A clerk, foredoom'd his father's soul to cross,
Who pens a stanza, when he should engross?
Is there, who lock'd from ink and paper, scrawls
With desperate charcoal round his darken'd walls?
All fly to TWIT NAM, and in humble strain
Apply to me to keep them mad or vain.
Arthur, whose giddy son neglects the laws,
Imputes to me and my damn'd works the cause:
Poor Cornus sees his frantic wife elope,
And curses wit, and poetry, and Pope.

25

Friend to my life, (which did not you prolong, The world had wanted many an idle song) What drop or nostrum can this plague remove? Or which must end me, a fool's wrath or love? 30 A dire dilemma! either way I'm sped,

If foes, they write, if friends, they read me dead.

NOTES.

Italy, and transferred from him to Arbuthnot, which naturally displeased the former, though they lived always on terms of civility and friendship; and Pope earnestly exerted himself, and used all his interest to promote the success of Thomson's Agamemnon, and attended the first night of its being performed. Warton. Ver. 20. desperate charcoal] The idea is from Boileau's Art of Poetry-"Charbonner les murailles."

Ver. 23. Arthur,] Arthur Moore, Esq.

VARIATIONS.

After Ver. 20. in the MS.

Is there a bard in durance? turn them free,

Bowles.

Warburton.

With all their brandish'd reams they run to me:

Is there a 'prentice, having seen two plays,
Who would do something in his sempstress' praise-

Ver. 29. in the first Ed.

Dear Doctor, tell me, is not this a curse?

Say, is their anger, or their friendship worse?

Seized and tied down to judge, how wretched I!
Who can't be silent, and who will not lie;
To laugh, were want of goodness and of grace, 35
And to be grave, exceeds all power of face.
I sit with sad civility, I read

With honest anguish and an aching head;
And drop at last, but in unwilling ears,

This saving counsel," Keep your piece nine years."
"Nine years!” cries he, who high in Drury-lane,
Lull'd by soft zephyrs through the broken pane,
Rhymes ere he wakes, and prints before Term ends,
Obliged by hunger and request of friends:

"The piece, you think, is incorrect? why, take it; I'm all submission; what you'd have it, make it." Three things another's modest wishes bound, My friendship, and a prologue, and ten pound. Pitholeon sends to me: "You know his Grace; 50

I want a patron; ask him for a place."

Pitholeon libell'd me-" but here's a letter Informs you, Sir, 'twas when he knew no better.

NOTES.

Ver. 33. Seized and tied down to judge,] Alluding to the scene in the Plain-Dealer, where Oldfox gags and ties down the Widow, to hear his well-penned stanzas.

Rather from Horace; vide his Druso.
Ver. 40. "Keep your piece nine years."]

Warburton.

Warton.

Boileau employed

Patru was four

eleven years in his short satire of L'Equivoque. years altering and correcting the first paragraph of his translation of the Oration for Archias.

Warton.

Ver. 49. Pitholeon] The name taken from a foolish poet of Rhodes, who pretended much to Greek. Schol. in Horat. l. i. Dr. Bentley pretends that this Pitholeon libelled Cæsar also. See notes on Hor. Sat. 10. 1. i.

Pope.

Dare you refuse him? Curll invites to dine;
He'll write a Journal, or he'll turn Divine."
Bless me! a packet.-""Tis a stranger sues, 55
A virgin tragedy, an orphan Muse."

If I dislike it, "Furies, death, and rage!"
If I approve," Commend it to the stage."
There (thank my stars) my whole commission ends;
The players and I are luckily no friends.
Fired that the house reject him, "'Sdeath, I'll print

it,

.60

And shame the fools-Your interest, Sir, with Lintot."

NOTES.

Ver. 54. He'll write a Journal,] Meaning the London Journal; a paper in favour of Sir R. Walpole's ministry. Bishop Hoadley wrote in it, as did Dr. Bland. Warton.

Ver. 55. A packet.] Alludes to a tragedy called the Virgin Queen, by Mr. R. Barford, published 1729, who displeased Pope by daring to adopt the fine machinery of his Sylphs in an heroicomical poem called the Assembly. 1726. Warton.

