Page images
PDF
EPUB

Then, urged by C-
Inflamed by P.

As for the rest, each winter up they run,

And all are clear, that something must be done. -t,14 or by C-t stopp'd, 15 and by P

30

dropp'd;

They follow reverently each wondrous wight,
Amazed that one can read, that one can write :
So geese to gander prone obedience keep,
Hiss, if he hiss, and if he slumber, sleep.
Till having done whate'er was fit or fine,

35

Utter'd a speech, and ask'd their friends to dine;
Each hurries back to his paternal ground,

Content but for five shillings in the pound;

40

Yearly defeated, yearly hopes they give,

And all agree, Sir Robert cannot live.
Rise, rise, great W,16 fated to appear,

Spite of thyself, a glorious minister!

Speak the loud language princes

And treat with half the ..

At length to B-17 kind, as to thy
Espouse the nation, you.

What can thy H,18

Dress in Dutch

[ocr errors]

Though still he travels on no bad pretence,
To show..

Or those foul copies of thy face and tongue,
Veracious W- ,19 and frontless Young; 20

Sagacious Bub,21 so late a friend, and there

So late a foe, yet more sagacious H-? 22

[blocks in formation]

14 Carteret, afterwards Earl Granville. At this time, Lord Carteret and Pulteney were much distrusted by the other "patriots."

15 Pulteney.

16 Sir Robert Walpole.

17 Britain.

18 Horace. Walpole, the brother of Sir Robert. He had been Secretary to Earl Stanhope, in Spain, Secretary to the Treasury, and Ambassador in Holland and France, &c.

19 Winnington. He was successively Lord of the Admiralty, Lord of the Treasury, and Paymaster of the Forces. Though an inconsistent politician, he is represented as having been one of the most amiable of men.

20 Sir William Yonge (for so he spelt the name), Secretary at War.

21 Bub Dodington, Lord Melcombe.

22 Francis Hare, Bishop of Chichester, who died in the year assigned to this fragment, 1740.

60

65

Hervey and Hervey's school, F-, H—y, H-
-y, H――n,23
Yea, moral Ebor, or religious Winton.24
How! what can Ow,25 what can D— 26
The wisdom of the one and other chair,
N- -,27 laugh, or D- -'s 28

sager,

32

P29

Or thy dread truncheon, M.'s mighty peer
What help from J's 30 opiates canst thou draw,
Or H--k's quibbles voted into law ? 31
C., that Roman in his nose alone,3
Who hears all causes, B--,33 but thy own,
Or those proud fools whom nature, rank, and fate
Made fit companions for the sword of state.

Can the light packhorse, or the heavy steer,
The sowzing prelate, or the sweating peer,
Drag out, with all its dirt and all its weight,
The lumbering carriage of thy broken state?
Alas! the people curse, the carman swears,
The drivers quarrel, and the master stares.

The plague is on thee, Britain, and who tries
To save thee, in the infectious office, dies.

[blocks in formation]

23 Fox, Henley, Hinton.

24 The Archbishop of York, and Bishop of Winchester; Blackburn and Hoadley.

25 26 Arthur Onslow, Speaker of the House of Commons, and Lord Delaware, Chairman of Committees in the House of Lords.

27 Duke of Newcastle.

28 Lionel, first Duke of Dorset. He had been Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and conciliated the favour and regard of Swift. Read Dorset's sager sneer. 29 Duke of Marlborough. A sarcastic allusion to the second Duke, formerly Lord Sunderland.

30 Probably Sir Joseph Jekyll, though Jekyll died in 1738.

31 Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, elevated to the woolsack in 1734.

32 Sir John Cummins, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas; or Compton, Lord Wilmington, President of the Council. Compton died in 1743, and Pope wrote to Lord Marchmont, strongly condemning the useless life of the deceased nobleman. "Three hundred thousand pounds, the sum total of his life, without one worthy deed, public or private! His titles only must be his epitaph; and there can be nothing on his monument remarkable, except his nose, which, I hope, the statuary will do justice to." Lord Hervey also alludes to Compton's prominent feature, calling him "Privy Nosy."

33 Britain.

The first firm P--y,34 soon resign'd his breath.
Brave S--W 35 loved thee, and was lied to death.
Good M-m-t's fate tore P- -th from thy side,36
And thy last sigh was heard, when W- -m died.87
Thy nobles sl-s, thy ses bought with gold,38
Thy clergy perjured, thy whole people sold.
An atheist a ""'s ad

[ocr errors]

Blotch thee all o'er, and sink

Alas! on one alone our all relies,3
39

Let him be honest, and he must be wise;
Let him no trifler from his

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

school,

And free at once the senate and the throne ;
Esteem the public love his best supply,
A's true glory his integrity;
Rich with his ... in his . .

strong,

Affect no conquest, but endure no wrong.
Whatever his religion or his blood,

His public virtue makes his title good.

