Page images
PDF
EPUB

VI.

ЕРІТАРН.

[On James Moore-Smythe.]

HERE lies what had nor birth, nor shape, nor fame;
No gentleman! no man! no-thing! no name!

For Jamie ne'er grew James; and what they call
More, shrunk to Smith-and Smith's no name at all.
Yet die thou can'st not, phantom, oddly fated:
For how can no-thing be annihilated 1?

Ex nihilo nihil fit.

VII.

A QUESTION BY ANONYMOUS.

TELL, if you can, which did the worse,
Caligula or Gr-n's Gr-ce?

That made a Consul of a horse,
And this a Laureate of an ass.

GREAT G

VIII.

EPIGRAM.

such servants since thou well can'st lack, •

Oh! save the salary, and drink the sack.

IX.

EPIGRA M.

BEHOLD! ambitious of the British bays,
Cibber and Duck contend in rival lays.
But, gentle Colley, should thy verse prevail,
Thou hast no fence, alas! against his flail:
Therefore thy claim resign, allow his right:

For Duck can thresh, you know, as well as write.

5

5

ON SEEING THE LADIES AT CRUX-EASTON WALK IN THE WOODS BY THE GROTTO.

EXTEMPORE BY MR POPE.

UTHORS the world and their dull brains have traced

A

To fix the ground where Paradise was placed;

Mind not their learned whims and idle talk;

Here, here's the place where these bright angels walk.

1 [Cf. Dunciad, Bk. 11. v. 50.]

2 [The Duke of Grafton.]

[Stephen Duck, originally a thresher, concerning whom there are other verses in the

3 [King George II. The epigram is of course Journal, probably written by Pope. Cf. Imi

on the Laureate Cibber.]

tations of Horace, Bk. 11. Ep. II. v. 140.]

INSCRIPTION ON A GROTTO, THE WORK OF NINE LADIES.

[blocks in formation]

ON HIS LYING IN THE SAME BED WHICH WILMOT, THE CELEBRATED EARL OF ROCHESTER, SLEPT IN AT Adderbury, thEN BELONGING TO THE DUKE of argyle', JULY 9TH, 1739.

[blocks in formation]

TO THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF OXFORD,

5

5

10

UPON A PIECE OF NEWS IN MIST [MIST'S JOURNAL], THAT THE REV. MR w. refus'd to WRITE

AGAINST MR POPE BECAUSE HIS BEST PATRON HAD A FRIENDSHIP FOR THE SAID P.

[FROM Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, where it is given in facsimile; accompanied | by the statement that 'W.' alluded to was Samuel Wesley, and Father Francis,' the then exiled Bishop of Rochester (Atterbury).]

[blocks in formation]

[As to the Duke of Argyle, cf. Epilogue to Satires, Dial. 11. v. 82.]

5

(

That both were good must be confess'd,
And much to both he owes;
But which to Him will be the best

The Lord of Oxford knows.

TRANSLATION OF A PRAYER OF BRUTUS.

10

THE Rev. Aaron Thompson, of Queen's College, Oxon., translated the Chronicle of Geoffrey of Monmouth. He submitted the translation to Pope, 1717, who gave him the following lines, being a translation of a prayer of Brutus. Carruthers.

G

ODDESS of woods, tremendous in the chase,

To mountain wolves and all the savage race,
Wide o'er the aërial vault extend thy sway,

And o'er the infernal regions void of day.

On thy third reign look down; disclose our fate,
In what new station shall we fix our seat?
When shall we next thy hallow'd altars raise,
And choirs of virgins celebrate thy praise?

л

LINES WRITTEN IN EVELYN'S BOOK ON COINS1. ["WROTE by Mr P. in a Volume of Evelyn on Coins presented to a painter by a parson." Gentleman's Magazine for 1735. "Wrote in Evelyn's Book of Coins given by Mr Wood to Kent." Notes and Queries, March 13, 1851, from a copy by Mason.]

R

OM WOOD of Chiswick, deep divine,

TOM

To painter Kent gave all this coin.

'Tis the first coin, I'm bold to say,
That ever churchman gave to lay.

TO MR THOMAS SOUTHERN,
On his Birth-day, 17429.

ESIGN'D to live, prepar'd to die,
With not one sin, but poetry,
This day TOM's fair account has run
(Without a blot) to eighty-one.
Kind Boyle, before his poet, lays
A table, with a cloth of bays;
And Ireland, mother of sweet singers,

5

1 [Numismata: a Discourse on Medals; published at London in 1697.]

2 [Southern, the author of Oroonoko, according to Warton's expression, lived the longest and died one of the richest of all our poets.' He was born in 1660, and died in 1746. The date of the first production of Oroonoko is 1696, and it kept the stage till the third decade of the present century, a rare example of popularity attaching to a drama founded on a sensation novel; for Mrs Aphra Behn's Oroonoko was the Uncle Tom's Cabin of her day.]

