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 Cby be fair harangued

An honest man, because not hang'd."

5

10

15

20

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. He

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.

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 with one,
and I'll renounce the other.

you

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 "RAPE OF THE LOCK."

In vain you boast poetic names of yore,

And cite those Sapphos we admire no more:
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.

5

10

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.

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!

5

CHARITY."

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 alluded to is suppeer

posed 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

ON THE COUNTESS OF BURLINGTON CUTTING PAPER.'

PALLAS grew vapourish once, and odd,

She would not do the least right thing,
Either for goddess or for god,

Nor work, nor play, nor paint, nor sing.

Jove frown'd, and, "Use," he cried, "those eyes
So skilful, and those hands so taper;

Do something exquisite and wise--"
She bow'd, obey'd him,—and cut paper.

This vexing him who gave her birth,

Thought by all heaven a burning shame;
What does she next, but bids, on earth,
Her Burlington do just the same.

Pallas, you give yourself strange airs;

But sure you'll find it hard to spoil
The sense and taste of one that bears
The name of Saville and of Boyle.'

Alas! one bad example shown,
How quickly all the sex pursue!
See, madam, see the arts o'erthrown,
Between John Overton and you!'

vol. of Warburton's Pope's Works, formerly belonging to Cracherode, now in the British Museum, these lines are written in Dr. Birch's handwriting, with the following certificate: "This Epigram of Mr. Pope was communicated by the Rev. Dr. Warburton to Tho. Birch."

1 First published in the Miscellanies, 1727.

2 Before her marriage her name was Lady Dorothy Saville.

3 We may conjecture that the Countess of Burlington had in an absent mood amused herself with cutting to pieces one of the Sibylline