COBHAM's a Coward, POLWARTH is a Slave, But let me add, Sir ROBERT's mighty dull, NOTES. -Per me equidem funt omnia protinus alba, Nil moror; euge omues, omnes, bene miræ eritis res: And thus Boileau, Sat. ix. v. 287. 130 Has Perfius, Sat. 1. v. 110. Puifque vous le voulez, je vais changer de ftile, Fend les flots d'auditeurs pour aller à sa chaire. But Pope has plainly the fuperiority by the artful and ironical compliments paid to his friends. WARTON. VER. 129 Spirit of Arnall!] Look for him in his place, Dunc. B. ii. Ver. 315. POPE. VER. 129. Spirit of Arnall!] Arnall was one of the writers for Sir Robert Walpole, and got by his writing, &c a very large fum, an account of which may be feen in the notes to the Dunciad. Some of his letters now before me, for the fight of which I am indebted to Mr. Coxe, thew him to have been a fhrewd and fenfible man. What is curious in one, he talks very highly of his honour and veracity. He was vain-glorious and important in his own ideas; as Pope, with much less reafon: what he got, he spent as fast as it came, and many of his letters to Sir Robert fhew great poverty and diftrefs. They are full of earnest petitions for preferment, money, &c. He had a filver Ink-stand, which he was proud of displaying, and boafted it was a prefent from his FRIEND WALPOLE! His diftrefs at laft, brought on by his own impru dence, induced him, it is fuppofed, to commit fuicide. Communicated by Mr. Coxe. VER. 130. POLWARTH] The Hon. Hugh Hume, Son of Alex ander Earl of Marchmont, Grandfon of Patric Earl of Marchmont, and diftinguished, like them, in the caufe of Liberty. POPE. Has never made a Friend in private life, And was, befides, a Tyrant to his Wife. 135 But pray, when others praise him, do I blame? Call Verres, Wolfey, any odious name? Why rail they then, if but a Wreath of mine, Oh All-accomplish'd ST. JOHN! deck thy fhrine? What? fhall each fpurgall'd Hackney of the day, When Paxton gives him double Pots and Pay, 141 Or each new-penfion'd Sycophant, pretend To break my Windows if I treat a Friend; Then wifely plead, to me they meant no hurt, But 'twas my Gueft at whom they threw the dirt? Of Honour bind me, not to maul his Tools; But when he heard th' Affront the Fellow gave, The prudent Gen'ral turn'd it to a jest, 146 159 And begg'd, he'd take the pains to kick the rest: 155 Which NOTES. VER. 143. To break my Windows] Which was done when Lord Bolingbroke and Lord Bathurft were one day dining with him at Twickenham. All the great perfons celebrated in these Satires were in violent oppofition to government. It is rather fingular that he has not mentioned Mr. Pitt, one of the most able and most formidable; efpecially with his friends Lyttelton, Cobham, and Pulteney. WARTON. Which not at prefent having time to do F. Hold Sir! for God's fake, where's th' Affront to you? Against your worship when had S-k* writ? 160 Or P-get pour'd forth the Torrent of his Wit? NOTES. And VER. 159. Or P-ge] Judge Page, who is faid to have treated delinquents too roughly. WARTON. VER. 160. the Bard] A verfe taken out of a poem to Sir R. W. POPE. VER. 161. In Pow'r] Lord Melcombe was the Author of this line, in an Epistle to Sir Robert Walpole. WARTON. Mr. Wyndham, to whom I am fo much indebted, informs me, that Lord Melcombe took the very fame Epistle he had written to Sir Robert, and fome years afterwards, when circumstances were changed, addreffed it to Lord Bute. VER. 164. The Priest, &c.] Spoken not of any particular prieft, but of many priests. POPE. Meaning Dr. Alured Clarke, who wrote a Panegyric on Queen Caroline. The two following unpublished lines of our Author, have been communicated to me by a learned friend, on a picture of this Queen, drawn by Lady Burlington: Peace! flattering Bifhop, lying Dean! This Portrait only faints the Queen! A comet happening to appear when Cardinal Mazarine lay on his death-bed, fome of his many abject flatterers infinuated, that it 166 And how did, pray, the florid Youth offend, Whofe Speech you took, and gave it to a Friend? P. Faith, it imports not much from whom it came; Whoever borrow'd, could not be to blame, Since the whole Houfe did afterwards the fame. 170Let Courtly Wits to Wits afford fupply, As Hog to Hog in huts of Weftphaly; If one through Nature's Bounty or his Lord's, Has what the frugal dirty foil affords, From him the next receives it, thick or thin, 175 As pure a mess almost as it came in; The bleffed benefit, not there confin'd, Drops to the third, who nuzzles close behind; NOTES. 180 F. This had reference to him, and his destiny. The Cardinal pleasantly anfwered, "Gentlemen, the comet does me too much honour." Tenifon preached a very fulfome funeral Eulogium of Nell Gwyn. WARTON. VER. 166. And how did, &c.] This feems to allude to a complaint made Ver. 71. of the preceding Dialogue. POPE. VER. 166. florid Youth] Lord Hervey, alluding to his painting himself. VER. 172. As Hog to Hog] "Our modern Authors write plays as they feed hoga in Weftphaly, where but one eats pease or acorns, and all the reft feed upon his, and one another's excrements." Thoughts on Various Subjects, vol. ii. p. 497. Though those remarks were not published in the life-time of Pope, yet the Author of them, Mr. Thyer, informs us, that Mr. Longueville, in whofe cuftody they were, communicated them to Atterbury, from whom Pope might hear of them. It is impoffible any two writers could cafually hit upon an image so very peculiar and uncommon. WARTON. F. This filthy fimile, this beaftly line Quite turns my ftomach P. So does Flatt'ry mine; And all your courtly Civet-cats can vent, But hear me further-Japhet, 'tis agreed, 185 Writ not, and Chartres fcarce could write or read; VER. 185 in the MS. VARIATIONS. I grant it, Sir; and further, 'tis agreed, Japhet writ not, and Chartres fcarce could read. NOTES In VER. 182. So does Flatt'ry mine ;] Fontenelle has written a pleasant Dialogue between Auguftus and Peter Aretine, the Italian Satirist, who laughs immoderately at the Emperor, for the grofs flattery he fo cordially received from his poets, particularly Virgil, at the beginning of the Third Georgic. And retine, among other delicate ftrokes of ridicule, tells him. "On leuoit une partie de votre vie, aux depens de l'autre." But Fontenelle ends like a true Frenchman, and affures Auguftus," he will no longer be quoted as a model for Kings, fince Louis XIV. has appeared." Such is the language held of a man, who could banish Fenelon, burn the Palatinate, and drive away or deftroy fo many of his proteftant fubjects; who kept in pay 4 0, 00 men. It is grievous to reflect, that for incurring the difpleasure of fuch a man, Racine had the weakness to be fo much affected, as to bring on, by vexation and grief, a disease that was fatal to him. Racine and Boileau relinquished, after a fmall progrefs, the Hiftory of Louis XIV. which they were appointed to write. Boileau honestly owned to his friends, that he did not well know what reafons to allege in juftification of the war againft Holland in 1672. The pride, profufion, ambition, and defpotifm of Louis XIV. laid the foundation of the ruin of France, and all the miferies we have lived to fee. WARTON. VER. 185. Japhet-Chartres] See the Epiftle to Lord Ba thurft. РОРЕ. Dr. Warton fays very juftly, we are wearied with the perpetual repetition of thefe names, and thole of Ward, Waters, Den nis, &c. |