Burnet corroborates this teftimony: "Lord Dorfet was

a generous good-natured man. Never was fo much "ill nature in a pen as in his, joined with fo much good "nature as was in himself, even to excefs: for he was against all punishing, even of malefactors," &c. Hift. of his own Time, vol. i. p. 264. ed. 1724. W.

Ver. 8. As fhow'd, Vice had his hate, and pity too. Imitated from Waller, on the death of Lady Rich: her look and mind

At once were lofty, and at once were kind. There dwelt the fcorn of Vice, and pity too. The fecond verfe may be compared with ver. 82 of Windfor-Foreft, for fimilarity of structure :

At once the chafer, and at once the prey.

III.

ON THE HONOURABLE SIMON HARCOURT.

VER.

4. Or

gave his father grief, but when he died.

This not unpleafing thought refembies a couplet of Pro

pertius, iv. 11.55.

Nec te, dulce caput, mater Scribonia, læfi :

In me mutatum quid, nifi fata, velis?

For blame, my life, dear parent! gave no room:

What could't thou wish were chang'd, but my un

timely doom?

But Mr. White remarks as follows: This poor conceit was by no means original in Pope. "A great prince "(fays Rereby in his Mifcellany) on the death of his queen, was heard to exclaim, 'Is it poffible, that the "should be dead, and that I muft lofe her for ever? She, " who

"who never gave me the least trouble befide this of her death.' And Hackett, ii. p. 15. quotes from Montfaucon : LUCIA JULIA PRISCA

Vixit annis xxvi.

Nibil unquàm peccavit

Nifi quod mortua eft.

And on a stone in St. Mary Magdalen's, Bermondsey, 1694.

Compleat in all but days, refign'd her breath;

Who never difobey'd, but in her death.

Again, Steele fays of King William, "A prince, who never "did or spoke any thing, that could juftly give grief to "his people, but when he mentioned his fucceffion to "them." See also Spectator, No. 135.

V.

ON ROWE.

VER. 2. And near thy Shakspeare place thy honour'd buft.

Dryden, in his prologue to the Tempest:

So, from old Shakspeare's honour'd duft, this day
Springs up and buds a new-reviving play.

Ver. 9. And bleft, that timely from our scene remov'd,
Thy foul enjoys the liberty it lov'd.

This couplet feems to have profited from a very beautiful
and pathetic paffage in J. Talbot's Dream, occafioned by
the death of Lady Seymour. Dryden's Mifc. iii. 52.
No longer then thefe pious forrows fhed,

Nor vainly think thy happy parent dead,
Whofe deathless mind, from its weak prifon free,
Enjoys in heav'n its native liberty.

The first of thefe verfes refembles one in that unrivalled apostrophe of our poet in his Epiftle to Mr. Jervas: Muse! at that name thy facred forrows fhed.

VI.

ON MRS. CORBET.

VER. 10. The saint sustain’d it, but the woman dy’d. This admirable line may have been fuggefted by one fimilar in fome anonymous verfes on the death of the Marquis of Blandford: Dryden's Mifc. v. 39.

Tho' raging paffions tore her tender mind,
She griev'd as woman, but as faint resign'd.

VIII.

ON SIR GODFREY KNELLER.

VER. 7. Living, great Nature fear'd he might outvie Her works; and, dying, fears herself may die. The turn alfo in Spencer's epitaph, faid to be written by himself, is much the fame:

Anglica, te vivo, vixit plaufitque poëfis;

Nunc moritura timet, te moriente, mori.

X.

ON MR. ELIJAH FENTON.

VER. 1. This modeft ftone, what few vain marbles can, May truly fay, Here lies an honest man.

Thefe thoughts are borrowed from Crafhaw's Epitaph on Mr. Ashton:

The

The modeft front of this fmall floor,
Beleeve me, reader, can fay more,

Than many a braver marble can,
Here lies a truly honest man.

Ver. 7. Calmly he look'd on either life, and here
Saw nothing to regret, or there to fear.

The fame fentiment is found in Martial's Epigrams, x. 23.
Præteritosque dies, et totos refpicit annos;
Nec metuit Lethes jam propioris aquas:
Nulla recordanti lux eft ingrata, gravisque;
Nulla fuit, cujus non meminiffe velit.
Calm he recalls the past; and, free from fear,
Views Lethe's flood, deep murm'ring on his ear:
Each day, each hour, in vision leaves impress'd
A fweet memorial on his conscious breast.

And it may not be unseasonable to obferve, that Dr. Johnfon in his Life of Fenton wrongly afferts him to have left the university without a degree; as appears both from the lift of Cambridge graduates, and the matriculation book of Jefus-College, to which he belonged.

XI.

ON MR. GAY.

Ver. 2. In wit, a man; fimplicity, a child.
Fifteen Comforts of Matrimony, 12mo. 1721.
In fhape, a man; but in his wit, a child. S.

Ver. 11. But that the worthy and the good fhall fay,
Striking their penfive bofoms, Here lies Gay.

This thought is originally in Crafhaw's Epitaph on Mr.
Herrys; as Mr. Steevens and Mr. White alfo observed:

Enough:

Enough: now, if thou canst, pass on :
For now alafs! not in this ftone,
Paffenger! whoe're thou art,

Is he entomb'd, but in thy heart.

Mr. White adds farther: Hackett in his Epitaphs, vol. i. p. 193. remarks, however, that he found, in an old collection of Latin and Greek verfes on the death of Henry Prince of Wales, two lines which it is not impoffible Pope had feen:

Angle! tuum tumulus fit cor, titulus fiet iste :

Henricus princeps mortuus-Hic fitus eft.

Mr. White here obferves, that the following epigram, which was printed in Pope's own edition of his works, 1738, 12mo. vol. ii. part 2. p. 162. fhould not have been omitted in a collection of his minor pieces:

I am the prince's dog, at Kew:

Pray tell me, Sir, who's dog are you?

SAPPHO TO PHAON.

VER. 1. Say, lovely youth, that doft my heart command.
This feems turned from Mrs. Behn's tranflation:
Say, lovely youth, why would'ft thou thus betray
My eafy faith, and lead my heart away?

Ver. 9. I burn, I burn, as when through ripen'd corn
By driving winds the spreading flames are borne.
Our poct has not much varied here from the couplet of
his predeceffor Sir Carr Scrope :

I burn, I burn, like kindled fields of corn,

When by the driving winds the flames are borne.

No more my foul a charm in mufic finds;
Mufic has charms alone for peaceful minds.

Scrope's

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