'O magnus posthac inimicis risus! Uterne "Ad casus dubios fidet sibi certiùs? hic, qui Pluribus assuêrit mentem corpusque superbum? An qui, contentus parvo metuensque futuri, In pace, ut sapiens, aptârit idonea bello? Quò magis his credas: puer hunc ego parvus Ofellum Integris opibus novi non latiùs usum, Quâm nunc "accisis. Videas, metato in agello, NOTES. Ver. 122. As M***o's was, &c.] I think this light stroke of satire ill placed; and that it hurts the dignity of the preceding morality. Horace was very serious, and properly so, when he said: Non aliquid patriæ tanto emetiris acervo?" He remembered, and hints with just indignation at, those luxurious Patricians of his old party; who, when they had agreed to establish a fund in the cause of freedom, under the conduct of Brutus, could never be persuaded to withdraw from their expensive pleasures what was sufficient for the support of so great a cause. He had prepared his apology for this liberty, in the preceding line, where he pays a fine compliment to Augustus! "Templa ruunt antiqua Deûm ?" which oblique panegyric the imitator has very properly turned into a direct stroke of satire. Warburton. Ver. 122. not at five per cent.] He could not forbear this stroke against a nobleman, whom he had been for many years accustomed to hear abused by his most intimate friends. A certain parasite, who thought to please Lord Bolingbroke by ridiculing the avarice of the Duke of M., was stopped short by that Lord, who said: "He was so very great a man, that I forgot he had that vice." Warton. Ver. 122. five per cent.] Among the papers of the Orford collection, is a curious note to Sir Robert Walpole, when Secretary at Or to thy country let that heap be lent, As M***o's was, but not at five per cent. t Who thinks that fortune cannot change her mind, Prepares a dreadful jest for all mankind. And "who stands safest? tell me, is it he 125 Thus BETHEL spoke, who always speaks his thought, And always thinks the very thing he ought: 130 His equal mind I copy what I can, And as I love, would imitate the man. In South-Sea days not happier, when surmised Than in five acres now of rented land. NOTES. 135 at War, from the Duke of Marlborough, in which he says, he has a hundred thousand pounds he does not know how to dispose of, and desires Walpole to put it out for him. From Mr. Coxe. Bowles. Ver. 129. Thus BETHEL spoke,] This speech of Ofellus continues in the original to the end of this Satire. Pope has taken all that follows out of the mouth of Bethel, and speaks entirely in his own person. It is impossible not to be pleased with the picture of his way of life, and the account he gives of his own table, in lines that express common and familiar objects with dignity and elegance. Warton. Ver. 133. In South-Sea days not happier, &c.] Mr. Pope had South-Sea stock, which he did not sell out. It was valued at between twenty and thirty thousand pounds when it fell. Warburton. Cum pecore et gnatis, fortem mercede colonum, Non ego, narrantem, temerè edi luce profestâ Quidquam, præter 'olus fumosæ cum pede pernæ. Ac mihi seu 'longum post tempus venerat hospes, Sive operum vacuo gratus conviva per imbrem Vicinus; bene erat, non piscibus urbe petitis, Sed pullo atque hædo: tum pensilis uva secundas a Et nux ornabat mensas, cum duplice ficu. Post hoc ludus erat 'culpâ potare magistrâ : Sæviat atque novos moveat Fortuna tumultus! aut vos, O pueri, nituistis, ut huc novus incola venit? NOTES. Ver. 134. than if now excised;] Pope naturally joined the violent cry against the Ercise, with the party in opposition to Sir R. Walpole. Pulteney exclaimed upon another occasion: "There is another thing impending! a monstrous project! such a project as has struck terror into the minds of most gentlemen of this House, and into the minds of all men without doors, who have any regard to the happiness, or to the constitution, of their country. I mean THAT MONSTER, THE EXCISE! that PLAN OF ARBITRARY POWER, which is expected to be laid before the House in the present Parliament." Coxe's Memoirs, chap. 41. Bowles. Ver. 136. Than in five acres] He had a lease of his house and gardens at Twickenham for his life. The lease was purchased of a Mrs. Vernon; hence the expressions: can it concern one, Whether the name belong to Pope, or Vernon? Bowles. Ver. 152. double tax'd,] An additional tax was laid on the estates of Papists and nonjurors. Ver. 154. standing armies came.] A constant topic of declamation against the Court, at this time. Warton. Content with little, I can piddle here 140 On *brocoli and mutton round the year; own; *From yon old walnut-tree a shower shall fall; 145 Then cheerful healths, (your mistress shall have place,) And, what's more rare, a poet shall say grace. 150 My lands are sold, my father's house is gone; 155 And yours, my friends? through whose free open ing gate None comes too early, none departs too late; NOTES. Ver. 160. Welcome the coming,] From Homer, Od. b. 15, v. 74. χρη ξεινον παρευνία φιλειν, εθελοντα δε πεμπειν. Theocritus has finely touched this subject in the sixteenth Idyl lium. Warton. Nam propriæ telluris herum natura, neque illum, NOTES. Ver. 165. Well, if the use be mine, &c.] In a letter to this Mr. Bethel, of March 20, 1743, he says: "My Landlady, Mrs. Vernon, being dead, this garden and house are offered me in sale; and, I believe, (together with the cottages on each side my grass plot next the Thames,) will come at about a thousand pounds. If I thought any very particular friend would be pleased to live in it after my death, (for, as it is, it serves all my purposes as well, during life,) I would purchase it; and more particularly could I hope two things; that the friend who should like it, was so much younger and healthier than myself, as to have a prospect of its continuing his, some years longer than I can of its continuing mine. But most of those I love are travelling out of the world, not into it; and unless I have such a view given me, I have no vanity nor pleasure that does not stop short of the grave.”—So that we see (what some who call themselves his friends would not believe) his thoughts in prose and verse were the same. Ver. 171-2. Or in pure equity, (the case not clear,) Warburton. The Chancery takes your rents for twenty year :] A Protestant miser's money in Chancery, and a Catholic miser's person in Purgatory, are never to be got out, till the law and the church have been well paid for their redemption. Warburton. Ver. 175. Shades, that to BACON could retreat afford,] Gorhambury, near St. Alban's, a fine and venerable old mansion. Warton. |