On Milton's verse does Bentley comment?-Know While he but sought his Author's fame to further, II. EPIGRAM. SHOULD D-s1 print, how once you robb'd your brother, Say, what revenge on D--s can be had; Too dull for laughter, for reply too mad? On Mr M- -re's going to law with Mr Gilliver: inscribed to Attorney Tibbald. 5 5 5 5 VI. EPITAPH. [On James Moore-Smythe.] HERE lies what had nor birth, nor shape, nor fame; For Jamie ne'er grew James; and what they call Ex nihilo nihil fit. VII. A QUESTION BY ANONYMOUS. TELL, if you can, which did the worse, VIII. EPIGRAM. GREAT G3, such servants since thou well can'st lack, IX. EPIGRA M. BEHOLD! ambitious of the British bays, 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 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.] 5 5 [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. [Carruthers, from Dodsley's Miscellany.] HERE, shunning idleness at once and praise, This radiant pile nine rural sisters raise; But Fate disposed them in this humble sort, VERSES LEFT BY MR POPE, 5 ON HIS LYING IN THE SAME BED WHICH WILMOT, THE CELEBRATED EARL OF ROCHESTER, SLEPT IN AT ADDERBURY, THEN BELONGING to the duke of argyle1, juLY 9TH, 1739. WITH press the bed where Wilmot lay; Such flames as high in patriots burn, TO THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF OXFORD, 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).] TESLEY, if Wesley 'tis they mean, WE They say on Pope would fall, Would his best Patron let his Pen What Patron this, a doubt must be, 1 [As to the Duke of Argyle, cf. Epilogue to Satires, Dial. 1. v. 82.] 5 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, 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? LINES WRITTEN IN EVELYN'S BOOK ON COINS1. 5 ["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.] T OM WOOD of Chiswick, deep divine, To painter Kent gave all this coin. 'Tis the first coin, I'm bold to say, TO MR THOMAS SOUTHERN, to prepar'd to die, With not one sin, but poetry, 1 [Numismata: a Discourse on Medals; published at London in 1697.] IO Presents her harp still to his fingers. 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.] War 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. burton. [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. 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.'] THO HOU art my God, sole object of my love; Not for the fear of endless pains below, For me, and such as me, thou deign'st to bear 5 For me in tortures thou resignd'st thy breath, Embrac'd me on the cross, and sav'd me by thy death. 10 Such as then was, and is, thy love to me, 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.] |