Blest in each science, blest in ev'ry strain! 5 10 For him, thou oft haft bid the World attend, Fond to forget the Statesman in the Friend; For SWIFT and him, despis'd the farce of state, The fober follies of the wife and great; Dextrous, the craving, fawning crowd to quit, And pleas'd to 'scape from Flattery to Wit. Absent or dead, still let a friend be dear, (A figh the absent claims, the dead a tear) Recall those nights that clos'd thy toilsome days, 15 Still hear thy Parnelle in his living lays, Who, careless now of Int'rest, Fame, or Fate, Perhaps forgets that OXFORD e'er was great; Or deeming meanest what we greatest call, Beholds thee glorious only in thy fall. And fure, if aught below the feats divine Can touch Immortals, 'tis a Soul like thine: 20 A foul NOTES. used to say that it was originally written in Spanish: from the early connection between the Spaniards and Arabians, it may be suspected that it was an Oriental tale. Voltaire has inferted it in his Zadig, without mentioning a fyllable of the place whence he borrowed it. VER.21. And fure, if aught] Strength of mind appears to have been the predominant characteristic of Lord Oxford; of which he gave the most striking proofs when he was stabbed, displaced, imprisoned. These noble and nervous lines allude to these circumstances; of his fortitude and firmness another striking proof remains, in a letter which the Earl wrote from the Tower to a friend, Ev'n A foul fupreme, in each hard instance try'd, In vain to Deserts thy retreat is made; 25 30 NOTES. friend, who advised him to meditate an escape, and which is worthy of the greatest hero of antiquity. This extraordinary letter I had the pleasure of reading, by the favour of the Earl's excellent grand-daughter, the late Dutchess Dowager of Portland, who inherited that love of literature and science, so peculiar to her ancestors and family. I am well informed that Bolingbroke was greatly mortified at Pope's bestowing these praises on his old antagonist, whom he mortally hated; yet I have seen two original letters in the hands of the fame Dutchess of Portland, of Lord Bolingbroke to Lord Oxford, full of the most fulfome flattery of the man whom he affected to despise, and of very idle and profane applications of Scripture. The visions of Parnelle, at the end of his Poems, published in the Guardian, are in a rugged inharmonious style; as indeed is the Life of Zoilus, printed 1717; and also the Essay on the Life of Homer, prefixed to our Author's tranflation: and his Effay on the Different Styles in Poetry is rather a mean performance. Ev'n now, she shades thy Ev'ning-walk with bays, (No hireling she, no prostitute to praise) 36 Ev'n now, observant of the parting ray, 40 EPISTLE OL JAMES CRAGGS, ESQ. SECRETARY OF STATE. sout as full of Worth, as void of Pride, A Which nothing seeks to shew, or needs to hide, Which nor to Guilt nor Fear, its Caution owes, A face untaught to feign; a judging Eye,.. 5 All this thou wert; and being this before, Know, Kings and Fortune cannot make thee more. Then scorn to gain a Friend by servile ways, 10 Nor wish to lose a Foe these Virtues raise; The NOTES. Secretary of State] In the year 1720. P. The Patriot's plain, but untrod, path pursue; I SHALL add a dialogue by Mr. Pope, in verse, that is genuine: POPE. " Since my old friend is grown so great, As to be Minister of State, I'm told, but 'tis not true I hope, That Craggs will be asham'd of Pope." CRAGGS. "Alas! if I am such a creature, To grow the worse for growing greater; |