A hireling fcribbler, or a hireling peer;
Knight of the poft corrupt, or of the fhire; 365
If on a pillory, or near a throne,

370

He gain his Prince's ear, or lose his own.
Yet foft by nature, more a dupe than wit,
Sappho can tell you how this man was bit:
This dreaded fatʼrift Dennis will confefs
Foe to his pride, but friend to his diftrefs:
So humble, he has knock'd at Tibbald's door,
Has drunk with Cibber, nay has rhym'd for Moore,
Full ten years flander'd, did he once reply?
Three thousand funs went down on Welfted's lie. 375
To

NOTES.

Ver. 374. ten years] It was fo long after many libels before the author of the Dunciad published that poem; till when, he never writ a word in answer to the many fcurrilities and falfehoods concerning him.

Ver. 375. Welled's lic.] This man had the impudence to tell in print, that Mr Pope had occafioned a lady's death, and to name a perfon he never heard of. He alfo publifhed, that he libelled the Duke of Chandos; with whom it was added that he had lived in familiarity, and received from him a prefent of five hundred pounds: The falfehood of both which is known to his Grace. Mr Pope never received any prefent, farther than the subscription for Homer, from him, or from any great man whatsoever.

Ver. 378. Let Budgel] Budgel, in a weekly pamphlet called the Bee, bestowed much abufe on him, in the imagination that he writ fome things about the last will of Dr Tindal, in the Grubftreet Journal; a paper wherein he never had the leaft hand, direction or fupervifal, nor the least knowledge of its author.

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 368. in the MS.

Once, and but once, his heedless youth was bit,
And lik'd that dang'rous thing, a female wit:
Safe as he thought, though all the prudent chid;
He writ no libels, but my lady did;

To please a mistress one afpers'd his life;
He lash'd him not, but let her be his wife;
Let Budgel charge low Grubfireet on his quill,
And write whate'er he pleas'd, except his will;
Let the two Curlls of town and court, abuse 380
His father, mother, body, foul, and mufe.
Yet why? that father held it for a rule,
It was a fin to call our neighbour fool :

That

NOTES.

Ver. 379. except his will;] Alluding to Tindall's will: by which, and other indirect practices, Budgel, to the exclu fion of the next heir, a nephew, got to himself almost the whole fortune of a man entirely unrelated to him.

Ver. 381. His father, mother, etc.] In fome of Curll's and other pamphlets, Mr Pope's father was faid to be a mechanic, a hatter, a farmer, nay a bankrupt. But, what is ftranger, a nobleman (if such a reflection could be thought to come from a nobleman) had dropt an allufion to that pitiful untruth, in a paper called An Epifle to a Doctor of Livinity: And the following line,

Hard as thy heart, and as thy birth obscure, had failen from a like courtly pen, in certain Verfes to the Imitator of Horace. Mr Pope's father was of a gentleman's family in Oxfordshire, the head of which was the Earl of Downe, whole fole heiress married the Earl of Lindsey.

His mother was the daughter of William Turnor, Efq; of York. She had three brothers, one of whom was killed, another died in the fervice of King Charles; the eldeft following his fortunes, and becoming a general officer in Spain, left her what eftate remained after the fequeftrations and forfeitures of her family.-----Mr Pope died in 1717 aged 75; the in 1733, aged 93, a very few weeks after this poem was finished. The following infcription was placed by their fon on their monument in the parish of Twickenham, in Middlefex.

VARIATIONS.

Great odds in am'rous or poetic game,

Where woman's is the fin, and man's the shame,

That harmless mother thought no wife a whore: Hear this, and fpare his family, James Moore! 385 Unfpotted names, and memorable long!

If there be force in virtue, or in fong.

Of gentle blood (part shed in Honour's cause,
While yet in Britain Honour had applause)
Each parent fprung.---A. What fortune, pray?---
P. Their own;

And better got, than Beftia's from the throne.
Born to no pride, inheriting no ftrife,
Nor marrying difcord in a noble wife
Stranger to civil and religious rage,

390

age.

The good man walk'd innoxious through his
No courts he faw, no fuits would ever try,
Nor dar'd an oath, nor hazarded a lie.
Unlearn'd, he knew no schoolman's fubtile art,
No language, but the language of the heart.
By nature honeft, by experience wise,
Healthy by temp'rance, and by exercise;
His life, though long, to fickness past unknown,
His death was inftant, and without a groan.
O grant me thus to live, and thus to die!

396

400

Who sprung from kings shall know less joy than I.

NOTES.
D. O. M.

ALEXANDRO. POPE. VIRO. INNOCVO. PROBO. PIO.
QVI. VIXIT. ANNOS. LXXV. OB. MDCCXVII.
ET. EDITHAE. CONIVGI. INCVLPARILI.
PIENTISSIMAE. QUAE. VIXIT. ANNOS.
XCIII. OB. MDCCXXXIII.

PARENTIBVS. BENEMERENTIBVS. FILIUS. FECIT.
ET. SIBI.

VARIATIONS.

After ver. 405, in the MS.

And of myself, too, fomething muft I say?
Take then this verfe, the trifle of a day;

410

O friend! may each domeftic bless be thine! 406 Be no unpleafing melancholy mine : Me, let the tender office long engage To rock the cradle of repofing age, With lenient arts extend a mother's breath, Make Languor fmile, and smooth the bed of Death, Explore the thought, explain the asking eye, And keep a while one parent from the sky! On cares like these if length of days attend, May Heav'n, to blefs thofe days, preferve my friend; Preferve him focial, cheerful, and ferene, And just as rich as when he ferv'd a QUEEN.

416

A. Whether that blessing be deny'd or giv'n, Thus far was right, the reft belongs to Heav'n.

NOTES.

Ver. 417. And just as rich as when he ferv'd a Queen.] A compliment to his friends real and unaffected difinterestedness, when he was the favourite phyfician of Queen Annė.

Ver. 418. A. Whether that bleffing, etc.] He makes his friend close the dialogue with a fentiment very expreffive of that religious refignation which was the character both of his temper, and his piety.

VARIATIONS.

And if it live, it lives but to commend

The man whofe heart has ne'er forgot a friend,

Or heard, an author: Critic, yet polite,

And friend to learning, yet too wife to write.

SATIRES

SATIRES AND EPISTLES

OF

HORA CE

А

IMITATED.

P.

HORACE,

BOOK II. SATIRE I.

To Mr. FORTESCUE.

HERE are (I scarce can think it, but am told) (a) There are to whom my fatire seems too bold:

Scarce to wife Peter complaifant enough,

And fomething faid of Chartres much too rough, (b) The lines are weak, another's pleas'd to say, § Lord Fanny fpins a thoufand fuch a-day.

HORATII,

LIB. II. SAT. I

HORATIUS. TREBATIUS.

H.(4) SUNT quibus in fatira videar nimis acer,

et ultra

Legem tendere opus: (b) fine nervis altera, quidquid

Tim'rous