THiyman inv.et del.

CGrignar

Jong
"Sacred Weapon, left for Truthi Defence,
Sole Dread of Folly, Vice and Invoience!
To all but Heaven-directed Hande denied,
The Mine

may give ther, but the Gods must guide

༢ }

E P I L OG U E

TO THE

S A TIRE S.

Written in MDCCXXXVIII.

DIALOGUE I.

FR.

OT twice a twelve-month you appear

in Print, And when it comes, the Court see nothing in't.

V A Ř I A TIONS.
After Ver. 2. in the MS.

You don't, I hope, pretend to quit the trade,
Because you think your reputation made :
Like good Sir Paul, of whom fo much was said,
That when his name was up, he lay a-bed.
Come, come, refresh us with a livelier song,
Or, like Sir Paul, you'll lie a-bed too long.

NOT E s. VER. 1. Not twice a twelve-month, &c.] These two lines are from Horace; and the only lines that are so in the whole Poem; being meant to give a handle to that which follows in the character of an impertinent Censurer,

" 'Tis all from Horace," &c. P. Ver. 2. the Court see nothing in't.] He chose this expression for the sake of its elegant and fatiric ambiguity.--His writings abound in them.

You grow correct, that once with Rapture writ,
And are, besides, too moral for a Wit.
Decay of Parts, alas! we all must feel-

5 Why now, this moment, don't I see you steal ? 'Tis all from Horace; Horace long before ye Said, “ Tories call’d him Whig, and Whigs a

Tory;" And taught his Romans, in much better metre, “ To laugh at Fools who put their trust in Peter."

But Horace, Sir, was delicate, was nice; Bubo obferves, he lash'd no fort of Vice :

II

VARIATION S.
P. Sir, what I write, should be correctly writ.
F. Correct! 'tis what no genius can admit.

Besides, you grow too moral for a Wit *. * A very ingenious Volume of Remarks on Pope has been lately written to prove this important truth,

NOT E s.
Ver. 9, 10. And taught his 'Romans in much better metre,

“ To laugh at Fools who put their trust in Peter," The general turn of the thought is from Boileau,

“ Avant lui, Juvénal avoit dit en Latin,

" Qu'on est assis à l'aife aux sermons de Cotin." But the irony in the first line, and the satirical equivoque in the second, mark them for his own. His making the Objector say, that Horace excelled him in writing verse, is pleafant. And the ambiguity of putting their trust in Piter, insinuates that Horace and He had frequently laughed at that Specific folly arising from indolence ; which still disposes men to intrust both their spiritual and temporal concerns to the absolute disposal of any fanctified or unfanctified Cheat, bearing the name of PETER.

VER. 12. Bubo obferves,] Some guilty person, very fond of making such an observation.

P.

Horace would say, Sir Billy served the Crown,
Blunt could do Bus’ness, H-ggins knew the Town;
In Sappho touch the Failings of the Sex, 15
In rev'rend Bishops note some small Neglects,
And own, the Spaniard did a waggish thing,
Who cropt our Ears, and sent them to the King.
His ny, polite, infinuating style
Could please at Court, and make August Ussmile:
An artful Manager, that crept between
His Friend and Shame, and was a kind of Screen.
But 'faith
your very

Friends will soon be fore; Patriots there are, who wish you'd jest no more

21

VARIATION S.
After Ver. 26. in the MS.

There's honest Tacitus once talk'd as big,
But is he now an independant Whig?

NOTE s. Ver. 14. H-ggins) Formerly Jaylor of the Fleet prison, enriched himself by many exactions, for which he was tried and expelled.

P. Ver. 18. Who cropt our Ears] Said to be executed by the Captain of a Spanish Tip on one Jenkins, a Captain of an English one. He cut off his ears, and bid him carry them to the King his master.

P. VER. 22. Screen] « Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico

Tangit, et admissus circum præcordia ludit. Perf. P. Ibid. Screen] A metaphor peculiarly appropriated to a certain person in power.

P. VER. 24. Patriots there are, &c.] This appellation was generally given to those in opposition to the Court. Though some of them (which our Author hints at) had views too mean and interested to deserve that name.

P.

And where's the Glory? 'twill be only thought 25 The Great man never offer'd

you a groat. Go fee Sir ROBERT

P. See Sir ROBERT!-humAnd never laugh for all my life to come? Seen him I have, but in his happier hour Of Social Pleasure, ill-exchang'd for Pow'r; 30

NOTES. VER. 26. The Great Man] A phrase, by common use, appropriated to the first Minister. P.

VER.29. Seen him I have, &c.] This, and other strokes of commendation in the following poem, as well as his regard to Sir Robert Walpole on all occasions, were in acknowledge ment of a certain service he had done a friend of Mr. Pope's at his folicitation. Our Poet, when he was about seventeen, had a very ill fever in the country; which, it was feared, would end fatally. In this condition he wrote to Southcot, a Priest of his acquaintance, then in town, to take his last leave of him. Southcot with great affection and solicitude, applied to Dr. Radcliffe for his advice. And not content with that, he rode down post to Mr. Pope, who was then an hundred miles from London, with the Doctor's directions; which had the defired eficet. A long time after this, Southcot, who had an interest in the Court of France, writing to a common acquaintance in England, informed him that there was a good abbey void near Avignon, which he had credit enough o get, were it not from an apprehension that his promotion would give umbrage to the English Court; to which he (Southcot) by his intrigues in the Pretender's fervice, was become very obnoxious. The person to whom this was written happening to acquaint Mr. Pope with the case, he immediately wrote a pleasant letter to Sir R. Walpole in the Priett's belialf : He acquainted the Minister with the grounds of his solicitation, and begged that this embargo, for his, Mr. P.'s fake, might be taken off; for that he was indebted to Southcot for his life; which debt must needs be discharged