Roast beef, though old, proclaims him stout, TO LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGUE'. IN beauty or wit, No mortal as yet To question your empire has dar'd; But men of discerning Have thought that in learning, To yield to a lady was hard, Have reading to females deny'd: The Bible to use, Lest flocks should be wise as their guide, 'Twas a woman at first, In knowledge that tasted delight, The laws should decree To the first of possessors the right. Which to your whole sex does belong; From a second bright Eve, The knowledge of right, and of wrong, Hard doom did receive, When only one apple had she, What a punishment new "Shall he found out for you, Who tasting, have robb'd the whole tree? THE FOURTH EPISTLE OF THE FIRST BOOK OF HORACE'S EPISTLES, A MODERN IMITATION, SAY 3, St. John, who alone peruse This panegyric on lady Mary Wortley Montague might have been suppressed by Mr. Pope, on account of her having satirized him in her verses to the Imitator of Horace; which abuse he returned in the first Satire of the second book of Horace. From furious Sappho, scarce a milder fate, P-'d by her love, or libel'd by her hate. S. 2 This satire on Lord Bolingbroke, and the praise bestowed on him in a letter to Mr. Richardson, where Mr. Pope says, The sons shall blush their fathers were his foes; being so contradictory, probably occasioned the former to be suppressed. S. Ad ALBIUM TIBULLUM. Albi, nostrorum sermonum candide judex, Quid nunc te dicam facere in regione Pedana? Scribere, quod Cassi Parmensis opuscula vincat?' What schemes of politics, or laws, To you (th' all-envy'd gift of Heaven) 7 What could a tender mother's care Amidst thy various cbbs of fear, 9 In spite of fears, of mercy spite, My genius still must rail, and write, Haste to thy Twickenham's safe retreat, And mingle with the grumbling great: There, half devour'd by spleen, you'll find The rhyming bubbler of mankind; There (objects of our mutual hate) We'll ridicule both church and state. EPIGRAM ON MRS. TOFTS. A HANDSOME WOMAN WITH A FINE VOICE, BUT VERY COVETOUS AND PROUD. 10 So bright is thy beauty, so charming thy song, As had drawn both the beasts and their Orpheus along; But such is thy avarice, and such is thy pride, That the beasts must have starv'd, and the poet have died. 4 The lines here quoted occur in the Essay on Man. 6 'An tacitam silvas inter reptare salubres ? Di tibi formam Di tibi divitias dederant, artemque fruendi. "Quid voveat dulci nutricula majus alumno, Quam sapere, et fari posset quæ sentiat, et cui Gratia, fama, valetudo contingat abunde, - non deficiente crumena? * Inter spem, curamque, timores inter et iras, Omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum. Me pinguem, et nitidum bene curata cute vises, Cum ridere voles Epicuri de grege porcum. 10 This epigram, first printed anonymously in Steele's Collection, and copied in the Miscellanies of Swift and Pope, is ascribed to Pope by sir John Hawkins, in his History of Music.-Mrs. Tofts, who was the daughter of a person in the family of bishop Burnet, is celebrated as a singer little in Why make I friendships with the great, When I no favour seek? Or follow girls seven hours in eight ?- Still idle, with a busy air, Deep whimsies to contrive; Adieu to all but Gay alone, Whose soul sincere and free, A FAREWELL TO LONDON, IN THE YEAR 1715. DEAR, damn'd, distracting town, farewell! Ye harlots, sleep at ease! Soft B and rough C—, adieu! Earl Warwick make your moan, The lively H-k and you May knock up whores alone. To drink and droll be Rowe allow'd On every learned sot, And Garth, the best good Christian he, Lintot, farewell! thy bard must go; Heaven gives thee, for thy loss of Rowe, Why should I stay? Both parties rage; The wits in envious feuds engage; And not one Muse of all he fed, Has yet the grace to mourn. My friends, by turns, my friends confound, Betray, and are betray'd: Poor Y-r's sold for fifty pound, And B1 is a jade. ferior, either for her voice or manner, to the best Italian women. She lived at the introduction of the opera into this kingdom, and sung in company with Nicolini; but, being ignorant of Italian, chanted her recitative in English, in answer to his Italian; yet the charms of their voices vercame the absurdity. 