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(x) Peace is my dear delight---not FLEURY's more: But touch me, and no minister so fore.

Whoe'er offends, at some unlucky time
(y) Slides into verse, and hitches in a rhyme,
Sacred to ridicule his whole life long,

76

And the fad burthen of some merry fong.

80

(x) Slander or poifon dread from Delia's rage, Hard words or hanging, if your judge be Page:

Jupiter, ut pereat pofitum rubigine telum,
Nec quifquam noceat (x) cupido mihi pacis! at ille,
Qui me commorit, (melfus non tangere, clamo),
(y) Flebit, et infignis tota cantabitur urbe.

(x) Cervius iratus reges minitatur et urnam; Canidia Albuti, quibus eft inimica, venenum; Grande malum Turius, fi quid fe judice certes:

NOTES.

velle (fays the admirable author de L'efprit des loix) s'eft repandue en Europe; elle a faifi nos princes, et leur fait entretenir un nombre defordonne de troupes. Elle a fes redoublemens, et elle devient necessairement contagieufe. Car fi-tot qu'un etat augmente ce qu'il appelle fes troupes, les autres foudain augmentent les leurs, de facon qu'on ne gagne rien par-la que la ruine commune. Chaque Monarque tient fur pied toutes les armees qu'il pourroit avoir fi fes peuples etoient en danger d'etre extermines; et on nomme paix cet etat d'effort de tous contre tous. Auffi l'Europe eft elle fi ruinee, que les particuliers, qui feroient dans la fituation ou font les trois puiffances de cette partie du monde les plus opulentes, n'auroient pas de quoi vivre. Nous fommes pauvres avec les richeffes et le commerce de tout l'univers ; et bientot, a force d'avoir des foldats, nous n'aurons plus que des foldats, et nous ferons comme des Tartares."

From

From furious Sappho fcarce a milder fate; P---x'd by her love, or libell'd by her hate. (a) Its proper pow'r to hurt, each creature feels; 85 Bulls aim their horns, and Affes lift their heels; 'Tis a bear's talent not to kick, but hug; And no man wonders he's not stung by Pug. (b) So drink with Watters, or with Chartres* eat; They'll never poifon you, they'll only cheat. 90 (c) Then, learned Sir! (to cut the matter short), Whate'er my fate, or well or ill at court; Whether Old Age, with faint but cheerful Attends to gild th' ev'ning of my day,

ray,

Or Death's black wing already be display'd, 95
To wrap me in the univerfal fhade;

Whether the darken'd room to muse invite,
Or whiten'd wail provoke the skew'r to write:
In durance, exile, Bedlam, or the Mint,

(d) Like Lee or Budgell, I will rhyme and print.

(a) Ut, quo quifque valet, fufpectos terreat, utque Imperet hoc Natura potens, fic collige mecum. Dente lupus, cornu taurus petit; unde, nifi intus Monftratum? (b) Scæva vivacem crede nepoti Matrem; nil faciet fceleris pia dextera: (mirum ? Ut neque calce lupus quemquam, neque dente petit bos):

Sed mala tollet anum vitiato melle cicuta.

(c) Ne longum faciam : feu me tranquilla fenectus Exfpectat, feu mors atris circumvolat alis;

Dives, inops; Romæ, feu fors ita jufferit, exful; (d) Quifquis erit vitæ, fcribam, color.

*See note on Moral Effays, epift. 3. v. 20.

(e) F.

(e) F. Alas, young man! your days can ne'er be In flow'r of age you perish for a fong! [long, Plums and Directors, Shylock and his Wife, With club their testers, now, to take your life! [pen,

P. (f) What? arm'd for virtue when I point the Brand the bold front of fhameless guilty men; 106 Dash the proud gamefter in his gilded car; Bare the mean heart that lurks beneath a far; Can there be wanting, to defend Her cause, Lights of the church, or guardians of the laws? 110 Could penfion'd Boileau lash in honest strain Flatt'rers and bigots ev'n in Louis' reign? Could Laureat Dryden pimp and fry'r engage, Yet neither Charles nor James be in a rage? And I not (g) ftrip the gilding off a knave, 115 Unplac'd, unpenfion'd, no man's heir, or flave?

