EPILOGUE TO THE SATIRE S. WRITTEN IN MDCCXXXVIII. FR. DIALOGUE I. NOT twice a twelvemonth your appea in Print, And when it comes, the Court fee nothing in't. VARIATIONS. After Ver. 2. in the MS. You don't, I hope, pretend to quit the trade, NOTES. VER. 1. Not twice a twelvemonth, &c.] Thefe two lines are from Horace; and the only lines that are fo in the whole Poem; being meant to give a handle to that which follows in the chara&er of an impertinent Cenfurer, "'Tis all from Horace," &c. P. By long habit of writing, and almoft conftantly in one fort of measure, he bad now arrived at a happy and elegant familiarity of ftyle, without flatnefs. The fatire in thefe pieces is of the frongeft kind; sometimes, dire& and declamatory, at others, ironical and You grow correct that once with Rapture writ, 5 NOTES. oblique. It must be owned to be carried to excefs. Our country is reprefented as totally ruined, and overwhelmed with diffipation, depravity, and corruption. Yet this very country, fo emafculated and debased by every fpecies of folly and wickednefs, in about twenty years afterwards, carried its triumphs over all its enemies, through all the quarters of the world, and aftonished the moft diftant nations with a difplay of uncommon efforts, abilities, and virtue. So vain and groundlefs are the prognoftications of poets, as well as politicians. It is to be wifhed, that a genius could be found to write an One Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty-one, as a counter-part to these two Dialogues, which were more diligently laboured, and more frequently corre&ed than any of our Author's compofitions. I have often heard Mr. Dodfley say, that he was employed by the Author to copy them fairly. Every line was then written twice over; a clean tranfcript was then delivered to Mr. Pope, and when he afterwards fent it to Mr. Dodley to be printed, he found every line had been written twice over a fecond time. Swift tells our Author, thefe Dialogues are equal, if not fuperior, to any part of his works. They are, in truth, more Horatian than the profeffed Imitations of Horace. They at firft were intitled, from the year in which they were published, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Thirty-eight. They were afterwards called, fantafiically enough, Epilogue to the Satires, as the Epifle to Arbuthnot was intitled Prologue to the Satires. It is remarkable that the firft was published the very fame morning with johnfon's admirable London; which Pope much approved, and fearched diligently for the Author, who lived then in obscurity. London had a fecond edition in a week. Pope has himself given more notes and illuftrations on thefe Dialogues than on any other of his poems. VER. 2. See nothing in't.] He used this colloquial (I will not fay barbarifm, but) abbreviation, to imitate familiar converfation. And And taught his Romans, in much better metre, ❝ To laugh at Fools who put their truft in Peter." But Horace, Sir, was delicate, was nice, Bubo obferves, he lafh'd no fort of Vice: 11 15 Horace would fay, Sir Billy ferv'd the Crown, NOTES. VER. 9, 10. And taught his Romans in much better metre, "To laugh at Fools who put their truft in Peter."] The general turn of the thought is from Boileau, "Avant lui, Juvenal avoit dit en Latin, Qu'on eft affis à l'aife aux fermons de Cotin." VER. 12. Bubo obferves,] Some guilty perfon, very fond of making fuch an observation. P. Bubo is faid to mean Mr. Doddington, afterward Lord Melcombe. But VER. 13. Horace would fag,] The bufinefs of the friend here introduced is to diffuade our Poet from perfonal inveЯives. he dexterously turns the very advice he is giving into the bittereft fatire. Sir Billy was Sir William Young, who, from a great fluency, was often employed to make long fpeeches till the minifter's friends were colle&ed in the House. VER. 14. H-ggins] Formerly Gaoler of the Fleet prifon, enriched himself by many exadions, for which he was tried and expelled. He was the father of the Author of the abfurd and profaïc Tranflation of Ariofto; an account of him is given in the Anecă dotes of Hogarth. VER. 15. In Sappho touch] In former Editions, Sir George of fome flight gallantries fufped. VER. 18. Who cropt our Ears,] Said to be executed by the Captain of a Spanish fhip on one Jenkins, a Captain of an Eng lith one. He cut off his ears, and bid him cary them to the King his mafter. P, 290 Could pleafe at Court, and make AUGUSTUS fmile: An artful Manager, that crept between 21 His Friend and Shame, and was a kind of Screen. P. See Sir ROBERT!-hum And never laugh—for all my life to come? VARIATIONS. After Ver. 26. in the MS. There's honeft Tacitus once talk'd as big. But is he now an independant Whig? * Mr. Thomas Gordon, who was bought off by a place at Court. [ VER. 22. Screen.] NOTE S. "Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico Tangit, et admiffus circum præcordia ludit." PERS. A metaphor peculiarly appropriated to a certain perfon in power. P. VER. 24. Patriots there are, &c.] This appellation was generally given to thofe in oppofition to the Court. Though fome of them (which our Author hints at) had views too mean and interefted to deferve that name. P. VER. 26. The Great man] priated to the firft Minifter. A phrafe, by common ufe, appro VER. 27. Go fee Sir ROBERT] We muft not judge of this minifter's character from the Differtation on Parties, nor from the eloquent Philippics, for eloquent they were, uttered againft him in both Houses of Parliament. Hume has drawn his portrait with candour and impartiality. And some of his moft vehement antagonists, particularly the great Lord Chatham, lived to allow the merits of that long and pacific miniftry, which fo much extended the commerce, and confequently enlarged the riches of this country. VER. 29. Seen him I have, &c.] This, and other ftrokes of com. mendation in the following poem, as well as his regard to Sir Robert Walpole on all occafions, were in acknowledgment of a certain Seen him I have, but in his happier hour NOTES. 30 fervice he had done a friend of Mr. Pope's at his folicitation. Our Poet, when he was about feventeen, had a very ill fever in the country; which it was feared would end fatally. In this condition he wrote to Southcot, a Prieft of his acquaintance, then in town, to take his laft leave of him. Southcot, with great affection and folicitude applied to Dr. Radcliffe for his advice. And not content with that, he rode down poft to Mr Pope, who was then an hundred miles from London, with the Do&or's directions; which had the defired effect. A long time after this, Southcot, who had an intereft in the Court of France, writing to a common acquaintance in England, informed him that there was a good abbey void near Avignon, which he had credit enough to get, were it not from an apprehenfion that his promotion would give umbrage to the English Court; to which he (Southcot) by his intrigues in the Pretender's fervice, was become very obnoxious. The perfon to whom this was written happening to acquaint Mr. Pope with the cafe, he immedi- ately wrote a pleasant letter to Sir R. Walpole in the Prieft's behalf: He acquainted the Minifter with the grounds of his folicitation, and begged that this embargo, for his Mr. P.'s fake, might be taken off; for that he was indebted to Southcot for his life; which debt muft needs be discharged either here or in purgatory. The Minifter received the application favourably, and with much good-nature wrote to his brother, then in France, to remove the obftruction. In confequence of which Southcot got the abbey. Mr. Pope ever after retained a grateful fenfe of his civility. W. To the account given in this note may be added, that in gratitude for this favour conferred on his friend, Pope prefented to Mr. Horatio Walpole, afterwards Lord Walpole, a fet of his Works in quarto, richly bound; which are now in the library at Wolterton. VER. 31. Seen him, uncumber'd] Thefe two verfes were originally in the Poem, though omitted in all the firft editions. VER. 34. He does not think me] In former Editions, P. He thinks me Poet of no venal kind. VER. 34. What he thinks mankind.] This request appears somewhat abfurd: but not more fo than the principle it refers tv. That great |