Or to thy Country let that heap be lent,

As M**o's was, but not at five per cent.

121

"Who thinks that Fortune cannot change her mind, Prepares a dreadful jeft for all mankind.

And who ftands fafeft? tell me, is it he
That spreads and fwells in puff'd Prosperity,
Or bleft with little, whofe preventing care
In peace provides fit arms against a war?

125

* Thus BETHEL fpoke, who always speaks his

thought,

And always thinks the very thing he ought:
His equal mind I copy what I can,

130

And as I love, would imitate the Man.

In South-Sea days not happier, when furmis'd
'The Lord of Thousands, than if now Excis'd;
In forest planted by a Father's hand,

W

Than in five acres now of rented land.

vice."- WARTON.

NOTES.

135

Content

VER. 122. five per cent.] Among the papers of the Orford collection, is a curious note to Sir. Robert Walpole, when Secretary at War, from the Duke of Marlborough, in which he says, he has a hundred thousand pounds he does not know how to dispose of, and defires Walpole to put it out for him. From Mr. Coxe.

VER. 129. Thus BETHEL spoke,] This speech of Ofellus continues in the original to the end of this Satire. Pope has taken all that follows out of the mouth of Bethel, and speaks entirely in his own perfon. It is impoffible not to be pleased with the picture of his way of life, and the account he gives of his own table, in lines that express common and familiar objects with dignity and elegance. WARTON.

VER. 133 In South-Sea days not happier, &c.] Mr. Pope had South-Sea stock, which he did not fell out. It was valued at be. tween twenty and thirty thousand pounds when it fell.

VOL. IV.

I

WARBURTON,

y

Cum pecore et gnatis, fortem mercede colonum,
Non ego, narrantem, temere edi luce profesta
Quidquam, præterolus fumofæ cum pede pernæ.
Ac mihi feu longum poft tempus venerat hofpes,
Sive operum vacuo gratus conviva per imbrem
Vicinus; bene erat, non pifcibus urbe petitis,
Sed pullo atque hædo: tum penfilis uva fecundas
Et nux ornabat menfas, cum duplice ficu.

a

Poft hoc ludus erat cuppa potare magistra:
Ac venerata Ceres, ita culmo furgeret alto,

Explicuit vino contracte feria frontis.

b

Sæviat atque novos moveat Fortuna tumultus!

Quantum hinc imminuet? quanto aut ego parcius,

aut vos,

O pueri, nituiftis, ut huc novus incola venit?

Nam

NOTES.

VER. 134 than if now Excis'd;] Pope naturally joined the, violent cry against the Excife, with the Party in oppofition to Sir R Walpole. Pulteney exclaimed upon another occafion :

"There is another things impending! a monflrous project! fuch a project as has ftruck terror into the minds of most gentle. men of this Houfe, and into the minds of all men without doors, who have any regard to the happiness, or to the conftitution, of their country. I mean THAT MONSTER, THE EXCISE! that PLAN OF ARBITRARY POWER, which is expected to be laid before the House in the prefent Parliament." Coxe's Memoirs, chap. 41.

VER. 136. Than in five acres] He had a leafe of his house and gardens at Twickenham for his life. The leafe was purchased of a Mrs. Vernon; hence the expreffions,

-Does it concern one,

Whether the Houfe belong to Pope, or Vernon?

VER. 152. double tax'd,] An additional tax was laid on the eftates of Papifts and Nonjurors.

Content with little, I can piddle here

On brocoli and mutton, round the year;

But ancient friends (tho' poor, or out of play)
That touch my bell, I cannot turn away.

'Tis true, no Turbots dignify my boards,

140

But gudgeons, flounders, what my Thames affords :
To Hounflow-heath I point, and Banfted-down,

Thence comes your mutton, and these chicks my own:
a From yon old walnut-tree a fhow'r fhall fall; 145
And grapes, long ling'ring on my only wall,
And figs from standard and espalier join ;
The Dev'l is in you if you cannot dine:

Then 'chearful healths, (your Miftrefs fhall have place,)
And, what's more rare, a Poet fhall fay Grace. 150
Fortune not much of humbling me can boast;

Tho' double tax'd, how little have I lost?

My Life's amusements have been just the fame,
Before and after Standing Armies came.

