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How pleasing ATTERBURY's softer hour!

How shin'd the Soul, unconquer'd in the Tow'r!

NOTES.

How

VER. 80. STANHOPE'S noble Flame, Who confefsed to old Whiston, that, in his opinion, it was almost impoffible for a Minister of State to be an honest man.

WARTON.

VER. 82. How pleasing ATTERBURY's] Pleasing indeed it must have been, whether we confider his learning, his eloquence, his taste, his tender domeftic feelings as a Father, his kindness as a Friend. Atterbury is held up, as factious, ambitious, &c. That he was attached to the House of Stuart, and afterwards entered into the schemes with the party, there can be no doubt; but I think it hard to attribute this to disappointed ambition, from not attaining the ecclefiaftical eminence he afspired to. Might he not have been actuated folely by confcience, and a sense of what he thought his duty? His firmness of conduct, his manly tenderness, his accomplishments, and his sufferings throw a kind of beautiful luftre on his character, whatever might have been his political creed, or conduct. His letter on his banishment, where he says, "Some natural tears he dropped, but wiped them foon;" who can read without being affected to tears? I cannot help faying, when I think of his " softer hour;" " Ambition should be made of sterner stuff"

When we confider what has been esteemed the harsher and more violent part of his character, we feel an additional tenderness, at the idea of kindnesses, friendship, paternal feelings, &c. We are interested, as when in Julius Cæfar we fee Brutus, whose stern character we had been almost afraid to approach, taking the instrument, from the boy's hand, and, in the midst of his haraffed and bitter feelings, faying,

" Gentle Knave, good night;

I will not do thee so much wrong to wake thee!"

JULIUS CÆSAR.

I will add Coxe's account of his Education, &c. "Francis Atterbury was born at Middleton near Newport Pagnell, in Buckinghamshire, 1662. He was educated at Weftminster, and elected student of Christ Church Oxford. He was distinguished at an early age for taste and classical attainments. On taking orders, he acquired high reputation, for his talents in preaching, and supporting, against Hoadley and Wake, the doctrines of the high Church.

"He

85

How can I PULT'NEY, CHESTERFIELD forget,
While Roman Spirit charms, and Attic Wit:

NOTES.

ARGYLL,

" He was first patronized by Sir Jonathan Trelawny, Bishop of Exeter; appointed by the Tory administration of Queen Anne, Dean of Chrift Church; and in 1713, at the recommendation of the Earl of Oxford, advanced to the Bishoprick of Rochetter, and Deanery of Westmintter.

" He was inimical always to the fucceffion of the Hanover line. On the acceffion of George the First, he received evident marks of coldness from the new Sovereign. He afpired to the highest honours of the Church, and would have fucceeded under Queen Anne; but, on her death, his uniform oppofition to the Government of his new Sovereign, precluded him from all expectation of preferment."

VER. 83. How shin'd the Soul,] Among these, Atterbury was his chief intimate. The turbulent and imperious temper of this haughty prelate was long felt and remembered in the college over which he prefided. It was with difficulty Queen Anne was perfuaded to make him a bishop; which she did at last, on the repeated importunities of Lord Harcourt; who preffed the Queen to do it, because truly she had before disappointed him, in not placing Sacheverell on the bench. After her decease, Atterbury vehemently urged his friends to proclaim the Pretender; and on their refusal, upbraided them for their timidity with many oaths; for he was accustomed to swear, on any strong provocation. In a Collection of Letters, lately published by Mr. Duncombe, it is affirmed, on the authority of Elijah Fenton, that Atterbury, speaking of Pope, faid, there was,

Mens curva in corpore curvo.

This fentiment seems utterly inconfiftent with the warm friendship fuppofed to subsist between these celebrated men. But Dr. Herring, in the 2d vol. of this collection, p. 104. fays, "If At. terbury was not worse used than any honeft man in the world ever was, there were strong contradictions between his public and private character."

WARTON.

VER. 84. PULT'NFY, CHESTERFIELD] I have heard a lady of exquifite wit and judgment, say of these two celebrated men, " The latter was always striving to be witty, and the former could not help being fo."

The

ARGYLL, the State's whole Thunder born to wield,
And shake alike the Senate and the Field :
Or WYNDHAM, just to Freedom and the Throne,
The Master of our Passions, and his own.

Names, which I long have lov'd, nor lov'd in vain,
Rank'd with their Friends, not number'd with their

Train;

And if yet higher the proud Lift should end,
Still let me fay! No Follower, but a Friend.

NOTES.

