P. EPISTLE TO DR ARBUTHNOT1, BEING THE PROLOGUE TO THE SATIRES. the good fatigu'd, said, Tie up the knocker, say I'm sick, I'm dead. The Dog-star rages! nay 'tis past a doubt, All Bedlam, or Parnassus, is let out: Fire in each eye, and papers in each hand, 5 What walls can guard me, or what shades can hide? They pierce my thickets, thro' my Grot they glide; By land, by water, they renew the charge; They stop the chariot, and they board the barge. 10 No place is sacred, not the Church is free; Ev'n Sunday shines no Sabbath-day to me; Then from the Mint walks forth the Man of rhyme, Is there a Parson, much bemus'd in beer 5, A maudlin Poetess, a rhyming Peer, A Clerk, foredoom'd his father's soul to cross, Is there, who, lock'd from ink and paper, scrawls [John Arbuthnot (born in 1675, died in 1735) besides being a most distinguished member of his profession, the medical, was eminent as a mathematician and a classical scholar. As a politician he was firmly attached to the Tory party, and with Swift became a member of the October Club, established in 1710 by Oxford, Bolingbroke and their political and literary friends. He was also a member of the Scriblerus Club, and to him is attributed the chief share in the famous treatise of M.S. on the Art of Sinking in Poetry, which was published in the Miscellanies of Pope and Swift. The History of John Bull, the Art of Political Lying and other jeux d'esprit of the same kind, were Arbuthnot's own. On the accession of George I. Arbuthnot was deprived of his post as Physician extraordinary at Court. Of Pope's sentiments towards Arbuthnot this Epistle offers the best testimony; Swift said of him that he has more wit than we all have; and more humanity than wit.'] 2 Shut, shut the door, good John!] John Searl, his old and faithful servant: whom he has remembered, under that character, in his Will, Warburton. 3 [See Pers. Sat. III. v. 5. Several touches in the Epistle appear to be derived from the same Satire.] 15 20 4 Mint.] A place to which insolvent debtors retired, to enjoy an illegal protection, which they were there suffered to afford one another, from the persecution of their creditors. Warburton. 5 Some lines in this Epistle had been used in a letter to Thomson [the author of the Seasons] when he was in Italy, and transferred from him to Arbuthnot, which naturally displeased the former, though they lived always on terms of civility and friendship: and Pope earnestly exerted himself, and used all his interest to promote the success of Thomson's Agamemnon. Warton. [The readers of the Seasons will remember the poet's tribute to the virtues of the 'brown October' in Autumn.] 6 The idea is from Boileau's Art of Poetry'charbonner les murailles.' Bowles. 7 After v. 20 in the MS., 'Is there a Bard in durance? turn them free, With all their brandish'd reams they run to me: Is there a Prentice, having seen two plays, Who would do something in his Sempstress' praise.' Warburton. 8 [As to Pope's Villa at Twickenham, or "Twitenham' as he preferred to write the name, see Introductory Memoir, p. xxxiv.] Arthur, whose giddy son neglects the Laws, Friend to my Life! (which did not you prolong, 25 30 If foes, they write, if friends, they read me dead. 35 With honest anguish, and an aching head; And drop at last, but in unwilling ears, This saving counsel, "Keep your piece nine years." 40 Rhymes ere he wakes, and prints before Term ends, 1 Arthur,] Arthur Moore, a leading politician of Queen Anne's time, who had raised himself by ability and unscrupulousness to place and power. His son James Moore (afterwards James MooreSmythe), a small placeman and poetaster, and an acquaintance of the Blount family, became a noted object of Pope's scorn. See above all the famous description of the 'Phantom' in the Dunciad, bk. II. vv. 35-50, and cf. Lines to Martha Blount, in Miscellaneous Poems.] 2 [Compare the charming dedication of Thackeray's Pendennis.] Seiz'd and tied down to judge,] Alluding to the scene in [Wycherley's] Plain-Dealer, where Oldfox gags, and ties down the Widow to hear his well-penn'd stanzas. Warburton. Rather from Horace; vide his Druso. Warton. [Hor. Sat. Bk. I. S. III. v. 86.] 4 [Hor. de Arte Poet. v. 388.] 5 Rhymes ere he wakes,] A pleasant allusion to those words of Milton, Dictates to me slumb'ring, or inspires Easy my unpremeditated Verse. 45 50 55 Warburton. 6 [A service commonly rendered by popular authors of that age to their less successful brethren. Pope wrote a Prologue to a play acted for the benefit of his ancient enemy Dennis in 1733See Miscellaneous Poems.] 7 Pitholeon] The name taken from a foolish Poet of Rhodes, who pretended much to Greek. Schol. in Horat. 1. i. Dr Bentley pretends, that this Pitholeon libelled Cæsar also. See notes on Hor. Sat. 1o. lib. i. P. 8 [Edmund Curll the bookseller.-See Introductory Memoir, p. xxxii.] 9 Meaning the London Journal; a paper in favour of Sir R. Walpole's ministry. Warton. 10 Alludes to a tragedy called the Virgin Queen, by Mr R. Barford, published 1729, who displeased Pope by daring to adopt the fine machinery of his Sylphs in an heroi-comical poem called the Assembly. (1725.) Warton. If I dislike it, "Furies, death and rage!" There (thank my stars) my whole Commission ends, The Play'rs and I are, luckily, no friends1, 60 Fir'd that the house reject him, "Sdeath I'll print it, "And shame the fools- Your Int'rest, Sir, with Lintot?!" 