How did they fume, and stamp, and roar, and chafe; And swear, not ADDISON himself was safe! Peace to all such! But were there one whose fires True genius kindles, and fair fame inspires; NOTES. was published, Dr. Young had addressed two Epistles to our author, in the year 1730, concerning the authors of the age; in which are many passages that bear a great resemblance to many of Pope's; though Pope has heightened, improved, and condensed the hints, images, and sentiments of Young. Warton. Ver. 192. And swear, not ADDISON himself was safe!] This is an artful preparative for the following transition; and finely obviates what might be thought unfavourable of the severity of the satire, by those who were strangers to the provocation. Warburton. Ver. 192. ADDISON himself was safe!] This character of Addison has been considered as Pope's master-piece," in hoc dicendi genere." It is certainly most successfully laboured; but how far it was a likeness, is with me very doubtful. Bowles. Our poet's It was cul Ver. 193. But were there one whose fires, &c.] friendship with Mr. Addison began in the year 1713. tivated, on both sides, with all the marks of mutual esteem and affection, and a constant intercourse of good offices. Mr. Addison was always commending moderation; warned his friend against a blind attachment to party; and blamed Steele for his indiscreet zeal. The translation of the Iliad being now on foot, he recommended it to the public, and joined with the Tories in pushing the subscription; but at the same time advised Mr. Pope not to be content with the applause of one half of the nation. On the other hand, Mr. Pope made his friend's interest his own, (see note on ver. 215. 1 Ep. b. ii. of Hor.) and, when Dennis so brutally attacked the tragedy of Cato, he wrote the piece called A Narrative of his Madness. Thus things continued till Mr. Pope's growing reputation, and superior genius* in poetry, gave umbrage to his friend's false delicacy: *This statement of Warburton's is neither candid nor true: it is very easy to say, "Pope's growing reputation gave umbrage to Blest with each talent and each art to please, 195 And born to write, converse, and live with ease: NOTES. licacy and then it was he encouraged Philips and others (see his Letters) in their clamours against him as a Tory and Jacobite, who had assisted in writing the Examiners; and, under an affected care for the government, would have hid, even from himself, the true grounds of his disgust. But his jealousy soon broke out, and discovered itself, first to Mr. Pope, and not long after, to all the world. The Rape of the Lock had been written in a very hasty manner, and printed in a collection of Miscellanies. The success it met with encouraged the author to revise and enlarge it, and give it a more important air; which was done by advancing it into a mock epic poem. In order to this it was to have its machinery; which, by the happiest invention, he took from the Rosicrucian system. Full of this noble conception, he communicated his scheme to Mr. Addison; who, he imagined, would have been equally delighted with the improvement. On the contrary, he had the mortification to see his friend receive it coldly; and even to advise him against any alteration; for that the poem, in its original state, was a delicious little thing, and, as he expressed it, merum sal. Mr. Pope was shocked for his friend; and then first began to open his eyes to his character. Soon after this, a translation of the first book of the Iliad appeared under the name of Mr. Tickell; which coming out at a critical juncture, when Mr. Pope was in the midst of his engagements on the same subject, and by a creature of Mr. Addison's, made him suspect this to be another shaft from the same quiver; and after a diligent inquiry, and laying many odd circumstances together, he was fully convinced that it was not only published with Mr. Addison's participation, but was indeed his own performance. And Sir R. Steele, in the ninth edition of the Drum mer to Addison; that Addison encouraged Philips, &c. in their clamours; that his jealousy at last broke out." But all this is directly contrary to the general tenor of Addison's life and character, and if I should make it appear, as I trust I shall, that part is untrue, we ought surely to give little credit to the rest. Bowles. Should such a man, too fond to rule alone, NOTES. mer (which Tickell had omitted to insert amongst Addison's Works) in a long epistle to Congreve, affirms very intelligibly, that Addison, and not Tickell, was the translator of the first book of the Iliad, to which the latter had set his name. Mr. Pope, in his first resentment of this usage, was resolved to expose this new version in a severe critique upon it. I have now by me the copy he had marked for this purpose; in which he has classed the several faults in translation, language, and numbers, under their proper heads. But the growing splendor of his own works so eclipsed the faint