Peace to all such! but were there One whose fires1 What tho' my Name stood rubric on the walls, I sought no homage from the Race that write; 195 200 205 210 215 I kept, like Asian Monarchs, from their sight: 220 No more than thou, great GEORGE! a birth-day song. To spread about the itch of verse and praise; 225 Nor at Rehearsals sweat, and mouth'd, and cry'd, For an account of Pope's relations with Addison see Introductory Memoir, p. xv. f. The sentiments and imagery in Pope's letter to Craggs of July 15th 1715 were embodied in the [above] character of Atticus..which appears to have been first printed in 1723 (in a collection of poems called Cytherea published by Curll), then included by Pope in the Miscellanies of 1727, and finally, after undergoing revision, engrafted into the Epistle to Arbuthnot, published in 1735. Carruthers. 2 This image is originally Denham's. John son. 3 After v. 208 in the MS. "Who, if two Wits on rival themes contest, Approves of each, but likes the worst the best.' Alluding to Mr P.'s and Tickell's Translation of the first Book of the Iliad. Warburton. 4 [This famous couplet first stood thus: 'Who would not smile if such a man there be? Who would not laugh if ADDISON were he? Then, 'Who would not grieve if such a man there be? Who would not laugh if ADDISON were he?' Johnson.] It was a great falsehood, which some of the Libels reported, that this Character was written after the Gentleman's death; which see refuted in the Testimonies prefixed to the Dunciad. But the occasion of writing it was such as he would not make public out of regard to his memory: and all that could further be done was to omit the name, in the Edition of his Works. P. 5 On wings of winds came flying all abroad?] Hopkins, in the civth Psalm. P. [To daggle is to run through the mirc. Hence Swift's epithet daggle-tail.] But sick of fops, and poetry, and prate, Proud as Apollo on his forked hill, 230 235 Who first his judgment ask'd, and then a place: 240 Till grown more frugal in his riper days, He paid some bards with port, and some with praise; He help'd to bury whom he help'd to starve. May some choice patron bless each gray goose quill! May ev'ry Bavius have his Bufo still! 250 So, when a Statesman wants a day's defence, Or Envy holds a whole week's war with Sense, Or simple pride for flatt'ry makes demands, 255 My Verse, and QUEENSB'RY weeping o'er thy urn! 260 1 [Roscoe has shown that this cannot refer to Lord Halifax, whom Warton understood to be alluded to. Lord H. had died as far back as 1715, and is mentioned with respect (as he deserved) by Pope (to whom he had even offered a pension) in the Epilogue to the Satires, Dial. II. v. 77. Halifax was on terms of civility with Dryden, although he with Prior burlesqued the Hind and Panther; and though he helped to bury' the poet, he had in no sense 'helped to starve' him. The personal reference remains obscure.] 2 After v. 234 in the MS. "To Bards reciting he vouchsaf'd a nod, And snuff'd their incense like a gracious god.' Warburton. 3- a true Pindar stood without a head] Ridicules the affectation of Antiquaries, who frequently exhibit the headless Trunks and Terms of Statues, for Plato, Homer, Pindar, &c. Vide Fulv. Ursin. &c. P. 4 — help'd to bury] Mr Dryden, after having liv'd in exigencies, had a magnificent Funeral bestowed upon him by the contribution of several persons of quality. P. 5 [John Gay (born in 1688) was one of Pope's dearest friends; and when he died, Dec. 4th 1732, was mourned by the former, in a letter to Swift, as one who must have achieved happiness 'if innocence and integrity can deserve it." To what extent the genius of Gay was neglected, may appear from the following statement made by Pope himself to Spence: He dangled for twenty years about a court, and at last was offered to be made usher to the young princess. Secretary Craggs made G. a present of stock in the SouthSea year; and he was once worth £20,000; but lost it all again. He got about £500 by the first Beggar's Opera, and £1100 or £1200 by the Second. He was negligent and a bad manager. Latterly, the Duke of Queensbury took his money into his keeping, and let him only have what was necessary out of it; and, as he lived with them, he could not have occasion for much. He died worth upwards of £3000.' As to the Duchess of Queensbury see Moral Essays, II. v. 193.] (To live and die is all I have to do:) Maintain a Poet's dignity and ease, And see what friends, and read what books I please; Above a Patron, tho' I condescend 265 Sometimes to call a minister my friend. I was not born for Courts or great affairs; I pay my debts, believe, and say my pray❜rs; 270 Why am I ask'd what next shall see the light? Heav'ns! was I born for nothing but to write? "I found him close with Swift". -'Indeed? no doubt,' 275 (Cries prating Balbus) 'something will come out.' 'No, such a Genius never can lie still;' The first Lampoon Sir Will. or Bubo makes. Curst be the verse, how well soe'er it flow 5, But he who hurts a harmless neighbour's peace, 280 285 290 That Fop, whose pride affects a patron's name, Yet absent, wounds an author's honest fame: Who can your merit selfishly approve, 1 After v. 270 in the MS. Fame, like the wind, may breathe where'er it will. 2 Sir William Yonge. Bowles. ['A man whose fluency and readiness of speech amounted to a fault, and were often urged as a reproach, and of whom Sir Robert Walpole himself always said that nothing but Y.'s character could keep down his parts, and nothing but his parts support his character." Lord Stanhope. He was a supporter of Walpole's.] 3 [Bubb Doddington, afterwards Lord Melcombe, the author of a well known Diary and the confidential adviser of Frederick Prince of Wales. He is a character typical in many respects of his age; utterly unconscientious and cheerfully blind to his unconscientiousness; and 295 a liberal rather than discriminating patron of 4 After v. 282 in the MS. * [Dennis.] ↑ [See Dunciad, bk. ii. v. 315.] 