No Pow'r the Mufe's Friendship can command; 120 O let my Country's Friends illumine mine! I think your Friends are out, and would be in. NOTES. 125 COBHAM'S fanity, during which no perfon was permitted to approach him but a few confidents, and efpecially Bois-Robert. He gave, fays Segrais, p. 170. one hundred and twenty thousand crowns a year in penfions to men of learning and science. The history of his founding the French Academy is well known; which is frequently faid to have polifhed and fixed the French language. But Malherbe, their first correct writer, died before the inftitution of this Academy." WARTON. VER. 116. LOUIS fearce cold gain,] By this expreffion finely infinuating, that the great Boileau always falls below himself in thofe paffages where he flatters his Mafter. Of which he gives us an inftance in Ver. 231. where the topic of adulation is exceeding childish and extravagant. WARBURTON. "The relentless defpotifm of Louis," fays a certain eloquent. writer," was proudly arrayed in manners, gallantry, fplendor, magnificence, and even covered over with the impofing robes of fcience and literature."-But the defpotism was notwithstanding relent efs. WARTON. VER. 121. O let my Country's Friends i lumine mine! Warburton calls this a pretty expreffion, alluding to the old practice of iluminating MSS. with gold and vermilion !! VER. 128. Come then, I'll comply] Here is a moft happy imitation of Perfius, and of Boileau; -Per COBHAM'S a Coward, POLWARTH is a Slave, But let me add, Sir ROBERT's mighty dull, 130 Has NOTES. -Per me equidem funt omnia protinus alba, Nil moror; euge omncs, omnes, bene miræ eritis res: And thus Boileau, Sat. ix. v. 287. Perfius, Sat. 1. v. 110. Puifque vous le voulez, je vais changer de stile, Fend les flots d'auditeurs pour aller à fa chaire. But Pope has plainly the fuperiority by the artful and ironical compliments paid to his friends. WARTON. VER. 129 Spirit of Arnall!] Look for him in his place, Dunc. B. ii. Ver. 315. POPE. VER. R. 129. Spirit of Arnall!] Arnall was one of the writers for Sir Robert Walpole, and got by his writing, &c a very large fum, an account of which may be seen in the notes to the Dunciad. Some of his letters now before me, for the fight of which I am indebted to Mr. Coxe, fhew him to have been a fhrewd and fenfible man. What is curious in one, he talks very highly of his honour and veracity. He was vain-glorious and important in his own ideas; as Pope, with much less reason: what he got, he spent as fast as it came, and many of his letters to Sir Robert fhew great poverty and diftrefs. They are full of earneft petitions for preferment, money, &c. He had a filver Ink-ftand, which he was proud of difplaying, and boasted it was a prefent from his FRIEND WALPOLE! His diftrefs at laft, brought on by his own impru dence, induced him, it is fuppofed, to commit fuicide. Communicated by Mr. Coxe. VER. 130. POLWARTH] The Hon. Hugh Hume, Son of Alex ander Earl of Marchmont, Grandfon of Patric Earl of Marchmout, and distinguished, like them, in the cause of Liberty. POPE Has never made a Friend in private life, And was, befides, a Tyrant to his Wife. 135 But pray, when others praise him, do I blame? Call Verres, Wolfey, any odious name? Why rail they then, if but a Wreath of mine, Oh All-accomplish'd ST. JOHN! deck thy shrine? What? fhall each fpurgall'd Hackney of the day, When Paxton gives him double Pots and Pay, 141 Or each new-penfion'd Sycophant, pretend To break my Windows if I treat a Friend; Then wifely plead, to me they meant no hurt, But 'twas my Guest at whom they threw the dirt? Of Honour bind me, not to maul his Tools; gave, 146 150 His Saws are toothlefs, and his Hatchet's Lead. NOTES. VER. 143. To break my Windows] Which was done when Lord Bolingbroke and Lord Bathurft were one day dining with him at Twickenham. All the great perfons celebrated in these Satires were in violent oppofition to government. It is rather fingular that he has not mentioned Mr. Pitt, one of the moft able and most formidable; efpecially with his friends Lyttelton, Cobham, and Pulteney. WARTON. F. Hold Sir! for God's fake, where's th' Affront to you? Against your worship when had S-k* writ? Or P-ge† pour'd forth the Torrent of his Wit ? What's that to you who ne'er was out nor in? NOTES. And VER. 159. Or P-ge] Judge Page, who is faid to have treated delinquents too roughly. WARTON. VER. 160. the Bard] A verfe taken out of a poem to Sir R. W. POPE. VER. 161. In Pow'r] Lord Melcombe was the Author of this line, in an Epiftle to Sir Robert Walpole. WARTON. Mr. Wyndham, to whom I am fo much indebted, informs me, that Lord Melcombe took the very fame Epiftle he had written to Sir Robert, and fome years afterwards, when circumstances were changed, addreffed it to Lord Bute. VER. 164. The Prieft, &c.] Spoken not of any particular priest, but of many priests. РОРЕ. 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 faints the Queen! A comet happening to appear when Cardinal Mazarine lay on his death-bed, fome of his many abject flatterers infinuated, that it 166 And how did, pray, the florid Youth offend, Whofe Speech you took, and gave it to a Friend? P. Faith, it imports not much from whom it came; Whoever borrow'd, could not be to blame, Since the whole Houfe did afterwards the fame. 1701 Let Courtly Wits to Wits afford fupply, As Hog to Hog in huts of Weftphaly; If one through Nature's Bounty or his Lord's, Has what the frugal dirty foil affords, From him the next receives it, thick or thin, As pure a mefs almost as it came in; 175 The bleffed benefit, not there confin'd, Drops to the third, who nuzzles close behind; NOTES. 180 F. This had reference to him, and his deftiny. The Cardinal pleasantly anfwered, "Gentlemen, the comet does me too much honour." Tenifon preached a very fulfome funeral Eulogium of Nell Gwyn. WARTON. POPE. VER. 166. And how did, &c.] This feems to allude to a complaint made Ver. 71. of the preceding Dialogue. VER. 166. florid Youth] Lord Hervey, alluding to his painting himself. VER. 172. As Log to Hog] Our modern Authors write plays as they feed hogs in Weftphaly, where but one eats pease or acorns, and all the reft feed upon his, and one another's excrements." Thoughts on Various Subjects, vol. ii. p. 497. Though those remarks were not published in the life time of Pope, yet the Author of them, Mr. Thyer, informs us, that Mr. Longueville, in whofe cuftody they were, communicated them to Atterbury, from whom Pope might hear of them. It is impoffible any two writers could cafually hit upon an image fo very peculiar and uncommon. |