Lull with AMELIA'S1 liquid name the Nine, P. Alas! few verses touch their nicer ear; They scarce can bear their Laureate twice a year2; F. Better be Cibber, I'll maintain it still, his brother, : P. What should ail them 4? 1 [Princess Amelia, the second daughter of George II. She died unmarried in 1759.] 2 [Colley Cibber; see Introductory Remarks to Dunciad.] 3 [The House of Brunswick was however particularly unfortunate in this respect.] 4 What should ail them?] Horace hints at one reason, that each fears his own turn may be next; his imitator gives another, and with more art, a reason which insinuates, that his very lenity, in using feigned names, increases the number of his Enemies. 5 [See Moral Essays, Ep. IV. vv. 99-176, and Ep. 111. vv. 339-402.1 6 Darty his Ham-pie;] This Lover of Hampie own'd the fidelity of the poet's pencil; and said, he had done justice to his taste; but that if, instead of Ham-pie, he had given him Sweet-pie, he never could have pardoned him. Warburton. Lyttelton in his Dialogues of the Dead, has introduced Darteneuf, bitterly lamenting his illfortune in having died before turtle-feasts were known in England. Warton. [Lord Scarsdale 35 40 45 50 55 60 and Charles Dartiquenave, or Dartineuf, were noted epicures. The latter was in office as Paymaster of the Works; and the poet, Robert Dodsley, was his footman. Carruthers cites a paper written by him in the Tatler, No. 252, on the cheerful use of wine. Gay speaks of him as a 'grave joker.'] 7 [Ridotta; from Ridotto, the fashionable Italian term for an assembly.] 8 Most likely Henry Fox, first Lord Holland, alluded to in Epil. to Satires, Dial. I. v. 71. The 'brother' is Stephen Fox, afterwards Lord Ilchester. Carruthers. 9 [The bear-garden at Hockley-in-the-Hole is described in the Spectator, No. 436. Cf. Dunciad, Bk. I. v. 326.] 10 William Shippen, an outspoken politician and a Jacobite, who was sent to the Tower in 1718. According to Coxe, he used to say of himself and Sir Robert Walpole: Robin and I are two honest men; though he is for King George, and I for King James.'] My head and heart thus flowing thro' my quill, While Tories call me Whig, and Whigs a Tory. To run a muck, and tilt at all I meet; 70 75 And the sad burthen of some merry song. Slander or Poison dread from Delia's rage, 80 Hard words or hanging, if your Judge be Page5. Then, learned Sir! (to cut the matter short) [As Warburton points out, a great improvement on Horace's 'Lucanus an Appulus, anceps,' &c. As to Pope's religious standpoint see Introductory Memoir, p. xxxiii.] 2 [Cardinal Fleury, formerly tutor of King Lous XV., became Prime Minister of France in 1726, and held power till his death in 1743. He was able to maintain the pacific policy which he advocated till two years before that event.] 3 Closely copied from Boileau. Warton. 4 [A Miss Mackenzie died about this time, and was supposed to have been poisoned from jealousy.] The person alluded to was Lady D-ne. Bowles. [Mary Howard Countess of Deloraine, who died in 1744. See note to Lord Hervey's Memoirs by Croker, who has not discovered the grounds of the suspicion, but it was very pre valent.'] 83 95 100 5[Judge Page; cf. Epil. to Sat. Dial. II. v. 156.] Quisquis erit vitæ, scribam, color. F. Alas young man! your days can ne'er be long, P. What? arm'd for Virtue when I point the pen, Unplac'd, unpension'd3, no man's heir, or slave? I will, or perish in the gen'rous cause: Hear this, and tremble! you, who 'scape the Laws. 105 IIO 115 Yes, while I live, no rich or noble knave 120 125 130 Now forms my Quincunx, and now ranks my Vines, madness, there's method in it.' There is real fire in Lee, besides a great deal of smoke.] 1 Boileau acted with much caution when he first published his Lutrin here alluded to, and endeavoured to cover and conceal his subject by a preface laying the scene at Bourges, not at Paris, for which it was intended. When in 1683 he threw off the mask, no offence was taken by the Canons whom he had ridiculed. From Warton's note. [Moreover, the ascendancy of bigotry and Mad. de Maintenon had not begun when Boileau wrote his famous satire; when they fully prevailed he retired from Court.] 2 [In his Spanish Friar. But he soon atoned for that piece by Absalom and Achitophel.] 3 [Pope declined the pension offered him by Lord Halifax early in George I.'s reign.] 4 And HE, whose lightning, etc.] Charles Mordaunt Earl of Peterborough, who in the year 135 1705 took Barcelona, and in the winter following with only 280 horse and 900 foot enterprized and accomplished the Conquest of Valentia. P. [See Macaulay's captivating account of Peterborough in his Essay on the War of Succession in Spain.] 5 Envy must own, &c.] Horace makes the point of honour to consist simply in his living familiarly with the Great, Cum magnis vixisse invita fatebitur usque Our poet, more nobly, in his living with them on To help who want, to forward who excel; This, all who know me, know; who love me, tell; F. Your Plea is good; but still I say, beware! 140 145 150 F. Indeed? 155 The Case is alter'd-you may then proceed; THE SECOND SATIRE OF THE SECOND BOOK OF HORACE. SATIRE II. To Mr BETHEL*. [IN Horace's Satire the praise of temperance is laid in the mouth of Ofellus, a simple farmer with whom the poet had been acquainted from his boyhood.] WHAT, and how great, the Virtue and the Art WHA To live on little with a cheerful heart, (A doctrine sage, but truly none of mine,) Let's talk, my friends, but talk before we dine. Not when from plate to plate your eyeballs roll, 1 [Bowles reminds the reader of the mob in Julius Caesar (Act III. Sc. 3), demanding that Cinna the poet should be torn for his bad verses.'] 2 [Walpole.] 3 Solventur risu tabulae: tu missus abibis. Hor. 4 [Hugh Bethel, the 'blameless Bethel' of Moral Essays, Ep. v., a Yorkshire gentleman with whom Pope was intimate, and frequently corresponded. He was a close friend of Pope's dearest friends, the Blounts of Mapledurham. He died in 1748.] Hear BETHEL'S Sermon, one not vers'd in schools, Preach as I please, I doubt our curious men 66 He calls for something bitter, something sour, The Robin-red-breast till of late had rest3, And children sacred held a Martin's nest, Till Becca-ficos sold so dev'lish dear To one that was, or would have been a Peer. I'll have a party at the Bedford-head 4; Or ev'n to crack live Crawfish recommend; Oldfield] This eminent Glutton ran thro' a fortune of fifteen hundred pounds a year in the simple luxury of good eating. Warburton. Hog barbecued, etc.] A West Indian term of gluttony, a hog roasted whole, stuffed with spice, and basted with Madeira wine. P. [How gross an antithesis to Charles Lamb's favourite delicate sucking-pig!] 3 ['Cet aimable oiseau se mange à la broche et en salmi.' Almanach des Gourmands, quoted in P. 4 40 45 50 Mr Hayward's Essay on the Art of Dining.] Bedford-head; A famous Eating-House. [In Covent-Garden.] 5 Edward Wortley Montagu, the husband of Lady Mary. Carruthers. [Their son Edward, alluded to in v. 56, was a source of constant annoyance to both his parents; and Lady M. speaks of the impossibility of his behaving as a rational creature.'] |