5 [Contrast with the self-complacency of Pope Dryden's noble lines of self-reproach in the Elegy on Anne Killigrew.] And, if he lie not, must at least betray: 300 Let Sporus tremble- A. What? that thing of silk, 305 Sporus, that mere white curd of Ass's milk? P. Yet let me flap this bug with gilded wings, This painted child of dirt, that stinks and stings; 310 Yet wit ne'er tastes, and beauty ne'er enjoys: In mumbling of the game they dare not bite.. 315 As shallow streams run dimpling all the way. Whether in florid impotence he speaks, And, as the prompter breathes, the puppet squeaks; Or at the ear of Eve, familiar Toad, Half froth", half venom, spits himself abroad, 320 Or spite, or smut, or rhymes, or blasphemies. Who to the Dean, and silver bell, &c.] Meaning the man who would have persuaded the Duke of Chandos that Mr P. meant him in those circumstances ridiculed in the Epistle on Taste. See Mr Pope's Letter to the Earl of Burlington concerning this matter. P. [See note on Moral Essays, Ep. 1. v. 54.] [The original of this famous portrait was John Lord Hervey, eldest surviving son of the Earl of Bristol and author of the Memoirs of the Reign of George II. At an early age he became a great favourite at the court of the Prince and Princess of Wales at Richmond, where Pope and his literary friends enjoyed high favour. He married Miss Lepell, whom Pope himself greatly admired. Afterwards he attached himself to Walpole's party and was appointed Vice Chamberlain to the King (George II.). Ultimately he attained to the office of Lord Privy Seal; and after Walpole's fall continued to take an active part in politics, notwithstanding his miserable health, till his death in 1743. The cause of his estrangement from Pope remains obscure; but the first public offence was given by Pope, in allusions in his Miscellanies (1727) and the first edition of the Dunciad (1728). Then in 1734 appeared the Imitation of the 2nd Satire of the 1st Bk. of Horace, where Lord Hervey was twice attacked under the sobriquet of Lord Fanny, and his friend Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was even more venomously aspersed. They retorted in verse and prose; and Pope wrote his prose Letter to a noble Lord. The character of Sporus followed in 1734; and another attack in the satire, originally called (Epilogue to the Satires) 1738 brought out a poem The Difference between Verbal and Prac tical Virtue exemplified, &c. by Lord H. The original hints for all the insinuations and insults introduced by Pope into the character of Sporus are, according to Mr Croker, to be found in Pulteney's Reply to a pamphlet against himself and Bolingbroke (1731) which he attributed to H. The Reply brought about a duel. Mr Croker can find no evidence for the report that the rupture between Pope and Lady Mary was due to the 'rivalry' between himself and Hervey 'in her good graces.'] In the first edition, Pope had the name "Paris' instead of Sporus.' Bowles. 3 [Lady M. W. M. humorously divided the world into 'men, women and Herveys.' As to his whiteness cf. Dunciad, IV. 104. His miserable health necessitated a peculiar diet.] 4 See Milton, Book Iv. P. [In the first edition Pope explained this allusion by reference to a passage in Lady M. W. M.'s lampoon against himself.] 5 Half froth,] Alluding to those frothy excretions, called by the people, Toad-spits, seen in summer-time hanging upon plants, and emitted by young insects which lie hid in the midst of them, for their preservation, while in their helpless state. Warburton. [Goethe's Mephistophiles is 'an abortion of mud and fire.'] His wit all see-saw, between that and this, Beauty that shocks you, parts that none will trust; Wit that can creep, and pride that licks the dust. The dull, the proud, the wicked, and the mad; 1 The only trait perhaps of the whole [character of Sporus] that is not either false or overcharged, is Hervey's love for antithesis, which Pulteney had already ridiculed.... His parliamentary speeches were, as Warton says, very far above florid impotence; but they were in favour of the Ministry, and that was sufficiently offensive to Pope.' Croker, Lord Hervey's Memoirs, Biogr. Notice. 2 But stoop'd to Truth,] The term is from falconry; and the allusion to one of those untamed birds of spirit, which sometimes wantons at large in airy circles before it regards, or stoops to, its prey. Warburton. 3 [i.e. made his poetry Moral, in both senses of the term.] the lie so oft o'erthrown] As, that he re 335 340 345 350 355 360 ceived subscriptions for Shakespear, that he set his name to Mr Broome's verses, &c. which, tho' publicly disproved were nevertheless shamelessly repeated in the Libels, and even in that called the Nobleman's Epistle. P. 5 Th' imputed trash,] Such as profane Psalms, Court-Poems, and other scandalous things, printed in his Name by Curll and others. P. 6 Abuse, on all he lov'd, or lov'd him, spread,] Namely on the Duke of Buckingham, the Earl of Burlington, Lord Bathurst, Lord Bolingbroke, Bishop Atterbury, Dr Swift, Dr Arbuthnot, Mr Gay, his Friends, his Parents, and his very Nurse, aspersed in printed papers, by James Moore, G. Ducket, L. Welsted, Tho. Bentley, and other obscure persons. P. |