'Lintot, dull rogue! will think your price too much:' All my demurs but double his Attacks; 65 At last he whispers, "Do; and we go snacks "." Glad of a quarrel, straight I clap the door, Sir, let me see your works and you no more. 'Tis sung, when Midas' Ears began to spring, (Midas, a sacred person and a king) His very Minister who spy'd them first, 75 (Some say his Queen") was forc'd to speak, or burst. A. Good friend, forbear! you deal in dang'rous things. 75 I'd never name Queens, Ministers, or Kings; 80 The truth once told (and wherefore should we lie?) No creature smarts so little as a fool. He spins the slight, self-pleasing thread anew : Let peals of laughter, Codrus! round thee break, 85 90 Destroy his fib or sophistry, in vain, The creature's at his dirty work again, 1 Ver. 60 in the former Ed. 95 Barber, but by Chaucer of his Queen. See Wife of Bath's Tale in Dryden's Fables. P. Warburton. 6 [Some 'false' editions of the Dunciad having [Pope's own dramatic effort Three Hours after an owl in their frontispiece, like the original ediMarriage had been deservedly damned in 1717; whence the origin of his quarrel with Colley Cibber.] [Bernard Lintot, who began to publish for Pope in 1712.] 3 [i.e. go shares. Snag or snack is properly a hastily snatched bit of food.] tion, the next true edition, to distinguish it, fixed His Butchers Henley, his free-masons Moore ?? Still to one Bishop Philips seem a wit3? Still Sappho A. Hold! for God's sake-you'll offend, But foes like these P. One Flatt'rer's worse than all. and not the bite. A fool quite angry is quite innocent: There are, who to my person pay their court: Why did I write? what sin to me unknown No duty broke, no father disobey'd9. The Muse but serv'd to ease some friend, not Wife, 1 [Henley, see Dunciad, III. 199 and foll.] His oratory was among the butchers in Newport Market and Butcher Row. Bowles.] 2 free-masons Moore?] He was of this society, and frequently headed their processions. Warburton. 3 Boulter, afterwards Primate of all Ireland, was Ambrose Philips' great friend and patron. Bowles. [Ambrose, or namby-pamby, Philips, whose Pastorals were published in the same Miscellany as those of Pope, and with whom the latter quarrelled. He became M. P. for Armagh through the influence of his patron.] 4 [Some of Pope's letters to Cromwell had been surreptitiously printed by Curll in 1726.] 5 Sir! you have an Eye] It is remarkable that amongst these compliments on his infirmities and deformities, he mentions his eye, which was fine, sharp, and piercing. Warburton. 6 After v. 124 in the MS. 100 105 110 115 120 125 130 7 [See Introductory Memoir, p. xlvi.] 9 No father disobey'd.] When Mr Pope was To second, ARBUTHNOT! thy Art and Care, Soft were my numbers; who could take offence, I never answer'd,-I was not in debt. If want provok'd, or madness made them print, 1.[See note to p. 15.] 2 [See note to p. 13.] 3 [See note to p. 17.] 4 [William Congreve (born 1669, died 1728,) the author of the Mourning Bride and many famous comedies, was one of those who encouraged Pope's earliest efforts.] 5 Talbot, &c.] All these were Patrons or Admirers of Mr Dryden; tho' a scandalous libel against him entitled, Dryden's Satyr to his Muse, has been printed in the name of the Lord Somers, of which he has wholly ignorant. These are the persons to whose account the author charges the publication of his first pieces: persons with whom he was conversant (and he adds beloved) at 16 or 17 years of age; an early period for such acquaintance. The catalogue might be made yet more illustrious, had he not confined it to that time when he writ the Pastorals and Windsor Forest, on which he passes a sort of censure in the lines following, While pure description held the place of . [Talbot. See Pope's note to Epilogue to Satires, Dial. II. v. 79. 6 [Somers. See Pope's note ib. v. 77.] 7 [Sheffield. See note to Essay on Criticism, v. 724.] 8 [Atterbury bishop of Rochester. to Epitaph XIII.] See note 9 [See note to p. 191.] 135 140 / 145 150 155 160 10 Burnets, &c.] Authors of secret and scandalous History. P. Burnets, Oldmixons, and Cookes.] By no means Authors of the same class, though the violence of party might hurry them into the same mistakes. But if the first offended this way, it was only through an honest warmth of temper, that allowed too little to an excellent understanding. The other two, with very bad heads, had hearts still worse. P. [Gilbert Burnet bishop of Salisbury, the author of the History of My own Times from the Restoration to the Peace of Utrecht (which Swift annotated in the spirit of Pope's reference), died in 1715; Oldmixon, see Dunciad, II. vv. 282, foll.; and Cooke, see ib. II. 138 and notes.] 11 Meaning the Rape of the Lock, and Windsor Forest. Warburton. A painted meadow &c. is a verse of Mr Addison. P. 12 [Charles Gildon, a converted Roman Catholic, of whom Warburton says in a note to Dunciad, 1. 296, that 'he signalised himself as a critic, having written some very bad plays; abused Pope very scandalously in an anonymous pamphlet of the Life of Mr Wycherly, and in other pamphlets.' See also Dunciad, III. 173.] 13 [See Essay on Criticism, vv. 270, 586; and Dunciad, passim.] 14 [Cf. ante, v. 13.] |