[blocks in formation]

3 A table] He was invited to dine on his birth-day with this Nobleman (Lord Orrery), who had prepared for him the entertainment of which the bill of fare is here set down. Warburton. [John Earl of Cork and Orrery was a friend of Swift, Pope, and Bolingbroke, and in earlier days a member of the Brothers' Club. He died in 1762.]

4 Presents her harp] The Harp is generally wove on the Irish Linen; such as Table-cloths, &c. Warburton.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

PRAYER OF ST FRANCIS XAVIER.

[TRANSLATED from an Oratio a Sancto Xavierio composita, at the desire of a Catholic priest named Brown. Gentleman's Magazine, October, 1791, where the original is given commencing' O Deus, ego amo te.']

HOU art my God, sole object of my love;

TH

Not for the hope of endless joys above;
Not for the fear of endless pains below,
Which they who love thee not must undergo.
For me, and such as me, thou deign'st to bear
An ignominious cross, the nails, the spear:
A thorny crown transpierc'd thy sacred brow,
While bloody sweats from ev'ry member flow.

For me in tortures thou resignd'st thy breath,

Embrac'd me on the cross, and sav'd me by thy death.
And can these sufferings fail my heart to move?
What but thyself can now deserve my love?

Such as then was, and is, thy love to me,
Such is, and shall be still, my love to thee-
To thee, Redeemer! mercy's sacred spring!
My God, my Father, Maker, and my King!

The price of prologues and of plays,] This alludes to a story Mr Southern told about the same, to Mr P. and Mr W. of Dryden; who, when Southern first wrote for the stage, was so famous for his Prologues, that the players would act nothing without that decoration. His usual price till then had been four guineas: But when Southern came to him for the Prologue he had bespoke, Dryden told him he must have six guineas for it; which (said he) young man, is out of no disrespect to you, but the Players have

15

had my goods too cheap." Warburton. [This was the regular tariff for prologues and epilogues. Later, Southern could tell Dryden (according to Warton) that he had cleared £700 by a single play, while Dryden never made more than a seventh of that sum by one drama.]

2 [Bishop of Worcester. Deprived by James II. of the Presidentship of Magdalene College, Oxford; he afterwards successively held several sees, and died in 1743.]

1

[ocr errors]

1740.

A POEM.

[THIS unfinished piece was communicated to Warton by Dr Wilson, formerly Fellow and Librarian of Trinity College, Dublin, to whom it had been lent by a grandson of Lord Chetwynd, 'an intimate friend of the famous Lord Bolingbroke, who gratified his curiosity by a box full of the rubbish and sweepings of Pope's study, whose executor he was, in conjunction with Lord Marchmont.' It is possible that Bowles' conjecture may be correct, according to which '1740' was to grow into the third Dialogue which Pope at one time intended to add to the Epilogue to the Satires. See the Verses on receiving from Lady Frances Shirley a Standish, &c. ante, p. 448]. Roscoe doubts whether so mediocre a production be Pope's; Carruthers also hesitates on the subject; and the piece is at most to be taken as a few rough jottings accidentally discovered.]

[merged small][ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

WRETCHED B1! jealous now of all,

What God, what mortal, shall prevent thy fall?
Turn, turn thy eyes from wicked men in place,
And see what succour from the Patriot Race.

C-2, his own proud dupe, thinks Monarchs things
Made just for him, as other fools for Kings;
Controls, decides, insults thee every hour,
And antedates the hatred due to Pow'r.

Through Clouds of Passion P-'s3 views are clear,
He foams a Patriot to subside a peer;

Impatient sees his country bought and sold,
And damns the market where he takes no gold.

4

Grave, righteous S jogs on till, past belief,
He finds himself companion with a thief.

To purge and let thee blood, with fire and sword,
Is all the help stern S-

5 would afford.

That those who bind and rob thee, would not kill,
Good C- 6 hopes, and candidly sits still.
Of Ch-s W- -7 who speaks at all,

No more than of Sir Har-y8 or Sir P

9?

Whose names once up, they thought it was not wrong
To lie in bed, but sure they lay too long.
Gr10, Cm11, B-t12, pay thee due regards,
Unless the ladies bid them mind their cards.

with wit that must

And Cd13, who speaks so well and writes,
Whom (saving W. 14) every S. 15 harper bites.

Bowles.

2 Cobham. Bowles. This is impossible. Roscoe. Campbell (Argyle), or Cholmondely. Carruthers.

3 Pulteney. Carruthers.

4 Sandys. Bowles. [Afterwards Lord Sandys.]

5 Shippen. Bowles, Carruthers. Impossible. Roscoe.

• Carlisle? Bowles. Cornbury. Carruthers.

7 Sir Charles Hanbury Williams. Bowles.

8 Sir Henry Oxenden. Bowles.

9 Sir Paul Methuen. Bowles.

10

15

20

25

10 11 12 Lords Gower, Cobham and Bathurst. Bowles.

13 Lord Chesterfield. Bowles.
14 Peter Walter? Carruthers?

15 [The Earl of Chesterfield was... fond of play, and was partial to the company of Mr Lookup, one of the most noted professional

« PreviousContinue »