75

80

85

90

So Latin, yet so English all the while,
As, tho' the Pride of Middleton 1 and Bland?,
All Boys may read, and Girls may understand !
Then might I sing, without the least offence,
And all I sung should be the Nation's Sense ;
Or teach the melancholy Muse to mourn,
Hang the sad Verse on CAROLINA'S * Urn,
And hail her passage to the Realms of Rest,
All Parts perform’d, and all her Children blest!
So-Satire is no more I feel it die
No Gazetteer more innocent than 15-
And let, a' God's name, ev'ry Fool and Knave
Be grac'd thro' Life, and flatter'd in his Grave.

F. Why so ? if Satire knows its Time and Place,
You still may lash the greatest-in Disgrace :
For Merit will by turns forsake them all;
Would you know when ? exactly when they fall.
But let all Satire in all Changes spare
Immortal S-k, and grave De—re 6.
Silent and soft, as Saints remove to Heav'n,
All Ties dissolv'd and ev'ry Sin forgiv'n,
These may some gentle ministerial Wing
Receive, and place for ever near a King !
There, where no Passion, Pride, or Shame transport,
Lullid with the sweet Nepenthe of a Court;
There, where no Father's, Brother's, Friend's disgrace
Once break their rest, or stir them from their Place :
But past the Sense of human Miseries,
All Tears are wip'd for ever from all eyes ?;
No cheek is known to blush, no lieart to throb,
Save when they lose a Question, or a Job.

P. Good Heav'n forbid, that I should blast their glory,
Who know how like Whig Ministers to Tory,
And, when three Sov'reigns died, could scarce be vext,
Consid'ring what a gracious Prince was next.
Have I, in silent wonder, seen such things
As Pride in Slaves, and Avarice in Kings;
And at a Peer, or Peeress, shall I fret,

95

100

105

110 115

I 20

Who starves a Sister, or forswears a Debt 1?
Virtue, I grant you, is an empty boast ? ;
But shall the Dignity of Vice be lost?
Ye Gods! shall Cibber's Son, without rebuke,
Swear like a Lord, or Rich 3 out-whore a Duke 4 ?
A Fav'rite's Porter with his Master vie,
Be brib'd as often, and as often lie?
Shall Ward 5 draw Contracts with a Statesman's skill?
Or Japhet 6 pocket, like his Grace, a Will ?
Is it for Bond?, or Peter, (paltry things)
To pay their Debts, or keep their Faith, like Kings?
If Blount 8 despatch'd himself, he play'd the man,
And so may'st thou, illustrious Passeran 9 !
But shall a Printer, weary of his life,
Learn, from their Books, to hang himself and Wife 10?
This, this, my friend, I cannot, must not bear;
Vice thus abus'd, demands a Nation's care ;
This calls the Church to deprecate our Sin",
And hurls the Thunder of the Laws on Gin 12.

Let modest Foster, if he will, excel
Ten Metropolitans in preaching well 13 ;
A simple Quaker, or a Quaker's Wife 14,
Out-do Llandaff 15 in Doctrine,-yea in Life :

125

130

He was a

' In some editions,

6 [Cf. 16. v. 86.] Who starves a Mother,– Warburton. ? (Cf. Dunciad, Ir. V. 126.]

I have been informed that these verses re- 8 If Blount] Author of an impious and foolish lated to Lady M. W. Montagu and her sister book called the Oracles of Reason, who being in the Countess of Mar. Bowles. [This charge love with a near kinswoman of his, and rejected, against Lady M. W. M. rests on the scandal of gave himself a stab in the arm, as pretending to Horace Walpole, in one of his letters to Sir H. kill himself, of the consequence of which he really Mann. She is there accused of having treated died. P. her sister hardly, while the latter was out of her 9 Passeran!) Author of another book of the senses, and of having frightened a Frenchman of same stamp, called A philosophical discourse on the name of Ruzemonde (who had entrusted her death, being a defence of suicide. with a large sum of money to buy stock for him) nobleman of Piedmont, banished from his country out of England by threats of betraying her in- for his impietics, and lived in the utmost misery, trigue with him, first to her husband, then to her yet feared to practise his own precepts; and at brother-in-law. Lord Wharncliffe, in the Appen- last died a penitent. Warburton. dix to Vol. 111. of his Letters and Works of Lady 10 But shall a Printer, &c.) A Fact that M. W M., states that the former accusation is happened in London a few years past.