Europe's just balance and our own may stand,
And one man's honesty redeem the land.

34 Pulteney.

[blocks in formation]

35 Lord Scarborough. Pope generally spelt Scarborough and Peterborough with a w, instead of ugh.

36 The Earl of Marchmont, who died in January, 1740, when his son, Hugh, Lord Polwarth, succeeded to the earldom.

37 Sir William Wyndham died in June, 1740.

38 Thy nobles slaves, thy senates bought, &c.

39 The one on whom all relied was probably Frederick, Prince of Wales, with whom Pope was then on terms of intimacy. If the poem is of Jacobite origin, the Chevalier St. George, the Pretender, must have been meant. Mr. Bowles restores the passage as follows:

"Alas! on one alone our all relies,

Let him be honest, and he must be wise;
Let him no trifler from his father's school,
Nor, like his father's father, still a fool;
Be but a man! unminister'd, alone,

And free at once the Senate and the Throne."

MISCELLANIES.

ARGUS.

HEN wise Ulysses, from his native coast

WHEN

Long kept by wars, and long by tempests toss'd,
Arrived at last, poor, old, disguised, alone,

To all his friends and even his queen unknown;
Changed as he was, with age, and toils, and cares,
Furrow'd his reverend face, and white his hairs,
In his own palace forced to ask his bread,
Scorn'd by those slaves his former bounty fed,
Forgot of all his own domestic crew;

5

The faithful dog alone his rightful master knew!

Unfed, unhoused, neglected, on the clay,

10

Like an old servant, now cashier'd, he lay;

Touch'd with resentment of ungrateful man,

And longing to behold his ancient lord again.

Him when he saw-he rose, and crawl'd to meet,
('Twas all he could) and fawn'd, and kiss'd his feet,
Seized with dumb joy-then falling by his side,
Own'd his returning lord, look'd up, and died!

15

66

[The above was sent by Pope to H. Cromwell, in a letter dated Oct. 19, 1709, containing a very interesting panegyric upon dogs. "Histories," he says, are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends, but I will not insist upon many of them, because it is possible some may be almost as fabulous as those of Pylades and Orestes, &c. I will only say for the honour of dogs, that the two most ancient and estimable books, sacred and profane, extant, (viz. the Scripture and Homer,) have shown a particular regard to these animals. That of Toby is the more remarkable, because there seemed no manner of reason to take notice of the dog, besides the great humanity of the author. Homer's account of Ulysses's dog, Argus, is the most pathetic imaginable, all the circumstances considered, and an excellent proof of the old bard's good nature. Ulysses had left him at Ithaca when he embarked for Troy, and found him at his return after twenty years (which, by the way, is not unnatural, as some critics have said, since I remember, the dam of my

dog was twenty-two years old when she died. May the omen of longevity prove fortunate to her successors!). Plutarch, relating how the Athenians were obliged to abandon Athens in the time of Themistocles, steps back again out of the way of his history, purely to describe the lamentable cries and howlings of the poor dogs they left behind. He makes mention of one that followed his master across the sea to Salamis, where he died, and was honoured with a tomb by the Athenians, who gave the name of the Dog's Grave to that part of the island where he was buried. This respect to a dog, in the most polite people of the world, is very observable. A modern instance of gratitude to a dog (though we have but few such) is, that the chief order of Denmark (now injuriously called the order of the elephant) was instituted in memory of the fidelity of a dog, named Wildbrat, to one of their kings who had been deserted by his subjects. He gave his order this motto, or to this effect (which still remains), "Wild-brat was faithful." Sir William Trumbull has told me a story, which he heard from one that was present. King Charles I. being with some of his Court, during his troubles, a discourse arose what sort of dogs deserved pre-eminence, and it being on all hands agreed to belong either to the spaniel or greyhound, the King gave his opinion on the part of the greyhound, because (said he) it has all the good-nature of the other without the fawning. A good piece of satire upon his courtiers, with which I will conclude my discourse on dogs."]

IMPROMPTU TO LADY WINCHELSEA.

OCCASIONED BY FOUR SATIRICAL VERSES ON WOMEN WITS, IN THE RAPE OF THE LOCK.

IN

vain you boast poetic names of yore,

And cite those Sapphos we admire no more:

Fate doom'd the fall of every female wit;
But doom'd it then, when first Ardelia writ.
Of all examples by the world confess'd,
I knew Ardelia could not quote the best;
Who like her mistress on Britannia's throne
Fights and subdues in quarrels not her own.
To write their praise you but in vain essay;
E'en while you write you take that praise away:
Light to the stars the sun does thus restore,
But shines himself till they are seen no more.

5

10

« PreviousContinue »