FRAGMENTS

AND FUGITIVE PIECES;

ATTRIBUTED TO POPE.

FRAGMENTS.

THE FOURTH EPISTLE

OF THE

FIRST BOOK OF HORACE'S EPISTLES.

[This Satire on Lord Bolingbroke, and the praise bestowed on him in a letter to Mr. Richardson, where Mr. Pope says,

"Their sons shall blush their fathers were thy foes,"

being so contradictory, probably occasioned the former to be suppressed. Warton.

Mr. Bowles has omitted the following piece, because " he cannot think Pope would write the concluding lines on himself," v. Bowles's ed. vol. ii. p. 385, in which opinion the present editor perfectly agrees with him. But it may be observed, that this piece is as likely to be Pope's, both from the sentiment and the manner of its execution, as the Satire of One thousand seven hundred and forty, which Mr. Bowles has published, and is probably by the same author.]

SAY, St. John, who alone peruse
With candid eye, the mimic muse,
What schemes of politics, or laws,
In Gallic lands the patriot draws!
Is then a greater work in hand,
Then all the tomes of Haines's band?

NOTES.

Ver. 1. Say, &c.]

AD ALBIUM TIBULLUM.
"Albi, nostrorum sermonum candide judex,
Quid nunc te dicam facere in regione Pedanâ?
Scribere, quod Cassi Parmensis opuscula vincat?"

2 G

VOL. VI.

5

"Or shoots he folly as it flies?
Or catches manners as they rise?"
Or urged by unquench'd native heat,
Does St. John Greenwich sports repeat? 10
Where (emulous of Chartres' fame)
Even Chartres' self is scarce a name.

To you (the all-envied gift of heaven)
The indulgent gods, unask'd, have given
A form complete in every part,
And, to enjoy that gift, the art.

What could a tender mother's care
Wish better, to her favourite heir,
Than wit, and fame, and lucky hours,
A stock of health, and golden showers,
And graceful fluency of speech,
Precepts before unknown to teach?

Amidst thy various ebbs of fear,
And gleaming hope, and black despair,

NOTES.

Ver. 10. Does St. John Greenwich, &c.]

"An tacitam silvas inter reptare salubres?" Ver. 13. To you, &c.]

"Di tibi formam, Di tibi divitias dederant, artemque fruendi.” Ver. 17. What could, &c.

66

"Quid voveat dulci nutricula majus alumno, Quam sapere, et fari posset quæ sentiat, et cui Gratia, fama, valetudo contingat abunde,

non deficiente crumena ?"

Ver. 23. Amidst, &c.]

"Inter spem, curamque, timores inter et iras."

15

20

Yet let thy friend this truth impart,
A truth I tell with bleeding heart,
(In justice for your labours past)
That every day shall be your last ;
That every hour you life renew
Is to your injured country due.

In spite of fears, of mercy spite,

My genius still must rail, and write.

Haste to thy Twick'nham's safe retreat,
And mingle with the grumbling great;

25

30

There, half devour'd by spleen, you'll find 35
The rhyming bubbler of mankind;
There (objects of our mutual hate)
We'll ridicule both church and state.

NOTES.

Ver. 28. That every day, &c.]

"Omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum. Me pinguem, et nitidum bene curatâ cute vises, Cum ridere voles Epicuri de grege porcum."