166

And how did, pray, the florid Youth offend,
Whose 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 House did afterward the same. 170
Let Courtly Wits to Wits afford supply,
As Hog to Hog in huts of Westphaly;
If one through Nature's Bounty or his Lord's,
Has what the frugal dirty soil affords,

From him the next receives it, thick or thin,

175

As pure a mess almost as it came in;

The blessed benefit, not there confin'd,

Drops to the third, who nuzzles close behind;
From tail to mouth, they feed and they carouse :
The last full fairly gives it to the House.

F. This filthy simile, this beastly line

Quite turns my stomach

P. So does Flatt'ry mine;

NOTES.

180

had reference to him, and his destiny. The Cardinal pleasantly answered, "Gentlemen, the comet does me too much honour." Tenison preached a very fulsome funeral Eulogium of Nell Gwyn.

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

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

uncommon.

Ver. 182. So does Flatt'ry mine ;] Fontenelle has written a

And all your courtly Civet-cats can vent,
Perfume to you, to me is Excrement.
But hear me farther-Japhet, 'tis agreed,

185

Writ not, and Chartres scarce could write or read;

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 185 in the MS.

I grant it, Sir; and farther 'tis agreed,

Japhet writ not, and Chartres scarce could read.

NOTES.

pleasant Dialogue between Augustus and Peter Aretine, the Italian Satirist, who laughs immoderately at the Emperor, for the gross flattery he so cordially received from his poets, particularly Virgil, at the beginning of the Third Georgic. And Aretine, among other delicate strokes of ridicule, tells him, “ On louoit une partie de votre vie, aux depens de l'autre." But Fontenelle ends like a true Frenchman, and assures Augustus, "he will no longer be quoted as a model for Kings, since Louis XIV. has appeared." Such is the language held of a man who could banish Fenelon, burn the Palatinate, and drive away or destroy so many of his Protestant subjects; who kept in pay 440,000 men. It is grievous to reflect, that for incurring the displeasure of such a man, Racine had the weakness to be so much affected, as to bring on, by vexation and grief, a disease that was fatal to him. Racine and Boileau relinquished, after a small progress, the History of Louis XIV. which they were appointed to write. Boileau honestly owned to his friends, that he did not well know what reasons to allege in justification of the war against Holland in 1672. The pride, profusion, ambition, and despotism, of Louis XIV. laid the foundation of the ruin of France, and all the miseries we have lived to see.

Ver. 184. is Excrement.]

"Thou hast such unsavory similes, Hal."

Ver. 185. Japhet,-Chartres] See the Epistle to Lord Bathurst. P.

We are wearied and disgusted with the perpetual repetition of these names, and those of Ward, Waters, Dennis, &c. as we are with Voltaire for eternally bringing forward Freron, Des Fontaines, La Beaumelle, and Clement.

In all the Courts of Pindus guiltless quite;
But Pens can forge, my Friend, that cannot write;
And must no Egg in Japhet's face be thrown,
Because the Deed he forg'd was not my own? 190
Must never Patriot then declaim at Gin,

Unless, good Man! he has been fairly in?
No zealous Pastor blame a failing Spouse,
Without a staring Reason on his brows?
And each Blasphemer quite escape the rod,
Because the insult's not on Man, but God?
Ask you what Provocation I have had?
The strong Antipathy of Good to Bad.
When Truth or Virtue an Affront endures,
Th' Affront is mine, my Friend, and should be
Mine, as a Foe profess'd to false Pretence,
Who think a Coxcomb's Honour like his Sense;
Mine, as a Friend to ev'ry worthy Mind;
And mine as Man, who feel for all Mankind.
F. You're strangely proud.

195

yours. 201

P. So proud, I am no Slave:

So impudent, I own myself no Knave:

So odd, my Country's Ruin makes me grave.
Yes, I am proud; I must be proud to see

Men not afraid of God, afraid of me :

206

Safe from the Bar, the Pulpit, and the Throne, 210 Yet touch'd and sham'd by Ridicule alone.

NOTES.

