Like old rich wardrobes. But my words none

draws Within the vast reach of the huge statutes' jaws.

NOTES.

Ver. 121. These as good works, &c.] Dr. Donne says:

" But (oh) we allow Good works as good, but out of fashion now.” The popish doctrine of good works was one of those abuses in religion which the Church of England condemns in its articles. To this the Poet's words satirically allude. And having throughout this satire given several malignant strokes at the Reformation, which it was penal, and then very dangerous, to abuse, he had reason to bespeak the reader's candor, in the concluding lines :

“ But

my

words none draws
Within the vast reach of the huge statutes' jaws.”

Warburton.

Like rich old wardrobes, things extremely rare, Extremely fine, but what no man will wear.

Thus much I've said, I trust, without offence; Let no court sycophant pervert my sense,

126 Nor sly informer watch these words to draw Within the reach of treason, or the law.

NOTES.

Ver. 125. Thus much I've said,] These three additional lines are redundant. And two strong epithets in the last line of Donne, vast and huge, were too emphatical to be omitted. Warton.

SATIRE IV.

Well! I may now receive, and die. My sin
Indeed is great, but yet I have been in
A Purgatory, such as fear'd Hell is
A recreation, and scant map of this.
My mind, neither with pride's itch, nor hath

been
Poyson'd with love to see or to be seen,
I had no suit there, nor new suit to show,
Yet went to court; but as Glare which did go
To Mass in jest, catched, was fain to disburse
Two hundred markes, which is the statute's curse,
Before he 'scaped; so it pleased my destiny
(Guilty of my sin of going) to think me
As prone to all ill, and of good as forget-
full, as proud, lustfull, and as much in debt,
As vain, as witless, and as false, as they
Which dwell in court, for once going that way.

Therefore I suffer'd this; towards me did run A thing more strange than on Nile's slime the sun

NOTES.

Ver. 1. Well! I may now receide, &c.] More short, severe, and pointed than Pope's paraphrastical lines.

Warton. Ver. 7. The poet's hell,] He has here with great prudence corrected the licentious expression of his original. Warburton.

Ver. 10. Not the vain itch] Courtiers have the same pride in admiring, which Poets have in being admired. For vanity is often as much gratified in paying our court to our superiors, as in receiving it from our inferiors.

Warburton.

SATIRE IV.

5

Well, if it be my time to quit the stage,
Adieu to all the follies of the age!
I die in charity with fool and knave,
Secure of peace at least beyond the grave.
I've had my Purgatory here betimes,
And paid for all my satires, all my rhymes.
The poet's hell, its tortures, fiends, and flames,
To this were trifles, toys, and empty names.

With foolish pride my heart was never fired,
Nor the vain itch to admire, or be admired ; 10
I hoped for no commission from his Grace;
I bought no benefice, I begg'd no place;
Had no new verses, nor new suit to show;
Yet went to Court !—the devil would have it so.
But, as the fool that in reforming days

15 Would

go

to Mass in jest (as story says) Could not but think, to pay his fine was odd, Since 'twas no form’d design of serving God;

NOTES.

Ver. 13. Had no new verses, nor new suit to shew ;) Insinuating " that Court-poetry, like Courl-clothes, only comes thither in honour of the Sovereign; and serves but to supply a day's condersation !!"

Warburton. Ver. 14. the devil would] This addition is mean.

And line below, 26, is perhaps the greatest violation of harmony Pope has ever been guilty of, by beginning the verse with the word Noah. And line 17, his fine was odd, seems to be very exceptionable.

Warton.

E'er bred, or all which into Noah's ark came:
A thing which would have posed Adam to name:
Stranger than seven antiquaries' studies,
That Africk monsters, Guinea's rarities,
Stranger than strangers: one who, for a Dane,
In the Danes' massacre had sure been slain,
If he had lived then; and without help dies,
When next the 'prentices 'gainst strangers rise ;
One whom the watch at noon lets scarce go by;
One, to whom the examining justice sure would

cry, Sir, By your priesthood, tell me what you are ? His cloathes were strange, though coarse, and

black, though bare; Sleeveless his jerkin was, and it had been Velvet, but 'twas now (so much ground was seen) Become Tufftaffaty; and our children shall See it plain rash awhile, then nought at all.

NOTES.

Ver. 19. So was I punish'd,] Thus in former editions :

Such was my fate, whom heaven adjudged, Pope made

many

alterations in this Satire, and seems to have taken pains in correcting it. Line 65, and succeeding ones, stood thus :

Well met, he cries, and happy sure for each,

For I am pleased to learn, and you to teach.
Line 86 stood as follows:

Obliging Sir, I love you I profess,
But wish you liked retreat a little less,
Spirits like