Let Sporus tremble-A. What? that thing of filk,

Sporus, that mere white curd of Afs's milk?

Satire or fenfe, alas! can Sporus feel?

Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel ?

306

P. Yet let me flap this bug with gilded wings,"
This painted child of dirt that ftinks and ftings; 310
Whose buzz the witty and the fair annoys,

Yet wit ne'er taftes, and beauty ne'er enjoys:
So well-bred spaniels civilly delight

In mumbling of the game they dare not bite.
Eternal fmiles his emptiness betray,

As fhallow ftreams run dimpling all the way.
Whether in florid impotence he speaks,

315

And, as the prompter breathes, the puppet fqueaks;
Or at the ear of Eve, familiar Toad,

Half froth, half venom, fpits himself abroad,
In puns, or politics, or tales, or lies,
Or fpite, or smut, or rhymes, or blafphemies.
His wit all fee-faw, between that and this,
Now high, now low, now mafter up, now miss,
And he himself one vile Antithesis.
Amphibious thing! that acting either part,
The trifling head, or the corrupted heart,
Fop at the toilet, flatt'rer at the board,
Now trips a Lady, and now ftruts a Lord.
Eve's tempter thus the Rabbins have exprest,
A Cherub's face, a reptile all the reft.

325

Beauty that shocks you, parts that none will truft,
Wit that can creep, and pride that licks the duft.
VER. 319. See Milton, Book iv.

320

Not Fortune's worshipper, nor Fashion's fool
Not Lucre's madman, nor Ainbition's tool,
Not proud, nor fervile; Be one Poet's praife,
That, if he pleas'd, he pleas'd by manly ways:
That flatt'ry ev'n to Kings, he held a fhame,
And thought a Lye in verfe or profe the fame.
That not in Fancy's maze he wander'd long,
But stoop'd to Truth, and moraliz'd his fong :
That not for Fame, but Virtue's better end,
He stood the furious foe, the timid friend,
The damning critic, half approving wit,
The coxcomb hit, or fearing to be hit;
Laugh'd at the lofs of friends he never had,
The dull, the proud, the wicked, and the mad;
The diftant threats of vengeance on his head,
The blow unfelt, the tear he never shed ;
The tale reviv'd, the lye so oft o'erthrown,
Th' imputed trash, and dulness not his own;
The morals blacken'd when the writings 'fcape,
The libel'd perfon, and the pictur'd shape;
Abufe, on all he lov'd, or lov'd him, fpread,
A friend in exile, or a father dead;

335

340

345

350

355

VER. 350. The lie fo oft o'erthrown] As that he received fubfcriptions for Shakespear, that he fet his name to Mr. Broome's verfes, &c. which, tho' publicly disproved, were nevertheless fhamelessly repeated in the Libels, and even in that called the Noleman's Epiftle.

VER. 351. Th' imputed Traf.] Such as profane Pfalms, CourtPoems, and other fcandalous things, printed in his Name by Curl

and others.

VER 354. Abuse on all be lov'd, or lov'd him, spread,] Namely on the Duke of Buckingham, the Earl of Burlington, Lord

The whisper, that to greatness ftill too near,!
Perhaps, yet vibrates on his Sov'REIGN's ear—
Welcome for thee, fair Virtue! all the past:
For thee, fair Virtue! welcome ev'n the last!

A. But why infult the poor, affront the great? 360
P. A knave's a knave, to me, in ev'ry state:
Alike my fcorn, if he fucceed or fail,
Sporus at court, or Japhet in a jail,

A hircling fcribler, or a hireling peer,
Knight of the poft corrupt, or of the shire ;
If on a Pillory, or near a Throne,
He gain his Prince's ear, or lofe his own.
Yet foft by nature, more a dupe than wit,
Sappho can tell you how this man was bit:
This dreaded Sat'rift 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 Moor.

365

370

Bathurst, Lord Bolingbroke, Bishop Atterbury, Dr. Swift, Dr. Arbuthnot, Mr. Gay, his Friends, his Parents, and his very Nurfe, afperfed in printed papers, by James Moore, G. Ducket, L. Welfted, Tho. Bentley, and other obfcure perfons.

Ver: 368. in the MS.

Once, and but once, his heedlefs youth was bit,
And lik'd that dang'rous thing, a female wit:
Safe as he thought, tho' all the prudent chid;

He writ no Libels, but my Lady did :
Great odds in am'rous or poetic game,

Where Woman's is the fin, and Man's the fhame.

Full ten years flander'd, did he once reply?

Three thousand fons went down on Welfted's Iye. 375
To please a Mistress one afpers'd his life: 1.
He lafh'd him not, but let her be his wife:
Let Budgel charge low Grubflreet on his quill,
And write whate'er he pleas'd, except his Will;
Let the two Curls of town and Court, abuse
His father, mother, body, foul, and mufe,

380

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 fcurillities and falfehoods concerning him.

Ver. 375. Welfted's lye] This man had the impudence to tell in print, that Mr. P. had occafioned a Lady's death, and to name a perfon he never heard of. He alfo published that he libell'd 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 falsehood of both which is known to his Grace. Mr. P. never received any prefent, farther than the fubfcription for Homer, from him, or from any great man whatso

ever.

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 Laft Will of Dr. Tindal, in the Grubfireet Journal; a Paper wherein he never had the leaft hand, direction, or fupervifal, nor the least knowledge of its Author.

Ver. 379 Except his Will;] Alluding to Tindal's Will: by which, and other indirect practices, Budgel, to the exclufion of the next heir, a nephew, got to himself almoft the whole fortune of a man entirely unrelated to him.

Ver. 381. His father, mother, &c.] In fome of Curl'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 fuch a reflection could be thought to come from a Nobleman) had drept an allufion to that pitiful untruth, in a paper call'd an Epiftle to a Doctor of Divinity: And the following line,

Hard as thy Heart, and as thy Birth obscure.

Yet why that Father held it for a rule,

It was a fin to call our neighbour fool:

That harmless Mother thought no wife a whore:
Hear this, and fpare his family, James Moore!
Unfpotted names, and meinorable long!
If there be force in Virtue, or in Song.

Of gentle blood (part fhed in Honour's caufe,
While yet in Britain Honour had applause)

385

Each parent fprung - A. What fortune, pray? — P.

Their own,

And better got, than Beflia's from the throne.

Born to no Pride, inheriting no Strife,

390

Nor marrying Difcord in a noble wife,

Stranger to civil and religious rage,

X

395

The good man walk'd innoxious thro' his age. VOL. II. had fallen 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, whofe fole Heire's married the Earl of Lindley.-His mother was the daughter of William Turner, 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; She 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.

D. 0. M.

ALEXANDRO. POPE. VIRO. INNOCVO.

PROEO. PIO.

QVI. VIXIT. ANNOS. LXXV. OB. MDCCXVII.
ET. EDITHAE. CONIVGI. INCVLPABILI.

PIENTISSIMAE. QVAE. VIXIT. ANNOS.
XCIII. OB. MDCCXXXIII.

PARENTIBUS. BENEMERENTIBVS. FILIVS. FECIT.
ET. SIB1.