Curft be the verse, how well foe'er it flow, That tends to make one worthy man my foc, Give Virtue fcandal, Innocence a fear, 285 Or from the foft-ey'd Virgin steal a tear! NOTES. 290 VER. 271. Why am I ask'd, &c.] This is intended as a reproof of thofe impertinent complaints, which were continually made to him by those who called themselves his friends, for not entertaining the Town as often as it wanted amusement. A French Writer fays well on this occafion Dès qu'on eft auteur, il femble qu'on fait aux gages d'un tas de fainéans, pour leur fournir de quoi amufer leur oifiveté. W. VER. 282. When ev'ry Coxcomb knows me by my Style? The difcovery of a concealed author by his Style, not only requires a perfe& intimacy with his writings, but great skill in the nature of compofition. But, in the pradice of thefe Critics, knowing an Author by his ftyle, is like judging of a man's whole perfon from the view of one of his moles." When Mr. Pope wrote the Advertisement to the first edition of the new Dunciad, intimating, that "it was by a different hand from the other, and found in detached pieces, incorre& and unfinished," I obje&ed to bim the affectation of using so unpromifing an attempt to milead his Reader. He replied, that I thought too highly of the public tafte; that, moft commonly, it was formed on that of half a dozeu people in fashion; who took the lead, and who fometimes have intruded on the Town the dulleft performances for works of wit: while, at the fame time, fome true effort of genius, without name or recommendation, hath paffed by the publick eye unobferved or negleded: that be once before made the trial, I now obje& to, with fuccefs, in the Effay on Man: which was at firft given (as he told me) to Dr. Young, to Dr. Defaguliers, to Lord Bolingbroke, to Lord Paget, and, in fhort, to every body but to bim who was capable of writing it. However, to make him amends, this fame Public, when let into the fecret, would, for fome time after, fuffer no poem with a moral title, to pafs for auy man's but his. So the Effay on Human Life, the Essay on Reafon, and many others of a worse tendency, were very liberally beftowed upon him. W. There are many admirable paffages in Harte's Effay on Human Reason, which was much praised on its firft publication, and is faid to have been corre&ed by Pope. 295 That Fop, whofe pride affects a patron's name, NOTES. 300 VER. 299. Who to the Dean, and filver bell, &c.] Meaning the man who would have perfuaded the Duke of Chandos that Mr. P. meant him in thofe circumftances ridiculed in the Epiftle on Taste. See Mr. Pope's letter to the Earl of Burlingtou concerning this matter. P. VER. 305. Let Sperus tremble] Language cannot afford more glowing or more forcible terms to exprefs the utmoft bitterness of contempt. We think we are here reading Milton again Salmafius. The raillery is carried to the very verge of railing, fome will fay ribaldry. He has armed his mufe with a fcalping knife. The portrait is certainly over-charged: for Lord H. for whom it was defign'd, whatever his morals might be, had yet confiderable abilities, though marred by affectation. Some of his speeches in parliament were much beyond florid impotence. They were, it is true, in favour of Sir R. Walpole; and this was fufficiently offenfive to Pope. The fa& that particularly excited his indignation, was Lord H.'s Epittle to a Dodor of Divinity (Dr. Sherwin) from a Nobleman at Hampton Court, 1733; as well as his having been concerned with Lady M. W. M. in Verfes to the Imitator of Horace, 1732. This Lady's beauty, wit, genius, and travels, of which he gave an account in a feries of elegant and entertaining letters,very characteriflical of the manners of the Turks, Sporus, that mere white curd of Afs's milk? NOTES. 