What? shall each spur-gall'd hackney of the day, Of honour bind me, not to maul his tools; The prudent general turn'd it to a jest, 150 And begg'd he'd take the pains to kick the rest: 155 Which not at present having time to do— F. Hold, Sir! for God's sake, where's the affront to you? Against your worship when had Sk* writ? Or P-get pour'd forth the torrent of his wit? NOTES. Ver. 143. To break my windows] Which was done when Lord Bolingbroke and Lord Bathurst were one day dining with him at Twickenham. All the great persons celebrated in these Satires were in violent opposition to government. It is rather singular that he has not mentioned Mr. Pitt, one of the most able and most formidable; especially with his friends, Lyttelton, Cobham, and Pulteney. Warton. Ver. 159. Or P-ge] Judge Page, who is said to have treated delinquents too roughly. Warton. VOL. VI. * Sherlock. + Page. 2 c Or grant the bard whose distich all commend, 160 [In power a servant, out of power a friend] To W-le* guilty of some venial sin; What's that to you who ne'er was out nor in? The priest whose flattery be-dropp'd the crown, How hurt he you? he only stain'd the gown. 165 And how did, pray, the florid youth offend, Whose speech you took, and gave it to a friend ? NOTES. Ver. 160. the bard] A verse taken out of a poem to Sir R. W. Pope. Ver. 161. In power] Lord Melcombe was the author of this line, in an Epistle to Sir Robert Walpole. Warton. Mr. Wyndham, to whom I am so much indebted, informs me, that Lord Melcombe took the very same Epistle he had written to Sir Robert, and some years afterwards, when circumstances were changed, addressed it to Lord Bute. Bowles. Ver. 164. The priest, &c.] Spoken not of any particular priest, but of many priests. Pope. Meaning Dr. Alured Clarke, who wrote a panegyric on Queen Caroline. The two following unpublished lines of our author, have been communicated to me by a learned friend, on a picture of this queen, drawn by Lady Burlington: Peace, flattering bishop, lying dean! This Portrait only saints the Queen! A comet happening to appear when Cardinal Mazarine lay on his death-bed, some of his many abject flatterers insinuated, that it had reference to him, and his destiny. The Cardinal pleasantly answered: "Gentlemen, the comet does me too much honour." Tenison preached a very fulsome funeral eulogium of Nell Gwyn. Warton. Pope. Ver. 166. And how did, &c.] This seems to allude to a complaint made ver. 71, of the preceding dialogue. Ver. 166. florid youth] Lord Hervey, alluding to his painting himself. Bowles. * Walpole. P. Faith, it imports not much from whom it came; Whoever borrow'd, could not be to blame, If one, through nature's bounty or his lord's, From him the next receives it, thick or thin, 175 As pure a mess almost as it came in ; Drops to the third, who nuzzles close behind; F. This filthy simile, this beastly line Quite turns my stomach 180 P. So does flattery mine; NOTES. Ver. 172. As hog to hog] "Our modern authors write plays as they feed hogs in Westphaly, where but one eats pease or acorns, and all the rest feed upon his, and one another's excrements." Thoughts on various subjects, vol. ii. p. 497. Though those remarks were not published in the lifetime of Pope, yet the author of them, Mr. Thyer, informs us, that Mr. Longueville, in whose custody they were, communicated them to Atterbury, from whom Pope might hear of them. It is impossible any two writers could casually hit upon an image so very peculiar and uncommon. Warton. Ver. 182. So does flattery mine;] Fontenelle has written a pleasant dialogue between Augustus and Peter Aretine, the Italian satirist, who laughs immoderately at the emperor, for the gross flattery he so cordially received from his poets, particularly Virgil, at the beginning of the Third Georgic. And Aretine, among other delicate strokes of ridicule, tells him: "On louoit une par 185 And all your courtly civet-cats can vent, NOTES. tie de votre vie, aux depens de l'autre." But Fontenelle ends like a true Frenchman, and assures Augustus, "he will no longer be quoted as a model for kings, since Louis XIV. has appeared." Such is the language held of a man, who could banish Fenelon, burn the Palatinate, and drive away or destroy so many of his protestant subjects; who kept in pay 440,000 men. It is grievous to reflect, that for incurring the displeasure of such a man, Racine had the weakness to be so much affected, as to bring on, by vexation and grief, a disease that was fatal to him. Racine and Boileau relinquished, after a small progress, the History of Louis XIV. which they were appointed to write. Boileau honestly owned to his friends, that he did not well know what reasons to allege in justification of the war against Holland in 1672. The pride, profusion, ambition, and despotism of Louis XIV. laid the foundation of the ruin of France, and all the miseries we have lived to see. Warton. Ver. 185. Japhet-Chartres] See the Epistle to Lord Bathurst. Pope. VARIATIONS. Ver. 185. In the MS. I grant it, Sir; and further, 'tis agreed, Japhet writ not, and Chartres scarce could read. 195 And each blasphemer quite escape the rod, Ask you what provocation I have had? The affront is mine, my friend, and should be yours; Mine, as a foe profess'd to false pretence, Who think a coxcomb's honour like his sense; 200 P. So proud, I am no slave: So impudent, I own myself no knave: So odd, my country's ruin makes me grave. Safe from the bar, the pulpit, and the throne, 210 NOTES. Ver. 204. And mine as man, who feel for all mankind.] From Terence: "Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto." Pope. Ver. 208. Yes, I am proud, &c.] In this ironical exultation the poet insinuates a subject of the deepest humiliation. Warburton. Ver. 208. Yes, I am proud, &c.] This seems fabricated from the materials of Boileau, Discours au Roi, ver. 99. En vain d'un lâche orgueil leur esprit revêtu S'il se moque de Dieu, craint Tartuffe et Molière. Wakefield. |