EPISTLE II. EAR Col'nel, COBHAM's and DEA Friend! your country's You love a Verfe, take fuch as I can fend. 6 ' A Frenchman comes, prefents you with his Boy, Bows and begins-" This Lad, Sir, is of Blois: "Obferve his shape how clean! his locks how curl'd! My only fon, I'd have him fee the world: "His French is pure; his Voice too--you shall hear. "Sir, he's your flave, for twenty pound a year. "Mere wax as yet, you fashion him with ease, "Your Barber, Cook, Upholst'rer, what you please: "A perfect genius at an Opera-fong II "To fay too much, might do my honour wrong. "Take him with all his virtues, on my word; "His whole ambition was to ferve a Lord; "But, Sir, to you, with what would I not part? 15 "Tho' faith, I fear, 'twill break his Mother's heart. "Once (and but once) I caught him in a lye, "And then, unwhipp'd, he had the grace to cry: NOTES. The numbers well exprefs the unwillingness of parting with what one can ill fpare. "Nemo hoc mangonum faceret tibi: non temere "a me “Quivis ferret idem : femel hic ceffavit, et (ut fit) “In scalis latuit metuens pendentis habenae: “Des nummos, excepta nihil te fi fuga laedit. < Ille ferat pretium, poenae fecurus, opinor. Prudens emifti vitiofum: dicta tibi eft lex. Infequeris tamen hunc, et lite moraris iniqua. Dixi me pigrum proficifenti tibi, dixi Talibus officiis prope mancum: ne mea faevus Jurgares ad te quod epistola nulla veniret. Quid tum profeci, mecum facientia jura Si tamen attentas ? quereris fuper hoc etiam, quod NOTES. VER. 24. I think Sir Godfrey] An eminent Justice of Peace, who decided much in the manner of Sancho Pancha. P. Six Godfrey Kneller. VER. 33. In Anna's Wars, etc.] Many parts of this story are well told; but, on the whole, it is much inferior to the original. "The fault he has I fairly shall reveal, (Cou'd you o'erlook but that) it is, to steal. If, after this, you took the graceless lad, 21 Cou'd you complain, my Friend, he prov'd fo bad? Faith, in such case, if you should profecute, I think Sir Godfrey should decide the fuit; a Confider then, and judge me in this light; ; With Laws, to which you gave your own affent? Nay worse, to ask for Verse at such a time! D'ye think me good for nothing but to rhyme? e In ANNA'S Wars, a Soldier poor and old Had dearly earn'd a little purfe of gold: 31 Tir'd with a tedious march, one luckless night, 35 VER. 37. .NOTES. This put the man, etc.] Greatly below the Original, Poft hoc vehemens lupus, et fibi et hofti Iratus pariter, jejunis dentibus acer. The laft words are particularly elegant and humourous. Praefidium regale loco dejecit, ut aiunt, Summe munito, et multarum divite rerum. NOTES. VER. 43. Gave him much praife, and fome reward befide.] For the fake of a stroke of satire, he has here weakened that circumstance, on which the turn of the story depends. Horace avoided it, tho' the avaricious character of Lucullus was a tempt. ing occafion to indulge his raillery. VER. 51. Let him take caftles who has ne'er a groat.] This has neither the force nor the juftness of the original. Horace makes his Soldier fay, Ibit, Ibit eo, quo vis, qui zonam perdidit. for it was not his poverty, but his loss, that pushed him upon danger; many being equal to the firft, who cannot bear the other. What betray'd our poet into this inaccuracy of expreffion was it's fuiting better with the application. But in a great writer we pardon nothing. And fuch an one fhould never forget, that the He leap'd the trenches, fcal'd a Castle-wall, Tore down a Standard, took the Fort and all. 40 Prodigious well;" his great Commander cry'd, Gave him much praife, and fome reward befide. Next pleas'd his Excellence a town to batter; (Its name I know not, and it's no great matter) 45 "Go on, my Friend (he cry'd) fee yonder walls! "Advance and conquer ! go where glory calls! "More honours, more rewards, attend the brave.”. Don't you remember what reply he gave? D'ye think me, noble Gen'ral, fuch a Sot? "Let him take caftles who has ne'er a groat,". f Bred up at home, full early I begun To read in Greek the wrath of Peleus' fon. NOTES. 50 expreffion is not perfect, but when the ideas it conveys fit both the tale and the application: for fo, they reflect a mutual light upon one another. VER. 52. Bred up at home, etc.] The Reader may poffibly have a curiosity to know fomething more of Mr. Pope's education than what this verse tells him; and tho' much more would be too trifling to enter into a juft volume of his life, it may do no dishonour to one of these curfory notes. He was taught his letters very early by an Aunt; and, from thence, to his eighth year, he took great delight in reading. He learn'd to write of himfelf by copying after printed books, whofe characters he brought himself to imitate in great perfection. At eight, he was put under one Taverner, a Prieft, who taught him the rudiments of the Latin and Greek tongues, together: From him, in a little time, he was fent to a private fchool at Twiford near * P |