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EPISTLE I

To L. BOLINGBROKE.

ST. JOHN, whofe love indulg'd my labours paft,

Matures my present, and fhall bound my last!
Why will you break the Sabbath of my days?
Now fick alike of Envy and of Praise.
Public too long, ah let me hide my Age!
See Modeft Cibber now has left the Stage:

Our Gen'rals now, retir'd to their Eftates,
Hang their old Trophies o'er the Garden gates,
In Life's cool Ev'ning fatiate of Applause,

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Nor fond of bleeding, ev'n in BRUNSWICK's cause.

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f A Voice there is, that whispers in my ear, ('Tis Reason's voice, which fometimes one can hear) "Friend Pope! be prudent, let your

"breath,

"And never gallop Pegafus to death;

NOTES.

Muse take

"Load fome vain Church with old theatric state,
"Turn Arcs of Triumph to a garden gate.

VER. 10. ev'n in Brunswick's caufe.] In the former Editions it was, Britain's caufe. But the terms are fynony

mous,

Nunc itaque et verfus, et caetera ludicra pono:

Quid i verum atque decens, curo et rogo, et omnisin

hoc fum:

* Condo, et compono, quae mox depromere poffim.

1

Ac ne forte roges, quo me duce, quo Lare tuter:

Nullius addictus jurare in verba magiftri,

Quo me cunque rapit tempeftas, deferor hofpes.

Nunc agilis fio, et merfor" civilibus undis,
Virtutis verae cuftos, rigidufque fatelles:
Nunc in Ariftippi P furtim praecepta relabor,
Et mihi res, non me rebus, fubjungere conor.

Ut nox longa, quibus mentitur amica; diesque
* Omnis Aristippum decuit color, et ftatus, et res. P.

NOTES.

VER. 16. You limp, like Blackmore on a Lord Mayor's borfe.] The fame of this heavy Poet, however problematical elsewhere, was univerfally received in the City of London. His verfification is here exactly described: stiff,

"Left ftiff, and ftately, void of fire or force,

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"You limp, like Blackmore on a Lord Mayor's "horfe."

h

Farewell then Verfe, and Love, and ev'ry Toy, The Rhymes and Rattles of the Man or Boy; What right, what true, what fit we justly call, Let this be all my care-for this is All:

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To lay this harvest up, and hoard with hafte
What ev'ry day will want, and moft, the laft.

1

But ask not, to what ' Doctors I apply?

Sworn to no Mafter, of no Sect am I:

As drives them ftorm, at any door I knock:

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25

And house with Montagne now, or now with Locke.

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Sometimes a " Patriot, active in debate,

Mix with the World, and battle for the State,
Free as young Lyttelton, her Cause pursue,

Still true to Virtue, ° and as warm as true:
Sometimes with Ariftippus, or St. Paul,
Indulge my candor, and grow all to all;
Back to my P native Moderation flide,

Р

And win my way by yielding to the tide.

30

Long, as to him who works for debt, the day, 35 Long as the Night to her whose Love's away,

NOTES.

and not ftrong; ftately and yet dull, like the fober and flow-paced Animal generally employed to mount the Lord Mayor and therefore here humouroufly oppofed to Pegafus. P.

* G

Lenta videtur opus debentibus: ut piger annus

Pupillis, quos dura premit cuftodia matrum":

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Sic mihi tarda fluunt ingrataque tempora, quae fpem

Confiliumque morantur agendi gnaviter s id, quod

Aeque pauperibus prodest, locupletibus aeque,

Aeque neglectum pueris, fenibusque nocebit.

t

V

Reftat, ut his ego me ipfe regam ▾ folerque ́ele

mentis :

w Non poffis oculo quantum contendere Lynce us;
Non tamen idcirco contemnas lippus inungi:

Nec, quia defperes invicti membra Glyconis,
Nodofa corpus nolis prohibere cheragra.

Eft quadam prodire * tenus, fi non datur ultra.
y Fervet Avaritia, miferoque cupidine pectus?

NOTES,

VER. 45. can no wants endure;] i. e. Can want nothing. Badly expreffed.

VER.51. I'll do what Mead-] Mr. Pope highly efteemed and loved this worthy man, whole unaffected humanity and benevolence have ftifled much of that envy which his eminence in his profeffion would otherwise have drawn out.

Long as the Year's dull circle feems to run,
When the brisk Minor pants for twenty-one :
So flow th❜ unprofitable moments roll,
That lock up all the Functions of my foul;
That keep me from myself; and still delay
Life's inftant bufinefs to a future day:
Thats task, which as we follow, or despise,
The eldest is a fool, the youngest wife.

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Which done, the pooreft can no wants endure;
And which not done, the richest must be poor.
Late as it is, I put myself to school,

45

V

And feel fome comfort, not to be a fool.
w Weak tho' I am of limb, and fhort of fight,
Far from a Lynx, and not a Giant quite;
I'll do what Mead and Chefelden advise,
To keep thefe limbs, and to preferve these eyes.
Not to go back, is somewhat to advance,

X

And men muft walk at least before they dance.

Say, does thy blood rebel, thy bofom move With wretched Av'rice, or as wretched Love?

NOTES,

50

55

Speaking of his obligations to this great Phyfician and others of the Faculty, in a Letter to Mr. Allen, about a month before his death, he says, "There is no end of my kind treatment from the Faculty. They are in general the moft amiable companions, and the best "Friends, as well as the most learned Men I know."

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