EPILOGUE TO THE SATIRE S. WRITTEN IN MDCCXXXVIII. DIALOGUE II. FR. TIs all a Libel-Paxton (Sir) will say. P. Not yet, my Friend! to-morrow 'faith it may; And for that very cause I print to-day. How NOTES. VER. I. 'Tis all a Libel] The King of Pruffia obferving from his window, a mob assembled to read a paper fixed on a wall, ordered one of his pages to fee what it contained, who informed him that it was a vile and severe invective against his Majesty. "Take it down, said the King, and place it lower on the wall, that it may be more eafily and more univerfally read.”—“ Rien ne raccourcit plus des grands hommes," fays Montefquieu, "que P' attention qu'ils donnent à de certaines procedés perfonels. J'en connois deux, qui ont été absolument infenfibles, Cæfar & le Duc d' Orleans regent." The liberty of the Prefs was about this time thought to be in danger; and Milton's noble and nervous discourse on this fubject, intitled, Areopagitica, was reprinted in an octavo pamphlet, with a preface written by Thomson, the poet. "If we think to regulate printing," fays Milton, "thereby to rectify manners, we muft regulate all recreations and paftimes, all that is delightful to man. No mufic must be heard, no fong be fet or fung, but what is grave and Doric.-He who is made judge to fit upon the birth or death VOL. IV. Y How should I fret to mangle ev'ry line, F. Yet none but you by Name the guilty lafh; 10 P. How, Sir! not damn the Sharper, but the Dice? 5 NOTES. 99 death of books, whether they may be wafted into this world or not, had need to be a man above the common measure, both ftudious, learned, and judicious.' "It seems not more reasonable,” fays Johnson, "to leave the right of printing unreftrained, because writers may be afterwards cenfured, than it would be to sleep with doors unbolted, because by our laws we can hang a thief." To which Mr. Hayley answers, " To suffer no book to be published without a licence, is tyranny as abfurd, as it would be to suffer no traveller to pass along the highway, without producing a certificate that he is not a robber," W. VER. 1. Paxton] Late folicitor to the Treafury. VER. 8. Feign what I will, &c.] The Poet has here introduced an oblique apology for himself with great art. You attack perfonal characters, fay his enemies. No, replies he, I paint merely from my invention; and then, to prevent a likeness, I aggravate the features. But alas! the growth of vice is fo monftrously fudden, that it rifes up to a refemblance before I can get from the prefs. W. VER. 11. Ev'n Guthry] The Ordinary of Newgate, who publishes the Memoirs of the Malefactors, and is often prevailed upon to be fo tender of their reputation, as to fet down no more than the initials of their name. P. VER. 13. How, Sir! not damn the Sharper, but the Dice?] It is pity that the livelinefs of the reply cannot excufe the bad reafoning: The dice, though they rhyme to vice, can never ftand for it; Come on then, Satire! gen'ral, unconfin'd, 16 Ye Tradefmen, vile, in Army, Court, or Hall! P. See, now I keep the Secret, and not you! The bribing Statesman-F. Hold, too high you go. P. The brib'd Elector-F. There you stoop too low. P. I fain would please you, if I knew with what; Tell me, which Knave is lawful Game, which not? Muft 20 NOTES. which his argument requires they fhould do. For dice are only the inftruments of fraud; but the queftion is not, whether the inftrument, but whether the a committed by it, should be exposed, inftead of the perfon. W. VER. 21. The Town's enquiring yet.] So true is Swift's obfervation on perfonal fatire; "I have long obferved, that twenty miles from London nobody understands, hints, initial letters, or townfacts and paffages; and in a few years not even those who live in London." See verfe 238 below, for two afterisks, not filled up or known. A mortifying reflection to the writers of fatire, and daily topics of cenfure! "parcentis viribus, atque VER. 22. F. You mean-P. I don't.] The fame friend is here again introduced making fuch remonftrances as before. And feveral parts of the dialogue here are more rapid and short, and approach nearer to common conversation than any lines he had ever before written; and are examples of that style mentioned by Horace, Extenuantis eas confultò." Muft great Offenders, once efcap'd the Crown, F. A Dean, Sir? No: his Fortune is not made, You hurt a man that's rifing in the Trade. 35 P. If not the Tradefman who fet up to-day, Much lefs the 'Prentice who to-morrow may. Down, down, proud Satire! though a realm be fpoil'd, Arraign no mightier Thief than wretched Wild, 30 Or, NOTES. VER. 29. Like Royal Harts, &c.] Alluding to the old Game laws; when our Kings spent all the time they could spare from human flaughter, in Woods and Forefts. W. VER. 31. As beafts of Nature may we hunt the Squires?] The expreffion is rough, like the fubject, but without reflection: For if beafts of Nature, then not beafts of their own making; a fault too frequently objected to country Squires. However, the Latin is nobler; Fera natura, Things uncivilized and free. Fera, as the Critics fay, being from the Hebrew, Pere, Afinus filveftris. SCRIBL. W. VER. 35. You hurt a man] In a former Edition there was the following note on this line: "For as the reasonable De la Bruyere obferves, Qui ne fait être un Erafme, doit penfer à être Eveque." Dr. Warburton omitted it after he got a feat on the Bench. VER. 35. Rifing in the Trade.] This was as offenfive to some ambitious Ecclefiaftics, as was the late propofal to put a stop to tranflations of Bishops. VER. 39. Wretched Wild;] Jonathan Wild, a famous Thief, and Thief-Impeacher, who was at laft caught in his own train, and hanged. P. Or, if a Court or Country's made a job, Scarce hurts the Lawyer, but undoes the Scribe. To tax Directors, who (thank God) have Plums; 325 40 50 P. Muft Satire, then, not rife nor fall? Speak out, and bid me blame no Rogues at all. F. Yes, strike that Wild, I'll justify the blow. P. Strike? why the man was hang'd ten years ago: Who now that obfolete Example fears? 56 Ev'n Peter trembles only for his Ears. F. What always Peter? Peter thinks you mad, You make men defp'rate if they once are bad: Elfe might he take to virtue fome years hence P. As S-k, if he lives, will love the PRINCE. 61 F. Strange NOTES. VER. 51. Why lay it on a King.] He is ferious in the foregoing fubjects of Satire, but ironical here; and only alludes to the common practice of Minifters, in laying their own mifcarriages on their Masters. W. VER. 57. Ev'n Peter trembles only for his Ears.] Peter had, the year before this, narrowly escaped the Pillory for forgery; and got off with a fevere rebuke only from the bench. P. |