I will

T. (e) O puer, ut fis Vitalis metuo; et majorum ne quis amicus Frigore te feriat.

H. (f) Quid? cum eft Lucilius aufus

Primus in hunc operis componere carmina morem, (g) Detrahere et pellem, nitidus qua quifque per ora Cederet, introrfum turpis; num Lælius, et qui

NOTES.

Ver. 116. Unplac'd, unpenfion'd, no man's heir, or flave?] Mr Pope, it is well known, made his fortune by his Homers. Lord Treasurer Oxford affected to difcourage that defign; for fo great a genius (he faid) ought not to be confined to tranflation. He always ufed Mr Pope civilly; and would often exprefs his concern that his religion rendered him incapable of a place. At the fame time he never spoke one word of a penfion. For this offer he was folely indebted to the Whig minifters. In the beginning of George I. Lord

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I will, or perifh in the gen'rous caufe:

Hear this, and tremble! you, who 'scape the laws.
Yes, while I live, no rich or noble knave

Shall walk the world, in credit,

to his

grave. 120

Duxit ab oppreffa meritum Carthagine nomen,
Ingenio offenfi? aut læfo doluere Metello,
Famofifque Lupo cooperto verfibus? atqui
Primores populi arripuit populumque tributim;

NOTES.

Halifax, of his own motion, fent for Mr Pope, and told him, it had often given him concern, that fo great a poet had never been diftinguished; that he was glad it was now in his power to ferve him; and, if he chufed to accept it, he Thould have a penfion not clogged with any engagements. Mr Pope thanked him, and defired time to confider 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 occafion to mention the affair of the penfion with much indifference. So the thing dropt till Mr Craggs came into the ministry. The affair of the penfion was then refumed. And this minifter, in a very frank and friendly manner, told Mr Pope, that three hundred pounds a-year was then at his fervice; he had the management of the fecret fervice money, and could pay him fuch a penfion, without it being known, or ever coming to account. But now Mr Pope declined the offer without hesitation: only, in return for fo friendly a propofal, he told the Secretary, that if at any time he wanted money, he would draw upon him for 100 or 200l. which liberty, notwithstanding, he never took. Mr Craggs more than once preffed him on this head; and urged the conveniency of a chariot; which Mr Pope was fenfible enough of: but the precarioufnefs of that fupply made him very prudently decline the thoughts of an equipage; which it was much better never to let up, than not properly to fupport.

VOL. II.

G

(b) T3 *

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(b) To VIRTUE ONLY, and HER FRIENDS A FRIEND,
The world befide may murmur, or commend.
Know, all the distant din that world can keep,
Rolls o'er my grotto, and but fooths my sleep.
(i) There, my retreat the best companions grace,
Chiefs out of war, and statesmen out of place. 126
There St JOHN mingles with my friendly bowl
The feaft of reafon and the flow of foul:

131

And HE, whofe lightning pierc'd th' Iberian lines;
Now forms my Quincunx, and now ranks my
Vines,
Or tames the genius of the stubborn plain,
Almost as quickly as he conquer'd Spain.
(k) Envy must own, I live among the great,
No pimp of pleasure, and no spy of itate,

Scilicet (b) UNI EQUUS VIRTUTI ATQUE EJUS A÷

MICIS.

(i) Quin ubi fe a vulgo et scena in fecreta remorant
Virtus Scipiada et mitis fapientia Læli,
Nugari cum illo, et difcincti ludere, donec
Decoqueretur olus, foliti.

Quidquid fum ego, quamvis
Infra Lucili cenfum, ingeniumque; tamen me
(k) Cum magnis vixiffe invita fatebitur ufque
Invidia; et fragili quærens illidere dentem,
Offender folido;

NOTES.

Ver. 129: Ánd Ht, whose lightning, etc.] Charles Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough, who in the year 1705 took Barcelona, and in the winter following, with only 280 horfe and 900 foot, enterprised and accomplished the conquest of Valentia.

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