The unutterly unfounded, and shews that the latter happy man left behind him a paper justifying rests on a perversion of facts.)

his action by the reasonings of some of these au? Virtue, I grant you, is an empty boast;] thors. P. A satirical ambiguity-either that those starve 11 This calls the Church to deprecate our Sin] who have it, or that those who boast of it, have Alluding to the forms of prayer, composed in the it not: and both together (he insinuates) make times of public calamity, where the fault is geneup the present state of modern virtue. War- rally laid upon the People. Warburton. burton.

12 Gin.) A spirituous liquor, the exorbitant 3 Cibber's Son,-Rich] Two Players: look use of which had almost destroyed the lowest for them in the Dunciad. P. [Rich, iv. 261. He rank of the People till it was restrained by an was the lessee of Covent-Garden theatre.)

act of Parliament in 1736. P. 4 Swear like a Lord—or out-whore a Duke ?] 13 An eloquent and persuasive preacher, who Elegance demands that these should be two pro- wrote an excellent Defence of Christianity averbial expressions. To swear like a Lord is gainst Tindal. Warton.

135

140

145

150

Let humble ALLEN', with an awkward Shame,
Do good by stealth, and blush to find it Fame.
Virtue may choose the high or low Degree,
'Tis just alike to Virtue, and to me;
Dwell in a Monk, or light upon a King,
She's still the same, belov'd, contented thing.
Vice is undone, if she forgets her Birth,
And stoops from Angels to the Dregs of Earth :
But 'tis the Fall degrades her to a Whore;
Let Greatness own her, and she's mean no more?;
Her Birth, her Beauty, Crowds and Courts confess;
Chaste Matrons praise her, and grave Bishops bless ;
In golden Chains the willing World she draws,
And hers the Gospel is, and hers the Laws,
Mounts the Tribunal, lifts her scarlet head,
And sees pale Virtue carted in her stead.
Lo! at the wheels of her Triumphal Car,
Old England's Genius, rough with many a Scar,
Dragg'd in the dust ! his arms hang idly round,
His Flag inverted trails along the ground !
Our Youth, all livery'd o'er with foreign Gold,
Before her dance: behind her crawl the Old!
See thronging Millions to the Pagod run,
And offer Country, Parent, Wife, or Son!
Hear her black Trumpet thro' the Land proclaim,
That Nor TO BE CORRUPTED IS THE SHAME.
In Soldier, Churchman, Patriot, Man in Pow'r,
'Tis Av'rice all, Ambition is no more!
See, all our Nobles begging to be Slaves!
See, all our Fools aspiring to be Knaves !
The Wit of Cheats, the Courage of a Whore,
Are what ten thousand envy and adore;
All, all look up, with reverential Awe,
At Crimes that 'scape, or triumph o'er the Law;
While Truth, Worth, Wisdom, daily they decry-
“Nothing is Sacred now but Villainy.

Yet may this Verse (if such a Verse remain)
Shew, there was one who held it in disdain.

155

160

165

170

DIALOGUE II.

'T

FR. IS all a Libel-Paxton 3 (Sir) will say.

P. Not yet, my Friend! to-morrow 'faith it may; And for that very cause I print to-day. ! (Ralph Allen, of Prior Park, an intimate Theodora, the wife of Justinian, though Gibbon friend and constant correspondent of Pope's, to is sceptical as to the intended allusion ] whom he performed many kind services. He 3 Paxton] Late solicitor to the Treasury. was afterwards a munificent patron to Fielding. Warburton. [Cf. infra, v. 141. He was, acof his charitable habits there is evidence in cording to Carruthers, deeply involved in the Pope's Will.)

charges against Sir R. Walpole; and temporarily (Said by Warburton to refer to the Empress imprisoned.]

TO

20

How should I fret to mangle ev'ry line,
In rey'rence to the Sins of Thirty nine!!

5
Vice with such Giant strides comes on amain,
Invention strives to be before in vain;
Feign what I will, and paint it e'er so strong,
Some rising Genius sins up to my Song.

F. Yet none but you by Name the guilty lash;
Ev'n Guthry 3 saves half Newgate by a Dash.
Spare then the Person, and expose the Vice.

P. How, Sir? not damn the Sharper, but the Dice?
Come on then, Satire! gen'ral, unconfin'd,
Spread thy broad wing, and souse on all the kind.

15
Ye Statesmen, Priests, of one Religion all!
Ye Tradesmen vile, in Army, Court, or Hall,
Ye Rev'rend Atheists- F. Scandal! name them! Who?

P. Why that's the thing you bid me not to do.
Who stary'd a Sister, who forswore a Debt 4,
I never nam’d; the Town's enquiring yet.
The pois’ning Dame- F. You mean- P, I don't.— F. You do!

