abilities of Lord Hervey, will be acknowledged by all who have True genius kindles, and fair fame inspires; Who but must laugh, if such a man there be? Who would not weep, if Atticus were he!" Then I will take the character of the able, versatile, and unprincipled Duke of Wharton: "Wharton, the scorn and wonder of our days, (This couplet has been applied to the celebrated Mr. Sheridan, and does not ill suit the author of the speeches on Warren Hastings's trial, and the School for Scandal.) Thus with each gift of nature and of art, He dies, sad outcast of each church and state, 'Twas all for fear the knaves should call him fool." I have given the characters of two men; fairness demands that at least I should give you one of a woman. I take that of Chloe; most of us will feel that we have known people, to whom some parts of it at least might fit: "Yet Chloe sure was form'd without a spot - So very reasonable, so unmov'd, As never yet to love, or to be lov'd. She, while her lover pants upon her breast, She e'er should cancel! but she may forget. Then never break your heart when Chloe dies." Having thus attempted to do justice to Pope's powers of satire, I must not omit to mention what I consider to be another of his felicities almost of an opposite character, though I have perceived with pleasure since I noted this topic, that I have been anticipated in the same line of remark by the late Mr. Hazlitt; I say with pleasure, because that ingenious person was one of the guides and favourites of a school the most opposed in theory and practice to that of Pope; I allude to the extreme tact, skill, and delicacy with which he conveys a compliment, and frequently embodies in one pregnant line or couplet a complete panegyric of the character he wishes to distinguish. Let me instance this by a few examples. Sometimes the compliment appears merely to be thrown out almost as it were by chance to illustrate his meaning. So of the Duke of Chandos, whom at another time he is supposed to have intended to ridicule under the character of Timon— "Thus gracious Chandos is belov'd at sight." Then of Lord Cornbury "Would ye be blest? despise low joys, low gains, Of General Oglethorpe, the founder of Georgia- Shall fly, like Oglethorpe, from pole to pole." These have reference to manly virtues; sometimes there is the same oblique reference to female claims; "Hence Beauty, waking all her tints, supplies, An angel's sweetness, or Bridgewater's eyes." At other times the eulogium is more direct. Take that fine application to Lord Cobham of the effect of man's ruling passion, developing itself in death, which he has been pursuing through a number of instances,—the man of pleasure, the miser, the glutton, the courtier, the coquette, all, for the most part, under circumstances derogatory to the pride of human nature, when he thus sums them up – "And you, brave Cobham, to the latest breath Shall feel your ruling passion strong in death; Such, in these moments, as in all the past, Oh, save my country, Heav'n!' shall be your last." How beautiful is the couplet to Dr. Arbuthnot, his physician and friend "Friend of my life! which did not you prolong, The world had wanted many an idle song." How ingenious that to the famous Philip Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, on being desired to write some lines in an album with his pencil 66 Accept a miracle instead of wit, See two dull lines by Stanhope's pencil writ." How happy is the allusion to Lord Peterborough, who made a brilliant campaign in Spain within a wonderfully short time. He represents him as assisting to lay out his grounds — "And he whose lightning pierc'd th' Iberian lines He always speaks of Murray, the great Lord Mansfield, with pride and affection. It is true, that one of the worst lines he ever wrote is about him, the second in this couplet "Grac'd as thou art with all the power of words, An instance how much delicacy it requires to introduce with effect familiar names and things; sometimes it tells with great force; here it is disastrously prosaic; we almost forgive it, however, when he turns from the Palace of Westminster to the Abbey opposite "Where Murray, long enough his country's pride, Shall be no more than Tully, or than Hyde." He again alludes to the aptitude for poetical composition which Murray had exhibited, and also to the talent for epigram which he assumes that the great orator Pulteney would have displayed if he had not been engrossed by politics. "How sweet an Ovid, Murray, was our boast; How many Martials were in Pulteney lost." These were for the most part his political friends, but when he mentions Sir Robert Walpole, to whom his friends, more than himself, were virulently opposed, how respectful and tender is the reproach, how adroit and insinuating the praise "Seen him I have, but in his happier hour, I might adduce many other instances; I might quote at full length the noble epistle to Lord Oxford, but I will sum up this topic with that striking passage in which, while he enumerates the persons who encouraged and fostered his earlier productions, he presents us with a gallery of illustrious portraits, sometimes conveys by a single word an insight into their whole character, and concludes the distinguished catalogue with the name of that St. John whom he uniformly regarded with feelings little short of idolatry, and which, however misplaced and ill-grounded, have even in themselves something of the poetical attribute "But why then publish? Granville the polite, (Observe how the gentle and amiable Congreve "loved,” and the caustic and cynical Swift "endured.") |