efforts of this opposition, that he trusted to its own weakness and malignity for the justice due unto it. About this time, Mr. Addison's son-in-law, the Earl of Warwick, told Mr. Pope, that it was in vain to think of being well with his father, who was naturally a jealous man; that Mr. Pope's talents in poetry had hurt him; and to such a degree, that he had underhand encouraged Gildon to write a thing about Wycherley, in which he had scurrilously abused Mr. Pope, and his family; and for this service he had given Gildon ten guineas, after the pamphlet was printed. The very next day, Mr. Pope, in great heat, wrote Mr. Addison a letter, wherein he told him, he was no stranger to his behaviour, which, however, he should not imitate; but that what he thought faulty in him, he would tell him fairly to his face, and what deserved praise he would not deny him to the world: and, as a proof of this disposition towards him, he had sent him the inclosed; which was the CHARACTER, first published separately, and afterwards inserted in this place of the Epist. to Dr. Arbuthnot. This plain dealing had no ill effect. Mr. Addison treated Mr. Pope with civility, and, as Mr. Pope believed, with justice, from this time to his death, which happened about three years after. It appears, from a collection of Swift's letters lately published, that Mr. Addison, when party was at its height, used Swift* much * It is said that "Addison used Swift much better than he used Pope." Addison's conduct to Swift was generous and noble: they were View him with scornful, yet with jealous eyes, NOTES. 205 much better than he had used Pope, on that account, though he had been more roughly treated by Swift than Pope's nature would suffer him to treat any one. But the reason is plain. Swift was Addison's rival only in politics: Pope was his rival in poetry; an opposition less tolerable, as more personal. However, Addison's social talents, in the entertainment and enjoyment of his intimate friends, charmed both Pope and Swift alike; as a quality far superior to any thing that was to be found in any other Warburton. man. Ver. 193. But were there one whose fires, &c.] The strokes in this Character are highly finished. Atterbury so well understood the force of them, that in one of his letters to Mr. Pope, he says: "Since you now know where your strength lies, I hope you will not suffer that talent to lie unemployed." He did not; and, by that means, brought satiric poetry to its perfection. Warburton. Ver. 198. Bear, like the Turk,] This is from Bacon de Aug. Scient. lib. iii. p. 180. And the thought was also used by Lord Orrery, and by Denham. Warton. were of different parties: Addison was required to give up his acquaintance, but he constantly refused; he treated him with respect and kindness, though, by so doing, he disobliged Lord Sunderland. He declared that he would not give up Swift, to be made chief governor of the kingdom; and indeed so high was his character, that Swift himself says of him: "Mr. Addison's election has passed easy and undisputed, and I believe, if he had a mind to be chosen king, he would hardly be refused." Why should he be jealous and splenetic only when Pope was concerned? Bowles. Dreading even fools, by flatterers besieged, NOTES. 210 Ver. 209. Like Cato, give] In the second volume of the Biographia Britannica is a vindication of Addison, by a writer who, to a consummate knowledge of the laws and history of his country, added a most exquisite taste in literature; I mean Sir William Blackstone, who thus concludes this vindication: "Nothing surely could justify so deep a resentment, unless the story be true of the commerce between Addison and Gildon; which will require to be very fully proved, before it can be believed of a gentleman who was so amiable in his moral character, and who (in his own case) had two years before expressly disapproved of a personal abuse of Mr. Dennis. The person, indeed, from whom Mr. Pope seems to have received this anecdote, about the time of his writing the character, (viz. about July, 1715,) was no other than the Earl of Warwick, son-in-law to Mr. Addison himself: and the something about Wycherley (in which the story supposes that Addison hired Gildon to abuse Pope and his family) is explained by a note on the Dunciad, to mean a pamphlet containing Mr. Wycherley's Life. Now it happens, that in July, 1715, the Earl of Warwick (who died at the age of twenty-three, in August, 1721) was only a boy of seventeen, and not likely to be intrusted with such a secret, by a statesman between forty and fifty, with whom it does not appear he was any way connected or acquainted; for Mr. Addison was not married to his mother, the Countess of Warwick, till the following year, 1716: nor would Gildon have been VARIATIONS. After Ver. 208. in the MS. Who, if two wits on rival themes contest, Approves of each, but likes the worst the best. Alluding to Mr. P.'s and Tickell's translation of the first book of the Iliad. |