F. Why so? if Satire knows its Time and Place, Would you know when? exactly when they fall. 90 Silent and soft, as Saints remove to Heav'n, 95 Receive, and place for ever near a King! sport, Lull'd with the sweet Nepenthe of a Court; NOTES. Ver. 87. Why so? if Satire] About this time a great spirit of liberty was prevalent. All the men of wit and genius, who indeed were all in the opposition, joined in increasing it. Glover wrote his Leonidas with this view; Nugent, his Odes to Mankind, and to Mr. Pulteney; King, his Miltonis Epistola, and Templum Libertatis; Thomson, his Britannia, his Liberty, and his Tragedy of Agamemnon; Mallet, his Mustapha; and Brooke, his Gustavus Vasa; our Author, his Imitations of Horace, and these two Dialogues; and Johnson, his London. Ver. 92. Immortal S-k, and grave De―re.] A title given that Lord by King James II. He was of the Bedchamber to King William; he was so to King George I. he was so to King George II. This Lord was very skilful in all the forms of the House, in which he discharged himself with great gravity. P. Ver. 97. There, where no Passion, &c.] The excellent writer De l'Esprit des Loir gives the following character of the Spirit of Courts, and the Principle of Monarchies: "Qu'on lise ce que les Historiens de tous les tems ont dit sur la Cour des Monarques; qu'on se rapelle les conversations des hommes de tous les Pais sur le miserable caractère des COURTISANS; ces ne sont point des choses de speculation, mais d'une triste expérience. L'ambition dans l'oisiveté, la bassesse dans l'orgueil, le desir de s'enrichir sans travail, l'aversion pour la vérité; la flaterie, la trahison, la perfidie, There, where no Father's, Brother's, Friends, dis grace Once break their rest, or stir them from their Place: But past the Sense of human Miseries, All Tears are wip'd for ever from all eyes; NOTES. 101 l'abandon de tous ses engagements, le mepris des devoirs du Citoyen, la crainte de la vertu du Prince, l'esperance de ses foiblesses, et plus que tous cela, LE RIDICULE PERPETUEL JETTE SUR LA VERTU, sont, je crois, le Caractère de la plupart des Courtisans marqué dans tous les lieux et dans tous les tems. Or il est très mal-aisé que les principaux d'un Etat soient malhonnêtes-gens, et que les inferieurs soient gens-de-bien, que ceux-la soient trompeurs, et que ceux-ci consentent à n'être que dupes. Que si dans le Peuple il se trouve quelque malheureux honnêtehomme, le Cardinal de Richelieu dans son Testament politique insinue, qu'un Monarque doit se garder de s'en servir. Tant il est vrai que la Vertu n'est pas le ressort de ce Gouvernment." W. This testament, which Voltaire laboured to prove to be spurious, has lately been shewn to be genuine. The passage in our Author far exceeds a celebrated one in Pastor Fido, where Guarini thus characterizes courts and courtiers. Scena 1. L'ingannare, il mentir, la frode, il furto, E la rapina di pieta vestita, Ver. 99. There, where no Father's,] The miseries and meannesses of a mere court-life, are painted with a force and vigour surprising in an Author that was himself a courtier, and preceptor to Louis the XIVth's brother; the celebrated La Mothe Le Vayer, 2d vol. p. 354, in his Essay, entitled, De la Servitude de la Cour; abounding, as his manner is, with a multitude of examples and illustrations from ancient and modern history. He goes so far as to say, that a true courtier would not scruple to behave as Harpalus does in Herodotus, who being asked by Astyages, how he relished the flesh of his own son, which the tyrant had obliged him to eat, politely answered, "That every thing he found at the king's table was always agreeable." No cheek is known to blush, no heart to throb, P. Good Heav'n forbid, that I should blast their glory, Who know how like Whig Ministers to Tory, 105 And when three Sov'reigns died, could scarce be vext, Consid❜ring what a gracious Prince was next. As Pride in Slaves, and Avarice in Kings; 110 Who starves a Sister, or forswears a Debt? But shall the Dignity of Vice be lost? Ye Gods! shall Cibber's Son, without rebuke, 115 Swear like a Lord, or Rich outwhore a Duke? A Fav'rite's Porter with his Master vie, Be brib'd as often, and as often lie? Shall Ward draw Contracts with a Statesman's skill? Or Japhet pocket, like his Grace, a Will? Is it for Bond, or Peter (paltry things), To 120 pay their Debts, or keep their Faith, like Kings? If Blount dispatch'd himself, he play'd the man, And so may'st thou, illustrious Passeran! VARIATIONS. Ver. 112. In some