Our Court may justly to our stage give rules1, Painted for sight, and essenc'd for the smell, 220 225 So weak a vessel, and so rich a prize! Top-gallant he, and she in all her trim, 230 "Dear Countess! you have charms all hearts to hit!" And "Sweet Sir Fopling! you have so much wit!" Such wits and beauties are not prais'd for nought, They march, to prate their hour before the Fair. 235 240 245 250 Let but the Ladies smile, and they are blest: Prodigious! how the things protest, protest: 255 Peace, fools, or Gonson will for Papists seize you, If once he catch you at your Jesu! Jesu! Just as one Beauty mortifies another. But here's the Captain that will plague them both, 260 265 our stage give rules,] Alluding to the Chamberlain's Authority [as licenser of plays]. Warburton. 2 ['The weeping philosopher.'] theory of his art, published a work on the Proportions of the human figure.] 4 Much resembling Noll Bluff in Congreve's Old Bachelor, who was copied from Thraso, and also from Ben Jonson. Warton. And with a face as red, and as awry, 270 275 Courts are too much for wits so weak as mine: 280 'Tis mine to wash a few light stains, but theirs 285 EPILOGUE TO THE SATIRES. IN TWO DIALOGUES. WRITTEN IN MDCCXXXVIII. [THE first part of these Satires was published under the title of One Thousand Seven Hundred and Thirty-eight, a Dialogue something like Horace; and the second part followed in the same year. It is remarkable, says Boswell (in his Life of Johnson), that Johnson's London came out on the same morning in May as Pope's 1738;' so that England had at once its Juvenal and Horace as poetical monitors.' Johnson's satire, though published anonymously and having nothing, like Pope's, to betray its author, appears to have created the stronger sensation.] You grow correct, that once with Rapture writ, 5 Said, "Tories call'd him Whig, and Whigs a Tory;" And taught his Romans, in much better metre, Bubo observes1, he lash'd no sort of Vice: In rev'rend Bishops note some small Neglects, Could please at Court, and make AUGUSTUS smile: His Friend and Shame, and was a kind of Screen 5. P. See Sir ROBERT!-hum- He does not think me what he thinks mankind 10. F. Why yes with Scripture still you may be free; Bubo observes,] Some guilty person very fond of making such an observation. P. 2 [V. Epistle to Arbuthnot, v. 280.] 3 H-ggins] Formerly Jailor of the Fleet prison, enriched himself by many exactions, for which he was tried and expelled. P. [This Huggins] was the father of the author of the absurd and prosaic Translation of Ariosto. Warton. 4 Who cropt our Ears,] Said to be executed by the Captain of a Spanish ship on one Jenkins, a Captain of an English one. He cut off his ears, and bid him carry them to the King his master. P. [Vide Mr Carlyle's History of Frederick the Great, passim.] 5 Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico Tangit, et admissus circum præcordia ludit. PERS. [Sat. 1. 116.] P. Screen] A metaphor peculiarly appropriated to a certain person in power. P. 6 Patriots there are, &c.] This appellation was generally given to those in opposition to the Court. Though some of them (which our author hints at) had views too mean and interested to deserve that Name. P. 7 The Great man] A phrase by common use appropriated to the first minister. P. 8 [Explained by Warburton to refer to the favour conferred by Walpole at Pope's request upon the Catholic priest Southcote. See Introductory Memoir, p. xi.]. 9 Seen him, uncumber'd] These two verses were originally in the poem, though omitted in all the first editions. P. 10 [Bowles quotes Coxe's correction of the cynical saying commonly attributed to Sir R. Walpole. The political axiom was perverted by leaving out the word those' (referring to certain pretended patriots).] A Joke on JEKYL1, or some odd Old Whig Whom all Lord Chamberlains allow the Stage: 40 These nothing hurts 2; they keep their Fashion still, 45 "His Prince, that writes in Verse, and has his ear?" Sets half the world, God knows, against the rest; P. Dear Sir, forgive the Prejudice of Youth: The gracious Dew 8 of Pulpit Eloquence, A Joke on Fekyl,] Sir Joseph Jekyl, Master of the Rolls, a true Whig in his principles, and a man of the utmost probity. He sometimes voted against the Court, which drew upon him the laugh here described of ONE who bestowed it equally upon Religion and Honesty. He died a few months after the publication of this poem. P. These nothing hurts;] i. e. offends. Warburton. 3 Why, answer, Lyttelton,] George Lyttelton, Secretary to the Prince of Wales, distinguished both for his writings and speeches in the spirit of Liberty. P. [V. Im. of Hor. Bk. 1. Ep. i. v. 29.] 4 Sejanus, Wolsey,] The one the wicked minister of Tiberius; the other, of Henry VIII. The writers against the Court usually bestowed these and other odious names on the Minister, without distinction, and in the most injurious manner. See Dial. II. v. 137. P. 5 Fleury,] Cardinal: and Minister to Louis 50 55 60 65 70 XV. It was a Patriot-fashion, at that time, to cry up his wisdom and honesty. P. 6 Henley-Osborne] See them in their places in the Dunciad. P. 7 [Sir William Yonge, not, as Bowles conjectures to be possible, Dr Edward Young, author of The Night Thoughts, although to the latter Doddington (Bubo) was a constant friend]. 8 The gracious Dew] Alludes to some court sermons, and florid panegyrical speeches; particularly one very full of puerilities and flatteries; which afterwards got into an address in the same pretty style; and was lastly served up in an Epitaph, between Latin and English, published, by its author. P. An 'Epitaph' on Queen Caroline was written by Lord Hervey, and an address moved in the House of Commons (the Senate) on the occasion by H. Fox. Carruthers. 9 that easy Ciceronian style,] A joke upon absurd Imitators; who in light and familiar compositions, which require ease, affect a Ciceronian So Latin, yet so English all the while, As, tho' the Pride of Middleton1 and Bland 2, And let, a' God's name, ev'ry Fool and Knave F. Why so? if Satire knows its Time and Place, Silent and soft, as Saints remove to Heav'n, These may some gentle ministerial Wing There, where no Passion, Pride, or Shame transport, There, where no Father's, Brother's, Friend's disgrace 100 P. Good Heav'n forbid, that I should blast their glory, 105 ΠΟ Secretary of State's office, to write the govern- |