EPITAPH. WELL then, poor Glies underground! So there's an end of honest Jack. So little justice here he found, "Tis ten to one he'll ne'er come back. Now THE BALANCE OF EUROPE. OW Europe balanced, neither side prevails; 66 TO A LADY WITH THE TEMPLE OF FAME.” WHAT'S fame with men by custom of the nation, Is call'd in women only reputation : About them both why keep we such a pother? ["I send you my Temple of Fame, which is just come out; but my sentiments about it you will see better by this epigram."-Pope to Martha Blount, 1714.] ON THE TOASTS OF THE KIT-CAT CLUB, ANNO 1716. HENCE deathless Kit-Cat took its name, WH Few critics can unriddle; Some say from pastry-cook it came, And some from cat and fiddle. From no trim beaux its name it boasts, Of old "cats" and young "kits." [The Kit-cat Club was formed about the year 1700, and met at first in a pastry-cook's in Shire-lane, near Temple-Bar. This person, famous for mutton pies, was called Christopher Cat, whence the name of the club. Toasting ladies after dinner was a rule of the club. A lady was chosen for the year by ballot, and her name written with a diamond on a drinking glass. Poetical jeux d'esprit on the beauties thus selected to reign supreme were written by Addison, Garth, the Earl of Halifax, Lord Dorset, Lord Wharton, &c. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, when a child of only eight years of age, was nominated by her father, Lord Kingston. Jacob Tonson, the publisher, was mainly instrumental in keeping the club together, and the members presented him with their portraits, painted by Kneller, all uniform in size. These portraits, forty-eight in number, Tonson hung up in a room which he had added to his residence at Barn Elms, for the meetings of the club. They are still preserved, and have been often engraved.] A DIALOGUE (1717). POPE.-Since my old friend is grown so great I'm told, but 'tis not true, I hope, CRAGGS.-Alas! if I am such a creature To grow the worse for going greater; ON DRAWINGS OF THE STATUES OF APOLLO, VENUS, AND HERCULES, MADE FOR POPE BY SIR GODFREY KNELLER. WHAT god, what genius, did the pencil move, When Kneller painted these ? 'Twas friendship warm as Phoebus, kind as love, UPON THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH'S HOUSE AT WOODSTOCK. SEE, sir, here's the grand approach; This way is for his grace's coach: There lies the bridge, and here's the clock, The spacious court, the colonnade, And mark how wide the hall is made! Thanks, sir, cried I, 'tis very fine, That 'tis a house, but not a dwelling. dine? [Lord Chesterfield has the same idea in his Epigram on Burlington House: "How well you build, let flattery tell; And all mankind, how ill you dwell.” Lord Hervey said of Lord Burlington's villa at Chiswick, that it was too small to live in, and too large to hang by one's watch!] ON A PICTURE OF QUEEN CAROLINE, DRAWN BY PEACE, flattering Bishop! lying Dean! This portrait only paints the Queen! [The Bishop was Gilbert; the Dean, Dr. Alured Clarke, satirised in Epilogue to the Satires.] ON BENTLEY'S "MILTON." DID Milton's prose, O Charles, thy death defend? A furious foe unconscious proves a friend. While he but sought his author's fame to further, WHEN ON CERTAIN LADIES. HEN other fair ones to the shades go down, ENGRAVED ON THE COLLAR OF A DOG WHICH I GAVE TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS. [Frederick, Prince of Wales, father of George III.] I AM his Highness' dog at Kew; Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you? [This is taken from Sir William Temple's Heads designed for an Essay on Conversation. "Mr. Grantam's fool's reply to a great man that asked whose fool he was,-'I am Mr. Grantam's fool-pray tell me whose fool are you?'" VERBATIM FROM BOILEAU. Un jour, dit un Auteur, &c. ONCE, says an author-where I need not say Two travellers found an oyster in their way; Dame Justice, weighing long the doubtful right,, A BISHOP HOUGH. BISHOP, by his neighbours hated, Has cause to wish himself translated; I'll lay my life I know the place: 'Tis where God sent some that adore him, [Dr. John Hough was made Bishop of Oxford in 1690; Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry in 1699, and Bishop of Worcester in 1717. He died in 1743, at the great age of ninety-three. Pope's compliments to this prelate are creditable to his liberality, for Hough made a courageous and memorable stand against the bigotry and tyranny of James II.] ΜΥ EPIGRAM. Y Lord complains that Pope, stark mad with gardens, "But he's my neighbour;" cries the peer polite: A lord's acquaintance? Let him file his bill! [Pope had cut three walnut-trees, which hindered the view from his garden. Warton says the peer alluded to was Lord Radnor. The Countess of Hertford, in her Correspondence with the Countess of Pomfret (2nd edit. 1806), says the trees belonged to Lady Ferrers, "whom he makes a lord." |