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I.

ON CHARLES EARL OF DORSET,

In the Church of Withyam in Sussex1.

(1706.)

ORSET, the Grace of the Courts, the Muses' Pride,
Patron of Arts, and Judge of Nature, died.

The scourge of Pride, tho' sanctify'd or great,

Of Fops in Learning, and of Knaves in State:
Yet soft his Nature, tho' severe his Lay;
His Anger moral, and his Wisdom gay.
Blest Satirist! who touch'd the Mean so true,

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As show'd, Vice had his hate and pity too.

Blest Courtier! who could King and Country please,

Yet sacred keep his Friendships, and his Ease.

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Blest Peer! his great Forefathers' ev'ry grace

Reflecting, and reflected in his Race;

Where other BUCKHURSTS2, other DORSETS shine,
And Patriots still, or Poets, deck the Line.

II.

ON SIR WILLIAM TRUMBAL,

One of the Principal Secretaries of State to King WILLIAM III. who having resigned his Place, died in his Retirement at Easthamsted in Berkshire, 17163.

PLEASING Form; a firm, yet cautious Mind;

A Sincere, the prudent; constant, yet resign'd:

Honour unchang'd, a Principle profest,

Fix'd to one side, but mod'rate to the rest:
An honest Courtier, yet a Patriot too;

Just to his Prince, and to his Country true:

Fill'd with the Sense of Age, the Fire of Youth,

A Scorn of wrangling, yet a Zeal for Truth;

A gen'rous Faith, from superstition free;
A love to Peace, and hate of Tyranny;

Such this Man was; who now, from earth remov'd,
At length enjoys that Liberty he lov'd.

[As to Dorset, cf. Imitations of English Poets in Juvenile Poems, p. 183.]

2 [Thomas Sackville, first Lord Buckhurst and first Earl of Dorset, author of the Mirror for Magistrates, and Gorboduc, the first English tragedy, died in 1608. Edward, Earl of Dorset, was a prominent Royalist in the first part of the Civil war, and was, according to Clarendon, distinguished for his wit and learning. His grandson

is the subject of Pope's epitaph.]

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3 [As to Sir William Trumball, see note to p. 13.] The first six lines of this epitaph were originally written for John Lord Caryll, afterwards Secretary of State to the exiled king James II.; the remainder of the same epitaph on Caryll being inserted in the Epistle to Fervas. Athenæum, July 15th, 1854.

III.

ON THE HON. SIMON HARCOURT,

Only Son of the Lord Chancellor HARCOURT; at the Church of Stanton-Harcourt

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in Oxfordshire, 1720.

O this sad shrine, whoe'er thou art! draw near;
Here lies the Friend most lov'd, the Son most dear;
Who ne'er knew Joy, but Friendship might divide,
Or gave his Father Grief but when he died1.

How vain is Reason, Eloquence how weak!
If Pope must tell what HARCOURT cannot speak.
Oh let thy once-lov'd Friend inscribe thy Stone,
And, with a Father's sorrows, mix his own!

IV.

ON JAMES CRAGGS, ESQ.
In Westminster-Abbey 2.

JACOBUS CRAGGS

REGI MAGNE BRITANNIE A SECRETIS
ET CONSILIIS SANCTIORIBUS,

PRINCIPIS PARITER AC POPULI AMOR ET DELICIÆ:
VIXIT TITULIS ET INVIDIA MAJOR
ANNOS, HEU PAUCOS, XXXV.

OB. FEB. XVI. MDCCXX.

Statesman, yet Friend to Truth! of Soul sincere,
In Action faithful, and in Honour clear!

Who broke no Promise, serv'd no private End;
Who gain'd no Title, and who lost no Friend;
Ennobled by Himself, by All approv'd;

Prais'd, wept, and honour'd, by the Muse he lov'd3.

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V.

INTENDED FOR MR ROWE,

In Westminster Abbey.

HY relics, RowE, to this fair Urn we trust,
And sacred, place by DRYDEN's awful dust :
Beneath a rude and nameless stone he lies,
To which thy Tomb shall guide enquiring eyes 6.

These were the very words used by Louis
XIV., when his Queen died, 1683; though it is
not to be imagined they were copied by Pope.
Warton.

[As to Craggs, v. ante, P. 442. Horace Walpole sent to Sir Horace Mann a very illnatured epitaph on the same Craggs, whose father had been a footman: Here lies the last, who died before the first of his family.' (Jesse.) As Craggs's death alone arrested the enquiry into the charge of peculation brought against him in connexion with the South Sea frauds (his father committing suicide shortly afterwards) the praise in the third line of Pope's Epitaph is singularly bold.]

