XIV. ON EDMUND D. OF BUCKINGHAM, IF F modest Youth, with cool Reflection crown'd, XV. FOR ONE WHO WOULD NOT BE BURIED IN HEROES, and KINGS! distance keep: In peace let one poor Poet sleep, Who never flatter'd Folks like you: ANOTHER, ON THE SAME3. NDER this Marble, or under this Sill, UNDER Whatever an Heir, or a Friend in his stead, Or any good creature shall lay o'er my head, 1 Only son of John Sheffield, Duke of Buckinghamshire, by Katharine Darnley, natural daughter of James II. Roscoe. [These lines were placed by Warburton on the monument erected by him to Pope in Twickenham Church, seventeen years after his death. Mr Carruthers points out that this execrable piece of bad taste was in contravention of Pope's own desire as expressed in his will, where he directs that only the date of his death, and his age, should be inscribed on his tomb.) self.] [Imitated from Ariosto's epitaph on him I MISCELLANEOUS. A PARAPHRASE (ON THOMAS A KEMPIS, 1. III. c. 2). Done by the Author at twelve years old; and first published from the Caryll Papers in the Athenæum, July 15th, 1854.] PEAK, Gracious Lord, oh, speak; thy Servant hears: Speak words of Comfort in my willing Ears; And since that thine all Rhetoric exceeds: 5 Speak thou in words, but let me speak in deeds! But sink, and take deep rooting in my heart. IO As the parch'd Earth drinks Rain (but grace afford) With such a Gust1 will I receive thy word. Nor with the Israelites shall I desire Thy heav'nly word by Moses to receive, Lest I should die: but Thou who didst inspire 15 Speak, gracious Lord, oh, speak, thy servant hears. Moses, indeed, may say the words, but Thou They preach the Doctrine, but thou mak'st us do't; But none but you can give us Strength to walk; Let them be Silent then; and thou alone, My God! speak comfort to my ravish'd ears; Light of my eyes, my Consolation, Speak when thou wilt, for still thy Servant hears. 1 [i. e. taste.] TO THE AUTHOR OF A POEM ENTITLED SUCCESSIO. [FIRST published in Lintot's Miscellanies; avowed by Pope as written by him when fourteen years of age, in note to Dunciad, Bk. I. v. 181. Elkanah Settle, the city poet, and the Doeg of Absalom and Achitophel, had written a poem in celebration of the settlement of the crown on the house of Brunswick. Of this poem vv. 4 and 17-18 were afterwards, with slight alterations, inserted in the Dunciad as vv. 183—4 and 181—2 of Bk. 1.] BEGONE, Vrit and will air your EGONE, ye Critics, and restrain your spite, The heaviest Muse the swiftest course has gone, A swarm of drones that buzz'd about your head. And pond'rous slugs move nimbly through the sky. ARGUS. Ω 15 20 'HOMER'S account of Ulysses's dog Argus is the most pathetic imaginable, all the circumstances consider'd, and an excellent proof of the old bard's goodnature. Ulysses had left him at Ithaca when he embark'd for Troy, and found him at his return after twenty years (which by the way is not unnatural, as some critics have said, since I remember the dam of my dog was twenty-two years old when she died. May the omen of longevity prove fortunate to her successors!). You shall have it in verse.' Pope to H. Cromwell, Oct. 19, 1709. THEN wise Ulysses, from his native coast WHEN Long kept by wars, and long by tempests toss'd, 1 Perhaps by Charilus, the juvenile satirist designed Flecknoe or Shadwell, who had received their immortality of Dulness from his master Catholic in poetry and opinions: Dryden. D'Israeli, cited by Roscoe. Arriv'd at last, poor, old, disguis'd, alone, The faithful dog alone his rightful master knew! 5 IO Like an old servant, now cashier'd, he lay; And longing to behold his ancient Lord again. Him when he saw-he rose, and crawl'd to meet, ('Twas all he could) and fawn'd, and kiss'd his feet, 15 IMITATION OF MARTIAL. [LIB. X. Epigr. XXIII. Mentioned as Pope's 'imitation of Martin's epigram on Antonius Primus,' by Sir William Trumball, in a letter to Pope, Jan. 19, 1716.] T length, my Friend, (while Time, with still career, A was on his gentle wing his eightieth year,) Sees his past days safe out of Fortune's pow'r, 5 Such, such a man extends his life's short space, 10 OCCASIONED BY SOME VERSES OF HIS GRACE MUSE, 'tis enough: at length thy labour ends, And thou shalt live, for Buckingham commends. Let Crowds of Critics now my verse assail, This more than pays whole years of thankless pain; 1 How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, Stol'n on his wing my three-and-twentieth year! Milton's Sonnets. Carruthers. 5 2 The verses referred to are the commendatory lines prefixed to Pope's poem by B. Roscoe. [As to Sheffield, Duke of Buckinghamshire, see note to Essay on Criticism, v. 724.] S ON MRS TOFTS, A CELEBRATED OPERA-SINGER'. O bright is thy Beauty, so charming thy Song, As had drawn both the Beasts and their Orpheus along; But such is thy Av'rice, and such is thy Pride, That the Beasts must have starv'd, and the Poet have died. EPIGRAM ON THE FEUDS ABOUT HANDEL [SOMETIMES, but incorrectly, attributed to Swift.] TRANGE! all this Difference should be ST YOU EPIGRAM. YOU beat your Pate, and fancy Wit will come: EPITAPH. [IMITATED by Goldsmith in his Epitaph on Edward Purdon, 'a bookseller's hack.'] ELL then, poor G lies under Ground! WELL So there's an End of honest Jack. So little Justice here he found, 'Tis ten to one he'll ne'er come back. EPITAPH. [FROM the Latin on Joannes Mirandula3. The lines were afterwards applied by Pope to Lord Coningsby; as to whom cf. Moral Essays, Ep. III. v. 397.] |