XIV. ON EDMUND DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM. WHO DIED IN THE NINETEENTH YEAR OF HIS IF AGE, 1735. modest Youth, with cool Reflection crown'd, 5 10 VER. 1. With cool Reflection crown'd,] To crown with reflection, is furely a mode of fpeech approaching to nonfenfe. Opening virtues, blooming round, is fomething like tautology; the fix following lines are poor and profaic. JOHNSON. The Duchefs of Buckingham was in league with the Pretender and Atterbury's party. This will explain Pope's ufe of the word Patriot. XV. FOR ONE WHO WOULD NOT BE BURIED IN WESTMINSTER-ABBEY*. HEROES and KINGS! In peace let one poor Poet fleep, Who never flatter'd Folks like you: ANOTHER, ON THE SAME†. INDER this Marble, or under this Sill, UNDER ; Or under this Turf, or e'en what they will Whatever an Heir, or a Friend in his stead, Or any good creature fhall lay o'er my head, Lies one who ne'er car'd, and still cares not a pin What they faid, or may fay, of the mortal within: But, who living and dying, ferene still and free, Trufts in GoD, that as well as he was, he shall be. NOTES.. * Nothing ever illuftrated more the "importance of a man to himself," which Pope ridiculed fo much in his Memoirs of P. P. than this Epitaph. + Pope (as Dr. Johnson obferves, with truth) " here attempts to be jocular upon one of the few things that make wise men "ferious; he confounds the living with the dead." Poor as the thing itfelf is, he quotes the following lines, from which it appears to be borrowed: Ludovici Areofti humantur offa Sub hoc marmore, vel fub hoc humo, feu Sub Sub quicquid voluit benignus hæres Nam fcire haud potuit futura, fed nec I WILL add fome Mortuary Verses from old Ben Jonfon, becaufe, from their dignified fimplicity, they form a contrast to the laboured elegance of Pope's, and are in themfelves as manly, as they are pathetic. On Sir THOMAS ROE. "I'll not offend thee with a vain tear more! |