3 These verses were originally the conclusion of the Epistle to Mr Addison on his Dialogue on Medals, and were adopted as an Epitaph by an alteration in the last line, which in the Epistle stood

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'And prais'd unenvied by the Muse he lov'd.' Roscoe [cf. p. 264].

4 [As to Rowe, see note to Epil. to Jane Shore, p. 94.]

5 Beneath a rude] The Tomb of Mr Dryden was erected upon this hint by the Duke of Buckingham; to which was originally intended this Epitaph,

This SHEFFIELD rais'd. The sacred Dust below Was DRYDEN once: The rest who does not know?

which the Author since changed into the plain
inscription now upon it, being only the name of
that great Poet.

J. DRYDEN.
Natus Aug. 9, 1631. Mortuus Maij 1, 1700.
JOANNES SHEFFIELD DUX BUCKINGHAMIENSIS
POSUIT.

P.

6 [The above epitaph was subsequently altered by Pope, the following lines being added:

H'

VI.

ON MRS CORBET,

Who died of a Cancer in her Breast1.

ERE rests a Woman, good without pretence,

Blest with plain Reason, and with sober Sense:

No Conquests she, but o'er herself, desir'd,

No Arts essay'd, but not to be admir'd.

Passion and Pride were to her soul unknown,
Convinc'd that Virtue only is our own.
So unaffected, so compos'd a mind;

So firm, yet soft; so strong, yet so refin'd;
Heav'n, as its purest gold, by Tortures try'd;
The Saint sustain'd it, but the Woman died.

VII.

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ON THE MONUMENT OF THE HONOURABLE ROBERT DIGBY, AND OF HIS SISTER MARY,

Erected by their Father, the Lord DIGBY, in the Church of Sherborne

in Dorsetshire, 17279.

O! fair Example of untainted youth,

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Of modest wisdom, and pacific truth:

Compos'd in suff'rings, and in joy sedate,

Good without noise, without pretension great.

Just of thy Word, in ev'ry thought sincere,

Who knew no wish but what the world might hear:

Of softest manners, unaffected mind,

Lover of peace, and friend of human kind:

Go live for Heav'n's Eternal year is thine,

Go, and exalt thy Moral to Divine.

And thou, blest Maid! attendant on his doom,
Pensive hast follow'd to the silent tomb,
Steer'd the same course to the same quiet shore,
Not parted long, and now to part no more!
Go then, where only bliss sincere is known!
Go, where to love and to enjoy are one!
Yet take these Tears, Mortality's relief,
And till we share your joys, forgive our grief:
These little rites, a Stone, a Verse, receive;
'Tis all a Father, all a Friend can give!

'Peace to thy gentle shade, and endless rest! Blest in thy Genius, in thy Love too blest! One grateful Woman to thy fame supplies What a whole thankless land to his denies.' But further alterations and additions were made in the inscription, until it read as it now stands on the monument in Westminster Abbey to Rowe and his daughter.]

This epitaph is on a monument in St Margaret's Church, Westminster, where the date of Mrs Elizabeth Corbet's death is recorded as March 1st, 1724. Mr Hunter conceives that she

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was the Mrs Corbet who was a sister of Pope's mother. Carruthers. [Hunter enumerates Mrs Corbet among the Roman Catholic members of the Turner family; and as the notice preceding the epitaph on the monument speaks of her as the daughter of Sir Uvedale Corbett, Bart., it is irreconcileable with Hunter's statement.]

He

2 [Robert Digby was a frequent correspondent of Pope's during the years 1717 to 1724. died in 1726; and Pope laments his death in a letter to his brother Edward Digby.]

ance.

K

VIII.

ON SIR GODFREY KNELLER,

In Westminster-Abbey, 17231.

NELLER, by Heav'n, and not a Master, taught,

Whose Art was Nature, and whose Pictures Thought;

Now for two ages having snatch'd from fate
Whate'er was beauteous, or whate'er was great,
Lies crown'd with Princes' honours, Poets' lays,
Due to his Merit, and brave Thirst of praise.
Living, great Nature fear'd he might outvie
Her works; and dying, fears herself may die.

IX.

ON GENERAL HENRY WITHERS,
In Westminster-Abbey, 17293.

bravest, mind,

Thy Country's friend, but more of human kind.
Oh born to Arms! O Worth in Youth approv'd!

O soft Humanity, in Age belov'd!

