"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;

70

NOTES.

Ver. 67. Statesman, yet friend to Truth, &c.] It should be remembered, that this poem was composed to be printed before Mr. Addison's Discourse on Medals, in which there is the following censure of long legends upon coins: "The first fault I find with a modern legend is its diffusiveness. You have sometimes the whole side of a medal overrun with it. One would fancy the Author had a design of being Ciceronian-but it is not only the tediousness of these inscriptions that I find fault with; supposing them of a moderate length, why must they be in verse? We should be surprised to see the title of a serious book in rhyme." Dial. iii. W.

Ver. 67. Statesman,] These nervous and finished lines were afterward inscribed as an epitaph on this worthy man's monument in Westminster Abbey, with the alteration of two words in the last verse; which there stands thus:

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

It was Craggs, who raised himself by his abilities, his father being a barber, that, in the most friendly and alluring manner, offered our Author a pension of three hundred pounds per annum ; which if he had accepted we should have been deprived of his best satires. Poets have a high spirit of liberty and independence. They neither seek or expect rewards.

Mæcenases do not create geniuses. Neither Spenser, nor Milton, nor Dante, nor Tasso, nor Corneille, were patronised by the governments under which they lived. And Horace, and Virgil, and Boileau, were formed before they had an opportunity of flattering Augustus and Lewis XIV.

Though Pope enlisted under the banner of Bolingbroke, in what was called the country party, and in violent opposition to the measures of Walpole, yet his clear and good sense enabled him to see the follies and virulence of all parties; and it was his favourite maxim, that, however factious men thought proper to

Ennobled by himself, by all approv'd,

And prais'd unenvied, by the Muse he lov'd."

NOTES.

distinguish themselves by names, yet when they got into power, they all acted much in the same manner; saying,

"I know how like Whig ministers to Tory."

And among his manuscripts were four very sensible, though not very poetical lines, which contain the most solid apology that can be made for a minister of this country:

"Our ministers like gladiators live:

'Tis half their business blows to ward, or give:
The good their virtue would effect, or sense,

Dies between exigents and self-defence."

Yet he appears sometimes to have forgotten this candid reflection.

Ver. ult. And prais'd unenvied, by the Muse he lov'd.] It was not likely that men acting in so different spheres, as were those of Mr. Craggs and Mr. Pope, should have their friendship disturbed by envy. We must suppose then that some circumstances in the friendship of Mr. Pope and Mr. Addison are hinted at in this place. W.

APPENDIX.