1740, A POEM. (The Notes by Mr. Bowles.) O WRETCHED B---, jealous now of all, Ver. 1. O wretched B 10 -,] There is no doubt but that this interesting fragment was the beginning of the very Satire to which Warburton alludes in the last poem. Pope was afraid to go on in his career of personal acrimony. Paul Whitehead, having thrown out an indecent sarcasm against Dr. Sherlock, was threatened with a prosecution. This was meant as a hint to Pope; and it is very plain his satiric progress was interrupted, for his alarm evidently appears. In this poem, (which certainly was part of his plan, as a continuation of the Epilogue,) he seems, "Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike." I have added some explanatory names. Grave, righteous S- jogs on till, past belief, He finds himself companion with a thief. To purge and let thee blood, with fire and sword, Is all the help stern S-- would afford. That those who bind and rob thee, would not kill, Good C-- hopes, and candidly sits still. Of 'Ch-s W-- who speaks at all, No more than of Sir Har - y or Sir P --. 20 Whose names once up, they thought it was not wrong To lie in bed, but sure they lay too long. "G-r, C-m, B-t, pay thee due regards, Unless the ladies bid them mind their cards. with wit that must And C-d who speaks so well and writes, Whose wit and must needs 25 equally provoke one, Finds thee, at best, the butt to crack his joke on. As for the rest, each winter up they run, And all are clear, that something must be done. 30 Then urged by C--t, or by C--t stopp'd, Inflamed by 'P--, and by P--- dropp'd; They follow reverently each wondrous wight, C e Sandys. d Shippen. e Perhaps the Earl of Carlisle. f Sir Charles Hanbury Williams. Sir Henry Oxenden and Sir Paul Methuen, h Lords Gower, Cobham, and Bathurst. Lord Chesterfield. Lord Carteret. William Pulteney, created in 1742 Earl of Bath. So geese to gander prone obedience keep, Till having done whate'er was fit or fine, 35 Utter'd a speech, and ask'd their friends to dine; Content but for five shillings in the pound, Speak the loud language princes And treat with half the . At length to B-- kind, as to thy What can thy TMH . Dress in Dutch. Though still he travels on no bad pretence, To show Or those foul copies of thy face and tongue, Veracious "W--- and frontless Young; n 40 45 50 1 55 Sagacious P Bub, so late a friend, and there 1 Walpole. m Either Sir Robert's brother Horace, who had just quitted his embassy at the Hague, or his son Horace, who was then on his travels. How! what can "O-- w, what can D-- The wisdom of the one and other chair, 60 Or thy dread truncheon 'M.'s mighty peer ? What help from 'J---s opiates canst thou draw, Or 'H--k's quibbles voted into law? b C. that Roman in his nose alone, 65 Who hears all causes, B--, but thy own, Or those proud fools whom nature, rank, and fate 70 Made fit companions for the sword of state. u Onslow, Speaker of the House of Commons, and the Earl of Delawar, Chairman of the Committees of the House of Lords. w Newcastle. * Dorset; perhaps the last word should be sneer. y Duke of Marlborough. b z Jekyll. a Hardwick. Probably Sir John Cummins, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. c Britain. d Earl of Scarborough. In another place Pope spells his name with a w. Ep. to the Sat. Dial. 2. 1, 65. Good 'M-m-t's fate tore 'P--th from thy side, And thy last sigh was heard when W--m died. 80 NOTES. Ver. 80. W―m died.] Sir William Wyndham died this year; his death was a severe blow to the party, and none felt it perhaps more than Bolingbroke, whose friendship for him appears to have been ardent and sincere. The following extract of a letter from Bolingbroke, to Sir Charles Wyndham on this occasion will be read with interest, as it particularly shews the sentiments of the party at this time: LORD BOLINGBROKE TO SIR CHARLES WYNDHAM. "DEAR SIR, Argeville, August 8th, 1740. "I feel as I ought to do, the kindness you shew me in sending a servant on purpose, with a letter that gives me as much comfort as I am capable of receiving, since the loss we have sustained by the death of your father and my friend. You are in the right, and I love you the better for the sentiment: it is reputation to be descended from so great and so good a man; and surely it is some to have lived thirty years with him in the warmest and most active friendship. Far from any need of making excuses, that you did not write the cruel news to me when you sent to my Lady Denbigh, I have thanks to return you for sparing me, as you spared yourself. The news came to me with less surprize, but not with less effect. My unhappiness, for such it will be as long as I am able to feel pleasure and pain, began however a little later. It is a plain truth, free from all affectation or compliment, that as your father was dearer to me than all the rest of the world, so must every thing be that remains of him: you, Sir, especially, who are as dear to my heart as you could be, if, being the same worthy man you are, you was my own son. The resolutions you have taken both as to public and private life, are such as become the son and successor of Sir William Wyndham. To be a friend to your country, is to be what he was eminently; it is to be what he would have recommended you to be, even with his dying breath, e Marchmont. f Polwarth, son to Lord Marchmont. if * Wyndham. |