For thee the hardy Vet'ran drops a tear,
And the gay Courtier feels the sigh sincere.
WITHERS, adieu! yet not with thee remove
Thy Martial spirit, or thy Social love!
Amidst Corruption, Luxury, and Rage,
Still leave some ancient Virtues to our age:
Nor let us say (those English glories gone)
The last true Briton lies beneath this stone.

1 Pope had made Sir Godfrey Kneller, on his death-bed, a promise to write his epitaph, which he seems to have performed with reluctHe thought it 'the worst thing he ever wrote in his life." (Spence.) Roscoe. [Sir Godfrey Kneller was born at Lübeck in 1648, and after being introduced by the Duke of Monmouth to King Charles II., filled the office of Statepainter under that monarch and his successors up to George I., in whose reign (in 1726) he died.] 2 Imitated from the famous Epitaph on Raphael.

Raphael, timuit, quo sospite, vinci
Rerum magna parens, et moriente, mori. P.
Much better translated by Mr W. Harrison, of
New College, Oxford, a favourite of Swift:
'Here Raphael lies, by whose untimely end
Nature both lost a rival and a friend.'

Warton.

[The following is the prose inscription on General Withers' monument in Westminster Abbey, which is also believed to be by Pope:

Henry Withers, Lieutenant-General, de

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scended from a military stock, and bred in arms in Britain, Dunkirk, and Tangier. Through the whole course of the two last wars of England with France, he served in Ireland, in the Low Countries, and in Germany: was present in every battle and at every siege, and distinguished in all by an activity, a valour and a zeal which nature gave and honour improved. A love of glory and of his country animated and raised him above that spirit which the trade of war inspires-a desire of acquiring riches and honours by the miseries of mankind. His temper was humane, his benevolence universal, and among all those ancient virtues which he preserved in practice and in credit none was more remarkable than his hospitality. He died at the age of 78, on the 11th of November, 1729, to whom this monument is erected by his companion in the wars and his friend through life, HENRY DISNEY.'

Both Withers and Disney (who rests beside his comrade) are mentioned among Pope's friends by Gay, who alludes to the hospitality panegyrized in the above epitaph.]

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A Poet, blest beyond the Poet's fate,

Whom Heav'n kept sacred from the Proud and Great:

Foe to loud Praise, and Friend to learned Ease,

Content with Science in the Vale of Peace.

Calmly he look'd on either Life, and here

From Nature's temp'rate feast rose satisfy'd3,

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Saw nothing to regret, or there to fear;

Thank'd Heav'n that he had liv'd, and that he died.

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OF

XI.

ON MR GAY,

In Westminster-Abbey, 1732.

F Manners gentle, of Affections mild;
In Wit, a Man; Simplicity, a Child:
With native Humour temp'ring virtuous Rage,
Form'd to delight at once and lash the age:
Above Temptation, in a low Estate,
And uncorrupted, ev'n among the Great:
A safe Companion, and an easy Friend,
Unblam'd thro' Life, lamented in thy End.
These are Thy Honours! not that here thy Bust
Is mix'd with Heroes, or with Kings thy dust;
But that the Worthy and the Good shall say,
Striking their pensive bosoms-Here lies GAY.

1 [Elijah Fenton was born in 1683. Fenton, together with Broome, wrote part of the translation of the Odyssey in a style so similar to Pope's that most readers would fail to distinguish between the work of the latter and that of his coadjutors. A survey of Fenton's works shows a striking reproduction on his part of most of the species of poetry cultivated by Pope. Fenton has a pastoral (Florelio) to correspond to Pope's fourth and favourite Pastoral; a paraphrase of the 14th chapter of Isaiah to correspond to Pope's Messiah; an epistle from Sappho to Phaon, Epistles, Prologues, and Translations and Imitations of Horace. Fenton was a thorough master of versification, and excelled Pope in his command of a variety of metres. His Ode to Lord Gower

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(which Pope placed next in merit to Dryden's
St Cecilia) avoids the faults committed by Pope
in his own 'Pindaric' essay; and his blank
verse translation of the 11th book of the Odyssey
is dignified without heaviness. Fenton's tragedy
of Mariamne seems to have owed its success in
part to the judicious suggestions of the author of
Oroonoko.]

2 The modest front of this small floor
Believe me, reader, can say more
Than many a braver marble can:
Here lies a truly honest man.

Crashaw, Epitaph upon Mr Ashton. Johnson.
3 Cf. Hor. Sat. Lib. I. 1. 117-119. Wake-
field.

4 [There is a very striking coincidence between

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