Yet foft by nature, more a dupe than wit,
Sappho can tell you how this man was bit:
This dreaded Sat'rift Dennis will confefs
Foe to his pride, but friend to his distress:
So humble, he has knock'd at Tibbald's door,
Has drunk with Cibber, nay has rhym'd for Moor.
Full ten years flander'd, did he once reply?
Three thousand funs went down on Welfted's lye.

VARIATIONS.

VER. 368. in the MS.

Once, and but once, his heedless youth was bit,
And lik'd that dang'rous thing, a female wit:
Safe as he thought, tho' all the prudent chid;
He writ no Libels, but my Lady did :
Great odds in am'rous or poetic game,

Where Woman's is the fin, and Man's the fhame.

NOTES.

37°

VER. 374. ten years] It was fo long after many libels before the Author of the Dunciad published that poem, till when, he never writ a word in answer to the many fcurrilities and falfehoods concerning him.

P.

VER. 375. Welfted's Lye.] This man had the impudence to tell in print, that Mr. P. had occafioned a Lady's death, and to name a perfon he never heard of. He also publifh'd that he libell'd the Duke of Chandos; with whom (it was added) that he had lived in familiarity, and received from him a prefent of five hundred pounds: the falfehood of both which is known to his Grace. Mr. P. never received any prefent, farther than the subscription for Homer, from him, or from Any great Man whatsoever. P.

To please a Mistress one afpers'd his life;
He lafh'd him not, but let her be his wife:
Let Budgel charge low Grubftræet on his quill,
And write whate'er he pleas'd, except his Will;
Let the two Curls of Town and Court, abuse
His father, mother, body, foul, and muse.

NOTES.

376

380

VER. 378. Let Budgel] Budgel, in a weekly pamphlet called the Bee, beftowed much abuse on him, in the imagination that he writ fome things about the Laft Will of Dr. Tindal, in the Grubftreet Journal; a Paper wherein he never had the leaft hand, direction, or fupervifal, nor the least knowledge of its Author.

P.

VER. 379 except his Will] Alluding to Tindal's Will: by which, and other indirect practices, Budgell, to the exclufion of the next heir, a nephew, got to himfelf almost the whole fortune of a man entirely unrelated to him.

VER. 381. His father, mother, &c.] In fome of Curl's and other pamphlets, Mr. Pope's father was faid to be a Mechanic, a Hatter, a Farmer, nay a Bankrupt. But, what is ftranger, a Nobleman (if fuch a Reflection could be thought to come from a Nobleman) had dropt an allufion to that pitiful untruth, in a paper called an Epiftle to a Doctor of Divinity: And the following line,

Hard as thy Heart, and as thy Birth obscure,

had fallen from a like Courtly pen, in certain Verfes to the Imitation of Horace. Mr. Pope's Father was of a Gentleman's Family in Oxfordshire, the head of which was the Earl of Downe, whofe fole Heirefs married the Earl of Lindsey-His mother was the daughter of William Turnor, Efq. of York: She had three brothers, one of whom was killed, another died in the fervice of King Charles; the eldeft following his fortunes, and becoming

Yet why? that Father held it for a rule,

It was a fin to call our neighbour fool:

That harmless Mother thought no wife a whore:
Hear this, and fpare his family, James Moore!
Unfpotted names, and memorable long!

If there be force in Virtue, or in Song.

Of gentle blood (part shed in Honour's cause, While yet in Britain Honour had applause)

386

Each parent fprung-A. What fortune, pray?—P.

Their own,

And better got, than Beftia's from the throne.

Born to no Pride, inheriting no Strife,

390

Nor marrying Difcord in a noble wife,

Stranger to civil and religious rage,

The good man walk'd innoxious thro' his age.

NOTES.

395

a general officer in Spain, left her what eftate remained after the fequeftrations and forfeitures of her family— Mr. Pope died in 1717, aged 75; She in 1733, aged 93, a very few weeks after this poem was finished. The following infcription was placed by their fon on their Monument in the parish of Twickenham, in Middle fex.

D. O. M.

ALEXANDRO. POPE. VIRO. INNOCVO. PROBO. PIO.
QUI. VIXIT. ANNOS. LXXV. OB. MDCCXVII.
ET. EDITHAE. CONIVGI. INCVLPABILI.
PIENTISSIMAE. QVAE. VIXIT. ANNOS.
XCIII. OB. MDCCXXXIII.

PARENTIBVS. BENEMERENTIBVS. FILIVS. FECIT.

No Courts he faw, no fuits would ever try,
Nor dar'd an Oath, nor hazarded a Lye.
Un-learn'd, he knew no schoolman's subtile art,
No language, but the language of the heart.
By Nature honest, by Experience wife,
Healthy by temp'rance, and by exercise;

His life, tho' long, to fickness past unknown,
His death was inftant, and without a groan.

400

O grant me, thus to live, and thus to die!

404

Who fprung from Kings shall know lefs joy than I. O Friend! may each domeftic blifs be thine!

Be no unpleafing Melancholy mine:

Me, let the tender office long engage,
To rock the cradle of repofing Age,

With lenient arts extend a Mother's breath,

410

Make Langour smile, and smooth the bed of Death,

Explore the thought, explain the asking eye,

And keep a while one parent from the sky!

On cares like thefe if length of days attend,

May Heav'n, to bless those days, preserve my friend,

VARIATIONS.

After 405. in the MS.

And of myself, too, fomething muft I say?
Take then this verfe, the trifle of a day.

And if it live, it lives but to commend

The man whofe heart has ne'er forgot a Friend,
Or head, an Author: Critic, yet polite

And friend to Learning, yet too wife to write.

Preferve him focial, chearful, and ferene,
And just as rich as when he serv'd a QUEEN.
A. Whether that bleffing be deny'd or giv❜n,
Thus far was right, the reft belongs to Heav'n.

NOTES.

416

VER. 417. And just as rich as when he ferv'd a Queen.] An honeft compliment to his Friend's real and unaffected difinterestedness, when he was the favourite Phyfician of Queen Anne.

VER. 418. A. Whether this bleffing, &c.] He makes his friend close the Dialogue with a fentiment very expreffive of that religious refignation, which was the Character both of his temper, and his piety.