Hauman inv.et del.

CGrignion Senty

O Sacred Weapon, left for Truth's Defence,
Sole Dread of Folly, Vice and Insolence!;
To all but Heaven-directed Hands denied,
The Muse may give thee, but the Gods must guide..

EPILOGUE

SATIRES.

FR.

TO THE

Written in MDCCXXXVIII.

DIALOGUE I.

OT twice a twelve-month you appear

in Print,

And when it comes, the Court fee nothing in't.

NOT

VARIATIONS.

After Ver. 2. in the MS.

You don't, I hope, pretend to quit the trade,
Because you think your reputation made:
Like good Sir Paul, of whom so much was said,
That when his name was up, he lay a-bed.
Come, come, refresh us with a livelier fong,
Or, like Sir Paul, you'll lie a-bed too long.

NOTES.

VER. 1. Not twice a twelve-month, &c.] These two lines are from Horace; and the only lines that are fo in the whole Poem; being meant to give a handle to that which follows in the character of an impertinent Cenfurer,

""Tis all from Horace," &c.

P.

VER. 2. the Court fee nothing in't.] He chofe this expreffion for the fake of its elegant and fatiric ambiguity.-His writings abound in them.

You grow correct, that once with Rapture writ, And are, befides, too moral for a Wit. Decay of Parts, alas! we all muft feelWhy now, this moment, don't I fee you steal? "Tis all from Horace; Horace long before Said, "Tories call'd him Whig, and Whigs a "Tory;"

ye

And taught his Romans, in much better metre,
"To laugh at Fools who put their trust in Peter."
But Horace, Sir, was delicate, was nice;
Bubo obferves, he lafh'd no fort of Vice:

II

VARIATIONS.

P. Sir, what I write, should be correctly writ.
F. Correct! 'tis what no genius can admit.

Befides, you grow too moral for a Wit*.

5

A very ingenious Volume of Remarks on Pope has been lately written to prove this important truth.

NOTES.

VER. 9, 10. And taught his Romans in much better metre, "To laugh at Fools who put their truft in Peter.” The general turn of the thought is from Boileau, "Avant lui, Juvénal avoit dit en Latin, "Qu'on eft affis à l'aife aux fermons de Cotin."

But the irony in the first line, and the fatirical equivoque in the fecond, mark them for his own. His making the Objector fay, that Horace excelled him in writing verfe, is pleafant. And the ambiguity of putting their truft in Peter, infinuates that Horace and He had frequently laughed at that fpecific folly arifing from indolence; which still disposes men to intruft both their spiritual and temporal concerns to the abfolute difpofal of any fanctified or unfanctified Cheat, bearing the name of PETER.

VER. 12. Babo obferves,] Some guilty perfon, very fond of making fuch an obfervation.

P.

15

Horace would fay, Sir Billy ferv'd the Crown,
Blunt could do Bus'nefs, H-ggins knew the Town;
In Sappho touch the Failings of the Sex,
In rev'rend Bishops note fome Small Neglects,
And own, the Spaniard did a waggish thing,
Who cropt our Ears, and fent them to the King.
His fly, polite, infinuating style

Could please at Court, and make AUGUSTUS smile: An artful Manager, that crept between

21

His Friend and Shame, and was a kind of Screen.
But 'faith
your very Friends will foon be fore;
Patriots there are, who wish you'd jeft no more→→→

VARIATIONS.

After Ver. 26. in the MS.

There's honeft Tacitus once talk'd as big,
But is he now an independant Whig?

NOTES.

VER. 14. H-ggins] Formerly Jaylor of the Fleet prifon, enriched himself by many exactions, for which he was tried and expelled.

P.

VER. 18. Who cropt our Ears] Said to be executed by the Captain of a Spanish fhip on one Jenkins, a Captain of an English one. He cut off his ears, and bid him carry them to the King his master.

P.

VER. 22. Screen]

"Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico

"Tangit, et admiffus circum præcordia ludit. Perf. P. Ibid. Screen] A metaphor peculiarly appropriated to a certain perfon in power.

P.

VER. 24. Patriots there are, &c.] This appellation was generally given to thofe in oppofition to the Court. Though fome of them (which our Author hints at) had views too mean and interested to deserve that name.

P.

And where's the Glory? 'twill be only thought 25 The Great man never offer'd you a groat.

Go fee Sir ROBERT

P. See Sir ROBERT!-hum—

for all my life to come? Seen him I have, but in his happier hour

Of Social Pleasure, ill-exchang'd for Pow'r; 30

And never laugh

NOTES.

VER. 26. The Great Man] A phrase, by common ufe, appropriated to the firft Minifter.

P.

VER. 29. Seen him I have, &c.] This, and other ftrokes of commendation in the following poem, as well as his regard to Sir Robert Walpole on all occafions, were in acknowledg ment of a certain fervice he had done a friend of Mr. Pope's at his folicitation. Our Poet, when he was about seventeen, had a very ill fever in the country; which, it was feared, would end fatally. In this condition he wrote to Southcot, a Prieft of his acquaintance, then in town, to take his last leave of him. Southcot with great affection and folicitude, applied to Dr. Radcliffe for his advice. And not content with that, he rode down post to Mr. Pope, who was then an hundred miles from London, with the Doctor's directions; which had the defired effect. A long time after this, Southcot, who had an intereft in the Court of France, writing to a common acquaintance in England, informed him that there was a good abbey void near Avignon, which he had credit enough o ger, were it not from an apprehenfion that his promotion would give umbrage to the English Court; to which he (Southcot) by his intrigues in the Pretender's fervice, was become very obnoxious. The person to whom this was written happening to acquaint Mr. Pope with the cafe, he immediately wrote a pleafant letter to Sir R. Walpole in the Prieft's behalf: He acquainted the Minifter with the grounds of his folicitation, and begged that this embargo, for his, Mr. P.'s fake, might be taken off; for that he was indebted to Southcot for his life; which debt must needs be discharged