P. See, now I keep the Secret, and not you!
The bribing Statesman- F. Hold, too high you go.

P. The brib'd Elector- F. There you stoop too low. 25

P. I fain would please you, if I knew with what;
Tell me, which Knave is lawful Game, which not?
Must great Offenders, once escap'd the Crown,
Like royal Harts, be never more run down 6?
Admit your Law to spare the Knight requires,

301
As Beasts of Nature may we hunt. the Squires?
Suppose I censure--you know what I mean-
To save a Bishop, may I name a Dean?

F. A Dean, Sir? no: his Fortune is not made ;
You hurt a man that's rising in the Trade.

35
P. If not the Tradesman who set up to-day,
Much less the 'Prentice who to-morrow may.
Down, down, proud Satire! tho' a Realm be spoil'd,
Arraign no mightier Thief than wretched Wild?;
Or, if a Court or Country's made a job,
Go drench a Pick-pocket, and join the Mob.

But, Sir, I beg you (for the Love of Vice !)
The matter's weighty, pray consider twice;

40

1

? [i.e. of next year.]

the initials of their name.

P. ? Feign what I will, etc.) The Poet has 4 Cf. ante, Dial. 1. v. 112.] here introduced an oblique apology for himself 5 Must great Offenders, etc.) The case is with great art.

45

50

55

Have you less pity for the needy Cheat,
The poor and friendless Villain, than the Great?
Alas! the small Discredit of a Bribe
Scarce hurts the Lawyer, but undoes the Scribe.
Then better sure it Charity becomes
To tax Directors, who (thank God) have Plums;
Still better, Ministers; or, if the thing
May pinch ev'n therewhy lay it on a King.
F. Stop! Stop!

P. Must Satire, then, nor rise nor fall?
Speak out, and bid me blame no Rogues at all.
F. Yes, strike that Wild, I'll justify the blow.

P. Strike? why the man was hang'd ten years ago :
Who now that obsolete Example fears?
Ev'n Peter trembles only for his Ears 1.

F. What? always Peter? Peter thinks you mad;
You make men desp'rate if they once are bad:
Else might he take to Virtue some years hence-

P. As S-k?, if he lives, will love the PRINCE.
F. Strange spleen to S-k!

P. Do I wrong the Man!
God knows, I praise a Courtier where I can.
When I confess, there is who feels for Fame,
And melts to Goodness, need I SCARB’ROW3 name?
Pleas'd let me own, in Esher's peaceful Grove *
(Where Kents and Nature vie for PELHAM'S 6 Love)
The Scene, the Master, opening to my view,
I sit and dream I see my CRAGGS anew!

Ev’n in a Bishop I can spy Desert;
Secker7 is decent, Rundel8 has a Heart,
Manners with Candour are to Benson9 giv’n,
To Berkeley 10, ev'ry Virtue under Heav'n.

But does the Court a worthy Man remove?
That instant, I declare, he has my Love:

60

65

70

75

Evn Peter trembles only for his ears, ton.] Peter had, the year before this, narrowly escaped 6 [Henry Pelham became First Lord of the the Pillory for forgery: and got off with a severe treasury in 1743, through Walpole's influence; rebuke only from the bench. P.

and died in 1754, the King exclaiming on his 2 [V. ante, Dial. 1. v. 92.]

death : 'Now I shall have no more peace.') 3 Scarb'row] Earl of, and Knight of the 7 [Thos. Secker (1693-1768), successively Garter, whose personal attachments to the king bishop of Bristol and of Oxford, and archbishop appeared from his steady adherence to the royal of Canterbury. His career is accounted for by interest, after his resignation of his great employ- his personal reputation for liberality and moderament of Master of the Horse; and whose known tion.) honour and virtue made him esteemed by all S (Dr Rundel, bishop of Derry, esteemed parties. P. [He committed suicide in a fit of equally by Pope and Swift. See their letters of melancholy, in 1740; and was mourned by Lord Sept. 3, 1735 and foll.] Chesterfield as 'the best man he ever knew, and 9 [Bishop of Gloucester. He ordained Whitthe dearest friend he ever had.']

field.] 4 Esher's peaceful Grove,] The house and 10 [Dr Berkeley, bishop of Cloyne (born 1684, gardens of Esher in Surrey, belonging to the died 1707), the illustrious author of Alciphron. A Honourable Mr Pelham, Brother of the Duke very different bishop (Atterbury) said of him of Newcastle. The author could not have given that “só much understanding, so much knowa more amiable idea of his Character than in ledge, so much innocence, and such humility, I comparing him to Mr Craggs. P.

did

not think had been the portion of any but 5 [The architect and friend of Lord Burling- angels, till I saw this gentleman.']