For this line, the Bishop of Salisbury summoned Whitehead to appear before the House of Lords. As he could not be found, his printer, Dodsley, was taken and conveyed, as he himself informed me, to a spunging-house in the Butcher-row, under the custody of a messenger, which cost him seventy pounds. The next morning the neighbouring street was crowded with the carriages of some of the first noblemen and gentlemen, who came to offer him their services, and to be his bail. Among the rest, he told me, were Lord Chesterfield, Lord Marchmont, Lord Granville, Lord Bathurst, Lord Essex, Mr. Lyttelton, Mr. Pulteney, &c. &c. His prosecution was intended as a hint to Pope, and he understood it as such; and did not publish a Third Dialogue, which he certainly had designed to do; part of it now first appears in this edition".

Ceasing from politics, Pope amused himself, in 1740, in republishing Selecta Carmina Italorum; but he took no notice of the edition from which he bor rowed his collection, called, Anthologia, printed in

↑ About this time he was honoured with the favour and friendship of Frederic Prince of Wales, who was then in opposition to the Court. And Mr. Glover told me, that being with Mr. Pope at Twickenham, soon after he had published Leonidas, the Prince, attended by Mr. Lyttelton, one evening paid them a visit; the latter privately desired Pope and Glover, that they would join with him in dissuading the Prince to ride a vicious horse he was fond of; and among other things urged on the subject, Pope said with earnestness to the Prince, "I hope, Sir, the people of England will not be made miserable by a second horse!" alluding to the accident that befel King William. "I think," added Pope, whispering afterward to Mr. Glover, "this speech was pretty well for me!"

London in 12mo. 1684, with a most judicious preface, and one of the best pieces of modern latinity, falsely ascribed to Atterbury; which he omitted, I think, very improperly. What he added was a very indifferent Poem of Aonius Palearius, De Immortalitate Animi, in Three Books; when he might have enriched his Collection by many more Pieces of Vida, Ant. Flaminius, Cotta, Sannazarius, Politianus, Molza, and the Strozzi, and a number of more exquisite morsels than those which he has inserted, if he had consulted the ten volumes of the Carmina Illustrium Poetarum, printed at Florence 1720, and Carmina Quinque Poetarum, Flor. 1720.

In the year 1742, he was unfortunately persuaded, by Dr. Warburton, to write the Fourth Book of the Dunciad; which I cannot forbear considering as an injudicious and incongruous addition to that Poem, for reasons assigned in the notes to it; as I also do the degrading Tibbald, 1743, from being the Hero of that Poem, and substituting Cibber in his place, for reasons also there assigned. What provocations he might have received from Cibber, is a thing entirely out of the question; the matter to be 'considered is, whether Cibber was a Hero proper, or not, for the Dunciad. It is to be lamented, that, in this instance, our Author's indignation got the better of what he possessed in an eminent degree, his judg

5

Very inferior to Mr. Hawkins Brown's Latin Poem on this subject. A. Palearius was burnt as a heretic.

The Fourth Book of the Dunciad, said Shenstone, is doubtless Mr. Pope's dotage, roữ Alòs évérvia; flat in the whole, and including, with several tolerable lines, a number of weak, obscure, and even punning ones. Letter 13.

ment; and that the last effort of his genius, which might have been employed on subjects so much higher, and more important, should be wasted in expressing this resentment. After all, the chief fault of the Dunciad, in its last state, is the violence and the vehemence of its satire, and the excessive height to which it is carried; and which may, therefore, be justly compared to that marvellous column of boiling water near Mount Hecla, thrown upwards, above ninety feet, by the force of a subterraneous fire.

Pope is said to have planned, at different times, three Works that he did not finish. One was, a Translation of Passages of Greek Poets of different Ages, as Specimens of their different Manners. Another, was the History of the Rise and Progress of Poetry in England, which he divided into six different Schools: 1. The School of Provence; 2. of Chaucer; 3. of Petrarch; 4. of Dante; 5. of Spenser, and Translators from Italian; 6. of Donne. The other and third Work, was no less than an Epic Poem, the subject of which was Brutus, grandson of Æneas; who, after many adventures and obstacles, establishes a form of government of the best kind imaginable, in Great Britain. Brutus was to be assisted by Guardian Angels in his attempt, and opposed by a set of Evil Beings. The Plan which he had drawn up for this work, will be given at length in a subsequent Volume. He intended to have written it in Blank Verse; a circumstance worth the consideration of the defenders of rhyme. It is remarkable, that the very first Poem, any thing like an Epic Poem, that appeared in France, was on this identical subject

1744

of Brutus arriving in England. It was written by Eustache, or rather Wace, in the reign of Louis the Seventh, who ascended the throne 1137, the husband of Eleanora, married, after a divorce, to our Henry the Second. The Author called it, Le Roman de Brut. Every piece of poetry was, at that time, denominated a Romance. The Latin language ceased to be commonly spoken in France about the ninth century; and was succeeded by what was called the Romance-tongue, a mixture of the language of the Franks and of bad Latin.

And now, about the year 1744, his health and strength began visibly to decline. Besides his constant headachs, and severe rheumatic pains, he had been afflicted, for five years, with an asthma, which was suspected to be occasioned by a dropsy on the breast, and which, not the skill of the many able physicians, who were always ready and eager to attend him, could relieve. In the month of May 1744, he evidently grew worse and more infirm. He had frequent deliriums; and as Dodsley told me, with tears in his eyes, Pope asked him one day, as he sat by his bed-side, "What great arm is that I see coming out of the wall?" Recovering another day from one of these deliriums, he said to Spence, "I am so certain of the Soul's being immortal, that I seem to feel it within me, as it were by intuition. Mrs. Martha Blount' unfeelingly neglected him in

7 Mr. Swinburne, the traveller, who was her relation, informs me, that she died in 1762, at her house in Berkeley-square, Piccadilly, where he frequently visited her, and much gratified him by promising to leave him all the MSS. she had in her possession,

his last illness, and coming one day to his house, inquired of the amiable Lord Marchmont, who had constantly attended him with friendship and affection, "What, is he not dead yet?" Very different was the behaviour of Bolingbroke, who, as Spence related to me, standing, in one of his last interviews with Pope, behind his chair, and looking earnestly down upon him, repeated several times, interrupted with sobs, "O great God, what is man! I never knew a person that had so tender a heart for his particular friends, or a warmer benevolence for all mankind!" It was Mr. Hooke, a bigoted papist, a quietist, a friend3 of Ramsay, and disciple of Fenelon, who persuaded Pope to be attended by a priest, that he might die like his father and mother; an argument that had much weight with so dutiful a son. And such was the fervour of his devotion, that, as Chiselden, the surgeon, who was present, related to Dr. Hoadly, he exerted all his strength to throw himself out of his bed, that he might receive the last sacraments kneeling on the floor. A few hours after the priest retired, Bolingbroke came over from Battersea, and expressed great indignation at this transaction. It was in the evening of the thirtieth day of May 1744,

but she died without a will, and the MSS. were never recovered. He tells me, she was a little, neat, fair, prim, old woman, easy and gay in her manner and conversation, but seemed not to possess any extraordinary talents. Her eldest sister Teresa had uncommon wit and abilities.

• When Mr. Hooke asked him, Whether he would not die as his father and mother had done, and whether he should not send for a priest? he answered, "I do not suppose it to be essential, but it will look right, and I thank you for putting me in mind of it."