3

a German prince for the king of the Cappadocians,' Edward III. and Henry V. for Romulus, George II. for Augustus; these are hardly more than tags indicating the change of scene and age. Such are also allusions to current events,' which are incidentally introduced. It is not by these general references that the spirit of the eighteenth century can be caught; this Pope seeks to do by the parallels drawn in the special conditions of English political, social and domestic life, in the personal allusions from his own circle of friends or foes, and in autobiographical details. Whenever, too, he infuses his own individuality into his Imitations, he binds the separate details into a unity as artistic as it is complete.

Politics.-In his references to political parties and issues Pope has no great difficulty in marking off very distinctly the England of his day from the Rome of Horace's. The Roman poet, speaking of his origin, says that he is "Lucanus an Apulus anceps;" the Englishman, disregarding the allusion to birth, substitutes for it a declaration which much more intimately concerns him and his relation to the public, dealing, as it does, with his professional and party opinions :

Verse-man or Prose-man, term me what you will,

Papist or Protestant or both between,

Like good Erasmus placing all my glory,

While Tories call me Whig, and Whigs a Tory."

For Horace's "haud ignobilis Argis," who took pleasure in a theatre of his own imagination, Pope substitutes less wisely "a worthy member, no small fool, a Lord," who from being a distinguished Patriot was "purged to a single vote.' Further references from politics to the Ministers, the Court,10 pensions," state spies,12 and the Levee,13 give the tone of contemporary life.

Trebatius warns Horace of the danger of his writing ill verses against any one contrary to law; and Pope finds statutes in English law which correspond

When Trebatius advises Horace to sing Caesar's praise the poet replies

Haud mihi deero,

Quum res ipsa feret. Nisi dextro tempore, Flacci
Verba per attentam non ibunt Caesaris aurem.3

This Pope makes peculiarly modern by turning it into a satire on the reigning Laureate Cibber

Alas! few verses touch their finer ear;

They scarce can hear their Laureate twice a year."

When Horace speaks in a general way of stripping the skin from the hypocrite, Pope more specifically levels his satire at the "proud gamester in his gilded car" and "the mean heart that lurks beneath a star," thus giving the modern touch. In Horace's

Virtutem verba putas et

Lucum ligna.'

Pope seizes the opportunity of making a reference to the church

Who Virtue and a church alike disowns,

Thinks that but words and this but sticks and stones."

The sycophancy of the chaplains of the great houses' Pope

1 Sat. II, i, 82.

1, 146. Other references to legal matters are found in I, 172; ш, 173; v, 197; vi, 60, 127. Sat. II, i, 17.

*1, 33. Cf. also 1, 21, v, 377, and for small poets 1, 140.

Sat. II, i, 64.

1, 107. Cf. Iv, 14; II, 98; 1, 39; II, 39; IV, 49; vi, 69, 184.

9vi, 220 f. Other references to matters ecclesiastical are, 1, 110, 113, 152; II, 80, 119; II, 3; Iv, 27, 65; v, 161, 236; vi, 62.

satirizes without a correspondent in his original. Horace inveighs against the greed of his day in these words :

Pars hominum gestit conducere publica, sunt qui

Crustis et pomis viduas venentur avaras
Excipiantque senes, quos in vivaria mittant.1

This Pope, with an eye to the special forms which this vice took in his own day, renders thus

Some farm the Poor-box, some the pews;

Some keep assemblies and would keep the stews;
Some with fat bucks on childless dotards fawn;
Some win rich widows by their chine and brawn;
While with the silent growth of ten per-cent,
In dirt and darkness hundreds stink content.

