THE TRANSLATOR. OZELL, at Sanger's call, invoked his Muse For who to sing for Sanger could refuse? [Sanger was a bookseller who published Ozell's translation of Boileau's Lutrin, which Rowe considered entertaining. The Plain Dealer is Wycherley's best comedy; the Biter, a very indifferent one, by Rowe. As to Ozell, he will be found in the Dunciad.] THE THREE GENTLE SHEPHERDS. [The three shepherds-two of whom Pope never tired of satirising—were Ambrose Philips, Eustace Budgell, and Henry Carey. What poor Carey had done to irritate the poet does not appear. He, too, had ridiculed Philips's namby-pamby verses; and his song of Sally in our Alley, should have formed a passport to favour. Addison, however, had praised it in the Spectator, and to this circumstance probably Carey owed his being ranked with the Whig poets. In the last line Pope alludes to Curll's boast, that in prose he was equal to Pope, but in poetry Pope had a particular knack! Mr. Pope, he said, is no more a gentleman than Mr. Curll, nor more eminent as a poet than he as a bookseller.] OF gentle Philips will I ever sing, With gentle Philips shall the valleys ring; My numbers too for ever will I vary, THE CHALLENGE. A COURT BALLAD. [1716.] To the tune of "To all you Ladies now at Land," &c. I. To one fair lady out of Court, And two fair ladies in, Who think the Turk and Pope a sport, Come, these soft lines, with nothing stiff in, With a fa, la, la. II. What passes in the dark third row, III. Then why to Courts should I repair, 1 [Ladies of the Court of the Princess Caroline. Mary Bellenden became the wife of Colonel Campbell (afterwards Duke of Argyll), and Mary Lepell married Lord Hervey. Both marriages took place in October, 1720, and the Court was thus deprived of its most popular and beautiful ornaments.] 2 [Lord Townshend, a rough but popular minister, who was then out of favour with the Court, and had a rupture with his colleague, Stanhope, which ended in his being forced to resign.] 3 [The Earl of Sunderland, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, had been charged with encouraging the native Irish, and appointing them to public offices. IV. Alas! like Schutz I cannot pun, V. In truth, by what I can discern Some wit you have, and more may learn VI. At Leicester Fields, a house full high, There may you meet us three to three, VII. But should you catch the prudish itch, Bring sometimes with you Lady Rich,5 Hence the talk concerning" Blunderland." Sunderland exchanged the LordLieutenancy for the Privy Seal in 1715, and was afterwards Prime Minister. His death took place in 1722.] 4 [Augustus Schutz, Equerry to Prince George. The "Grafton" mentioned in the next line was the Duke of Grafton, the second duke, who was one of the Lords of the Bedchamber in 1714, and next year of the Privy Council. "C 'Pickenbourg" and "Meadows" were maids of honour, the latter a sister of Sir Sidney Meadows.] 5 [Lady Rich, one of the correspondents of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, was the wife of Sir Robert Rich, Bart. She was a daughter of Colonel Griffin, and sister of Miss Griffin, of the Princess's establishment, alluded to in the For virgins, to keep chaste, must go VIII. And thus, fair maids, my ballad ends: ROXANA; OR, THE DRAWING-ROOM. AN ECLOGUE.1 ROXANA, from the Court returning late, Sigh'd her soft sorrow at St. James's gate: first stanza. Mistress Howard," afterwards Countess of Suffolk, is of course the person alluded to in the next line. Neither Lady Rich nor Mrs. Howard would be much gratified by the poet's attentions in this ballad.] 1 [This and the following poem, though included in Pope's works, seem fairly to belong to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and form part of her Town Eclogues. Mr. Dallaway, in his memoir of Lady Mary, says, "Both Pope and Gay suggested many additions and alterations, which were certainly not adopted by Lady Mary; and as copies, including their corrections, have been found among the papers of these poets, their editors have attributed three out of six to them. The Basset Table and the Drawing Room are given to Pope, and The Toilet to Gay." The younger Richardson relates, that when Lady Mary showed Pope a paper of her verses in which he wished to make some trifling alterations, she said, "No, Pope, no touching, for then whatever is good for anything will pass for yours, and the rest for mine." Pope stated to Spence that Lydia (The Toilet) was almost wholly Gay's, only five or six lines being "new set" in it by Lady Mary. "It was that," he adds, " which gave the hint; and she wrote the other five eclogues;" consequently, Pope wrote none of them himself.] "Was it for this, that I these roses wear? This king, I never could attend too soon; |