Editions, Who starves a Mother NOTES. Ver. 115. Cibber's Son,-Rich] Two Players: look for them in the Dunciad. P. Ver. 122. To pay their Debts,] This severe line relates to a fact of too delicate a nature to be explained. Ver. 123. If Blount] Author of an impious foolish book called But shall a Printer, weary of his life, 125 Learn, from their Books, to hang himself and Wife? NOTES. The Oracles of Reason, who being in love with a near kinswoman of his, and rejected, gave himself a stab in the arm, as pretending to kill himself, of the consequence of which he really died. P. Ver. 123. If Blount dispatch'd himself,] He was the younger son of Sir Henry Blount, who wrote an admirable account of a Voyage to the Levant, 1636; and younger brother of Sir Thomas Pope Blount, who wrote the Censura Authorum. And this Charles Blount was not only the Author of The Oracles of Reason, but of an infidel treatise, entitled, Anima Mundi, and of the Life of Apollonius Tyanaus, in folio, 1680; with notes said to be taken from the manuscript of Lord Herbert of Cherbury. It was his sister-in-law, with whom he was in love, when he destroyed himself. Ver. 124. Passeran!] Author of another book of the same stamp, called, A Philosophical Discourse on Death, being a defence of suicide. He was a nobleman of Piedmont, banished from his country for his impieties, and lived in the utmost misery, yet feared to practise his own precepts; of which there went a pleasant story about that time. Amongst his pupils, to whom he read in moral philosophy, there was, it seems, a noted Gamester, who lodged under the same roof with him. This useful citizen, after a run of ill luck, came one morning early into the Philosopher's bed-chamber with two loaded pistols; and, as Englishmen do not understand raillery in a case of this nature, told the Piedmontese, on presenting him with one of his pistols, "that now was come the time to put his doctrine in practice: that as to himself, having lost his last stake, he was become a useless member in society, and so was resolved to quit his station; and that as to him, his guide, philosopher, and friend, surrounded with miseries, the outcast of government, and the sport even of that Chance which he adored, he doubtless would rejoice for such an opportunity to bear him company." All this was said and done with so much resolution and solemnity, that the Italian found himself under a necessity to cry out Murder; which brought in Company to his relief. -This unhappy man at last died a penitent. W. Ver. 125. But shall a Printer, &c.] A fact that happened in London a few years past. The unhappy man left behind him This, this, my friends, I cannot, must not bear; Let modest FOSTER, if he will, excel 130 NOTES. a paper justifying his action by the reasonings of some of these Authors. P. In the Gentleman's Magazine for April 1732, it is related, that Richard Smith, a bookbinder, and prisoner for debt in the King's Bench, and Bridget his wife, were found hanging in their chamber, about two yards distant from each other; and below in their kitchen, their little child, two years old, shot through the head, in its cradle. They were neatly dressed in clean linen, a curtain was drawn between the man and woman, a pistol loaded lying near him, and a knife by her. They left two letters, one for the landlord about his rent, and the other to Mr. Brindley, endeavouring to justify the manner and causes of their death; and begging their dog and cat might be taken care of. Voltaire also has given this account in an Essay on English Suicides. Melanges, vol. iv. Ver. 129. This calls the Church to deprecate our Sin,] Alluding to the Forms of Prayer composed in the times of public calamity and distress; where the fault is generally laid upon the People. W. Ver. 130. Gin.] A spirituous liquor, the exorbitant use of which had almost destroyed the lower rank of the People, till it was restrained by an act of Parliament in 1736. P. Ver 131. Let modest FOSTER,] This confirms an observation which Mr. Hobbes made long ago, that there be very few Bishops that act a sermon so well, as divers Presbyterians and fanatic Preachers can do. Hist. of Civ. Wars, p. 62. Scribl. W. He was an eloquent and persuasive Preacher, and wrote an excellent Defence of Christianity against Tindal. Dr. Warburton's note is a direct contradiction to the sentiment of his friend, who meant to pay a deserved compliment to a worthy and amiable dissenting Teacher, and who quoted him with approbation to Bolingbroke. |
