EXTEMPORANEOUS LINES, On the Picture of Lady MARY W. MONTAGU by KNELLER. THE [From Dallaway's Life of Lady Mary.] HE playful fmiles around the dimpled mouth, So would I draw (but oh! 'tis vain to try, 5 And the whole princess in my work should shine. 10 NOTES. VER. 1. The playful fmiles, c ] Her face and appearance were fo altered by age, that she says for many years she never looked in a glafs. She received her travelling countrymen, who paid their respects to her in Italy, veiled, or in a mask. She lived to fee the Nobleman who married her daughter, highest in the confidence of his present Majesty; and whatever might have been her faults, her tender and affectionate correspondence with her daughter, no one can read without a tear of refpect and fympathy. THE LOOKING-GLASS. WITH ON MRS. PULTENEY. 7ITH fcornful mien, and various tofs of air, Grandeur intoxicates her giddy brain, NOTES. 5 10 VER. 6. But charming G-y's loft, &c.] Anna Maria Gumley, daughter of John Gumley of Ifleworth, was married to Pulteney, who received with her a very large fortune. VER. 9. O could the fire, renown'd in glass,] Her father gained his fortune from a glass manufactory; upon which circumstance, though hitherto unexplained, the force and elegance of this fevere but pleafing compofition turns. Thefe lines were fuppreffed, as Pope afterwards received great civilities from Pulteney. A FAREWELL TO LONDON. IN THE YEAR 1715. EAR, damn'd, distracting town, farewell! DEAR, Thy fools no more I'll teize : This year in peace, ye critics, dwell, To drink and droll be Rowe allow'd Farewell Arbuthnot's raillery On every learned fot; And Garth, the best good Christian he, Lintot, farewell! thy bard must go; Heaven gives thee for thy loss of Rowe, NOTES. Why • Elsewhere called "Macer." + Probably the friend of Wilkes; he wrote fixteen dramatic pieces of indifferent merit. See Cibber's Life. Why should I stay? Both parties* rage; The wits in envious feuds engage: And Homer (damn him!) calls. The love of arts lies cold and dead And not one Mufe of all he fed, Has yet the grace to mourn. My friends, by turns, my friends confound, Poor Yrs fold for fifty pounds, Why make I friendships with the great, Still idle, with a busy air, Deep whimfies to contrive; The gayeft valetudinaire, Most thinking rake alive. Solicitous NOTES. * Whigs, and Tories; or rather the Jacobites: for this was written the year of the rebellion. + I think he means Terefa Blount, his first flame, who never would fubmit to his jealoufies and humours. 3 Solicitous for other ends, Tho' fond of dear repofe; Careless or drowsy* with my friends, Luxurious lobster-nights, farewell †, And Burlington's delicious meal, For fallads, tarts, and pease! Adieu NOTES. * He is faid once to have fallen afleep at his own table, when the Prince of Wales was in company. It is curious that Nicholas Breton, an obfcure writer of verfes 1577, makes nearly the fame complaint in his Poem called "Farewell to Town." See Ellis' Specimens, vol. ii. page 270. And now farewell each dainty difb, With fundry forts of fugar'd wine! To please this dainty mouth of mine! I now, alas! must leave all these, And make good cheer with bread and cheese ! Warton had here introduced, as Pope's, an abufive address to Bolingbroke; I have omitted it, because I cannot think Pope would write thefe lines of himself: "In fpight of fears, of mercy spight, Hafte to thy Twick'nham's fafe retreat, VOL. II. |