20 Who starved a sister, who forswore a debt, P. See, now I keep the secret, and not you! The bribing statesman-F. Hold, too high you go. P. The bribed elector-F. There you stoop too 25 low. NOTES. Ver. 21. the town's inquiring yet.] So true is Swift's observation on personal satire: "I have long observed, that twenty miles from London nobody understands hints, initial letters, or town-facts and passages; and in a few years not even those who live in London." See verse 258 below, for two asterisks, not filled up or known. Warton. Ver. 22. F. You mean- -P. I don't.] The same friend is here again introduced making such remonstrances as before. And several parts of the dialogue here are more rapid and short, and approach nearer to common conversation, than any lines he had ever before written; and are examples of that style mentioned by Horace: "parcentis viribus, atque Extenuantis eas consultò." Warton. Ver. 24. The bribing statesman] Corruption was the universal cry at this period, and it had been repeated so long, that people began to think the removal of Sir Robert Walpole would introduce a sort of happiness into the political world, like that of the "millennium :" No taxes, no corruption, no bribery. Dodington, who was upon terms of the greatest kindness and intimacy with the Walpoles, to secure his election at Portsmouth, had no scruple in making Sir Robert Walpole (to whom he had before addressed his poetical Epistle, as to the Saviour of the Nation) the burden of his song, in the following ballad, which, in the MS. he says, was made in his road to Portsmouth, with a view to the election there, 1741. P. I fain would please you, if I knew with what; Tell me, which knave is lawful game, which not? Must great offenders, once escaped the crown, Like royal harts, be never more run down? Admit your law to spare the knight requires, 30 As beasts of nature may we hunt the squires? NOTES. Stanzas, 1740, on the road to Portsmouth. Now, Britain, is the crisis of thy fate, Bowles. Ver. 29. Like royal harts, &c.] Alluding to the old game laws; when our Kings spent all the time they could spare from human slaughter, in woods and forests. Warburton. Ver. 31. As beasts of nature may we hunt the squires?] The expression is rough, like the subject, but without reflection: for if beasts of nature, then not beasts of their own making; a fault too frequently objected to country squires. Howeyer, the Latin is nobler; Feræ naturæ, things uncivilized, and free. Fera, as the critics say, being from the Hebrew, Pere, Asinus silvestris. Scriblerus, Suppose I censure you know what I mean— F. A dean, Sir? No: his fortune is not made; You hurt a man that's rising in the trade. 35 P. If not the tradesman who set up to-day, Much less the 'prentice who to-morrow may. Down, down, proud satire! though a realm be spoil'd, Arraign no mightier thief than wretched Wild; 40 The poor and friendless villain, than the great? 45 Scarce hurts the lawyer, but undoes the scribe. To tax directors who (thank God) have plums; NOTES. 50 Ver. 35. You hurt a man] In a former edition there was the following note on this line: "For as the reasonable De la Bruyère observes, Qui ne sait être une Erasme, doit penser à être Evêque." Dr. Warburton omitted it after he got a seat on the Bench. Warton. Ver. 39. wretched Wild;] Jonathan Wild, a famous thief, and thief-impeacher, who was at last caught in his own train, and hanged. Pope. "He is se Ver. 51. why, lay it on a king.] Warburton says: rious in the foregoing subjects of satire, but ironical here; and only F. Stop! stop! P. Must satire, then, not rise nor fall? Speak out, and bid me blame no rogues at all. F. Yes, strike that Wild, I'll justify the blow. P. Strike? why the man was hang'd ten years ago: Who now that obsolete example fears? Even Peter trembles only for his ears. 55 F. What, always Peter? Peter thinks you mad; You make men desperate if they once are bad : Else might he take to virtue some years henceP. As S-k, if he lives, will love the PRINCE. F. Strange spleen to S-k! P. Do I wrong the man? God knows I praise a courtier where I can. NOTES. only alludes to the common practice of ministers, in laying their own miscarriages on their masters." I fear Pope meant more. Bowles. Ver. 57. Even Peter trembles only for his ears.] Peter had, the year before this, narrowly escaped the pillory for forgery; and got off with a severe rebuke only from the bench. Pope. Ver. 65. SCARB'Row] Earl of, and Knight of the Garter, whose personal attachments to the King appeared from his steady adherence to the royal interest, after his resignation of his great employment of Master of the Horse, and whose known honour and virtue made him esteemed by all parties. Pope. His character is ably and elegantly drawn by Lord Chesterfield, and the manner of his lamented death, minutely and pathetically related by Dr. Maty, in the Memoirs of Lord Chesterfield's Life. Warton. The scene, the master, opening to my view, NOTES. 70 Ver. 66. Esher's peaceful grove,] The house and gardens of Esher, in Surrey, belonging to the Honourable Mr. Pelham, brother of the Duke of Newcastle. The author could not have given a more amiable idea of his character, than in comparing him to Mr. Craggs. Pope. Ver. 67. Kent and nature] Means no more than art and nature. And in this consists the compliment to the artist. Warburton. Ver, 71, Secker is decent,] To say of a prelate, whose life was exemplary, and his learning excellent, that he was only decent, is surely to damn with faint praise. His lectures and his sermons are written with a rare mixture of simplicity and energy, and contain (what sermons too seldom possess) a great knowledge of life and human nature. Dr. Lowth, Dr. Kennicott, and Mr. Merrick, frequently acknowledged his uncommon skill in oriental learning; but the author of Warburton's Life has lately thought proper to deny him this praise. The characters of Benson and Rundel are justly drawn. It was Gibson, Bishop of London, who prevented the latter, though strongly patronized by Lord Chancellor Talbot, from being an English Bishop, on account of some unguarded expressions he had used relating to Abraham's offering of his son Isaac. Warton. Ver. 71. Secker is decent, &c.] Notwithstanding the candid and acute remarks of Warburton, this praise of Secker is undoubtedly parsimonious, and the poet almost incurs the censure, which he passed on Addison, Damns with faint praise. His notion of decent is proved with tolerable precision from his Moral Essays, ii. 163, where, after saying that Chloe, the subject of his satire, wanted, what Rundel had, a heart, he subjoins: Virtue she finds too painful an endeavour, Content to dwell in decencies for ever. He means, therefore, to allow Secker moderate, but not leading, excellences |