'I only wear it in a land of Hectors, Thieves, supercargoes, sharpers, and directors. "Save but our army! and let Jove encrust Swords, pikes, and guns, with everlasting rust! Whoe'er offends, at some unlucky time X Slides into verse, and hitches in a rhyme, Sacred to ridicule his whole life long, " Slander or poison dread from Delia's rage; 75 80 Its proper power to hurt, each creature feels; 85 a "So drink with Walters, or with Chartres eat, They'll never poison you, they'll only cheat. 90 NOTES. Ver. 78. Slides into verse,] Closely copied from Boileau : Peut entrer dans un vers sans rompre la mesure.-Warton. Ver. 81. Delia's rage;] A Miss Mackenzie died about this time, and was supposed to have been poisoned from jealousy. A hint of this kind was sufficient for Pope. The person alluded to was Lady D—ne.-. -Bowles. Ver. 81-84. Slander-libell'd by her hate.] There seems to be more spirit here than in the original; but it is hard to pronounce with certainty; for though one may be confident there is more force in the 83rd and 84th lines than in "Canidia Albutî, quibus est inimica, venenum ;" yet there might be something, for aught we know, in the character or history of Cervius, which might bring up that line to the spirit and poignancy of the 82nd verse of the Imitation.-Warburton. Ver. 83. From furious Sappho] There is no doubt, notwithstanding all his evasions, who is here meant by Sappho; but what Warburton calls 'spirited," is unmanly and disgraceful.-Bowles. Ver. 85-90. Its proper power to hurt, &c.] All, except the two last lines, inferior to the elegance and precision of the original.-Warburton. b Ne longum faciam: seu me tranquilla senectus d T. O puer, ut sis H.Quid? cùm est Lucilius ausus NOTES. Ver. 91. Then, learned Sir !] The brevity and force of the original is evaporated in this long and feeble paraphrase of the next ten lines. The third and three succeeding verses are very languid and verbose, and perhaps some of the worst he has written.-Warton. Ver. 93-96. Whether old age,-shade ;] The original is more finished, and even more sublime. Besides, the last verse-To wrap me in the universal shade, has a languor and redundancy unusual with our author.— Warburton. Ver. 98. Or whiten'd wall] From Boileau.-Bowles. Ver. 99. In durance, exile, Bedlam, or the Mint,] The Poet, in our equal government, might talk at his ease, and with all this levity of style, of the disasters incident to wit. But it was a serious matter with Horace ; and is so still with our witty neighbours; one of whom has well expressed their condition in the following lines: 66 Eh! Que sait-on ? Un simple badinage, Mal entendu d'un prude, ou d'un sot, Peut vous jetter sur un autre rivage : Pour perdre un sage, il ne faut qu'un bigot."-Warburton. Ver. 100. Like Lee or Budgell,] One is sorry to see Lee, a true genius, coupled with Budgell, and his insanity ridiculed.-Warton. Ver. 101. your days can ne'er be long ;] The original says, "Lest any one of your powerful friends should strike you with a cold and contemptuous look."" Racine meurt," says Voltaire, "par une foiblesse grande; parcequ'un autre homme en passant dans une galerie ne l'a pas regardé. J'en suis faché; mais le rôle de Phædre n'en est pas moins admirable.” Warton. Ver. 104. Will club their testers, &c.] The image is exceeding humorous; and, at the same time, betrays the injustice of their resentment, in the very circumstance of their indulging it, as it shows the Poet had said no more of their avarice than was true. His abundance of wit has made his readers backward in acknowledging his talent for humour. But the veins are equally rich; and the one flows with ease, and the other is always placed with propriety.-Warburton. Ver. 105. What? arm'd for virtue] From this line to ver. 140 is a passage of as much force and energy as any that can be produced in the English language, in rhyme.-Warton. Ver. 110. Lights of the church, or guardians of the laws?] Because just satire is an useful supplement to the sanctions of law and religion; and has, therefore, a claim to the protection of those who preside in the administration either of church or state.-Warburton. b Then, learned Sir! (to cut the matter short) Whether the darken'd room to muse invite, 95 Or whiten❜d wall provoke the skewer to write; In durance, exile, Bedlam, or the Mint, с Like Lee or Budgell, I will rhyme and print. 100 d F. Alas, young man! your days can ne'er be long; In flower of age you perish for a song! Plums and Directors, Shylock and his wife, Will club their testers, now, to take your life! e 106 P. What? arm'd for virtue when I point the pen, Brand the bold front of shameless guilty men, Dash the proud gamester in his gilded car, Bare the mean heart that lurks beneath a star; Can there be wanting to defend her cause, Lights of the church, or guardians of the laws? Could pension'd Boileau lash in honest strain Flatterers and bigots even in Louis' reign? Could laureate Dryden pimp and friar engage, Yet neither Charles nor James be in a rage? NOTES. 110 Ver. 111. Could Boileau-Could Dryden] I believe neither of them would have been suffered to do this, had they not been egregious flatterers of the several Courts to which they belonged.