorta mappa quasi percussurus sequeretur." For this is the fact to which Horace seems to allude, rather than to what Tully mentions in the second book De Oratore, of their amusing themselves in picking up shells and pebbles on the sea-shore. Bolingbroke is here represented as pouring out himself to his friend in the most free and unreserved conversations on topics the most interesting and important. But Pope was deceived: for it is asserted that the philosopher never discovered his real principles to our Poet; who is said, strange as it appears, not even to have been acquainted with the tenets and contents of those very essays which were addressed to himself, at the beginning of Bolingbroke's Philosophical Works. And it is added, that Pope was surprised, in his last illness, when a common acquaintance informed him that his Lordship, in a late conversation had denied the moral attributes of God. There is a remarkable passage in a letter from Bolingbroke to Swift, dated June, 1734: "I am glad you approve of his Moral Essays. They will do more good than the sermons and writings of some, who had a mind to find great fault with them. And if the doc |