Rev'rent I touch thee! but with honest zeal;
To rouse the Watchmen of the public Weal,
To Virtue's work provoke the tardy Hall,
And goad the Prelate slumb'ring in his Stall.
Ye tinsel Insects! whom a Court maintains,
That counts your Beauties only by your Stains,
Spin all your Cobwebs o'er the Eye of Day !
The Muse's wing shall brush you all away :

NOTES.

116

220

" IN PUNIHING is the most precious blessing of Society. " This is the PERFECT CITIZEN, to whom we should " adjudge the prize of Virtus."

VER. 220. Ye Insects-The Muse's wing shall brush you all away:] This it did very effectually; and the memory of them had been now forgotten, had not the Poet's charity, for a while, protracted their miserable Being. There is now in his library a complete collection of all the horrid Libels written and published against him;

The tale reviv'd, the lye so oft o'erthrown,
Th' imputed trash, and dulness not his own;
The morals blacken'd, when the writings 'Scape,
The libell'd Person, and the pictur'd shape.

These he had bound up in several volumes, according to their various sizes, from folios down to duodecimos; and to each of them hath affixed this motto out of the book of Job :

Behold, my defire is, that mine adversary should write a book. Surely I should take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me. Ch. xxxi. 35, 36.

VER. 222. Cobwebs] Weak and flight sophistry against virtue and honour. Thin colours over vice, as unable to hide the light of Truth, as cobwebs to shade the fun. P.

All his Grace preaches, all his Lordship sings, 224
All that makes Saints of Queens, and Gods of Kings.
All, all but Truth, drops dead-born from the Press,
Like the last Gazette, or the last Address.

When black Ambition stains a public Cause,
A Monarch's sword when mad Vain-glory draws,
Not Waller's Wreath can hide the Nation's Scar,
Nor Boileau turn the Feather to a Star.

231

Not so, when diadem'd with rays divine, Touch'd with the Flame that breaks from Virtue's

Shrine,

VARIATIONS.

After 227. in the MS.

Where's now the Star that lighted Charles to rise ?
-With that which follow'd Julius to the skies,
Angels, that watch'd the Royal Oak so well,
How chanc'd ye nod, when luckless Sorel fell ?
Hence, lying miracles! reduc'd fo low
As to the regal-touch, and papal-toe;
Hence haughty Edgar's title to the Main,
Britain's to France, and thine to India, Spain!

NOTES.

VER. 228. When black Ambition etc.] The case of Cromwell in the civil war of England; and (229.) of Louis XIV. in his conquest of the Low Countries. P.

VER. 231. Nor Boileau turn the Feather to a Star.] See his Ode on Namur; where (to use his own words) " ill a " fait un Astre de la Plume blanche que le Roy porte or" dinairement à son Chapeau, et qui est en effet une espece " de Comete, fatale à nos ennemis." P.

Her Priestess Muse forbids the Good to die,
And opes the Temple of Eternity.
There, other Trophies deck the truly brave,
Than fuch as Anstis casts into the Grave;

Far other Stars than * and ** wear,

235

240

And may defcend to Mordington from STAIR :
(Such as on HoUGH's unfully'd Mitre shine,
Or beam, good DIGBY, from a heart like thine)
Let Envy howl, while Heav'n's whole Chorus sings,
And bark at Honour not confer'd by Kings;

Let Flatt'ry fickening see the Incense rise,
Sweet to the World, and grateful to the Skies :
Truth guards the Poet, sanctifies the line,

245

And makes immortal, Verse as mean as mine,

Yes, the last Pen for Freedom let me draw, When Truth stands trembling on the edge of Law;

NOTES.

VER. 237. Anftis] The chief Herald at Arms. It is the custom, at the funeral of great peers, to caft into the grave the broken staves and ensigns of honour. P.

VER. 239. Stair;) John Dalrymple Earl of Stair, Knight of the Thistle ; served in all the wars under the Duke of Marlborough; and afterwards as Embassador in France. P.

VER. 240, 241. Hough and Digby] Dr. John Hough Bishop of Worcester, and the Lord Digby. The one an assertor of the Church of England in opposition to the false measures of King James II. The other as firmly attached to the cause of that King. Both acting out of principle, and equally men of honour and virtue. P.

Kin

VER. 249. on the edge of Lare:) From the summit of

Here, Laft of Britons! let your Names be read; 250
Are none, none living? let me praise the Dead,
And for that Cause which made your Fathers shine,
Fall by the Votes of their degen'rate Line.

Fr. Alas! alas! pray end what you began,
And write next winter more Essays on Man.

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 255. in the MS.

255

Quit, quit these themes, and write Essays on Man.

NOTES.

law is a dreadful precipice, which may well make Truth herself tremble. And from thence came the common proverb, Summum jus, fumma injuria. SCRIBL.

VER. ult.] This was the last poem of the kind printed by our author, with a resolution to publish no more; but to enter thus, in the most plain and folemn manner he could, a fort of PROTEST against that insuperable corruption and depravity of manners, which he had been so unhappy as to live to fee. Could he have hoped to have amended any, he had continued those attacks; but bad men were grown so shameless and so powerful, that Ridicule was be. come as unfafe as it was ineffectual. The Poem raised him, as he knew it would, some enemies; but he had reason to be fatisfied with the approbation of good men, and the testimony of his own confcience. P.

ON

Receiving from the Right Hon. the Lady FRANCES SHIRLEY

Y

A STANDISH and TWO PENS.

ES, I beheld the Athenian Queen Descend in all her fober charms; " And take (she said, and smil'd serene) "Take at this hand celestial arms :

" Secure the radiant weapons wield;
" The golden lance shall guard Desert,
" And if a Vice dares keep the field,
"This steel shall stab it to the heart."

Aw'd, on my bended knees I fell,
Receiv'd the weapons of the sky;
And dipt them in the sable Well,
The fount of Fame or Infamy.

"What well? what weapon? (Flavia cries)
"A standish, steel and golden pen;
"It came from Bertrand's, not the skies:
" I gave it you to write again.

NOTES.

The Lady Frances Shirley] a Lady whose great Merit Mr.

Pope took a real pleasure in celebrating.

A famous toy-shop at Bath.