O magnus pofthac inimicis rifus! uterne In pace, ut fapiens, aptarit idonea bello?. X * Quo magis his credas: puer hunc ego parvus Ofellum Integris opibus novi non latius ufum, W Quam hunc accifis. Videas, metato in agello, Cum NOTES. VER. 122. As M**o's was, &c.] I think this light ftroke of fatire ill-placed; and that it hurts the dignity of the preceding morality. Horace was very ferious, and properly fo, when he faid, cur, Improbe! caræ Non aliquid patriæ tanto emetiris acervo ?" He remembered, and hints with just indignation at, those luxurious Patricians of his old party; who, when they had agreed to establish a fund in the caufe of Freedom, under the conduct of Brutus, could never be perfuaded to withdraw from their expenfive pleasures what was fufficient for the support of so great a caufe. He had prepared his apology for this liberty, in the preceding line, where he pays a fine compliment to Augustus! 66 quare "Templa ruunt antiqua Deûm ?" which oblique Panegyric the Imitator has very properly turned into a direct ftroke of fatire. W. VER. 122. Not at five per cent.] He could not forbear this stroke against a nobleman, whom he had been for many years accustomed to hear abused by his most intimate friends. A certain parafite, who thought to please Lord Bolingbroke by ridiculing the avarice of the Duke of M. was flopt short by that Lord, who faid, "He was fo very great a man, that I forgot he had that Or to thy Country let that heap be lent, As M**o's was, but not at five per cent. 99 121 * Who thinks that Fortune cannot change her mind, Prepares a dreadful jeft for all mankind. And "who ftands safest? tell me, is it he In peace provides fit arms against a war? 125 Thus BETHEL fpoke, who always fpeaks his thought, And always thinks the very thing he ought: His equal mind I copy what I can, And as I love, would imitate the Man. In South-Sea days not happier, when furmis'd NOTES. W 130 In vice." We have lived to read with equal astonishment and regret, the clear and indifputable proofs of the treachery, duplicity, hypocrify, and ingratitude, of this great and able General and Politician. See particularly Sir John Dalrymple's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 194. VER. 129. Thus BETHEL fpoke,] This fpeech of Ofellus continues in the original to the end of this Satire. Pope has taken all that follows out of the mouth of Bethel, and speaks entirely in his own perfon. It is impoffible not to be pleased with the picture of his way of life, and the account he gives of his own table, in lines that exprefs common and familiar objects with dignity and elegance. See therefore his bill of fare, of which you will long to partake, and wish you could have dined at Twickenham. Boileau had but a bad house and gardens at Auteuil near Paris. VER. 133. In South-Sea days not happier, &c.] Mr. Pope had South-Sea ftock, which he did not fell out. It was valued at between twenty and thirty thousand pounds when it fell. W. 143766A Cum pecore et gnatis, fortem mercede colonum, Sed pullo atque hado: tum penfilis uva fecundas Explicuit vino contractæ feria frontis. b Sæviat atque novos moveat Fortuna tumultus! Quantum hinc imminuet? quanto aut ego parcius aut vos, с O pueri, nituiftis, ut huc novus incola venit? NOTES. Nam VER. 144. These chicks] Not used properly or commonly for chicken. Dryden has chick, in the fingular number, chicken is the plural; we fay oxen, not ox's; the en is Teutonic. VER. 150. And, what's more rare, a Poet fhall fay Grace.] The pleafantry of this line confifts in the fuppofed rarity of a Poet's having a table of his own; or a fenfe of gratitude for the bleffings he receives. But it contains, too, a fober reproof of people of condition, for their unmanly and brutal difufe of so natural a duty. W. - Swift always performed this duty with proper seriousness and gravity. VER. 154. Standing Armies came.] A conftant topic of declamation against the court, at this time: and ftill continues to be fo. See what Dr. Adam Smith fays, in his excellent Wealth of Na tions, of the real and fuppofed dangers of ftanding armies. VER. 160. Welcome the coming,] From Homer, Odyff. b. 15. v. 74 χρη ξείνον παρεούλα φιλειν, εθελοντα δε πεμπειν. Theocritus has finely touched this fubject in the fixteenth Idyllium. 2 In forest planted by a Father's hand, 135 Than in five acres now of rented land. Content with little, I can piddle here On brocoli and mutton, round the year; 'Tis true, no Turbots dignify my boards, 140 But gudgeons, flounders, what my Thames affords: The Dev'l is in you if you cannot dine: Then 'chearful healths, (your Mistress fhall have place,) My Life's amusements have been just the same, с My lands are fold, my father's houfe is gone; 155 I'll hire another's; is not that my own, And yours, my friends? through whose free op'ning gate None comes too early, none departs too late; (For I, who hold fage Homer's rule the best, Welcome the coming, fpeed the going Gueft). 160 Pray Heav'n it last! (cries SWIFT) as you go on; "I wish to God this houfe had been your own: Nam propria telluris herum natura neque illum, Poftremum expellet certe vivacior heres, NOTES. VER. 165. Well, if the ufe be mine, &c.] In a letter to this Mr. Bethel, of March 20, 1743, he fays, "My Landlady, Mrs. Vernon, being dead, this Garden and Houfe are offered me in fale; and, I believe, (together with the cottages on each fide my grass-plot next the Thames,) will come at about a thousand pounds. If I thought any very particular friend would be pleased to live in it after my death, (for, as it is, it ferves all my purposes as well, during life,) I would purchase it; and more particularly could I hope two things; that the Friend who fhould like it, was fo much younger and healthier than myself, as to have a profpect of its continuing his, fome years longer than I can of its continuing mine. But moft of those I love are travelling out of the world, not into it; and unless I have fuch a view given me, I have no vanity nor pleasure that does not stop short of the Grave."-So that we see (what some who call themselves his friends would not believe) his thoughts in profe and verfe were the fame. W. VER. 171-2. Or in pure equity, (the cafe not clear,) The Chanc'ry takes your rents for twenty year:] A Proteftant Mifer's money in Chancery, and a Catholic Mifer's perfon in Purgatory, are never to be got out, till the Law and the Church have been well paid for their redemption. W. |
