Of all thy blameless life the fole return

259

My Verfe, and QUEENSB'RY weeping o'er thy urn!

Oh let me live my own, and die fo too! (To live and die is all I have to do:) Maintain a Poet's dignity and ease,

And see what friends, and read what books I please : Above a Patron, tho' I condefcend

Sometimes to call a Minister my friend.

I was not born for Courts or great affairs;
I pay my debts, believe, and say my pray'rs;
Can fleep without a Poem in my head,
Nor know, if Dennis be alive or dead.

265

260

Why am I afk'd what next shall see the light? Heav'ns! was I born for nothing but to write?

VARIATIONS.

After 270. in the MS.

a

Friendships from youth I fought, and feek them ftill:
Fame, like the wind, may breathe where'er it will.
The World I knew, but made it not my fchool",
And in a course of flatt'ry liv'd no fool.

By not making the World his School he means, he did not form his fyftem of morality, on the principles or practife of men in business.

NOTES.

VER. 265.-tho' I condefcend &c.] He thought it, and he justly thought it, a condenfcenfion in an honeft Man to accept the friendfhip of any one, how high foever, whofe conduct in life was governed only on principles of policy: for of what minifters he speaks, may be feen by the character he gives, in the next line, of the Courts they belong to.

Has Life no joys for me? or (to be grave)
Have I no friend to ferve, no foul to fave?

274

"I found him clofe with Swift ---Indeed? no doubt (Cries prating Balbus) fomething will come out. "Tis all in vain, deny it as I will.

"No, fuch a Genius never can lie ftill;

And then for mine obligingly mistakes

The first Lampoon Sir Will. or Bubo makes. 280 Poor guiltless I! and can I chufe but smile, When ev'ry Coxcomb knows me by my Style?

VARIATION'S.

After 282. in the MS.

P. What if I fing Auguftus, great and good?
A.You did fo lately, was it understood?

Be nice no more, but, with a mouth profound,
As rumbling D-s or a Norfolk hound;
With GEORGE and FRED'RIC roughen ev'ry verfe,
Then smooth up all, and CAROLINE rehearse.
P. No-the high task to lift up Kings to Gods
Leave to Court-fermons, and to birth-day Odes.
On themes like thefe, fuperior far to thine,
Let laurell❜d Cibber, and great Arnal shine.
Why write at all?-A. Yes, filence if you keep,
The Town, the Court, the Wits, the Dunces weep.

NOTES.

VER. 271. Why am I afk'd &c.] This is intended as a reproof of thofe impertinent complaints, which were continually made to him by thofe who called themselves his friends, for not entertaining the Town as often as it wanted amufement.-A French writer fays well on this occafion-Dès qu'on eft auteur, VOL. IV. D

Curft be the verse, how well foe'er it flow, That tends to make one worthy man my

NOTES.

foe,

il femble qu'on foit aux gages d'un tas de fainéans, pour leur fournir de quoi amufer leur oifiveté.

VER. 273. or, to be grave, &c.] This important truth, concerning the Soul, was always fo prefent with him, that, in his more ferious hours, he used to fay, That he was certain of its immortality, that he feemed to feel it, as it were, within him by intuition.

VER. 282. When ev'ry Coxcomb knows me by my Style?] The difcovery of a concealed author by his Style, not only requires a perfect intimacy with his writings, but great skill in the nature of compofition. But, in the practice of these Critics, knowing an author by his ftyle, is like judging of a man's whole perfon from the view of one of his moles.

When Mr. Pope wrote the Advertisement to the first Edition of the new Dunciad, intimating, that "it was by a different hand from the other, and found in detached pieces, incorrect, and unfinished," I objected to him the affectation of ufing fo unpromifing an attempt to mislead his Reader. He replied, that I thought too highly of the public taste; that, moft commonly, it was formed on that of half a dozen people in fashion, who took the lead, and who fometimes have obtruded on the Town the dulleft performances, for works of Wit: while, at the fame time, fome true effort of genius, without name or recommendation, hath paffed by the public eye unobferved or neglected: That he once before made the trial I now objected to, with fuccefs, in the Effay on Man: which was at first given (as he told me) to Dr. Younge, to Dr. Defaguliers, to Lord Bolingbroke, to Lord Pagett, and, in fhort, to every body but to him who was capable of writing it. However, to make him amends, this fame Public, when let into the fecret, would, for fome time after, fuffer no poem, with a moral title, to pass for any one's but his. So the Elay on human Life, the Efay on Reafon, and many others of a worfe tendency, were very liberally beftowed upon him.

This, and a great deal more he added on the fame occafion, and affured me, that his new Dunciad would be full as well un

Give Virtue fcandal, Innocence a fear,

285

Or from the foft-ey'd Virgin fteal a tear!
But he who hurts a harmless neighbour's peace,
Infults fall'n worth, or Beauty in distress,
Who loves a Lye, lame flander helps about,
Who writes a Libel, or who copies out:
That Fop, whofe pride affects a patron's name,
Yet abfent, wounds an author's honeft fame:
Who can your merit selfishly approve,

And how the fense of it without the love;

NOTES.

290

derstood. He was not mistaken. This fourth book, the most ftudied and highly finished of all his Poems, was efteemed obfcure (a name, which, in excefs of modefty, the Reader gives to what he does not understand) and but a faint imitation, by some common hand, of the other three. He had, himself, the malicious pleasure to hear this judgment paffed on his favourite Work by feveral of his Acquaintance; a pleafure more to his taste than the flatteries they used to entertain him with, and were then intentionally paying him. Of which he gave me another inftance, that afforded him much diverfion. While thefe acquaintance read the Effay on Man as the work of an unknown author, they fairly owned they did not understand it ; but when the reputation of the poem became fecured by the knowledge of the Writer, it foon grew fo clear and intelligible, that, on the appearance of the Comment on it, they told him, they wondered the Editor fhould think a large and minute interpretation necessary,

VER. 293.- felfifhly approve,] Because to deny, or pretend not to fee, a well established merit, would impeach his own heart or understanding,

VER. 294. And how the fenfe of it without the love ;] . e. will never fuffer the admiration of an excellence to produce any efteem for him, to whom it belongs.

Who has the vanity to call

295

you fay,

you friend,
Yet wants the honour, injur'd, to defend ;
Who tells whate'er you think, whate'er
And, if he lye not, must at least betray:
Who to the Dean, and filver bell can swear,
And fees at Cannons what was never there;
Who reads, but with a luft to misapply,
Make Satire a Lampoon, and Fiction Lye.
A lash like mine no honeft man fhall dread,
But all fuch babling blockheads in his stead.

300

Let Sporus tremble ---A.What? that thing of filk, Sporus, that mere white curd of Afs's milk? 306 Satire or sense, alas! can Sporus feel? Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?

NOTES.

VER. 295. Who has the vanity to call you friend, Yet wants the honour, injur'd, to defend ;] When a great Genius, whose writings have afforded the world much pleasure and inftruction, happens to be enviously attacked, or falfly accufed, it is natural to think, that a fenfe of gratitude for fo agreeable an obligation, or a sense of that honour resulting to our Country from fuch a Writer, fhould raise amongst those who call themselves his friends, a pretty general indignation. But every day's experience fhews us the very contrary. Some take a malignant fatisfaction in the attack; others a foolish pleasure in a literary conflict; and the far greater part look on with a selfish indif ference.

VER. 299. Who to the Dean, and filver bell &c.] Meaning the man who would have perfuaded the Duke of Chandos that Mr. P. meant him in those circumftances ridiculed in the Epiftle on Tafe. See Mr. Pope's Letter to the Earl of Burlington concerning this matter.