UPON THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH'S HOUSE

AT WOODSTOCK.'

"Atria longa patent; sed nec cœnantibus usquam,
Nec somno, locus est: quam bene non habitas."
MARTIAL, Epigr. [XII. 50, vv. 7, 8.]

SEE, sir, here's the grand approach;

This way is for his Grace's coach:

There lies the bridge, and here's the clock,
Observe the lion and the cock,

The spacious court, the colonnade,

And mark how wide the hall is made!
The chimneys are so well design'd,
They never smoke in any wind.
This gallery's contrived for walking,
The windows to retire and talk in;
The council chamber for debate,
And all the rest are rooms of state.

Thanks, sir, cried I, 'tis very fine,

But where d'ye sleep, or where d'ye dine?
I find, by all you have been telling,
That 'tis a house, but not a dwelling.

LINES TO LORD BATHURST." "A woon!" quoth Lewis, and with that He laugh'd, and shook his sides of fat.

1 These verses first appeared among a collection of poems added to Curll's second vol. of Miscellanies, entitled Original Poems and Translations, by Mr. Hill, Mr. Eusden, Mr. Broome, Dr. King, &c. Never before printed, London: E. Curll, 1714. There is no positive proof that they were written by Pope.

2 First published in Mitford's

edition of Gray's Correspondence with the Rev. Norton Nichols, 1843. Compare Pope's Letter to Bathurst :

"I believe you are by this time immersed in your vast wood; and one may address to you as to a very abstracted person, like Alexander Selkirk or the self-taught philosopher. I should be very curious to know what sort of contemplations employ

His tongue, with eye that mark'd his cunning,
Thus fell a-reasoning, not a-running:
"Woods are not to be too prolix-

Collective bodies of straight sticks.

It is, my lord, a mere conundrum

To call things woods for what grows under 'em.

For shrubs, when nothing else at top is,
Can only constitute a coppice.

But, if you will not take my word,

See anno quint. of Richard Third;

And that's a coppice call'd, when dock'd,
Witness an. prim. of Harry Oct.
If this a wood you will maintain,
Merely because it is no plain,
Holland, for all that I can see,

May e'en as well be term'd the sea,
Or C--by be fair harangued

An honest man, because not hang'd."

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ON DRAWINGS OF THE STATUES OF APOLLO, VENUS, AND HERCULES,'

MADE FOR POPE BY SIR GODFREY KNELLER.

WHAT god, what genius, did the pencil move,

When Kneller painted these?

'Twas friendship warm as Phoebus, kind as love,
And strong as Hercules.

you. I remember the latter of those
I mentioned gave himself up to a
devout exercise of making his head
giddy with various circumrotations,
to imitate the motions of the celestial
bodies. I do not think it at all im-
possible that Mr. L. may be far
advanced in that exercise, by frequent
turns towards the several aspects of
the heavens, to which you may have
been pleased to direct him in search
of prospects and new avenues. Не

will be tractable in time, as birds are tamed by being whirled about; and doubtless come not to despise the meanest shrubs or coppice wood, though naturally he seems more inclined to admire God in his greater works, the tall timber." "Mr. L." is Erasmus Lewis, Lord Bathurst's "proseman." See Imitation of Horace, Sat. i. 64, and note.

1 First published in a note to Warton's edition of Pope's Works.

A DIALOGUE.'

1717.

POPE. SINCE my old friend is grown so great
As to be Minister of State,

I'm told, but 'tis not true, I hope,
That Craggs will be ashamed of Pope.

CRAGGS.-Alas! if I am such a creature

To grow the worse for growing greater ;
Why, faith, in spite of all my brags,
'Tis Pope must be ashamed of Craggs.

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TO A LADY WITH "THE TEMPLE OF FAME.":

WHAT'S fame with men, by custom of the nation,

Is call'd in women only reputation;

About them both why keep we such a pother?
Part you with one, and I'll renounce the other.

Horace Walpole says: "Sir Godfrey had drawn for Pope the statues of Apollo, Venus, and Hercules; Pope paid for them in the following lines. He was in the right to suppress them. What idea does muscular friendship convey ?"-Anecdotes of Painting, vol. ii. 592. The drawings were in chiaroscuro, and were presented to Pope to adorn his staircase

at Twickenham.

1 First published in Additions to Pope's Works, 1776.

2 Sent in a letter to Martha Blount, 1714.

Pope says in it: "I send you my Temple of Fame, which is just out; but my sentiments about it you will see better by this epigram." The verses were afterwards printed in the Miscellanies, 1727.

IMPROMPTU TO LADY WINCHILSEA.'

OCCASIONED BY FOUR SATIRICAL VERSES ON WOMEN-WITS, IN THE 66 RAPE OF THE LOCK."

In vain you boast poetic names of yore,

And cite those Sapphos we admire no more:

2

Fate doom'd the fall of every female wit;
But doom'd it then, when first Ardelia writ.
Of all examples by the world confess'd,
I knew Ardelia could not quote the best;
Who, like her mistress on Britannia's throne,
Fights and subdues in quarrels not her own.
To write their praise you but in vain essay;
E'en while you write, you take that praise away:
Light to the stars the sun does thus restore,
But shines himself till they are seen no more.

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OCCASIONED BY SOME VERSES OF HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.'

MUSE, 'tis enough: at length thy labour ends,
And thou shalt live, for Buckingham commends.
Let crowds of critics now my verse assail,
Let Dennis write, and nameless numbers rail:
This more than pays whole years of thankless pain;
Time, health, and fortune are not lost in vain.
Sheffield approves, consenting Phoebus bends,
And I and Malice from this hour are friends.

1 First published in the Miscellanies, 1727.

2 The name under which Lady Winchilsea, then the Honourable Mrs. Finch, published a volume of poetry.

3 Alluding to the Duke of Buckingham's lines in commendation of his Translation of the Iliad, and his merits as a friend.

First published in the Aldine Edition (1831).

EPIGRAM ON A LORD SEEKING HIS

ACQUAINTANCE.'

My lord complains that Pope, stark mad with gardens,
Has cut three trees, the value of three farthings.
"But he's my neighbour," cries the peer polite :
"And if he visit me, I'll waive the right."
What! on compulsion, and against my will,
A lord's acquaintance? Let him file his bill!

CHARITY."

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YES! 'tis the time, (I cried,) impose the chain,
Destined and due to wretches self-enslaved; '
But when I saw such charity remain,

I half could wish this people should be saved.

Faith lost, and Hope, our Charity begins;
And 'tis a wise design in pitying Heaven,

If this can cover multitude of sins,

To take the only way to be forgiven.

INSCRIPTION ON A PUNCH-BOWL,

IN THE SOUTH-SEA YEAR [1720], FOR A CLUB, CHASED WITH JUPITER PLACING CALLISTO IN THE SKIES, AND EUROPA WITH THE BULL.

COME, fill the South Sea goblet full;

The gods shall of our stock take care;

Europa pleas'd accepts the Bull,

And Jove with joy puts off the Bear.

1 First published by Warburton in his Notes to the Dunciad (1751), Book v. 132. The peer alluded to is supposed to have been Lord Radnor.

2 The severity of the weather has occasioned greater sums of money to be given in charity than was ever heard of before. Mr. Pope has written two stanzas on the occasion, which I

must send you because they are his; for they have no other merit to entitle them to be conveyed so far."-Countess of Hertford to Countess of Pomfret, 20 Feb., 1740.

3 Compare with these two lines the sentiment in "1740."

4 First published in the Aldine Edition (1831). On a fly-leaf of the first

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