London. The references to the city of London, its various quarters, and its inhabitants are frequent in these Imitations; and as the life and literature of the eighteenth century centred in the town, they give an English flavor entirely distinct from Roman associations. In the majority of cases these allusions are direct additions. Thus we have a mere passing mention of London in "Abuse the city's best good men in metre," with no corresponding Latin. Certain localities are specified in "Bedlam or the Mint," which give a local habitation to Horace's "inops," Pope revealing at the same time more caustic satire. "From low St. James's up to high St. Paul's" is also a very apt rendering of Horace's “Janus summus ab imo," since there is in addition to the local meaning the obvious reference to the high and low parties in the church, and perhaps in the word "low" to the meanness of the court. When Horace speaks of the different parts of the city to which he is summoned by importunate friends— the Aventine, the Quirinal, etc.-Pope finds parallels in Palace Yard, Bloomsbury Square, the House of Lords, and 1Ep. 1, i, 77. III, 128. Cf. also 1, 72, 103; II, 106; v, 195. 31, 39. So III, 79; v, 170, 370. Cf. also III, 139. 6 Sat. II, i, 59. 'III, 82.

51, 99.

10

Ep. 1, i, 54. See E. Courthope, Pope's Works, ad. loc. 10 Ep. II, ii, 65 f.

the theatre. The purely modern Lord Mayor's banquet and a clergy feast are the more concrete equivalent of the

2

Latin " coena dubia.' In the same connection may be

mentioned Pope's very clever double version of Horace's senescentem equum » 4 in

Friend Pope! be prudent, let your muse take breath,
And never gallop Pegasus to death;

Lest stiff and stately, void of fire or force,

You limp like Blackmore on a Lord Mayor's horse."

The Play.-The Italian opera was a shining mark for eighteenth century satire. Pope easily converts Horace's reference to "lacrimosa poemata Pupi" into a fling at the effeminacy of the opera―

6

To have a box where eunuchs sing
And foremost in the circle eye a king;'

and "Nunc tibicinibus, nunc est gavisa tragoedis" 8 into

The willing muses were debauched at court:

On each enervate string they taught the note
To pant, or tremble thro' an eunuch's throat."

Horace has an allusion to theatrical affairs in his incident of Lucullus, who was asked for a hundred cloaks for a play (Chlamydes centum scenae); 10 Pope uses only the reference to the theatre and makes that entirely modern

Or if three ladies like a luckless play,

Takes the whole house upon the poet's day."

Horace's wrestling 12 is changed to a sport more peculiar to modern times and more in keeping with Pope's satirical intent, that of "tumbling through a hoop." 13

1vi, 94 f.

209, 232.

Cf. also II, 42, 120; III, 84, 110, 113; v, 144, 355, 419; vi, 113,

2

* II, 75.

'Sat. II, ii, 76.

Domestic life.-Pope's care to adapt conditions of Roman to those of English life extends to the smallest details. Even when Horace speaks of a heavy storm as preserving the fish from him and his guest,' Pope brings in the conditions of a more northern climate-"or fish denied (the river yet unthawed)." In Horace's Satire on Temperance there is mention of various kinds of dishes for which Pope obtains English equivalents. Thus for the peacock he substitutes the pheasant, for "porrectum magno magnum ... catino" he has a "whole hog barbecued." So, for "Tutus erat rhombus tutoque ciconia nido" he writes

"The robin red-breast till of late had rest,
And children sacred held a martin's nest,
Till beccaficos sold so devilish dear

To one that was or would have been a peer.""

For the "mergos assos" which the Roman youth will accept on the word of some "potential voice" as "delicious game," Pope suggests equally strange dishes, of greater point to Englishmen―

Let me extol a cat, on oysters fed,

I'll have a party at the Bedford-head;
Or even to crack live Crawfish recommend;
I'd never doubt at court to have a friend.8

For the specific sports which Ofella recommends to Horace, such as following the hare, breaking in a horse, playing at ball, hurling the quoit, Pope, with his characteristic contempt for what he could not do, bundles them under the general "go work, hunt, exercise," 10 and herein departs from his usual custom of making his details concrete. In the same

6 II, 37.

3 Sat. II, ii, 23. "Sat. II, ii, 51.

5 Sat. II, ii, 49. 8 II, 41 f. Other instances of a similar character are “rank venison” (II, 91) for Horace's "rancidum aprum" (Sat. II, ii, 89), “fresh sturgeon and ham-pie" (II, 103), "gudgeons, flounders," etc. (11, 142 f.), in the description of the poet's simple fare for Horace's list in Sat. II, ii, 120-125; So, also, II, 51.

9 Sat. II, ii, 9 f.

10 II, 11.