48 That not for Fame, but Virtue's better end, The dull, the proud, the wicked, and the mad; NOTES. 345 The tend to fend you two or three poems of Mr. Pope, the best Poet VER. 341. But floop'd to Truth, and moraliz'd his fong:] This Ibid. But floop'd to Truth,] The term is from falconry; and to, its prey. VER. 343. He flood the furious foe,] Stood, improperly used for withstood. h The diftant threats of vengeance on his head, 350 355 The NOTES. VER. 350. The tale reviv'd,] Formerly, "The tales of vengeance." VER. 350. The lie fo oft o'erthrown,] As, that he received fubfcriptions for Shakespeare, that he fet his name to Mr. Broome's verfes, &c. which, though publicly difproved, were nevertheless fhamelessly repeated in the Libels, and even in that called the Nobleman's Epifile. P. VER. 351. Th' imputed trafb,] Such as profane Pfalms, Court Poems, and other fcandalous things, printed in his name by Curl and others. W. VER. 353. The pictur'd shape;] Hay, in his effay on Deformity, has remarked, that Pope was fo hurt by the caricatura of his figure, as to rank it among the most atrocious injuries he received from his enemies. Hay, with much pleafantry, jefting on his own deformity, has added, "In perfon I refemble Efop, the Prince of Orange, Marthal Luxemburg, Lord Treasurer Salif bury, Scarron, and Mr. Pope; not to mention Therfites and Richard the Third, whom I do not claim as members of our fo'ciety; the first being a child of the poet's fancy; the last, mifreprefented by historians. Let me not be unthankful that I was not born in Sparta! where I had no fooner seen the light but I should have been deprived of it, and have been thrown, as an useless thing, into a cavern by Mount Taygetus." VER. 354. Abuse, on all he lov'd, or lov'd him, fpread,] Namely, on the Duke of Buckingham, the Earl of Burlington, Lord Bathurft, Lord Bolingbroke, Bishop Atterbury, Dr. Swift, Dr. Arbuthnot, Mr. Gay, his Friends, his. Parents, and his very VOL. IV. E Nurfe, The whisper, that to Greatness still too near, A. But why infult the poor, affront the great? 361 A hireling fcribbler, or a hireling peer, Knight of the poft corrupt, or of the fhire; 365 If on a Pillory, or near a throne, He gain his Prince's ear, or lofe his own. Yet foft by nature, more a dupe than wit, Sappho can tell you how this man was bit: VARIATIONS. VER. 368..in the MS. This Once, and but once, his heedlefs Youth was bit, He writ no Libels, but my Lady did: Great odds in am'rous or poetic game, Where Woman's is the fin, and Man's the fhame. NOTES. Nurse, afperfed in printed papers, by James Moore, G. Ducket, L. Welfted, Tho. Bentley, and other obfcure perfons. P. VER. 356. The whifper, that to Greatnefs fill too near,] By the whisper is meant calumniating honeft characters. Shakespeare has finely expreffed this office of the fycophant of Greatness in the following line: "Rain facrificial whifp'rings in his ear." By which is meant the immolating men's reputations to the vice or vanity of his Patron. W.-Did Shakespeare mean this? VER. 359. For thee, fair Virtue! welcome ev'n the last!] This line is remarkable for prefenting us with the most amiable image of fteady Virtue, mixed with a modeft concern for his being forced to This dreaded Satʼrift Dennis will confefs Foe to his pride, but Friend to his distress: So humble, he has knock'd at Tibbald's door, 370 Has drunk with Cibber, nay has rhym'd for Moor, NOTES. Let to undergo the feverest proofs of his love for it; which was the being thought hardly of by his SOVEREIGN. W. VER. 363. Sporus at court,] In former editions, Glencus at court. VER. 374. Ten years] It was fo long after many libels before the Author of the Dunciad published that poem, till when, he never writ a word in anfwer to the many fcurrilities and falfehoods concerning him. P. VER. 375. Welfied's lie,] This man had the impudence to tell in print, that Mr. P. had occafioned a Lady's death, and to name a perfon he never heard of. He alfo published that he libelled the Duke of Chandos; with whom (it was added) that he had lived in familiarity, and received from him a prefent of five hundred pounds: the falfehood of both which is known to his Grace. Mr. P. never received any prefent, farther than the fubfcription for Homer, from him, or from any great Man whatsoever. P. VER. 378. Let Budgel] Budgel, in a weekly pamphlet called the Bee, bestowed much abuse on him, in the imagination that he writ fome things about the Laft Will of Dr. Tindal, in the Grubfireet Journal; a Paper wherein he never had the leaft hand, direction, or fupervifal, nor the least knowledge of its Author. P. VER. 379. Except his Will;] Alluding to Tindal's Will: by which, and other indirect practices, Budgel, to the exclufion of the next heir, a nephew, got to himself almost the whole fortune of a man entirely unrelated to him. P. Let the two Curls of Town and Court, abuse Yet why? that Father held it for a rule, It was a fin to call our neighbour fool: 380 That harmless Mother thought no wife a whore: Hear this, and spare his family, James Moore! 385 Unfpotted names, and memorable long! If there be force in Virtue, or in Song. NOTES. Of VER. 381. His father, mother, &c.] In fome of Curl's and other pamphlets, Mr. Pope's Father was faid to be a Mechanic, a Hatter, a Farmer, nay a Bankrupt. But, what is ftranger, a Nobleman (if fuch a reflection could be thought to come from a Nobleman) had dropt an allusion to that pitiful untruth, in a paper called an Epifle to a Doctor of Divinity: and the following line, "Hard as thy Heart, and as thy Birth obscure," had fallen from a like Courtly pen, in certain Verfes to the Imitator of Horace. Mr. Pope's Father was of a Gentleman's Family in Oxfordshire, the head of which was the Earl of Downe, whose fole Heirefs married the Earl of Lindfay.-His Mother was the daughter of William Turner, Efq. of York: She had three brothers, one of whom was killed, another died in the fervice of King Charles; the eldeft following his fortunes, and becoming a general officer in Spain, left her what eftate remained after the fequeftrations and forfeitures of her family.-Mr. Pope died in 1717, aged 75; fhe in 1733, aged 93, a very few weeks after this Poem was finished. The following infcription was placed by their fon on their Monument in the parish of Twickenham in Middlesex : D. O. M. ALEXANDRO. POPE. VIRO. INNOCVO. PROBO. PIO. QUI. VIXIT. ANNOS. LXXV. OB. MDCCXVII. |