EPISTLE V.

To MR ADDISON.

Occasioned by his Dialogues on MEDALS.

THIS was originally written in the year 1715, when Mr Addison intended to publish his book of medals; it was sometime before he was secretary of State; but not published till Mr Tickell's Edition of his works; at which time the verses on Mr Craggs, which conclude the poem, were added, viz. in 1720. P. [The materials for these Dialogues, were collected by Addison during his travels in Italy, and the book itself was begun to be written at Vienna as early as 1702. Though known to and favourably esteemed by many scholars of note, it was never published in his lifetime; for he died in 1719. Concerning Pope's relations with Addison see Introductory Memoir, p. xv. f.

The following is Warburton's attempt to connect the revised version of Pope's lines to Addison with the series of Moral Essays:

'As the third Epistle treated of the extremes of Avarice and Profusion; and the 'fourth took up one particular branch of the latter, namely, the vanity of expence in people of wealth and quality, and was therefore a corollary to the third; so this 'treats of one circumstance of that Vanity, as it appears in the common collectors of 'old coins; and is, therefore, a corollary to the fourth.']

S

EE the wild Waste of all-devouring years!
How Rome her own sad Sepulchre appears1,
With nodding arches, broken temples spread!
The very Tombs now vanish'd like their dead!
Imperial wonders rais'd on Nations spoil'd,
Where mix'd with Slaves the groaning Martyr toil'd2:
Huge Theatres, that now unpeopled Woods,

Now drain'd a distant country of her Floods:
Fanes, which admiring Gods with pride survey,
Statues of Men, scarce less alive than they!
Some felt the silent stroke of mould'ring age,
Some hostile fury, some religious rage.
Barbarian blindness, Christian zeal conspire,
And Papal piety, and Gothic fire.

Perhaps, by its own ruins sav'd from flame,
Some bury'd marble half preserves a name;

That Name the learn'd with fierce disputes pursue,

And give to Titus old Vespasian's due.

Ambition sigh'd: She found it vain to trust

The faithless Column and the crumbling Bust:

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Huge moles, whose shadow stretch'd from shore to shore,
Their ruins perish'd, and their place no more!
Convinc'd, she now contracts her vast design,
And all her triumphs shrink into a Coin.
A narrow orb each crowded conquest keeps ;
Beneath her Palm here sad Judæa weeps3;

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1 St Jerome calls Rome 'populi Romani sepulWarton.

crum.

2 [According to an ancient tradition, the Chris

tians were forced to labour at the construction of the famous Baths of Diocletian.]

3 ['Judæa Capta' on a reverse of Vespasian.]

Now scantier limits the proud Arch1 confine,
And scarce are seen the prostrate Nile or Rhine2;
A small Euphrates thro' the piece is roll'd,
And little Eagles wave their wings in gold.
The Medal, faithful to its charge of fame,
Thro' climes and ages bears each form and name:
In one short view subjected to our eye
Gods, Emp'rors, Heroes, Sages, Beauties, lie.
With sharpen'd sight3 pale Antiquaries pore,
Th' inscription value, but the rust adore.
This the blue varnish, that the green endears*,
The sacred rust of twice ten hundred years!
To gain Pescennius5 one employs his schemes,
One grasps a Cecrops in ecstatic dreams.

Poor Vadius, long with learned spleen devour'd,
Can taste no pleasure since his Shield was scour'd;
And Curio, restless by the Fair-one's side,
Sighs for an Otho, and neglects his brides.
Theirs is the Vanity, the Learning thine:

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Touch'd by thy hand, again Rome's glories shine;
Her Gods, and god-like Heroes rise to view,
And all her faded garlands bloom anew.
Nor blush, these studies thy regard engage;
These pleas'd the Fathers of poetic rage;
The verse and sculpture bore an equal part,
And Art reflected images to Art.

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Oh when shall Britain, conscious of her claim",
Stand emulous of Greek and Roman fame?
In living medals see her wars enroll'd,

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And vanquish'd realms supply recording gold?
Here, rising bold, the Patriot's honest face;
There Warriors frowning in historic brass?
Then future ages with delight shall see
How Plato's, Bacon's, Newton's looks agree;
Or in fair series laurell'd Bards be shown,

A Virgil there, and here an Addison 10.

Then shall thy CRAGGS 11 (and let me call him mine)
On the cast ore, another Pollio, shine;

-the proud Arch] i.e. The triumphal Arch, which was generally an enormous mass of building. Warburton.

2 [A small figure of the conquered province frequently occurs on medals struck on the occasion of a triumph.]

3 [i.e. with the aid of microscopes.]

This the blue varnish, that the green endears,] i. e. This a collector of silver; that, of brass coins. Warburton.

5 [Pescennius Niger assumed the purple in Syria in 131, but was speedily worsted by Septimius Severus.]

6 [Ecstatic, because of course no such medals exist.]

Poor Vadius,] See his history, and that of his Shield, in the Memoirs of Scriblerus. War

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burton. [Aimed at Dr Woodward the eminent physician and naturalist, who wrote a dissertation on an ancient shield which he possessed. Carruthers.]

8 Charles Patin was banished from the Court because he sold Louis XIV. an Otho that was not genuine. Warton. [A very remarkable Otho is given by Addison.]

9 Oh when shall Britain, &c.] A compliment to one of Mr Addison's papers in the Spectator on this subject. Warburton.

10 Copied evidently from Tickell to Addison on his Rosamond: Which gain'd a Virgil and an Addison.' Warton. [Asinius Pollio, on the birth of whose son Vergil wrote the Eclogue paraphrased in Pope's Messiah.]

[Craggs. See note to Pope's Epitaph Iv.]

With aspect open, shall erect his head,
And round the orb in lasting notes be read,
"Statesman, yet friend to Truth! of soul sincere1,
"In action faithful, and in honour clear;
"Who broke no promise, serv'd no private end,
"Who gain'd no title, and who lost no friend;
"Ennobled by himself, by all approv'd,
"And prais'd, unenvy'd, by the Muse he lov'd3."

Statesman, yet friend to truth! &c.] It should be remembered that this poem was written to be printed before Mr Addison's Discourse on Medals, in which there is the following censure of long legends upon coins: "The first "fault I find with a modern legend is its diffusiveYou have sometimes the whole side of a "medal over-run with it. One would fancy the "Author had a Design of being Ciceronian-but "it is not only the tediousness of these inscriptions "that I find fault with; supposing them of a

"ness.

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"moderate length, why must they be in verse? "We should be surprized to see the title of a "serious book in rhyme."-Dial. iii.

And prais'd, unenvy'd, by the Muse he lov'd.] It was not likely that men acting in so different spheres as were those of Mr Craggs and Mr Pope, should have their friendship disturbed by Envy. We must suppose then that some circumstances in the friendship of Mr Pope and Mr Addison are hinted at in this place. Warburton.

SATIRES.