You grow correct that once with Rapture writ, And are, besides, too moral for a Wit. Decay of Parts, alas! we all muft feel Why now, this moment, don't I fee you fteal? 1 NOTES. 5 'Tis ftyle, without flatnefs. The fatire in thefe pieces is of the strongest kind; fometimes, direct and declamatory, at others, ironical and oblique. It must be owned to be carried to excess. Our country is reprefented as totally ruined, and overwhelmed with diffipation, depravity, and corruption. Yet this very country, fo emafculated and debased by every species of folly and wickedness, in about twenty years afterwards, carried its triumphs over all its enemies, through all the quarters of the world, and astonished the most diftant nations with a display of uncommon efforts, abilities, and virtue. So vain and groundless are the prognostications of poets, as well as politicians. It is to be wished, that a genius could be found to write an One Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty-one, as a counter-part to these two Dialogues, which were more diligently laboured, and more frequently corrected than any of our Author's compofitions. I have often heard Mr. Dodsley say, that he was employed by the Author to copy them fairly. Every line was then written twice over; a clean tranfcript was then delivered to Mr. Pope, and when he afterwards fent it to Mr. Dodsley to be printed, he found every line had been written twice over a fecond time. Swift tells our Author, thefe Dialogues are equal, if not fuperior, to any part of his works. They are, in truth, more Horatian, than the profeffed Imitations of Horace. They at firft were intitled, from the year in which they were published, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Thirty-eight. They were afterwards called, fantastically enough, Epilogue to the Satires, as the Epiftle to Arbuthnot was intitled Prologue to the Satires. It is remarkable that the first was published the very fame morning with Johnfon's admirable London; which Pope much approved, and rched diligently for the Author, who lived then in obscurity. Pope has himself given Dialogues than on any n had a fecond edition in a week. •T othier WARTON. will not fay ARTON. 'Tis all from Horace; Horace long before ye Said, "Tories call'd him Whig, and Whigs a Tory;" And taught his Romans, in much better metre, "To laug1 Fools who put their trust in Pet But Her laughir, was delicate, was nice; Bubo 'um I hay he lash'd no fort of Vice: Horace would fay, Sir Billy ferv'd the Crown, Blunt could do bus'nefs, H-ggins knew the Town; In Sappho touch the Failings of the Sex, In rev'rend Bishops note fome fmall Neglects, 15 NOTES. And VER. 9, 10. And taught his Romans, in much better metre, The general turn of the thought is from Boileau, "Avant lui, Juvénal avoit dit en Latin, VER. 12. Bubo obferves,] Some guilty perfon, very fond of making fuch an observation. POPE. Bubo is faid to mean Mr. Doddington, afterward Lord Melcombe. WARTON. Pope has before claffed together " Sir Will, and Bubo." See note on that line, Prologue to the Satires. VER. 13 Horace would fay,] The business of the friend here introduced is to diffuade our Poet from personal invectives. But he dexterously turns the very advice he is giving into the bittereft fatire. Sir Billy was Sir William Young, who, from a great fluency, was often employed to make long speeches till the minifter's friends were collected in the House. WARTON. VER 14. H-ggins] Formerly Gaoler of the Fleet prifon, en. riched him Such welf by many exactions, for which he was tried and e pelled. He was the Of Robin' The gay co father of the Author of the abfurd and ov'd with Ariosto; an account of him is 'd, Tranlation of dotes of Hogart - truths he fpoke. Pr And own, the Spaniard did a waggish thing, Who cropt our Ears, and fent them to the King. Why please at Court, and make Augus fmile : il Manager, that crept betwe A His Friend and Shame, and was a kin n. But 'faith your very Friends will foon be fore; 21 And VARIATIONS. After Ver. 26. in the MS. There's honeft Tacitus * once talk'd as big, But is he now an independant Whig? *Mr. Thomas Gordon, who was bought off by a place at Court. NOTES. VER. 15. In Sappho touch] In former Editions, Sir George of fome flight gallantries fufpect. WARTON. VER. 18. Who cropt our Ears,] Said to be executed by the Captain of a Spanish Ship on one Jenkins, a Captain of an EngHe cut off his ears, and bid him carry them to the King his Mafter. lish one. POPE. VER. 18. Who cropt our Ears,] This circumftance has been Judicrously called by Burke, "the Fable of Captain Jenkins's Ears!" See Coxe's Memoirs. VER. 22. Screen. "Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico Tangit, et admiffus circum præcordia ludit." PERS. A metaphor peculiarly appropriated to a certain perfon in POPE. 24. Patriots there are, &c.] This appellation was gene- i. 1 And where's the Glory? 