C

My lands are fold, my father's houfe is gone;
I'll hire another's; is not that my own,

And

155

yours, my friends? through whofe free op'ning gate

None comes too early, none departs too late;

(For I, who hold fage Homer's rule the beft, Welcome the coming, speed the going Guest.) 160

WARTON.

VER. 154. Standing Armies came.] A conftant topic of declamation against the court, at this time. The outcry was equally violent against the Excife, and no lefs unjustly. See Coxe's Memoirs, ch. 41.

Nam propriæ telluris herum natura neque illum,
Nec me, nec quemquam ftatuit. nos expulit ille;

e

f

Illum aut nequities aut vafri infcitia juris,.
Poftremum expellet certe vivacior heres,

g

h Nunc ager Umbreni fub nomine, nuper Ofelli
Dictus erat: nulli proprius; fed cedit in ufum
Nunc mihi, nunc alii. quocirca vivite fortes,
Fortiaque adverfis opponite pectora rebus.

i

NOTES.

VER. 160. Welcome the coming,] From Homer, Cd. b. 15. v. 74. χρη ξείνον παρονία φιλειν, εθελοντα δε T&μTELY.

Theocritus has finely touched this fubject in the fixteenth Idyllium. WARTON.

VER. 165 Wel, if the ufe be mine, &c.] In a letter to this Mr. Bethel, of March 2c, 1743, he fays, "My Landlady, Mrs. Vernon, being dead, this Garden and House are offered me in fale; and, 1 believe, (together with the cottages on each fide my grafs plot next the Thames,) will come at about a thousand pounds. If I thought any very particular friend would be pleased to live in it after my death, (for, as it is, it ferves all my purposes as well, during life,) I would purchase it; and more particularly could I hope two things; that the friend who fhould like it, was fo much younger and healthier than my felf, as to have a profpect of its continuing his, fome years longer than I can of its continuing mine. But most of those I love are travelling out of the world, not into it; and unless I have such a view given me, I have no vanity nor pleasure that does not ftop fhort of the Grave." So that we fee (what fome who call themfelves his friends would not believe) his thoughts in profe and verfe were the fame.. WARBURTON.

VER. 171-2. Or in pure equity, (the cafe not clear,) The Chanc'ry takes your rents for twenty year:] A Proteftant Mifer's money in Chancery, and a Catholic Mifer's perfon in Purgatory, are never to be got out, till the Law and the Church have been well paid for their redemption. WARBURTON. VER. 175 that to BACON could] Gorhambury, near St. Alban's, a fine and venerable old mansion. WARTON.

Pope, with his ufual pronenefs to invective, alludes to a very refpectable nobleman, William, first Lord Grimstone.

Pray Heav'n it laft! (cries SWIFT) as you go on "I wish to God this houfe had been your own:

66

66

Pity! to build, without a fon or wife:

d

Why, you'll enjoy it only all your life."
Well, if the ufe be mine, can it concern one,
Whether the name belong to Pope or Vernon?
What's Property? dear Swift! you fee it alter
From you to me, from me to Peter Walter ;
Or, in a mortgage, prove a Lawyer's fhare;
Or, in a jointure, vanish from the heir;
Or, in pure equity, (the cafe not clear,)
The Chanc❜ry takes your rents for twenty year:
At beft, it falls to fome ungracious fon,

165

170

Who cries, "My father's damn'd, and all's my own.”

h

Shades, that to BACON could retreat afford,

Become the portion of a booby Lord;

And Hemiley, once proud Buckingham's delight,
Slides to a Scriv❜ner or a city Knight.

i Let lands and houses have what Lords they will,
Let Us be fix'd, and our own masters still.

NOTES.

175

180

VER. 177. And Hemfley,] Helmfley, in Yorkshire. VER. 177. proud Buckingham's, &c.] Villiers Duke of Buckingham. POPE.

THIS imitation appears to me, the least successfully polished and pointed of any he has attempted. The obfervations, indeed, are not very ftriking in the original; and as to Pope, if Bethel always "spoke what he thought, and always thought as he ought," we cannot be impreffed with the fagenes of his remarks. The chief merit of Horace is the language, and in this respect Pope has followed him with much lefs fuccefs than he has done in his other Imitations.