Can fleep without a Poem in my head, Why am I afk'd what next shall see the light? 270 274 "I found him close with Swift-Indeed? no doubt "(Cries pratling Balbus) fomething will come out. 'Tis all in vain, deny it as I will. "No, fuch a Genius never can lie ftill; VARIATIONS. After VER. 270. in the MS. 280 Friendships from youth I fought, and feek them still: After VER. 282. in the MS. P. What if I fing Auguftus, great and good? Be nice no more, but, with a mouth profound, Leave to Court-fermons, and to birth-day Odes. a By not making the World his School he means, he did not form his fyftem of morality, on the principles or practice of men in business. Curft be the verfe, how well foe'er it flow, And fhow the fenfe of it without the love; VARIATIONS, 285 290 295 On themes like thefe, fuperior far to thine, VER. 295. Who has the vanity to call you friend, Yet wank the bonour, injur'd, to defend ;] When a great Genius, whose writings have afforded the world much pleasure and inftruction, happens to be enviously attacked, or falfly accused, it is natural to think, that a fenfe of gratitude for fo agreeable an obligation, or a sense of that honour refulting to our Country from fuch a Writer, should raise amongst those who call themselves his friends, a pretty general indignation. But every day's experience fhews us the very contrary. Some take a malignant fatisfaction in the attack; others a foolish pleafure in a literary conflict; and the far greater part look on with a selfish indifference. 300 Who tells whate'er you think, whate'er you fay, P. Yet let me flap this bug with gilded wings, 306 This painted child of dirt, that stinks and stings; 310 Yet wit ne'er taftes, and beauty ne'er enjoys: In mumbling of the game they dare not bite. As fhallow ftreams run dimpling all the way. 315 And, as the prompter breathes, the puppet fqueaks; Or at the ear of Eve, familiar Toad, Half froth, half venom, fpits himself abroad, 320 VER. 299. Who to the Dean, and filver bell, &c.] Meaning the man who would have persuaded the Duke of Chandos that Mr. P. meant him in those circumstances ridiculed in the Epiftle on Tafte. See Mr. Pope's Letter to the Earl of Burlington concerning this matter. VEL. 319. See Milton, Book iv. In puns, or politics, or tales, or lies, Or fpite, or smut, or rhymes, or blafphemies. 325 Now high, now low, now mafter up, now mifs, Beauty that shocks you, parts that none will trust, Not Fortune's worshipper, nor Fashion's fool, } 330 335 340 VER. 320. Half froth,] Alluding to those frothy excretions, called by the people, Toad-fpits, feen in fummer-time hanging upon plants, and emitted by young infects which lie hid in the midst of them, for their prefervation, while in their helpless state. VER. 340. That not in Fancy's maze he wander'd long.] His merit in this will appear very great, if we confider, that in this walk he had all the advantages which the most poetic Imagination could give to a great Genius. M. Voltaire, in That not for Fame, but Virtue's better end, 345 350 a MS. letter now before me, writes thus from England to a friend in Paris, "I intend to fend you two or three poems "of Mr. Pope, the best poet of England, and at prefent of "all the world. I hope you are acquainted enough with "the English tongue, to be fenfible of all the charms of "his works. For my part, I look upon his poem called "the Efay on Criticifm as fuperior to the Art of poetry of "Horace; and his Rape of the Lock is, in my opinion, above "the Lutrin of Defpreaux. I never faw fo amiable an "imagination, fo gentle graces, fo great variety, so much "wit, and fo refined knowledge of the world, as in this little performance." MS. Let. 087. 15, 1726. VER. 341. But froop'd to Truth] The term is from falconry; and the allufion to one of thofe untamed birds of spirit, which fometimes wantons at large in airy circles before it regards, or floops to, its prey. VER. 350. the lye fo oft o'erthrown] As, that he received Tubfcriptions for Shakespear, that he fet his name to Mr. Broome's verses, &c. which, tho' publicly disproved, were 'nevertheless fhamelessly repeated in the Libels, and even in that called the Nobleman's Fpiftle. VER. 351. Th' imputed Traf.] Such as profane Pfalms, Court-Poems, and other fcandalous things, printed in his Name by Curl and others. |