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

IN

NOTES.

116

220

PUNIHING is the most precious bleffing of Society. "This is the PERFECT CITIZEN, to whom we fhould "adjudge the prize of Virtus."

VER. 220. Ye Infects-The Mufe'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 miferable 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 fo oft o'erthrown,

Th' imputed trash, and dulnefs not his own;
The morals blacken'd, when the writings 'scape,
The libell'd Perfon, and the pictur'd shape.

These he had bound up in feveral volumes, according to their various fizes, 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.

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

All his Grace preaches, all his Lordfhip fings,

224

All that makes Saints of Queens, and Gods of Kings.
All, all but Truth, drops dead-born from the Prefs,
Like the laft Gazette, or the laft Addrefs.

When black Ambition stains a public Caufe,
A Monarch's fword 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 fo, 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 rife?

-With that which follow'd Julius to the fkies,

Angels, that watch'd the Royal Oak so well,
How chanc'd ye nod, when lucklefs 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 cafe of Crom well in the civil war of England; and ( 229.), of Louis: XIV. in his conqueft of the Low Countries. P.

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

Her Priestess Mufe forbids the Good to die,

And opes the Temple of Eternity.

235

There, other Trophies deck the truly brave,
Than fuch as Anftis cafts into the Grave;

Far other Stars than * and ** wear,

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 fings,
And bark at Honour not confer'd by Kings;

Let Flatt'ry fickening fee the Incense rise,

Sweet to the World, and grateful to the Skies: 245
Truth guards the Poet, fanctifies the line,

And makes immortal, Verfe as mean as mine,
Yes, the laft Pen for Freedom let me draw,
When Truth ftands trembling on the edge of Law;

NOTES.

VER. 237. Anftis] The chief Herald at Arms. It is the cuftom, 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; ferved in all the wars under the Duke of Marlborough; and afterwards as Embaffador in France. P.

VER. 240, 241. Hough and Digby] Dr. John Hough Bishop of Worcester, and the Lord Digby. The one an affertor of the Church of England in oppofition 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.

VER. 249. on the edge of Law:] From the fummit of

Here, Laft of Britons! let your Names be read; 250
Are none, none living? let me praise the Dead,
And for that Caufe which made your Fathers fhine,
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 Effays 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 laft poem of the kind printed by our author, with a resolution to publish no more; but to enter thus, in the moft plain and folemn manner he could, a fort of PROTEST against that infuperable corruption and depravity of manners, which he had been fo 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 become as unsafe as it was ineffectual. The Poem raised him, as he knew it would, fome enemies; but he had reafon to be fatisfied with the approbation of good men, and the teftimony of his own conscience. 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 (fhe faid, and fmil'd ferene) "Take at this hand celeftial arms:

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

Aw'd, on my bended knees I fell,
Receiv'd the weapons of the fky;

And dipt them in the fable Well,
The fount of Fame or Infamy.

"What well? what weapon? (Flavia cries)
"A ftandish, 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 whofe great Merit Mr. Pope took a real pleasure in celebrating.

A famous toy-shop at Bath.