306 and of which many are addressed to Pope; are well known, and juftly And Lady M. W. M. by the eighty-third line of the fame piece, too It is a fingular circumftance, that our Author's indignation was fo vehement and inexhauftible, that it furnished him with another invective, of equal power, in profe, which is to be found at the end of the eighth volume, containing his Letters. The reader will find, that it abounds in fo many new frokes of farcasm, in so many sudden and repeated blows, that he does not allow the poor devoted peer a moment's breathing-time: Nunc dextra ingeminans i&us, nune ille finiftrâ ; Nec mora, nec requies; quam multâ grandine nimbi It is indeed a mafter-piece of invelive, and perhaps excels the charader of Sporus itself, capital as that is, above quoted: who, however, would wish to be the author of fuch a cutting inveЯive? But can this be the nobleman (we are apt to afk) whom Middleton, in bis Dedication to the History of the Life of Tully, has fo feriously, and fo carneftly praised, for his ftrong good fenfe, bis confummate politeness, his real patriotifin, his rigid temperance, his thorough knowledge and defence of the laws of his country, his accurate skill in hiftory, his unexampled and unremitted diligence in literary purfuits, who added credit to this very hiftory, as Scipio and Lælius did to that of Polybius, by revifing and correcting; and brightening it, as he expreffes it, by the ftrokes of his penci!? The man that had written this fplendid encomium on Lord H. could not, we may imagine, be very well affeded to the bard who had painted Lord Fanny in fo ridiculous a light. We find him writing thus to D. Warburton, January 7, 1740: "You have evinced the orthodoxy of Mr. Pope's principles; but, like the old commentators on his Homer, will be thought perhaps, in fome places, to have found a meaning for him, that he himself never dreamt of. However, if you did not find him a philofopher, you will make him one; for he will be wife enough to take the benefit of your reading, and make his future Effays more clear and confiftent." VEE. 306. White curd] Methinks this was too perfonal. Lord Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel? P. Yet let me flap this bug with gilded wings, In mumbling of the game they dare not bite. And, as the prompter breathes, the puppet fqueaks; Or at the ear of Eve, familiar Toad, Half froth, half venom, fpits himself abroad, 320 Or fpite, or fmut, or rhymes, or blafphemies. NOTE S. Hervey, to prevent the attacks of an epilepfy, perfifted in a ftri& regimen of daily food, which was a fmall quantity of affes milk and a flour bifcuit, with an apple once a week; and he ufed a little paint to foften his ghaftly appearance. VER. 308. Upon a wheel? It ought to be the wheel. The indefinite article is used for the definite. VER. 319. See Milton, Book iv. P. A Cherub's face, a reptile all the reft, Beauty that shocks you, parts that none will trust, Not Fortune's worshipper, nor Fashion's fool, NOTES. 340 VER. 322. Or blafphemies.] In former editions thefe two lines followed immediately: Did ever Smock-face a& fo vile a part, A trifling head, and a corrupted heart. VER. 340. That not in Fancy's maze he wander'd long,] His merit in this will appear very great, if we confider, that in this walk he had all the advantages which the moft poetic Imagination could give to a great Genius. M. Voltaire, in a MS. letter now before me, writes thus from England to a friend in Paris: "I intend to fend you two or three poems of Mr. Pope, the beft Poet of England, and at present of all the world. I hope you are acquainted enough with the English tongue, to be fenfible of all the charms of his works. For my part, I look upon his poem called the Essay on Criticijm as fuperior to the Art of Poetry of Horace; and his Rape of the Lock is, in my opinion, above the Lutrin of Despreaux. I never saw so amiable an imagination, fo gentle graces, fo great variety, fo much wit, and fo refined know. ledge of the world, as in this little performance." MS. Lett. 08. 15, 1726. W. VER. 341. But floop'd to Truth, and moraliz'd his fong: This may be faid no lefs in commendation of bis literary, than of his moral character, And his fuperior excellence in poetry is owing to it. He foon difcovered in what his force lay; and he made the best of that advantage, by a fedulous cultivation of his proper talent. For having read Quintilian early, this precept did not escape him, Suat hæc duo vitanda prorfus: unum ne tentes quod effici non poffit; alterum, ne ab eo, |