Hayman inv.et del. CGrignion Sculp O Sacred Weapon, left for Truth's Defence, The Muse may give thee, but the Gods must guide. Ep: 2 to 4 Satires. EPILOGUE FR. TO THE SATIRES. Written in M DCC XXXVIII. DIALOGUE. I. NOT OT twice a twelve-month you appear in Print, And when it comes, the Court fee nothing in't. VARIATIONS. After 2. in the MS. You don't, I hope, pretend to quit the trade, Like good ** of whom so much was said, NOTES. VER. 1. Not twice a twelvemonth etc.] These two lines are from Horace; and the only lines that are fo in the whole Poem; being meant to give a handle to that which follows in the character of an impertinent Censurer, 'Tis all from Horace; etc. P. VER. 2. the Court fee nothing in't.] He chofe this expreffion for the fake of its elegant and fatiric ambiguity. His writings abound in them. 5 You grow correct, that once with Rapture writ, II But Horace, Sir, was delicate, was nice; Bubo obferves, he lash'd no fort of Vice : Horace would fay, Sir Billy ferv'd the Crown, Blunt could do Bus'nefs, H-ggins knew the Town; VARIATIONS. P. Sir, what I write, fhould be correctly writ. NOTES. VER. 9. And taught his Romans, in much better metre, “To laugh at Fools who put their truft in Peter."] The general turn of the thought is from Boileau, Avant lui, Juvénal avoit dit en Latin, Qu'on eft affis à l'aife aux fermons de Cotin. But the irony in the firft line, and the fatirical equivoque in the fecond, mark them for his own. His making the objector fay, that Horace excelled him in writing verse, is pleasant. And the ambiguity of putting their trust in Peter, infinuates that Horace and he had frequently laughed at that specific folly, arifing from indolence, which ftill difpofes men to intruft their spiritual and temporal concerns to the abfolute difpofal of any fanctified or unfanctified cheat, bearing the name of PETER. VER. 12. Bubo obferves,] Some guilty perfon very fond of making fuch an obfervation. P. 1 In Sappho touch the Failings of the Sex, And own, 15 Who cropt our Ears, and sent them to the King. His fly, polite, infinuating style Could please at Court, and make AUGUSTUS fmile: An artful Manager, that crept between 21 His Friend and Shame, and was a kind of Screen. But 'faith your very Friends will foon be fore; Patriots there are, who wish you'd jeft no more --And where's the Glory? 'twill be only thought 25 The Great man never offer'd you a groat. VER. 14. H-ggins] Formerly Jaylor of the Fleet prifon, enriched himself by many exactions, for which he was tried and expelled. P. VER. 18. Who cropt our Ears,] Said to be executed by the Captain of a Spanish ship on one Jenkins a Captain of an English He cut off his ears, and bid him carry them to the King his mafter. P. one. VER. 22. Screen.] Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico Tangit, et admiffus circum præcordia ludit. Perf. P. Ibid. Screen.] A metaphor peculiarly appropriated to a certain perfon in power. P. VER. 24. Patriots there are, &c.] This appellation was generally given to those in oppofition to the Court Though fome of them (which our author hints at) had views too mean and interested to deserve that name. P. VER. 26. The Great man] A phrafe, by common use, appropriated to the first minifter. P. Seen him I have, but in his happier hour NOTES. VER. 29. Seen him I have, &c.] This and other ftrokes of commendation in the following poem, as well as his forbearing him on all occafions, were in acknowledgement of a certain fervice the Minifter had done a Prieft at Mr. Pope's solicitation. Our Poet, when he was about feventeen, had a very ill fever in the country, which, it was feared, would end fatally. In this condition, he wrote to Southcot, a Prieft of his acquaintance, then in town, to take his last leave of him. Southcot with great affection and folicitude applied to Dr. Radcliffe for his advice. And not content with that, he rode down poft, to Mr. Pope, who was then an hundred miles from London, with the Doctor's directions; which had the desired effect. A long time after this, Southcot, who had an intereft in the Court of France, writing to a common acquaintance in England, informed him that there was a good abbey near Avignon, which he had credit enough to get, were it not from an apprehenfion that his promotion would give umbrage to the English Court, to which he (Southcot) by his intrigues in the Pretender's fervice, was become very obnoxious. The perfon to whom this was written happening to acquaint Mr. Pope with the cafe, he immediately wrote to Sir Robert Walpole about it; begged that this embargo might be taken off; and acquainted him with the grounds of his folicitation: He told him he was indebted to Southcot for his life, and that more than his life was engaged for the discharge of his obligation, for he was certainly to fatisfy it in purgatory, if he could not do it here. The Minifter received it favourably, and with much good-nature wrote to his brother, then in France, to remove this obftruction. In confequence of which Southcot got the abbey. Mr. Pope ever after retained a grateful fense of this fa vour. VER. 31. Seen him, uncumber'd 】 Thefe two verses were |