-Warburton. Ver. 111. Could pension'd Boileau-Could laureate Dryden] It was Horace's purpose to compliment the former times; and therefore he gives the virtuous examples of Scipio and Lælius: it was Mr. Pope's design to satirize the present; and therefore he gives the vicious examples of Louis, Charles, and James. Either way the instances are fully pertinent; but in the latter they have rather greater force. Only the line, "Uni æquus virtuti atque ejus amicis," loses something of its spirit in the Imitation; for the amici referred to, were Scipio and Lælius.-Warburton. Ver. 111. Could pension'd Boileau] Boileau acted with much caution and circumspection when he first published his Lutrin here alluded to, and endeavoured to cover and conceal his subject by a preface intended to mislead his reader from the real scene of action; but it ought to be observed, that he afterwards, in the year 1683, threw aside this disguise, f Detrahere et pellem, nitidus quâ quisque per ora h g Quin ubi se a vulgo et scená in secreta remôrant Quidquid sum ego, quamvis Infra Lucilî censum ingeniumque, tamen me NOTES. openly avowing the occasion that gave rise to the poem, the scene of which was not Bourges or Pourges, as before he had said, but Paris itself; the quarrel he celebrated being betwixt the treasurer and the chanter of the Holy Chapel in that city. The canons were so far from being offended, that they showed their good sense and good temper by joining in the laugh. Upon which Boileau compliments them, and adds, that many of that society were persons of so much wit and learning, that he would as soon consult them upon his works as the members of the French Academy. The name of the chanter was Barrin; that of the treasurer, Claude Avri, bishop of Constance in Normandy. The quarrel began in July, 1667. See Letters of Brossette to Boileau à Lyon, 1770, p. 242, v. I; et Œuvres de M. Boileau Despreaux, par M. de Saint Marc, tom. ii. 177, Paris, 1747. He justly says, "e'en in Louis' reign;" for his bigotry was equally contemptible and cruel; and, if we may credit St. Simon, he actually died a Jesuit.-Warton. : Ver. 116. Unplaced, unpension'd, no man's heir, or slave ?] Mr. Pope, it is well known, made his fortune by his Homers. Lord Treasurer Oxford affected to discourage that design; for so great a genius (he said) ought not to be confined to translation. He always used Mr. Pope civilly; and would often express his concern that his religion rendered him incapable of a place. At the same time, he never spoke one word of a pension. For this offer, he was solely indebted to the Whig Ministers. In the beginning of George I., Lord Halifax, of his own motion, sent for Mr. Pope, and told him, it had often given him concern that so great a Poet had never been distinguished; that he was glad it was now in his power to serve him; and, if he cared to accept of it, he should have a pension not clogged with any engagements. Mr. Pope thanked him, and desired time to consider of it. After three months (having heard nothing further from that Lord) he wrote him a letter to repeat his thanks; in which he took occasion to mention the affair of the pension with much indifference. So the thing dropped, till Mr. Craggs came into the ministry. The affair of the pension was then resumed. And this minister, in a very frank and friendly manner, told And I not 'strip the gilding off a knave, Hear this, and tremble! you, who 'scape the laws. Shall walk the world, in credit, to his grave. 115 120 S TO VIRTUE ONLY, and HER FRIENDS A FRIEND, 125 And HE, whose lightning pierced th' Iberian lines, Now forms my quincunx, and now ranks my vines; Or tames the genius of the stubborn plain, 130 NOTES. Mr. Pope that three hundred pounds a-year were then at his service he had the management of the secret service money, and could pay him such a pension without its being known, or ever coming to account. But now Mr. Pope declined the offer without hesitation: only, in return for so friendly a proposal, he told the Secretary that if at any time he wanted money, he would draw upon him for 100l. or 2007. Which liberty, however, he did not take. Mr. Craggs more than once pressed him on this head, and urged to him the conveniency of a chariot; which Mr. Pope was sensible enough of: but the precariousness of that supply made him very prudently decline the thoughts of an equipage; which it was much better never to set up, than not properly to support. From Spence. -Warburton. Ver. 125. There, my retreat] I know not whether these lines, spirited and splendid as they are, give us more pleasure than the natural picture of the great Scipio and Lælius, unbending themselves from their high occupations, and descending to common and even trifling sports for the old commentator says, that they lived in such intimacy with Lucilius, “ut quodam tempore Lælio circum lectos triclinii fugienti Lucilius superveniens, eum obtortâ mappâ quasi percussurus sequeretur." For this is the fact to which Horace seems to allude, rather than to what Tully mentions in the second book De Oratore, of their amusing themselves in picking up shells and pebbles on the sea-shore.-Warton. Ver. 129. And HE, whose lightning, &c.] Charles Mordaunt, Earl of |
