Page images
PDF
EPUB

SATIRES AND EPISTLES

OF

HORACE IMITATED;

AND

SATIRES OF DR DONNE VERSIFIED.

TH

ADVERTISEMENT.

1

HE occafion of publishing these Imitations was the clamour raised on fome of my EpiAles. An anfwer from HORACE was both more full, and of more dignity, than any I could have made in my own perfon; and the example of much greater freedom in fo eminent a divine as Dr DONNE, feemed a proof with what indignation and contempt a Chriftian may treat vice or folly, in ever fo low, or ever fo high a station. Both thefe authors were acceptable to the princes and minifters under whom they lived. The fatires of Dr Donne I versified, at the defire of the Earl of Oxford, while he was Lord Treasurer, and of the Duke of Shrewsbury, who had been Secretary of State; neither of whom looked upon a fatire on vitious courts as any reflection on those they served in. And indeed there is not in the world a greater error, VOL. II. E than

than that which fools are fo apt to fall into, and knaves with good reafon to encourage, the miftaking a fatirift for a libeller; whereas to a true fatirift nothing is fo tious as a libeller, for the fame reafon as to a man truly virtuous nothing is fo hateful as a hypocrite.

Uni æquus

Virtuti atque ejus Amicis.

ADVERTISEMENT

TO THE

First Publication of the following EPISTLE.

T

HIS paper is a fort of bill of complaint, begun many years fince, and drawn up by fnatches, as the feveral occafions offered. I had no thoughts of publishing it, till it pleafed fome perfons of rank and fortune, [the authors of Verfes to the imitator of Horace, and of an Epifle to a Door of Divinity from a Nobleman at Hampton-Court], to attack, in a very extraordinary manner, not only my writings, (of which, being public, the public is judge), but my perfon, morals, and family; whereof, to thofe who know me not, a truer information may be requifite. Being divided between the neceffity to fay fomething of myself, and my own laziness to undertake fo aukward a tafk, I thought it the fhortest way to put the last hand

to

[87]

to this epistle. If it has any thing pleafing, it will be that by which I am most defirous to please, the truth and the fentiment; and if any thing offenfive, it will be only to thofe I am leaft forry to offend, the vicious or the ungenerous.

Many will know their own pictures in it, there being not a circumftance but what is true; but I have, for the most part, fpared their names, and they may escape being laughed at, if they please.

I would have fome of them know, it was owing to the request of the learned and candid friend to whom it is infcribed, that I make not as free use of theirs as they have done of mine. However, I fhall have this advantage and honour on my fide, that whereas, by their proceeding, any abuse may be directed at any man, no injury can poffibly be done by mine, fince a nameless character can never be found out, but by its truth and likeness.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

EPISTLE TO DR ARBUTHNOT:

BEING THE

[ocr errors]

PROLOGUE TO THE SATIRES.

SHU

HUT, fhut the door, good John! fatigu'd
I faid,

Tie up the knocker, fay I'm fick, I'm dead.
The dog-ftar rages! nay 'tis paft a doubt,
All Bedlam, or Parnaffus, is let out:
Fire in each eye, and papers in each hand,
They rave, recite, and madden round the land.
What walls can guard me, or what shades can
hide?

5

They pierce my thickets, through my grot they glide,

NOTES.

ARBUTHNOT.] At the time of publishing this epistle, Mr, Pope's patience was quite worn out by the impertinence of fcribblers of all ranks and conditions, as well thofe who courted his favour, as thofe who envied his reputation, fo that he had refolved to quit his hands of both together, by publishing a Dunciad. This defign he communicated to his friend Dr Arbuthnot; who, though, as a man of wit and learning, he might not have been displeased to fee their common injuries revenged on this pernicious tribe; yet, as Mr Pope's friend and phyfician, was folicitous of his ease and health, and therefore unwilling he should provoke so largely and powerful a party. Their difference of opinion occafioned this dialogue; in which the author has interwoven an apology for his moral and poetic character.

Ver. 1. Shut, but the door, good John!] John Searl, his old and faithful fervant; whom he has remembered, under that character, in his will, vol. iv.

[ocr errors]

By

« EelmineJätka »