Admit your law to spare the knight requires? F. A dean, sir? no; his fortune is not made, P. If not the tradesman who set up to-day, Or, if a court or country's made a job, Go drench a pickpocket, and join the mob. To tax directors, who (thank God) have plums; P. Must Satire, then, nor rise nor fall? F. Yes, strike that Wild, I'll justify the blow. 30 335 40 45 50 P. Strike? why the man was hang'd ten years ago: 55 Who now that obsolete example fears ?4 E'en Peter trembles only for his ears.5 F. What, always Peter? Peter thinks you mad, P. Do I wrong the man? God knows, I praise a courtier where I can. 60 & Jonathan Wild, a famous thief, and thief-impeacher, who was at last caught in his own train, and hanged. [In the year 1725.] 4 [How often did the poet forget this himself!] 5 Peter had, the year before this, narrowly escaped the pillory, for forgery; and got off with only a severe rebuke from the bench. When I confess there is who feels for fame, And melts to goodness, need I Scarborough name ? 6 65 70 6 Earl of, and Knight of the Garter, whose personal attachments to the king appeared from his steady adherence to the royal interest, after his resignation of his great employment of Master of the Horse; and whose known honour and virtue made him esteemed by all parties. [Richard Lumley, second Earl of Scarborough, resigned his post of Master of the Horse in 1733-4. On the 4th of February, 1740, he committed suicide by shooting himself with a pistol. There was no apparent cause for the rash act.] 7 The house and gardens of Esher, in Surrey, belonging to the Honourable Mr. Pelham, brother to the Duke of Newcastle. The author could not have given a more amiable idea of his character than in comparing him to Mr. Craggs. [After the downfall of Walpole, Pelham became First Lord of the Treasury, and Chancellor of the Exchequer. He was an honest and popular minister, but possessed of no very shining talents. His death took place March 6th, 1754, when he was barely sixty-one years of age. Pelham's place of Esher was embellished under the direction of Kent, whom Pope had instructed in landscape gardening. Horace Walpole admired Esher above all the villas he had seen, and said Kent was Kentissime there.] 8 [The clerical group here" dwelling in decencies," may be briefly noticed. Dr. Thomas Secker (born in 1693, died in 1768) rose to be Archbishop of Canterbury, and, as Primate, placed the crown upon the head of George III., at the coronation of that sovereign. He wrote numerous theological works and sermons, and was a wise and moderate head of the Anglican Church. Dr. Thomas Rundle (born in 1686, died in 1743,) was conceived to be less orthodox, but finally was made Bishop of Derry, in Ireland. Swift, who liked the man, ridiculed the objections to Rundle's orthodoxy. "Make Rundle bishop! fie for shame! An Arian to usurp the name! A bishop in the Isle of Saints, How will his brethren make complaints!" The Benson alluded to is, we suppose, Dr. George Benson, a learned Nonconformist divine, who officiated many years in London, and wrote some valuable theological treatises. He was on terms of friendship with most of the English prelates. He died in 1762, aged sixty-three. Dr. George Berkeley, bishop of Cloyne (born in 1684, died in 1753), is too well known But does the Court a worthy man remove? 12 Carleton's calm sense, and 13 Stanhope's noble flame, Compared, and knew their generous end the same: How pleasing Atterbury's softer hour! 14 How shined the soul, unconquer'd in the Tower! 75 80 as a philosopher and friend of Pope, Swift, Chesterfield and other eminent persons of that period, to require mention here. In his mind and character so many excellences were combined, that Pope's memorable line is scarcely an exaggeration.] 9 John, Lord Somers, died in 1716. He had been Lord Keeper in the reign of William III., who took from him the seals in 1700. The author had the honour of knowing him in 1706. A faithful, able, and incorrupt minister; who, to the qualities of a consummate statesman, added those of a man of learning and politeness. 10 A peer, no less distinguished by his love of letters than his abilities in Parliament. He was disgraced in 1710, on the change of Queen Anne's ministry. 11 Charles Talbot, Duke of Shrewsbury, had been Secretary of State, Ambassador in France, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Chamberlain, and Lord Treasurer. He several times quitted his employments, and was often recalled. He died in 1718. 