'twill be only thought 25 The Great mai never offer'd you a groat, Go fee Sir ROBERT P. See Sir ROBERT!-hum And never laugh-for all my life to come? NOTES. 30 Seen VER 26. That Great men] A phrafe, by common use, appro priated to the firft Minifter. POPE. VER. 27. Go fee. Sir ROBERT] We muft not judge of this minifter's character from the Differtation on Parties, nor from the eloquent Philippics, for eloquent they were, uttered against him in both Houfes of Parliament. Hume has drawn his portrait with candour and impartiality. And fome of his most vehement anta. gonists, particularly the great Iord Chatham, lived to allow the merits of that long and pacific miniftry, which fo much extended the commerce, and co y enlarged the riches of this Jury went in WARTON. The nobleft monafter, but he s been raised to the memory of Sir Robert ne feal being fet toy Mr. Coxe, who, from fources of authenWalpole earnestly inqymoft ably illuftrated the eventful period of ower, that the Bif the administration of Sir Robert. There A chapter was acce or character connected with the Hiftory of the tnfand pit what has received new light from that accurate and elegant hiftorian. country. VBR. 29. Seen him I have, &c.] The pleasant, amiable character of Sir Robert in private life, is here moft admirably touched. Lady M. W. Montagu's portrait of this eminent statesman, in his character as a private man, gives also a most pleasing idea of him : On feeing a Portrait of Sir Robert Walpole. Seen him, uncumber'd with the Venal tribe, He does not think me what he thinks mankind. NOTES. Come, VER. 29. Seen him I have, &c.] This, and other strokes of commendation in the following poem, as well as his regard to Sir Robert Walpole on all occafions, were in acknowledgment of a certain service he had done a friend of Mr. Pope's at his folicitation. Our Poet, when he was about feventeen, had a very ill fever in the country; which it was feared, would end fatally. In this condition he wrote to Southcot, a Priest of his acquaintance, then in town, to take his laft leave of him. Southcot, with great affection and folicitude, applied to Dr. Radcliffe for his advice. And not content with that, he rode down poft to Mr. Pope, who' was then an hundred miles from London, with the Doctor's directions; which had the defired effect. A long time after this, Southcot, who had an intereft in the Court of France, writing to Cimer E a common acquaintance in Engla med him that there was a good abbey void near Avignorit gallantries,ad credit enough to get, were it not from an appreh give umbrage to the English Cour Said to be executethcot) by his intrigues in the Pretender's ferpkins, a Captain of ar obnoxious. The perfon to whom this was wid him carry them cquaint Mr. Pope with the cafe, he immediately w e pro tion would Ftter to Sir R. Walpole in the Prieft's behalf: He aceted the Minifter with the grounds of his folicitation, and begged that this embargo, for his, Mr. P.'s fake, might be taken off; for that he was indebted to Southcot for his life; which debt must needs be difcharged either here or in purgatory. The Minifter received the application favourably, and with much good-nature wrote to his brother, then in France, to remove the obftruction. In confequence of which Southcot got the abbey. Mr. Pope ever after retained a grateful fense of his civility. WARBURTON. To the account given in this note may be added, that in grati tude for this favour conferred on his friend, Pope presented to Mr. Horatio Walpole, afterwards Lord Walpole, a fet of his Works in quarto, richly bound; which are now in the library at Wolterton. WARTON |