So-Satire is no more-I feel it die- 85 And let, a God's-name, ev'ry Fool and Knave 95 VER. 92. Immortal S―k, and grave De-re!] A title given that Lord by King James II. He was of the Bedchamber to King William; he was fo to King George I. he was so to King George II. This Lord was very fkilful in all the forms of the Houfe, in which he discharged himself with great gravity. VER. 97. There, where no Paffion, etc.] The excellent writer De l'Esprit des Loix gives the following character of the Spirit of Courts, and the Principle of Monarchies: “ Qu'on "life ce que les Hiftoriens de tous les tems ont dit fur la Cour "des Monarques; qu'on fe rapelle les conversations des hommes "de tous les Païs fur le miferable caractère des COURTISANS; 66 ce ne font point des chofes de fpeculation, mais d'une trifte "expérience. L'ambition dans l'oifiveté, la baffeffe dans "l'orgueil, le defir de s'enrichir fans travail, l'averfion pour la "verité; la flaterie, la trahison, la perfidie, l'abandon de tous ❝fes engagemens, le mepris des devoirs du Citoyen, la crainte There, where no Father's, Brother's, Friend's disgrace Once break their reft, or ftir them from their Place: But paft the Sense of human Miseries, All Tears are wip'd for ever from all eyes; No cheek is known to blush, no heart to throb, ΤΟΙ P. Good Heav'n forbid, that I should blaft their glory, 105 Who know how like Whig Minifters to Tory, 66 VARIATIONS. Ver. 112. in fome editions, Who ftarves a Mother, 110 de la vertu du Prince, l'efperance de fes foibleffes, et plus, que tout cela, LE RIDICULE PERPETUEL JETTE SUR LA VERTU, font, je crois, le Caractére de la plupart des *Courtifans marqué dans tous les lieux et dans tous les tems. "Or il est très mal-aisé que les Principaux d'un Etat foient "malhonnêtes-gens, & que les inferieurs foient gens-de-bien, que ceux-la foyent trompeurs, & que ceux-ci confentent à n'être que dupes. Que fi dans le Peuple il fe trouve quelque malheureux honnête-homme, le Cardinal de Richelieu dans fon "Teftament politique infinue, qu'un Monarque doit fe garder de "s'en fervir. Tant-il eft vrai que la Vertu n'eft pas le reffort de ce Gouvernment." VER. 108. gracious Prince] The ftyle of Addresses on an asceffion, Virtue, I grant you, is an empty boaft; 7 But fhall the Dignity of Vice be lost? Ye Gods! fhall Cibber's Son, without rebuke, 115 Swear like a Lord, or Rich out-whore a Duke? A Fav'rite's Porter with his Mafter vie, Be brib'd as often, and as often lie? Shall Ward draw Contracts with a Statesman's skill ? 120 To pay their Debts, or keep their Faith, like Kings? If Blount dispatch'd himself, he play'd the man, And fo may'ft thou, illuftrious Pafferan! But fhall a Printer, weary of his life, 125 Learn, from their Books, to hang himself and Wife? VER. 113. Virtue, I grant you, is an empty boaft ;] A fatirical ambiguity- either that those starve who have it, or that those who boast of it, have it not: and both together (he infinuates) make up the present state of modern virtue. VER. 115. Cibber's Son,-Rich] Two Players: look for them in the Dunciad. VER. 123. If Blount.] Author of an impious and foolish book called the Oracles of Reafon, who being in love with a near kinfwoman of his, and rejected, gave himself a stab in the arm, as pretending to kill himself, of the confequence of which he #really died. VER. 124. Pafferan!] Author of another book of the fame ftamp, called A philofophical difcourfe on death, being a defence of fuicide. He was a nobleman of Piedmont, banished from his country for his impieties, and lived in the utmost misery, yet feared to practise his own precepts.-This unhappy man at laft died a penitent. VER. 125. But fhall a Printer, etc.] A Fact that happened in London a few years paft. The unhappy man left behind him This, this, my friend, I cannot, muft not bear; And hurls the Thunder of the Laws on Gin. 130 Let modeft FOSTER, if he will, excell 135 a paper justifying his action by the reasonings of fome of thefe authors. VER. 129. This calls the Church to deprecate our Sin,] Alluding to the forms of prayer, compofed in the times of public calamity; where the fault is generally laid upon the People. VER. 130. Gin.] A fpirituous liquor, the exorbitant use of which had almost destroyed the lowest rank of the People till it was reftrained by an act of Parliament in 1736. VER. 134. Landaffe.] A poor Bishoprick in Wales, as poorly fupplied. VER. 135. Let bumble ALLEN with an aukward Shame,-Do good by fealth, and bluff to find it Fame.] We are fo abfolutely governed by cuftom, that to act contrary to it, creates even in virtuous men, who are ever modeft, a kind of diffidence, which is the parent of Shame. But when, to this, there is joined a confcioufnefs that, in forfaking cuftom, you follow truth and reafon, the indignation arifing from fuch a confcious virtue, mixing with Shame, produces that amiable aukwardness, in going out of the fashion, which the Poet, here, celebrates; and blush to find it Fame, i. e. He blushed at the degeneracy of his times, which, at best, gave his goodness its due commendation (the thing he never aimed at) instead of following and imitating his example, which Virtue may choose the high or low Degree, "Tis juft alike to Virtue, and to me; Dwell in a Monk, or light upon a King, 140 She's ftill the fame, belov'd, contented thing, 150 Our Youth, all liv'ry'd o'er with foreign Gold, 155 Before her dance: behind her, crawl the Old! was the reason why some acts of it were not done by stealth, but more openly. VER. 138. 'Tis juft alike to Virtue, and to me;] He gives the reafon for it, in the line that prefently follows, She's ftill the fame, belov'd, contented thing. So that the sense of the text is this, "It is all one to Virtue on "whom her influence falls, whether on high or low, because "it ftill produces the fame effect, their content; and it is all one "to me, because it still produces the fame effect, my love," |