Scatter your favours on a fop, And 'tis but just, I'll tell ye wherefore, But makes a difference in his thought Now this I'll say, you'll find in me A safe companion, and a free; That laugh'd down many a summer-sun, And all that voluntary vein, As when Belinda raised my strain.1 35 40 45 50 1 [This is an agreeable touch of egotism. The lively eye Pope certainly possessed; and his early gaiety of spirits must have been heightened by the voluntary vein of the Rape of the Lock, which established his reputation, and by the success of his Homer, which rendered him independent in his circumstances. Mr. Bowles has an interesting note, comparing the succession of Pope's original productions with the progress of his mind and character. "In his earliest effusion-the 'Ode on Solitude'—all is rural quiet, innocence, content, &c. We next see in his Pastorals the golden age of happiness while the 'Shepherd lad leads forth his flock Beside the silver Thame.' "His next step, Windsor Forest, exhibits the same rural turn, but with views more diversified and extended, and approaching more to the real history and concerns of life. The warm passions of youth succeed, and we are interested in the fate of the tender Sappho, or the ardent and unfortunate Eloise. As the world opens, local manners are displayed. In the Rape of the Lock we see the first playful effort of satire, without ill nature, at once gay, elegant and delightful: 'Belinda smiles, and all the world is gay.' "The man of severer thought now appears in the Essay on Man. The same vein shows itself in the Moral Essays; but the investigation is directed to individual failings, and mingled with spleen and anger. In the later satires we witness the language of acrimony and bitterness. The Dunciad closes A weasel once made shift to slink Sir, you may spare your application, All that may make me none of mine. "Twas what I said to Craggs and Child,2 And there I'll die, nor worse nor better. 80 the prospect, and we there behold the aged bard amid a swarm of enemies, who began his career all innocence, happiness, and smiles." The ingenious and poetical commentator omitted the reasoning and reflective vein, not un. mingled with satire, which Pope had displayed in the Essay on Criticism, before he painted the charms of Belinda.] 2 [Craggs the younger, and Sir Francis Child, the eminent banker, and M.P. for Middlesex, who died in 1740. Warburton says that Mr. Craggs gave the poet some South Sea subscriptions, but he was so indifferent about them as to neglect making any benefit of them. "He used to say it was a satisfaction to him that he did not grow rich, as he might have done, by the public calamity." In fact, Pope, like Gay, lost by his South Sea speculations, but it is not stated to what extent. He says in one of his letters, that, after the failure of the scheme, he was left with half of what he imagined he had.] To set this matter full before ye, 66 BOOK II. SATIRE VI. THE FIRST PART IMITATED IN THE YEAR 1714, BY DR. SWIFT; THE LATTER I can't but think 'twould sound more clever, As thus, "Vouchsafe, O gracious Maker! Nor puff'd by pride, nor sunk by spleen. In short, I'm perfectly content, "Good Mr. Dean, go change your gown, Let my lord know you're come to town." 45 [Swift always considered his preferment to the Deanery of St. Patrick's as a banishment. Various references to this occur in his correspondence in Scott's edition of his works. In the Additional MSS., British Museum, are two letters addressed by Swift, in 1709, to the Earl of Halifax, entreating for preferment, and specifying particularly the reversion of Dr. South's prebend, at Westminster. If this reversion could not be compassed, he was anxious to be named for the bishopric of Cork. (See "Letters of Eminent Literary Men," by Sir H. Ellis, Camden Soc. 1843.) Lord Orrery's conjecture is, no doubt, the true one. Swift's English friends wished him promoted at a distance, not in England, where his intractable spirit and eccentric movements might have occasioned uneasiness and trouble.] And take it kindly meant to show, This, humbly offers me his case- 'Tis (let me see) three years and more, (October next it will be four), 65 70 75 80 Since Harley bid me first attend, And chose me for an humble friend; 85 And question me of this and that; As, "What's o'clock?" and, "How's the wind?" "Whose chariot's that we left behind?" Or gravely try to read the lines, Writ underneath the country-signs ; From Pope, from Parnell, or from Gay?" My lord and me as far as Staines, As once a-week we travel down To Windsor, and again to town, Yet some I know with envy swell, |