91

Yet

The two lines on Argyle are faid to have been added, on the Duke's declaring in the House of Lords, on occafion of fome of Pope's fatires, that if any man dared to use his name in an invective, he would run him through the body, and throw himself on the mercy of his Peers, who, he trusted, would weigh the provocation.

Bolingbroke's Letter to Wyndham is one of the most curious of his works, and it gave a deadly and incurable blow to the folly and madness of Jacobitism. WARTON.

VER. 84. CHESTERFIELD forget, His character was much funk by the publication of the loofe and libertine Letters to his Son.

WARTON.

VER. 88. WYNDHAM, Sir William Wyndham, Chancellor of the Exchequer under Queen Anne, made early a confiderable figure; but fince a much greater, both by his ability and eloquence, joined with the utmost judgment and temper.

VER. 88. Or WYNDHAM, just to] In former Editions,

Or WYNDHAM arm'd for Freedom

POPE.

WARTON.

VER. 88. Freedom and the Throne.] We must always remember that the facred appellation of Patriot, is always adopted by disappointment, but it seems almost ludicrous that it should be so perpetually in the mouth of the high Tory Party, such as Bolingbroke, &c.

VER. 92. And if yet higher, &c.] He was at that time honoured with the esteem and favour of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. WARBURTON.

95

Yet think not, Friendship only prompts my lays; I follow Virtue; where she shines, I praise : Point she to Prieft or Elder, Whig or Tory, Or round a Quaker's Beaver caft a Glory. I never (to my forrow I declare)

Din'd with the MAN of Ross, or my LORD MAY'R. Some,

NOTES.

Frederic Prince of Wales; who poffefsed many of what the King of Pruffia called, ces qualités sociables qui s'allient si rare. ment avec la morgue et la grandeur des Souveraines WARTON. VER. 93. Still let me fay! No Follower, but a Friend] i. e. Unrelated to their parties, and attached only to their perfons.

WARBURTON.

VER.99 the MAN of Ross,] Kirle, the celebrated Man of Ross, was educated at Baliol College Oxford, where there is a curious Tankard, inscribed with his name, which he left as a prefent to the College; it is often shewn as a curiofity, in confequence of the splendor given to his name, by Pope's numbers.

The Tankard stands about 10 inches high from the ground, being fupported by three legs, in the shape of Lions.

The handle is formed by the figure of a Dolphin, and the cover, lifted up by a figure of an Hedge hog, which was Kirle's Creft. Upon the cover of the Tankard, the arms of Baliol College. In the centre, the Arms of the Donor, above which are the words "Poculum Charitatis:" and underneath, the following Inscription:

"Ex dono Johannis Kirle de Roffe, in Agro Herefordienfi et hujus Collegii Sono Commenfalis."

The date of the year, in which the gift was made, is, contrary to the usual form, omitted.

VER. 99. my LORD MAY'R.] Sir John Barnard, Lord Mayor in the year of the Poem, 1738. A citizen eminent for his virtue, public fpirit, and great talents in Parliament. An excellent Man, Magiftrate, and Senator. In the year 1747, the City of London, in memory of his many and signal services to his Country, erected a statue to him. But his image had been placed long before in the heart of every good Man. WARBURTON.

Some, in their choice of Friends (nay, look not

grave)

Have still a fecret Bias to a Knave:

To find an honest man I beat about,

And love him, court him, praise him, in or out.
F. Then why fo few commended?

P. Not fo fierce ;

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105

110

Find you the Virtue, and I'll find the Verse.
But random Praise the task can ne'er be done;
Each Mother asks it for her booby Son,
Each Widow afks it for the Best of Men,
For him the weeps, for him the weds agen.
Praife cannot stoop, like Satire, to the ground;
The Number may be hang'd, but not be crown'd.
Enough for half the Greatest of thefe days,
To 'scape my Cenfure, not expect my Praise.
Are they not rich? what more can they pretend?
Dare they to hope a Poet for their Friend?
What RICHLIEU wanted, LOUIS scarce could gain,
And what young AMMON wish'd, but wish'd in vain.

NOTES.

115

No

VER. 102. To find an honest man, &c.] In this search, in which he was very fincere, it would have been well if he had not fometimes trufted to the reports of others, who had less penetration, but more paffions to gratify. WARBURTON.

VER. 112. Enough for half the Greatest] Dr. Warton afks, whether this is not too high language? He might well ask. Pope puts me in mind here, of what we read of the beautiful, but fearful ferpent, in a rich African landscape, that lifts his head above the tall grafs, as if he thought himself the lord of the Earth.

VER.116 What RICHLIDU wanted,] A curious and uncommon fact is mentioned by the learned Abbé Longuerue, Part ii. p. 5. That Cardinal Richlieu had, from time to time, fics of infanity

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