12 Hen. Boyle, Lord Carleton (nephew of the famous Robert Boyle), who was Secretary of State under William III., and President of the Council under Queen Anne. [Boyle was created Baron Carleton in 1714, and died in 1725. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, in announcing Lord Carleton's death to her sister, says, "he disposed of his estate as he did of his time, between Lady Clarendon and the Duchess of Queensberry. Jewels to a great value he has given, as he did his affections, first to the mother and then to the daughter. He was taken ill in my company, at a concert at the Duchess of Marlborough's, and died two days after, holding the fair duchess by the hand, and being fed at the same time with a fine fat chicken; thus dying, as he had lived, indulging his pleasures."] 13 James, Earl Stanhope. A nobleman of equal courage, spirit, and learning. General in Spain, and Secretary of State. [Lord Stanhope died in 1721. He replied to a speech of the Duke of Wharton's, on the South Sea scheme, with so much warmth, that he burst a blood vessel, and died soon afterwards.] 14 [Of all the parties here named, Atterbury only was the friend of Pope. The remarkable history of this prelate, will be found noticed in the sketch of How can I Pulteney, 15 Chesterfield,16 forget, While Roman spirit charms, and Attic wit? Or Wyndham,18 just to freedom and the throne, 85 Pope's life. His turbulence and ambition were strangely contrasted with the gentle, affectionate tone of his letters; and in his correspondence with Pope he is seen to great advantage as a Christian divine and man of letters.] 15 [William Pulteney, Earl of Bath, the successful antagonist of Walpole, whom he finally drove from power in 1741. The defeated minister, however, had the address to procure Pulteney's elevation to the peerage, upon which both of them became (as Walpole expressed it) two of the most insignificant fellows in England! As Earl of Bath, Pulteney's popularity immediately declined. He died in 1764.] 16 [The witty Lord Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope. He was then in his forty-fourth year, and had been several years in opposition. He lost his office of Steward of the Household in consequence of his votes and speeches against Walpole's Excise Bill. He afterwards was Ambassador at the Hague, and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and he held the seals of Secretary of State for two years. Chesterfield's reputation as a senator is inferior to that which he attained as a wit and an author. His celebrated Letters to his Son lowered his character, but evinced his taste and acuteness of observation : and his recently published correspondence is honourable to him both as a wit and a politician. He was an able diplomatist, and a sound and sagacious statesman. After a long series of ill-health and infirmities, he died in 1773, aged seventy-nine.] 17 [John, the second and great Duke of Argyll, born in 1678; served, when only seventeen, under William III., and afterwards under Marlborough; was Ambassador in Spain, and, after the peace of Utrecht, Commander-in-Chief of the forces in Scotland. He was engaged in suppressing the rebellion of 1715. As a politician, he was grasping, versatile, and ambitious. He opposed Walpole's Administration at the date of this Satire, and, on the defeat of the Whig minister, was again employed. His death took place soon afterwards, in September, 1743.] 18 Sir William Wyndham, Chancellor of the Exchequer under Queen Anne, made early a considerable figure ; but since a much greater both by his ability and eloquence, joined with the utmost judgment and temper. Wyndham was a man of fine taste and accomplishments, as well as an effective orator. He died in 1740.] 90 Names, which I long have loved, nor loved in vain, Yet think not, Friendship only prompts my lays; I follow Virtue; where she shines, I praise: Point she to priest or elder, Whig or Tory, Or round a Quaker's beaver cast a glory. I never (to my sorrow I declare) Dined with the Man of Ross, or my Lord Mayor. 95 Some, in their choice of friends, (nay, look not grave,) 100 Have still a secret bias to a knave: To find an honest man I beat about, And love him, court him, praise him, in or out. F. Then why so few commended? P. Not so fierce; 105 Find you the virtue, and I'll find the verse. 110 19 [An allusion by Pope to his intimacy with the Prince of Wales.] |