LINES ON SWIFT'S ANCESTORS.' JONATHAN SWIFT Had the gift, By fatherige, motherige, To come from Gotherige, 10 ON SEEING THE LADIES AT CRUX-EASTON WALK IN THE WOODS BY THE GROTTO." EXTEMPORE BY MR. POPE. AUTHORS the world and their dull brains have traced Mind not their learned whims and idle talk; Here, here's the place where these bright angels walk. leaves of paper on which Pope had written some verses. Perhaps John Overton, her servant, had been called to remove the litter, and hence had helped to "overthrow the arts." 1 Swift set up a plain monument to his grandfather, and also presented a cup to the church of Goodrich or Gotheridge, in Herefordshire. He sent a pencilled elevation of the monu ment (a simple tablet) to Mr. Howard, who returned it with the following lines inscribed on the drawing by Pope. The paper is endorsed, in Swift's hand: "Model of a Monument for my Grandfather, with Pope's roguery."-SCOTT's Life of Swift. 2 From "The Student," Oxford Miscellany, 1750. See note to ver. 2 of the next piece. INSCRIPTION ON A GROTTO, THE WORK OF HERE, shunning idleness at once and praise, But Fate disposed them in this humble sort, 5 LINES WRITTEN IN EVELYN'S BOOK ON COINS.' TOM WOOD of Chiswick, deep divine,* To painter Kent gave all this coin. 1 From Dodsley's Miscellany. 2 The nine ladies were sisters of Dr. Thomas Lisle, who, Warton says, was chaplain at Smyrna, and all of them were the children of Edward Lisle, of Crux Easton. They were of the same family as Lisle the regicide, and Lady Alicia Lisle, beheaded after Monmouth's rebellion. From information in the possession of the Earl of Carnarvon, to whom Crux Easton now belongs, it appears that the nine ladies used to amuse themselves by standing on niches in the Grotto, as the Nine Muses; Pope being placed in the midst, as Apollo. Lord Carnarvon informs me that the Grotto was standing within his memory. I may as well mention here that I learn from the same source that the lines in Moral Essay ii., on "Magdalen's loose hair and lifted eye," were written by Pope under a picture of the Countess of Suffolk as a Magdalen, at Highclere. 3 In the "Gentleman's Magazine," 1735, these lines appear with the following inscription: "Wrote by Mr. P. in a volume of 'Evelyn on Coins,' presented to a painter by a parson." 4 The Rev. Thomas Wood was Rector of Chiswick from 1716 to 1734. Pope no doubt made Wood's acquaintance when he removed to Chiswick in 1716 with his father and mother. BISHOP HOUGH.' A BISHOP, by his neighbours hated, I'll lay my life I know the place: 'Tis where God sent some that adore him, TO THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF OXFORD,' UPON A PIECE OF NEWS IN MIST (MIST'S JOURNAL), THAT THE REV. MR. W. REFUS'D TO WRITE AGAINST MR. POPE BECAUSE HIS BEST PATRON HAD A FRIENDSHIP FOR THE SAID P. WESLEY, if Wesley 'tis they mean,3 They say on Pope would fall, What patron this, a doubt must be, 1 First published in the Miscellanies, 1727. For Hough see Epilogue to Satires, ii. 240, and note. 2 A facsimile of Pope's MS. of these verses is published in Nichols' 1732 he was made Head Master of Tiverton School, and retained the appointment till his death, which happened in 1739. 4 Wesley's irritation against Pope Literary Anecdotes, vol. ix., fronting doubtless arose in consequence of the p. 798. 3 Samuel Wesley, eldest brother of John Wesley, was born in 1690, and was educated at Westminster and Christ Church, Oxford. He was long head usher at Westminster School, in which capacity he enjoyed the friendship of Pope and Prior. In mention of his father's name in Dun- Or Father Francis, cross the sea,' Or else Earl Edward here." That both were good must be confess'd, And much to both he owes; 10 ON RECEIVING FROM THE RIGHT HON. THE LADY FRANCES SHIRLEY A STANDISH AND TWO PENS.4 YES, I beheld th' Athenian Queen 1 Francis Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester. Samuel Wesley was a strong Tory and High Churchman, and was sup posed to be more or less implicated in Atterbury's plot. He had come under the influence of the latter at Christ Church. 2 Edward, Earl of Oxford. 3 Pope evidently wished to learn from Lord Oxford whether the report in Mist was true, and took this very ingenious way of finding out. His point seems to be: "If this report is true, the patron referred to must be either Atterbury or Lord Oxford; whichever it was is the best patron of Wesley, because he has done him the best possible service in preventing him from coming into collision with me; Lord Oxford knows whether he prevented Wesley from writing; and if he did not do so himself he must now know from Mist that Atterbury is Wesley's best patron." To enter into the spirit of this address, it is necessary to premise that the poet was threatened with a prosecution in the House of Lords, for the two poems entitled the Epilogue to the Satires. On which with great resentment against his enemies, for not being willing to distinguish between "Grave Epistles bringing vice to light, and licentious libels, he began a Third Dialogue, more severe and sublime than the first and second: which be ing no secret, matters were soon compromised. His enemies agreed to drop the prosecution, and he promised to leave the Third Dialogue unfinished and suppressed. This affair occasioned this beautiful little poem, to which it alludes throughout, but more especially in the four last stanzas.-WARBURTON. "Secure the radiant weapons wield; "This steel shall stab it to the heart." Aw'd, on my bended knees I fell, "What well? what weapons?" (Flavia cries,) "But friend, take heed whom you attack "You'll bring a House (I mean of Peers) "Red, blue, and green, nay white and black, "L.... and all about your ears." "You'd write as smooth again on glass, "Athenian Queen! and sober charms! "I tell ye, fool, there's nothing in't: ""Tis Venus, Venus gives these arms; "In Dryden's Virgil see the print. 1 A well-known toy-shop at Bath. Compare Horace Walpole's Letter to George Montagu, 18 May, 1749. 2 Mr. Carruthers suggests "Lambeth," and thinks that the allusion is to ver. 121 of Epilogue to Satires, 20 25 Dialogue 1. But Wake, the Archbishop of Canterbury there referred to, died in 1737, and Potter, his successor, was scarcely a man who would have undertaken the defence of his reputation. |