1 It is not generally known that the person here meant was Dr. Robert Freind, head master of Westminster-school. A FRAGMENT. WHAT are the falling rills, the pendant shades, The morning bowers, the evening colonades, VERSES LEFT BY MR. POPE, Blest courtier! who could king and country please ON SIR WILLIAM TRUMBAL, ONE OF THE PRINCIPAL SECRETARIES OF STATE TO KING WILLIAM III. WHO, HAVING RESIGNED HIS PLACE, DIED IN HIS RETIREMENT AT EASTHAMSTED IN BERKSHIRE, 1716. A PLEASING form; a firm, yet cautious mind; ●N HIS LYING IN THE SAME BED WHICH WILMOT THE Sincere, though prudent; constant, yet resign'd; AT CELEBRATED EARL OF ROCHESTER SLEPT IN, ADDERBURY, THEN BELONGING TO THE DUKE OF ARGYLE, JULY 9th, 1739. WITH no poetic ardour fir'd I press'd the bed where Wilmot lay; Such thoughts as prompt the brave to lie VERSES TO MR. C. ST. JAMES'S PLACE. Few words are best; I wish you well; Bethel, I'm told, will soon be here: Some morning-walks along the Mall, And evening friends, will end the year. If, in this interval, between The falling leaf and coming frost, You please to see, on Twit'nam green, Your friend, your poet, and your host; For three whole days you here may rest, From office, business, news, and strife; And (what most folks would think a jest) Want nothing else, except your wife. EPITAPHS, His saltem accumulem donis, et fungar inani Munere! Virg. ON CHARLES EARL OF DORSET, IN THE CHURCH OF WITHYAM IN SUSSEX, DORSET, the grace of courts, the Muses' pride, Honour unchang'd, a principle profest, ON THE HON. SIMON HARCOURT, ONLY SON OF THE LORD CHANCELLOR HARCOURT, AT THE CHURCH OF STANTON-HARCOURT IN OXFORDSHIRE, 1720. To this sad shrine, whoe'er thou art! draw near, How vain is reason, eloquence how weak! ON JAMES CRAGGS, ESQ. IN WESTMINSTER-ABBEY. JACOBUS CRAGGS, REGI MAGNE BRITANNIE A SECRETIS ET CONSILIIS SANCTIORIBUS, PRINCIPIS PARITER AC POPULI AMOR ET DELICIE OB. FEB. XVI. MDCCXX. Statesman, yet friend to truth! of soul sincere, INTENDED FOR MR. ROWE. IN WESTMINSTER-ABBEY. THY reliques, Rowe, to this fair urn we trust, And sacred, place by Dryden's awful dust: VARIATION. It is as follows on the monument in the Abbey, erected to Rowe and his daughter, Thy reliques, Rowe! to this sad shrine we trust, And near thy Shakspeare place thy honour'd bust, Beneath a rude and nameless stone he lies, ON MRS. CORBET, WHO DIED OF A CANCER IN HER BREAST. HERE rests a woman, good without pretence, Blest with plain reason, and with sober sense : : No conquests she, but o'er herself, desir'd, No arts essay'd, but not to be admir'd. Fassion and pride were to her soul unknown, Convine'd that virtue only is our own. So unaffected, so compos'd a mind; So firm, yet soft; so strong, yet so refin'd; Heaven, as its purest gold, by tortures try'd; The saint sustain'd it, but the woman dy'd. ON THE MONUMENT OF THE HONOURABLE ROBERT DIGBY, AND OF HIS SISTER MARY, ERECTED BY THEIR FATHER THE LORD DIGBY, IN THE CHURCH OF SHERBORNE, IN DORSETSHIRE, 1727. Go! fair example of untainted youth, Who knew no wish but what the world might hear: And thou, blest maid! attendant on his doom, Yet take these tears, mortality's relief, ON SIR GODFREY KNELLER, IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY, 1723. KNELLER, by Heaven, and not a master taught, Whose art was Nature, and whose pictures thought; Now for two ages having snatch'd from Fate Whate'er was beauteous, or whate'er was great, VARIATION. Oh, next him, skill'd to draw the tender tear, To these so mourn'd in death, so lov'd in life; Lies crown'd with princes' honours, poets' lays, Due to his merit, and brave thirst of praise. Living, great Nature fear'd he might outvie Her works; and, dying, fears herself may die. ON GENERAL HENRY WITHERS, IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY, 1729. HERE, Withers, rest! thou bravest, gentlest mind, For thee the hardy veteran drops a tear, ON MR. ELIJAH FENTON, AT EASTHAMSTED, IN BERKS, 1730. Foe to loud praise, and friend to learned ease, ON MR. GAY, IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY, 1732. Or manners gentle, of affections mild; ANOTHER. WELL then, poor Gay lies under ground, "Tis ten to one he 'll ne'er come back. INTENDED FOR SIR ISAAC NEWTON, ISAACUS NEWTONUS: Quem Immortalem Testantur Tempus, Natura, Cœlum: Mortalem Hoc marmor fatetur. Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night: ON EDMOND DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM, WHO DIED IN THE NINETEENTH YEAR OF HIS AGE, 1735. IF modest youth, with cool reflection crown'd, And every opening virtue blooming round, Could save a parent's justest pride from fate, Or add one patriot to a sinking state; This weeping marble had not ask'd thy tear, Or sadly told how many hopes lie here! The living virtue now had shone approv'd, The senate beard him, and his country lov'd. Yet softer honours, aud less noisy fame Attend the shade of gentle Buckingham: In whom a race, for courage fam'd and art, Ends in the milder merit of the heart; And, chiefs or sages long to Britain given, Pays the last tribute of a saint to Heaven. FOR ONE WHO WOULD NOT BE BURIED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. HEROES and kings! your distance keep, In peace let one poor poet sleep, Let Horace blush, and Virgil too. ANOTHER, ON THE SAME UNDER this marble, or under this sill, Or under this turf, or e'en what they will; Whatever an heir, or a friend in his stead, Or any good creature shall lay o'er my head, Lics one who ne'er car'd, and still cares not a pin, What they said, or may say, of the mortal within: But who, living and dying, serene still and free, Trusts in God, that as well as he was, he shall be. LORD CONINGSBY'S EPITAPH'. HERE lies lord Coningsby-be civil; The rest God knows-so does the Devil. ON BUTLER'S MONUMENT. PERHAPS BY MR. POPE'. RESPECT to Dryden, Sheffield justly paid, And noble Villers honour'd Cowley's shade: But whence this Barber?-that a name so mean Should, join'd with Butler's, on a tomb be scen: This pyramid would better far proclaim, To future ages humbler Settle's name: Poet and patron then had been well pair'd, The city printer, and the city bard. THE DUNCLAD: IN FOUR BOOKS. WITH THE PROLEGOMENA OF SCRIBIERUS, THE HYPERCRITICS OF ARISTARCHUS, AND NOTES VARIORUM. A LETTER TO THE PUBLISHER, OCCASIONED BY THE FIRST CORRECT EDITION OF THE DUNCIAD. Ir is with pleasure I hear, that you have procured a correct copy of the Dunciad, which the many surreptitious ones have rendered so necessary; and it is yet with more, that I am informed it will be attended with a commentary: a work so requisite, that I cannot think the author himself would have omitted it, had he approved of the first appearance of this poem. Such notes as have occurred to me I herewith send you: you will oblige me by inserting them amongst those which are, or will be, transmitted to you by others; since not only the author's friends, but even strangers, appear engaged by humanity, to take some care of an orphan of so much genius and spirit, which its parent seems to have abandoned from the very beginning, and suffered to step into the world naked, unguarded, and unattended. It was upon reading some of the abusive papers lately published, that my great regard to a person, whose friendship I esteem as one of the chief honours of my life, and a much greater respect to truth, than to him or any man living, engaged me in inquiries, of which the inclosed notes are the fruit. 'Mr. Pope, in one of the prints from Scheemaker's monument of Shakspeare in Westminster alderman Barber, by the following couplet, which Abbey, has sufficiently shown his contempt of is substituted in the place of "The cloud-capp'd towers, &c." Thus Britain lov'd me; and preserv'd my fame, A. POPE. Pope might probably have suppressed his satire on the alderman, because he was one of Swift's ac quaintances and correspondents; though in the This epitaph, originally written on Picus Mi-fourth book of the Dunciad he has an anonymous randula, is applied to F. Chartres, and printed among the works of Swift. See Hawkesworth's edition, vol. vi. S. stroke at him: So by each bard an alderman shall sit, |