345 He ftood the furious foe, the timid friend, NOTES. 350 quod quis optime facit, in aliud, cui minus eft idoneus, transferas. It was in this knowledge and cultivation of his genius that he bad principally the advantage of his great matter, Dryden; who, by his Mac-Fleeno, his Abfolom and Achitophel, but chiefly by his Prologues and Epilogues, appears to have had great talents for this fpecies of moral poetry: but, unluckily, he feemed neither to understand nor attend to it. W. Ibid. But Aoop'd to Truth.] The term is from falconry; and the allufion to one of thofe untam'd birds of fpirit, which fometimes wantons at large in airy circles before it regards, or oops to, its prey. W. VER. 343. He food the furious foe,] Stood, improperly used for with flood. VER. 350. The tale reviv'd, Formerly, "The tales of vengeance." VER. 350. The lie fo oft o'er thrown, As, that he received fubfcrip. tions for Shakspeare, that he fet his name to Mr. Broome's verses, &c. which, though publicly disproved, were nevertheless shamelessly repeated in the Libels, and even in that called the Vobleman's Epiftle. P. VER. 351. Th' imputed trash. Such as profane Pfalms. Court Poems, and other fcandalous things, printed in his name by Curl and others. W. VER. 353 The pictur'd shape, Hay, in his effay on Deformity, has remarked, that Pope was fo hurt by the caricatura of his figure, as to rank it among the moft atrocious injuries he received from his enemies. Hay, with much pleafantry, jefting on his own deformity, has added, "In perfon I refemble Efop, the Prince of Orange, Marthal Luxemburg, Lord Treasurer Salisbury, Scarron, and Mr. Pope; not to mention Therfites and Richard the Third, whom I do not Abuse, on all he lov'd, or lov'd him, spread, 355 A. But why infult the poor, affront the great? P. A knave's a knave to me, in ev'ry flate: Alike my fcorn, if he fucceed or fail, 361 Sporus at court, or Japhet in a jail, A hireling fcribbler, or a hireling peer, Knight of the poft corrupt, or of the shire; 365 NOTES. claim as members of our fociety; the firft being a child of the poet's fancy; the laft, mifreprefented by hiftorians. Let me not be unthankful that I was not born in Sparta! where I had no fooner feen the light but I fhould have been deprived of it, and have been thrown, as an useless thing, into a cavern by Mount Taygetus." VIR 354. Abuse, on all he lov'd, or lov'd him, fpread,] Namely, on the Duke of Buckingham, the Earl of Burlington, Lord Bathurf, Lord Bolingbroke, Bishop Atterbury, Dr. Swift, Dr. Arbuthnot, Mr. Gay, bis Friends, his Parents, and his very Nurse, aspersed in printed papers, by James Moore, G. Ducket, L. Welfted, Tho. Bentley, and other obfure perfons. P. VER. 356. The whisper, that to Greatness fill too near,] By the whisper is meant calumniating honeft chara&ers. Shakspeare has finely expreffed this office of the fycophant of Greatness in the following line: "Rain facrificial whisp'rings in his ear." By which is meant the immolating men's reputations to the vice or vauity of his Patron. W.Did Shakspeare mean this? VER. 359. For thee, fair Virtue! welcome ev'n the laft! This line is remarkable for prefenting us with the most amiable image of fteady Virtue, mixed with a modeft concern for bis being forced to undergo the fevereft proofs of his love for it; which was the being thought hardly of by his SOVEREIGN. W. VIR. 363. Sporus at court,] In former editions, Glencus at court. 370 He gain his Prince's ear, or lofe his own. VER. 368. in the MS. VARIATIONS. Once, and but once, his heedlefs 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 shame. NOTES. 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 aufwer to the many fcurrilities and falfehoods concerning him. P. VER. 375. Welfled's lie,] This man had the impudence to tell in print, that Mr. P. had occafioned a Lady's death, and to name a perfou be never heard of. He also published that he libelled 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 fallehood of both which is known to his Grace. Mr. P. never received any prefent, farther than the fubfcription for Homer, from him, or from any great Man whatsoever P. VER. 378. Let Budgel Budgel, in a weekly pamphlet called the Bee, bestowed much abuse on him. in the imagination that he writ fome things about the La& Will of Dr. Tindal in the Grubflreet Journal; a Paper wherein he never had the leaft hand, direâion, or supervisal, nor the least knowledge of its Author. P. And write whate'er he pleas'd, except his Will. It was a fin to call our neighbour fool: That harmless Mother thought no wife a whore: Hear this, and spare his family, James Moore: 385 Unfpotted name, and memorable long! If there be force in Virtue, or in Song. NOTES. VER. 379. Except his Will;] Alluding to Tindal's Will: by which and other indire& pra&ices, Budgel, to the exclufion of the next beir, a nephew, got to himself almeft the whole fortune of a man entirely unrelated to him. P. 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 obfcure," had fallen from a like Courtly pen, in certain Verfes to the Imitator of Horace. Mr. Pope's Father was of a Gentleman's Family in Oxfordfhire, the head of which was the Earl of Downe, whofe fole Heiress married the Earl of Lindfay.-His Mother was the daughter of William one of whom was Turner, Efq. of York: She had three brothers, killed, another died in the fervice of King Charles; the eldeft following his fortunes, and becoming a general officer in Spain, left her what eftate remained after the fequeftrations and forfeitures of ber family. Mr. Pope died in 1717, aged 75: the 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 Middlefex: Of gentle blood (part fhed in Honour's cause, And better got, than Beftia's from the throne. 3go The good man walk'd innoxious through his age. No Courts he faw, no fuits would ever try, Nor dar'd an Oath, nor hazarded a Lie. 396 Unlearn'd, he knew no fchoolman's fubtle art, No language, but the language of the heart. By Nature honeft, by Experience wise, His life, tho' long, to sickness past unknown, NOTES. 400 VER. 388. Of gentle blood] When Mr. Pope published the notes on the Epifle to Dr. Arbuthnot, giving an account of his family, Mr. Pottinger a relation of his, obferved, that his coufin Pope had made himself out a fine pedigree, but he wondered where he got it; that be had never heard any thing himself of their being defcended from the, Earls of Dowue; and, what is more, he had an old maiden aunt, equally related, a great genealogift, who was always talking of her family, but never mentioned this circumftance; on which the certainly would not have been filent, had fhe known any thing of it. Mr. Pope's grandfather was a clergyman of the church of England in Hampshire. He placed bis fon, Mr. Fope's father, with a merchant at Lisbon, where be became a convert to Popery. (Thus far Dr. Bolton, late Dean of Carlisle, a friend of Pope; from Mr. Pottinger.) The burying-place and monuments of the family of the Popes, Earls of Downe, is at Wroxton, Oxfordshire. The Earl of Guildford fays, that he has feen and examined the pedigrees and defcents of that family, and is fure that there were then none of the name of Pope left, who could be defcended from that family, (From John Loveday, of Caversham, Elquire.) |