Of one so poor you cannot take the law; III. MR. J. M. SE1 CATECHISED ON HIS ONE EPISTLE TO MR. POPE. WHAT makes you write at this odd rate? What makes you steal and trifle so? But there's no meaning to be seen. Why, that's the very thing I mean. 5 IV. EPIGRAM ON MR. MRE'S GOING TO LAW WITH MR. GILLIVER : TO ATTORNEY TIBBALD, ONCE in his life M--re judges right: 2 A gentleman that dares not fight, Has but one way to tease-by law. INSCRIBED Thus thou may'st help the sneaking elf; Who's but a publisher himself. 1 i.e. Smythe. i.e., Moore. 3 V. EPIGRAM. A GOLD watch found on cinder whore, -y Or a good verse on J――y M——e,' Not that they're rich, but that they steal. VI. EPITAPH. HERE lies what had nor birth, nor shape, nor fame; Ex nihilo nihil fit. VII. A QUESTION BY ANONYMOUS. TELL, if you can, which did the worse, That made a Consul of a horse, And this a Laureate of an ass. VIII. EPIGRAM. GREAT G, such servants since thou well canst lack, Oh! save the salary, and drink the sack. i.e., Jemmy Moore. 2 Compare Dunciad, ii. 50. 3 "Grafton's Grace," Charles, second Duke of Grafton, Lord Cham berlain, who made Cibber Poet Laureate in 1730. i.e., George. IX. EPIGRAM. BEHOLD! ambitious of the British bays, ON MRS. TOFTS, A CELEBRATED OPERA-SINGER. So bright is thy beauty, so charming thy song, That the beasts must have starv'd, and the poet have died. 1 Stephen Duck was born about the beginning of the last century. He was almost entirely self-educated, and was brought into notice by his verses in 1729. Queen Caroline patronised him, and made him her Librarian at Richmond (compare Imitation of Horace, Epistle ii. 2. 140), besides obtaining for him the living of Byfleet, in Surrey. He afterwards fell into a melancholy, and threw himself off a bridge into the Thames, near Reading, in 1756. 2 One of the most celebrated singers in the early part of the eighteenth century, and the great rival of Mar garita L'Epine (see note to Dunciad, iv. 615). Colley Cibber is enthu siastic in her praise: "Whatever defect the fashionably skilful might find in her manner, she had in the general sense of her hearers charms that few of the most learned singers ever arrived at. The beauty of her fine-proportioned figure, and exquisitely sweet silver tone of voice, with peculiar rapid swiftness of her throat, were perfections not to be imitated by art or labour." The epigram first appeared in the Miscel lanies, 1727. EPIGRAM ON THE FEUDS ABOUT HANDEL AND BONONCINI.' STRANGE! all this difference should be "Twixt Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee! THE BALANCE OF EUROPE." Now Europe's balanc'd, neither side prevails; EPITAPH.' JOANNES jacet hic Mirandula-cætera nôrunt HERE Francis C lies. Be civil; 1 Though this has been printed in recent editions of Pope's works, and though it appeared in the Miscellany of 1727, the real author was certainly Dr. Byrom, in whose work the epigram is printed at length: Some say, compared to Bononcini, The Biographia Britannica [ed. 1784, article Byrom '], says: "Mr. Byrom's epigram on the feuds between Handel and Bononcini was greatly admired; and Mr. Melmoth, who erroneously ascribes it to Dr. Swift, has spoken of it with applause." 2 First published in the Miscellanies, 1727. They were written in 1709, and were sent in a letter to Caryll, dated 19th July in that year. 3 This epitaph first appeared in the Miscellanies, 1727. Spence gives a variation: "You know I love short inscriptions, and that may be the reason why I like the epitaph on the Count of Mirandula so well. Some time ago I made a parody of it for a man of very opposite character: "Here lies Lord Coningsby; be civil, The rest God knows, perhaps the devil." 4 Francis Chartres. Compare Moral Essay iii. 20. 4 ON THE TOASTS OF THE KIT-KAT CLUB, ANNO 1716. WHENCE deathless Kit-Cat took its name, Some say from Pastry-cook it came,' And some from Cat and Fiddle." Gray statesmen or green wits; 1 First published in the Miscellanies, 1727. 2 i.e., John Gay. 3 First published in the Miscellanies, 1727. 4 The Kit-Kat Club met in Shire Lane, near Temple Bar. It was formed in the year 1700. 5 Malone says in his Life of Dryden, p. 526: "The Club is supposed to have derived its name from Christopher Katt, a pastry cook, who kept the house where they dined, and excelled in making mutton pies, which always formed part of their bill of fare. In Spectator, No. 9, they are said to have derived their title not from the maker of the pie, but the pie itself. The fact is that, on account of its excellence, it was called a Kit-Kat, as we now say a sand 5 wich. So in the prologue to "The Reformed Wife,' a comedy, 1700 : Often for change the meanest things are Thus though the town all delicates afford, 6 This is the derivation of Ned Ward, who in his "History of Clubs," asserts that it was called from a person of the name of Christopher, who lived at the sign of the Cat and Fiddle. 7 A lady was chosen by ballot every year as the toast of the Club; and her name was written with a diamond on a drinking glass. Lady M. W. Montagu was nominated by her father, the Duke of Kingston, when she was only eight years old.-CAR RUTHERS. |