Not fo, when diadem'd with rays divine, Touch'd with the Flame that breaks from Virtue's Shrine, Her Prieftefs Mufe forbids the Good to die, There, other Trophies deck the truly brave, 235 And may defcend to Mordington from STAIR; NOTES. VER. 235. And opes] From Milton's Comus, ver. 14. "That opes the Palace of Eternity." VER. 236. There, other Trophies deck the truly brave, Than fuch as ANSTIS cafts into the Grave;] Shak speare tells us, that the Poet's Creation "Gives to AIRY NOTHING A local HABITATION and a NAME;". juft fo, the King's; i. c. a SEAT and a TITLE. VER. 237. Anfis] The chief Herald at Arms. W. It is the cuftom, at the funeral of great peers, to caft into the grave the broken ftaves and enfigns of honour. P. VER. 239. STAIR] John Dalrymple Earl of Stair, Knight of the Thiftle, served in all the wars under the Duke of Marlborough; and afterwards as Embaffador in France. P. VER. 240. On HOUGH's unfully'd] Jn the fifty-seventh Perfian Letter, is an elegant and well-written eulogium on this excellent prelate, by Lord Lyttelton. Thefe Letters have been too much depreciated and neglected. VER. 240, 241. HOUGH and DIGBY] Dr. John Hough, Bishop of Worcester; and the Lord Digby. The one an affertor of the Church of England in oppofition to the false measures of King James II. The other as firmly attached to the cause of that King. Both a&ting out of principle, and equally men of honour and virtue. P. Let Flatt'ry fick'ning fee the Incense rife, And makes immortal, Verse as mean as mine. Yes, the laft Pen for Freedom let me draw, When Truth ftands trembling on the edge of Law ; Here, Laft of Britons! let your Names be read; Are none, none living? let me praise the Dead, And for that Caufe which made your Fathers fhine, Fall by the Votes of their degen'rate Line. NOTES. VER. 249. When Truth ftands trembling] England, with all thy faults, I love thee fill, Where English minds and manners may be found, I would not yet exchange thy fullen fkies And fields without a flower, for warmer France Of golden fruitage and her myrtle bow'rs. Lines of the tender and benevolent Cowper, which I here infert, in order to put us again in good humour with our country, after having juft feen her placed in a difagreeable light. VER. 253. Of their degen'rate Line.] Such was the language at that time, used by our Author and his friends and affociates. Lord Chefterfield ends the account of his friend Hammond, author of the Love Elegies, with thefe words: "He looked back with a kind of religious awe and delight, upon these glorious and happy times of Greece and Rome, when wisdom, virtue, and liberty formed the only triumvirates; in thefe fentiments he lived, and would have lived, even in these times; in these fentiments he died; but in these times too, ut non crepta a diis immortalibus vita, fed donata, mors videatur. Speaking of the effects of fatire, fays a certain wit, "Cette scène du monde, prefque de tous les temps & de tous les lieux, vous voudriez la changer! voilà votre folie, à vous autres moralifles. Montez en chaire avec Bourdaloue, ou prenez la plume avec La Bruyere, temps perdu; le monde ira toujours comme il va." Fr. Alas! alas! pray end what you began, And write next winter more Effays on Man. 255 VER. 255. in the MS. VARIATIONS. Quit, quit these themes and write Effays on Man. NOTES. In every age, and in every nation, there is a conftant progreffion of manners; "For the manners of a people, feldom ftand ftill, but are either POLISHING or SPOILING." VER. 254. Pray end what] We muft own that these Dialogues, excellent as they are, exhibit many and Arong marks of our Author's petulance, party-fpirit, and felf-importance; and of affuming to himself the character of cenfor-general; who, alas! if he had poffeffed a thousand times more genius, integrity, and ability, than he actually enjoyed, could not have altered or amended the manners of a rich and commercial, and confequently of a luxurious and dissipated nation. But we make ourselves unhappy, by hoping to poffefs incompatible things; we want to have wealth without corruption and liberty without virtue ! VER. ult.] This was the laft Poem of the kind printed by our Author, with a resolution to publish no more; but to enter thus in the most plain and folemn manner he could, a fort of PROTEST againft that infuperable corruption and depravity of manners, which he had been fo unhappy as to live to fee. Could be have hoped to have amended any, he had continued those attacks; but bad men grown fo fhameless and fo powerful that Ridicule was become as unfafe as it was ineffectual. The Poem raised him, as he knew it would, fome enemies; but he had reafon to be fatis fied with the approbation of good men, and the teftimony of his own confcience. were P. ON RECEIVING FROM THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LADY FRANCES SHIRLEY A STANDISH AND TWO PENS. YES, I beheld th' Athenian Queen Defcend in all her fober charms; This golden lance shall guard Desert, NOTES. The Lady Frances Shirley] A lady whose grear Merit Mr. Pope took a real pleasure in celebrating. W. Yes, I beheld, &c.] To enter into the spirit of this Address, it is neceffary to premife, that the Poet was threatened with a profecution in the House of Lords, for the two foregoing poems, the Epilogue to the Satires. On which, with great refentment against his enemies, for not being willing to diftinguish between Grave Epifles bringing Vice to light, and licentious Lifiels, he began a third Dialogue, more fevere and fublime than the brft and fecond; which being no fecret, matters were foon compromised. His enemies agreed to drop the profe cution, and bepromifed to leave the third Dialogue unfinished and fuppreffed. This affair occafioned this little beautiful poem,to which it alludes throughout, but more especially in the four laft ftanzas. W. Thefe ftanzas are obfcure and hard, and below the ufual preeilion and elegance of our Author. See particularly the fecond, third, fifth, and eighth ftanzas. t |