Ver. 204. And mine as Man, who feel for all Mankind.] From Terence: Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto." P. Ver. 208. Yes, I am proud, &c.] In this ironical exultation the Poet insinuates a subject of the deepest humiliation. W. Ver. 211. Yet touch'd and sham'd by Ridicule alone.] The pas

O sacred weapon! left for Truth's defence,

Sole Dread of Folly, Vice, and Insolence!
To all but Heav'n-directed hands deny'd,

216

The Muse may give thee, but the Gods must guide
Rev'rent I touch thee! but with honest zeal;
To rouse the Watchmen of the public Weal,
To Virtue's work provoke the tardy Hall,
And goad the Prelate slumb'ring in his Stall.
Ye tinsel Insects! whom a Court maintains,
That counts your Beauties only by your Stains,

NOTES.

220

sions are given us to awake and support Virtue. But they frequently betray their trust, and go over to the interests of Vice. Ridicule, when employed in the cause of Virtue, shames and brings them back to their duty. Hence the use and importance of Satire.

W.

Ver. 212. O sacred weapon !] Neither Shaftesbury nor Akenside, whose opinions on this subject have been attacked by Warburton and Brown, have said so much of the power and utility of ridicule as this passage contains.

Ver. 219. And goad the Prelate slumb'ring in his Stall.] The good Eusebius, in his Evangelical Preparation, draws a long parallel between the Or and the Christian Priesthood. Hence the dignified Clergy, out of mere humility, have ever since called their thrones by the name of stalls. To which a great Prelate of Winchester, one W. Edinton, modestly alluding, has rendered his name immortal by this ecclesiastical aphorism, who would otherwise have been forgotten; Canterbury is the higher rack, but Winchester is the better manger. By which, however, it appears that he was not one of those here condemned, who slumber in their stalls. Scribl. W..

Ver. 220. Ye tinsel Insects!] Poets have frequently been party-men, ancient as well as modern. Euripides was of Alcibiades's faction, for war; Aristophanes, for peace. Hence arose their mutual animosity. The Inferno of Dante is as much a political poem as the Absalom and Achitophel of Dryden. The Eneid is also of this kind; and so is the Pharsalia of Lucan, and the Henriade of Voltaire.

Spin all your Cobwebs o'er the Eye of Day!
The MUSE's wing shall brush you all away:
All his Grace preaches, all his Lordship sings, 224
All that makes Saints of Queens, and Gods of Kings.

NOTES.

Ver. 229. Ye Insects-The MUSE's wing shall brush you all away:] This it did very effectually; and the memory of them had been now forgotten, had not the Poet's charity, for a while, protracted their miserable Being. There is now in his Library at Mr. Allen's, a complete collection of all the horrid Libels written and published against him;

"The tale reviv'd, the lie so oft o'erthrown,

Th' imputed trash, and dulness not his own;
The morals blacken'd, when the writings 'scape,
The libell'd Person, and the pictur'd shape."

These he had bound up in several volumes, according to their various sizes, from folios down to duodecimos; and to each of them hath affixed this motto out of the book of Job:

Behold, my desire is, that mine adversary should write a book. Surely I should take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me. Ch. xxxi. ver. 35, 36. W.

Ver. 222. Cobwebs] Weak and slight sophistry against virtue and honour, Thin colours over vice, as unable to hide the light of Truth, as cobwebs to shade the Sun. P.

Ver. 225. Gods of Kings.] When James the First had once bespeeched his Parliament, Bishop Williams, Keeper of the Great Seal, added that, after his Majesty's DIVINUM ET IMMORTALE DICTUM he would not dare mortale aliquid addere. On which, Wilson the Historian observes--This is not inserted to shew the PREGNANCY and GENIUS of the man, but the temper of the times. W.

"To be born a King is a matter of chance; never forget you are a man," said the late great King of Prussia to his Nephew in his will. A sentiment that does this monarch more honour than all his victories.

Every Englishman must read with pride and pleasure, Fortescue's spirited censure on that degrading and infamous maxim, "Quod principi placuit, legis habet vigorem," in the 10th chap. of his invaluable treatise, De Laudibus Legum Angliæ.