Must then at once (the character to save), 'Tis from high life high characters are drawn :" More wise, more learn'd, more just, more everything." some be so stubborn that they cannot bend them to any uniformity to the rest, they then, without further ceremony, impute them to dissimulation.' -MONTAIGNE, Book ii. Chap. I. After ver. 128 in the former editions: Ask why from Britain Cæsar made retreat? The mighty Czar might answer, he was 2 After the battle of Pharsalia, Cæsar pursued his enemy to Alexandria, where he became infatuated with the charms of Cleopatra, and instead of pushing his advantages, and dispersing the relics of the Pharsalian quarrel, he brought upon himself an unnecessary war, at a time his arms were most wanted elsewhere.-WAR BURTON. 3 It is strange that Pope, or his learned friends, should not have known that drunkenness was not one of Cæsar's vices. Suetonius says: "Vini parcissimum ne inimici quidem negaverunt."-JORTIN. 125 130 135 140 4 "I have been assured," says Swift, "by men long practised in business, that the secrets of a Court are much fewer than we generally suppose; and I hold it for the greatest secret of a Court that they are so. I could produce innumerable instances from my own memory and observation, of events imputed to the profound skill and address of the minister, which in reality were either the mere effect of negligence, weakness, humour, passion, or pride; or at best but the natural course of things left to themselves."-WARTON. 5 This thought was perhaps origin- Divitiis parent; quas qui construxerit, ille Et quidquid volet. ii. Sat. 3, 94-98. 6 In the same strain the Prologue to Dryden's Troilus and Cressida : Dulness that in a playhouse meets disgrace Might meet with reverence in its proper place, 1 Court-virtues bear, like gems, the highest rate, "Tis education forms the common mind,' The fulsome clench, that nauseates the Would from a judge, or alderman, go down, Might somewhere else be called a grave Dulness is decent in the church and state. The same thought is found in a letter from Swift to Mrs. Howard, dated 1 Feby. 1727: "I am sorry I have no complaints to make of her Royal Highness; therefore I think I may let you tell her that every grain of virtue and good sense in one of her rank, considering their bad education among flatterers and adorers, worth a dozen in any inferior person." Pope, however, is speaking ironically. 2 From Cowley, Translation of Virgil. Georgic II. 458: In life's cool vale let my low scene be laid. 145 150 155 3 These lines (149-157) seem to run counter to the general drift of the argument. Pope says (v.100), we cannot "from the apparent what conclude the why." But here he says, ""Tis Education forms the common mind." Perhaps, however, he means to start a supposed objection to his theory in this verse, with a view to afterwards overthrowing it, by showing how entirely different the characters of children brought up in the same family often are. If so, Warburton ought to have brought out the line of reasoning more clearly in the analysis of the Essay. In the early editions, when the Epistle made less pretension to regularity of thought, this inconsistency was less glaring. The first edition has J—n, meaning no doubt old Mr. Johnston, who had been King William's Secretary for Scotland. He retired from Strike off his pension by the setting sun, 3 That gay free-thinker, a fine talker once,' 160 165 170 6 III. Search then the ruling passion: there, alone, The wild are constant, and the cunning known; The fool consistent, and the false sincere: Priests, princes, women, no dissemblers here. public life on a pension, and fixed himself in an elegant villa at Twickenham (since known as Orleans House), where he amused himself with horti culture, but neither neighbourhood nor similarity of taste could reconcile Pope to the old Whig. He was a cousin of Bishop Burnet, and was recommended by him to King William.-CROKER. 1 These four lines first appeared in Warburton's edition. 2 Variation: Or chanced to meet Sir Robert when he frowned.-WARBURTON. 3 The construction requires "take its place." The grammatical error in this passage seems to arise from carelessness, as Pope might have written "displace." VOL. III.-POETRY. 175 4"Affections," in the earlier edi tions. 5 We find here in the compass of eight lines an anatomy of human nature; more sense and observation cannot well be compressed in a narrower space.-WARTON. He is perhaps indebted to La Bruyère, who says in his Essay De l'Homme : "Les besoins de la vie, la situation où l'on se trouve, la loi de la nécessité, forcent la nature, et y causent ces grands changements. Ainsi tel homme au fond et en lui-même ne se peut définir; trop de choses qui sont hors de lui l'attirent, le changent, le bouleversent; il n'est point précisement ce qu'il est ou ce qu'il parait être." 6 Till Warburton's edition these F This clue once found, unravels all the rest, The prospect clears, and Wharton stands confest.' Whose ruling passion was the lust of praise : And now the punk applaud, and now the friar." lines were printed after ver. 171. Instead of "Search then," the reading was "Tis in," i.e., "Tis only in the ruling passion you cannot change. "Clodio," in the earlier editions, which was the name given to his father in the Satire called Faction Displayed.-CROKER. Philip, son of the Marquis of Wharton, born in December, 1698, died in May, 1731. He was created Duke of Wharton in 1718 before he was twenty-one years of age, as a reward for his services in debate. 2 Alluding to his intimacy with Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. See note to ver. 207. 3 His most celebrated speech during his short parliamentary career was delivered May, 1723, when he was little more than twenty-four, in opposition to the bill of pains and penalties against Atterbury. "It was heard," says Dr. King, "with universal applause and admiration, and was indeed not unworthy of the oldest and most accomplished senator, or the 180 185 190 4 He was President of the celebrated Hell-Fire Club. 5 John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, famous for his wit and extravagances in the time of Charles II.-POPE. 6 44 Not long after a whim took his Grace to go into a convent, in order to prepare for Easter; and he behaved himself so well there, and discoursed so well upon all points of religion, that the good Fathers beheld him with admiration."-Life of Wharton, prefixed to the edition of his works published in 1740. Grown all to all; from no one vice exempt; A constant bounty which no friend has made; 5 He dies, sad outcast of each church and state, 1i.e., making himself most contemptible to avoid being despised. 2 The grammatical construction of this couplet is certainly daring, but the effect is not unhappy. The Duke's liberality to men of letters was profuse. He gave Young £2,000 for his tragedy of Revenge. See Imitation to Horace, Epistles 1. 6. ver. 88 and note. 3 The Duke married before he was seventeen years of age the daughter of Major-General Holmes. He ap pears to have entirely neglected her after his final departure from England, and she died on the 14th of April, 1726, upon which he married Miss O'Byrne, "a beautiful young lady at the Spanish Court, one of the Maids of Honour to the Queen of Spain, daughter of an Irish Colonel in the Spanish service." He treated his first wife badly, but it can scarcely be said that "his heart approved her; "his heart may have approved of his second wife, but there is no evidence that he treated her badly. It is probable that Pope merely inserted the traits of character described in this couplet for the sake of antithesis. 195 200 205 A Bill of indictment was preferred against him for High Treason, the fact laid to his charge being, appearing in arms before, and firing off cannon against, his Majesty's Town of Gibraltar. His father was one of the first who joined the Prince of Orange. When about seventeen years old the Duke told an English gentleman, "that he had pawned his principles to Gordon the Pretender's banker for a considerable sum, and till he had the money to repay him he must be a Jacobite, but that as soon as he had redeemed them he should be a Whig again."-Life of Wharton. 5 This is not quite accurate. He died a member of the church of Rome, in a Bernardine convent among the mountains of Catalonia. 6.e., not having achieved really great celebrity by his wickedness. 7 The union of opposite extremes in Wharton seems rather to be an illustration of what La Bruyère says, that men without principle "have no character at all": "Adraste était si corrumpu et si libertin, qu'il lui a été moins difficile de suivre la |