XV. Carlton and Chandois thy arrival grace; Hanmer, whofe eloquence th' unbiass'd sways; 115 Harley, whofe goodness opens in his face, And fhews his heart the feat where virtue stays. Ned Blount advances next, with bufy pace, In hafte, but fauntring, hearty in his ways: I fee the friendly Carylls come by dozens, 120 Their wives, their uncles, daughters, fons, and coufins. XVI. Arbuthnot there I fee, in phyfic's art, As Galen learn'd, or fam'd Hippocrate; Who could (were mankind loft) anew create: 125 XVII. Thee NOTES. VER. 115. Hanmer,] Speaker of the Houfe of Commons. VER. 120. Carylls] Of Weft Grimstead, Suffex. VER. 126. Kneller amid, &c.] This is no more than a compliment to the vanity of Sir Godfrey, which Pope and other wits were always putting to the ftrongest trials. "Sir Godfrey," fays Pope, "I believe if God Almighty had had your affistance, the world would have been formed more perfect." "Fore God," fays Kneller, "I believe fo." He was frequently (as Mr. Walpole ob. ferves) very free and fingular in his converfation on religion. This adulation of Pope, Addison, Prior, &c. appears to have heightened his natural abfurdities, as he had not discernment enough to dif YOL. II. DD cover XVII. Thee Jervas hails, robuft and debonair, 130 Now have [we] conquer'd Homer, friends, he cries: Dartneuf, grave joker, joyous Ford is there, And wond'ring Maine, fo fat with laughing eyes, (Gay, Maine, and Cheney, boon companions dear, Gay fat, Maine fatter, Cheney huge of fize,) 135 Yea Dennis, Gildon, (hearing thou hast riches,) And honeft, hatlefs Cromwell, with red breeches. XVIII. O Wanley, whence com'ft thou with fhorten'd hair, And visage from thy fhelves with dust besprent? "Forfooth NOTES. cover that they were only foothing him to paint for them gratis, or diverting themselves at the expence of his credulity. Sir Godfrey had drawn for Pope the ftatues of Apollo, Venus, and Hercules. Pope paid for them with the following stanza: "What god, what genius did the pencil move, 'Twas friendship warm as Phoebus, kind as love, On thefe lines, which their author wifely fuppreffed, Mr. Wal, pole has offered a very just criticism. See his Anecdotes, &c. vol. iii. p. 112. (Additions to Pope's Works, printed in 1776.) This abfurd anecdote of Sir Godfrey is explained elsewhere. See his Epitaph. VER. 132. joyous Ford is there,] Charles Ford, Efq. was by Swift's intereft appointed Gazetteer. See the Dean's Letter to Mrs. Dingley, dated July 1, 1712. WARTOK. VER. 139. with duft befprent?] So in the Dunciad, b. iii. v. 185. "But who is he in closet clofe y pent Of fober face, with learned duft befprent?" Humphrey Wanley was librarian to Lord Oxford. Ibid. "Forfooth (quoth he) from placing Homer there, "But hither me hath my meeke lady fent : 141 "In manuscript of Greeke rede we thilke fame, "But book yprint beft plefyth my gude dame." 145 XIX. Yonder I fee, among th' expecting croud, And Titcomb's belly waddles flow along. Yea Steele and Tickell mingle in the throng; XX. Lo the two Doncastles in Berkshire known! Lo Bickford, Fortescue, of Devon land! 150 155 Lo NOTES. VER. 149. flow along.] The names of the majority of perfons here enumerated, are in want of no illuftration; and concerning a few of them, it would be difficult to fupply any. Titcomb, however, is mentioned in a letter from Pope to Congreve. "There is a grand revolution at Will's, Morrice has quitted for a coffee-houfe in the city, and Titcomb is reftored to the great joy of Cromwell, who was at a lofs for a person to converfe with on the fathers, and church history." Ibid. VER. 152. partnership they fay] Alluding to the rival transla tion of Homer. Lo Tooker, Eckershall, Sykes, Rawlinson! But who can count the leaves, the stars, the fand? Lo Stonor, Fenton, Caldwell, Ward, and Broome! Lo thousands more, but I want rhyme and room! XXI. How lov'd! how honour'd thou! yet be not vain! And what rewards his grateful country pay? 165 THERE is fomething truly interefting in this sketch of Gay's; it fets before us, in a moft familiar manner, the friends and companions of the day; and it is, moreover, beautifully touched and finished. * Almost all the perfons introduced have some striking or humourous characteristic; we feem to fee them before us. The old beau, "Cromwell with red breeches ;" Ned Blount, "with bufy pace, in bafle, but fauntering ;" Evans, with "laugh jocofe," and tragic Young; and laftly, my "Maiftre Wanley," the honeft but fo lemn librarian of Lord Oxford. The following characteristic letter from Pope to him, is one of those in the British Museum, on the back of which he wrote his tranflation: "To * Evans was the Epigrammatift of St. John's College, Oxford. "To my worthy and fpecial Friend, Maistre Wanley, dwelling "at my fingular goode Lord's, my Lord of Oxford, kindly "prefent. Worthy Sir, "I fhall take it as a fingular mark of your friendly disposition " and kindneffe to me, if you will recommend to my palate, "from the experienced tafte of yours, a doufaine quartes of "goode and wholesome wine, fuch as yee drink at the Genoa "Arms, for the which I will in honorable fort be indebted, "and well and truly pay the owner thereof, your faid merchant "of wines at the faid Genoa Arms. As witness this myne hand, "which alfo witneffeth its mafter to be, in footh and fincerity of heart, "Goode Sir, "Your's ever bounden, A. POPE. "From Twickenham, this fyrste ❝ of Julie, 1725.” |