Page images
PDF
EPUB

Ver. 12. Here lies GAY.] i. e. in the hearts of the good and worthy.-Mr. Pope told me his conceit in this line was not generally understood. For, by peculiar ill-luck, the formulary expression which makes the beauty, misleads the reader into a sense which takes it quite away. Warburton. The conceit in the last line is certainly very puerile, and a false thought borrowed from Crashaw:

66 Entomb'd, not in this stone but in my heart."
CRASHAW, Poems, p. 94.

Warton.

XII.

INTENDED FOR SIR ISAAC NEWTON,

IN WESTMINSTER-ABBEY.

ISAACUS NEWTONUS:

Quem Immortalem

Testantur Tempus, Natura, Cœlum:

Mortalem

Hoc marmor fatetur...

Nature and Nature's Laws lay hid in Night: GOD said, Let Newton be! and all was Light.

NOTES.

Ver. 1. Nature] The antithesis betwixt Mortalem and Immortalem is much unsuited to the subject; and the second English line, "God said, &c." borders a little on the profane. The magnificent Fiat of Moses will be always striking and admired, notwithstanding the cold objections of Le Clerc and Huet. Warton.

Ver. 2. Let Newton be!] He was born on the very day on which

Galileo

Galileo died. When Ramsay was one day complimenting him on his discoveries in philosophy, he answered, as I read it in Spence's Anecdotes, "Alas! I am only like a child picking up pebbles on the shore of the great ocean of truth." Warton.

And all was Light.] It had been better-and there was Lightas more conformable to the reality of the fact, and to the allusion whereby it is celebrated. Warburton.

XIII.

ON DR. FRANCIS ATTERBURY,

BISHOP OF ROCHESTER.

Who died in Exile at Paris, 1732, (his only Daughter having expired in his Arms, immediately after she arrived in France to see him).

DIALOGUE.

SHE.

YES, we have liv'd-one pang, and then we part! May Heav'n, dear Father! now have all thy Heart. Yet ah! how once we lov'd, remember still,

Till you are dust like me.

HE.

Dear Shade! I will:

Then mix this dust with thine-O spotless Ghost!

NOTES.

Ver. 1. Yes, we have liv'd-] I know not why this Dialogue should be called an Epitaph. Dr. Johnson says, "it is contemptible, and should have been suppressed for the Author's sake." I see no reason for this harsh sentence passed upon it. Warton.

Dr.

O more than Fortune, Friends, or Country lost! Is there on Earth one care, one wish beside? Yes-SAVE MY COUNTRY, HEAVʼN,

NOTES.

-He said, and dy'd.

Dr. Johnson says, "the contemptible Dialogue between He and She,' should have been suppressed."

Many of our old Epitaphs are written in dialogue. In this instance, nothing could so well express the story of the Daughter and Father meeting in a foreign country, he exiled, and she dying in his arms! Bowles.

Ver. 9. SAVE MY COUNTRY, HEAV'N,] Alluding to the Bishop's frequent use and application of the expiring words of the famous Father Paul, in his prayer for the state, "Esto perpetua." With what propriety the Bishop applied it at his trial, and is here made to refer to it in his last moments, they will understand who know what conformity there was in the lives of the Prelate and the Monk. The character of our countryman is well known; and that of the Father may be told in very few words. He was profoundly skilled in all divine and human learning. He employed his whole life in the service of the State, against the unjust encroachments of the Church. He was modest, humble, and forgiving, candid, patient, and just; free from all prejudices of party, and all the projects of ambition; in a word, the happiest compound of science, wisdom, and virtue. Warburton.

This severe sarcasm would certainly, if he had seen it, been highly displeasing to Pope, who retained for Atterbury the warmest affection and respect. But from the Letters of Atterbury, printed, in three volumes, by Mr. Nicholls, and particularly from those in p. 148, to p. 168, it almost indisputably appears that the Bishop was engaged in a treasonable correspondence, and in the intrigues of the Pretender. Warton.

XIV.

ON EDMUND DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.*

WHO DIED IN The nineteentH YEAR OF HIS AGE, 1735.

Ir modest Youth, with cool Reflection crown'd,
And ev'ry op'ning Virtue blooming round,
Could save a Parent's justest Pride from fate,
Or add one Patriot to a sinking state;
This weeping marble had not ask'd thy Tear,
Or sadly told, how many hopes lie here!
The living Virtue now had shone approv'd,
The Senate heard him, and his Country lov'd.
Yet softer Honours, and less noisy Fame
Attend the shade of gentle BUCKINGHAM :
In whom a Race, for Courage fam'd, and Art,
Ends in the milder Merit of the Heart;
And-Chiefs or Sages long to Britain given-
Pays the last Tribute of a Saint to Heav'n.

NOTES.

5

10

* Only son of John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, by Katherine Darnley, natural daughter of James II.

To crown

Ver. 1. If modest Youth, &c.] This Epitaph Mr. Warburton prefers to the rest, but I know not for what reason. with reflection, is surely a mode of speech approaching to nonsense. Opening virtues blooming round, is something like tautology. The six following lines are poor and prosaic. Art, is in another place used for arts. The six last lines are the best, but not excellent.

Johnson.

The above Epitaph is written with a degree of feeling, which would atone for greater blemishes than Dr. Johnson has been able to point out.

XV.

FOR ONE WHO WOULD NOT BE BURIED IN

WESTMINSTER-ABBEY.

HEROES and Kings! your distance keep:
In peace let one poor Poet sleep,
Who never flatter'd folks like you:
Let Horace blush, and Virgil too.

ANOTHER, ON THE SAME.

UNDER this Marble, or under this Sill,
Or under this Turf, or e'en what they will;
Whatever an Heir, or a Friend in his stead,
Or any good creature shall lay o'er my head,
Lies one who ne'er car'd, and still cares not a pin
What they said, or may say, of the mortal within :
But, who living and dying, serene still and free,
Trusts in GoD, that as well as he was, he shall be.
Imitated from the following lines of Ariosto:

Ludovici Areosti humantur ossa

Sub hoc marmore, vel sub hoc humo, seu
Sub quicquid voluit benignus hæres

Sive hærede benignior comes, seu

Opportunius incidens Viator:

Nam scire haud potuit futura, sed nec

Tanti erat vacuum sibi cadaver
Ut utnam cuperet parare vivens,
Vivens ista tamen sibi paravit.
Quæ inscribi voluit suo sepulchro
Olim siquod haberetis sepulchrum.

J. M'Creery, Tooks Court,
Chancery Lane, London.

END OF VOL. III.

« PreviousContinue »