ON RECEIVING FROM THE RIGHT HONOUR ABLE THE LADY FRANCES SHIRLEY A STANDISH AND TWO PENS.1 YES, I beheld th' Athenian queen Secure the radiant weapons wield; Aw'd, on my bended knees I fell, • What well? what weapon? (Flavia cries) It came from Bertrand's, not the skies; These lines were occasioned by the poet's being threatened with a prosecution in the House of Lords, for writing the two foregoing Dialogues. 2 A toy-shop at Bath. 'But, friend, take heed whom you attack; You'll bring a house (I mean of peers) Red, blue, and green, nay, white and black, L** and all about your ears. 'You'd write as smooth again on glass, As not to stick at fool or ass, 'Athenian queen! and sober charms! 'Come, if you'll be a quiet soul, Of those that sing of these poor eyes.' CELIA, we know, is sixty-five, Thus winter in her breast must live, How cruel Celia's fate! who hence Too pretty for our reverence, Too ancient for our gallantry. 1740. A POEM.1 O WRETCHED B ... •,2 jealous now of all, What god, what mortal shall prevent thy fall? "I shall here," says Dr. Warton, " present the reader with a valuable literary curiosity, a Fragment of an unpublished Satire of Pope, entitled, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Forty; communicated to me by the kindness of the learned and worthy Dr. Wilson, formerly fellow and librarian of Trinity College, Dublin; who speaks of the Fragment in the following terms: "This poem I transcribed from a rough draft in Pope's own hand. He left many blanks for fear of the Argus eye of those who, if they cannot find, can fabricate treason; yet, spite of his precaution, it fell into the hands of his enemies. To the hieroglyphics there are direct allusions, I think, in some of the notes on the Dunciad. It was lent me by a grandson of Lord Chetwynd, an intimate friend of the famous Lord Bolingbroke, who gratified his curiosity by a boxful of the rubbish and sweepings of Pope's study, whose executor he was, in conjunction with Lord Marchmont.'" But see Memoir prefixed to these volumes, p. cxiv. 3 Cobham. 2 Britain. 4 Pulteney's. He foams a patriot to subside a peer; Το purge and let thee blood with fire and sword, Is all the help stern S. 2 would afford. That those who bind and rob thee would not kill, Good C3 hopes, and candidly sits still. Of Ch's W4 who speaks at all, No more than of Sir Har y or Sir P...5 Whose names once up, they thought it was not wrong To lie in bed, but sure they lay too long. Gr, Cm, Bt,6 pay thee due regards, Unless the ladies bid them mind their cards. with wit that must And C ... d7 who speaks so well and writes, Whom (saving W.) every S. harper bites, Whose wit and must needs ........ equally provoke one, Finds thee, at best, the butt to crack his joke on. 3 Perhaps the Earl of Carlisle. Sir Charles Hanbury Williams. 5 Sir Henry Oxenden and Sir Paul Methuen, 6 Lords Gower, Cobham, and Bathurst. 7 Lord Chesterfield. Then urged by Ct,1 or by Ct stopp'd, Till having done whate'er was fit or fine, 3 Rise, rise, great W,3 fated to appear, At length to B kind, as to thy. Espouse the nation, you What can thy H.. Dress in Dutch.. .4 .... Though still he travels on no bad pretence, To show... Or those foul copies of thy face and tongue, Veracious W...5 and frontless Young;6 1 Lord Carteret. 2 William Pulteney, created in 1742 Earl of Bath. 3 Walpole. Either Sir Robert's brother Horace, who had just quitted his embassy at the Hague, or his son Horace, who was then on his travels. 5 W. Winnington. 6 Sir William Young. |