Ver. 60. The players and I, &c.] On this passage, Cibber, in his curious letter, printed in 1742, addressed to Pope, has the following observation:

"I am glad to find in your smaller edition, that your conscience has since given this line some correction; for there you have taken off a little of its edge: it there runs only thus:

The players and I are luckily no friends.

This is so uncommon an instance of your checking your temper, and taking a little shame to yourself, that I cannot in justice omit my notice of it." Bowles.

Ver. 53. in the MS.

VARIATIONS.

If you refuse, he goes, as fates incline,
To plague Sir Robert, or to turn Divine.

Ver. 60. in the former Ed.

Cibber and I are luckily no friends.

Lintot, dull rogue! will think your price too much: "Not, Sir, if you revise it and retouch."

All my demurs but double his attacks;

At last he whispers, "Do; and we go snacks."

Glad of a quarrel, straight I clap the door :

66

Sir, let me see your works and you no more." 'Tis sung, when Midas' ears began to spring, (Midas, a sacred person and a king,)

His very minister who spied them first,

65

70

(Some say his queen,) was forced to speak or burst.

NOTES.

Ver. 69. 'Tis sung when Midas', &c.] The poet means, sung by Persius; and the words alluded to are

Vidi, vidi ipse, Libelle!

Auriculas asini Midas rex habet.

The transition is fine, but obscure; for he has here imitated the manner of that mysterious writer, as well as taken up his image. Our author had been hitherto complaining of the folly and importunity of indigent scribblers; he now insinuates that he suffered as much of both, from poetasters of quality. Warburton.

Ver. 69. 'Tis sung, when Midas'] The abruptness with which this story from Persius is introduced, occasions an obscurity in the passage; for there is no connexion with the foregoing paragraph. Boileau says, Sat. ix. v. 221, I have nothing to do with Chapelain's honour, or candour, or civility, or complaisance; but if you hold him up as a model of good writing, and as the king of authors,

Ma bile alors s'échauffe, et je brûle d'écrire ;
Et s'il ne m'est permis de le dire au papier,
J'irai creuser la terre, et comme ce barbier,

Faire dire aux roseaux par un nouvel organe,
Midas, le Roi Midas, a des oreilles d'âne.

There is much humour in making the prying and watchful eyes of the minister, instead of the barber, first discover the ass's ears; and the word perks has particular force and emphasis. Sir Robert Walpole and Queen Caroline were here pointed at. Warton.

And is not mine, my friend, a sorer case,

When every coxcomb perks them in my face?

A. Good friend, forbear! you deal in dangerous

things;

I'd never name queens, ministers, or kings.

75

Keep close to ears, and those let asses prick,
'Tis nothing-P. Nothing, if they bite and kick!
Out with it, DUNCIAD! let the secret pass,
That secret to each fool, that he's an ass:

80

The truth once told (and wherefore should we lie?) The queen of Midas slept, and so may I.

You think this cruel? take it for a rule,

No creature smarts so little as a fool.

Let peals of laughter, Codrus! round thee break, Thou unconcern'd canst hear the mighty crack: Pit, box, and gallery in convulsions hurl'd, Thou stand'st unshook amidst a bursting world.

NOTES.

Ver. 72. queen,] The story is told, by some, of his barber, but by Chaucer, of his queen. See Wife of Bath's Tale in Dryden's

Fables.

Pope.

Ver. 80. That secret to each fool, that he's an ass :] i. e. that his ears (his marks of folly) are visible. Warburton.

Ver. 86. the mighty crack:] A parody on Addison's translation of Horace, Ode iii. b. 3.

Should the whole frame of Nature round them break

In ruin and confusion hurl'd,

She unconcern'd would hear the mighty crack,

And stand secure amidst a falling world.

On which lines he observes, in the Bathos: "Sometimes a single

word (as crack) will vulgarize a poetical idea."

Ver. 88.] Si fractus illabatur orbis,

Impavidum ferient ruina. Hor.

Warton.

Pope.