EPIGRAM.

ENGRAVED ON THE COLLAR OF A DOG WHICH I GAVE TO HIS
ROYAL HIGHNESS1.

I

AM his Highness' dog at Kew;

Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?

LINES SUNG BY DURASTANTI

G

WHEN SHE TOOK LEAVE OF

THE ENGLISH STAGE.

THE WORDS WERE IN HASTE PUT TOGETHER BY MR POPE, AT THE REQUEST OF
THE EARL OF PETERBOROUGH.

EN'ROUS, gay, and gallant nation,
Bold in arms, and bright in arts;
Land secure from all invasion,

All but Cupid's gentle darts!
From your charms, oh who would run?
Who would leave you for the sun?
Happy soil, adieu, adieu!

Let old charmers yield to new;

In arms, in arts, be still more shining;
All your joys be still increasing;
All your tastes be still refining;
All your jars for ever ceasing:

But let old charmers yield to new.
Happy soil, adieu, adieu!

ON HIS GROTTO AT TWICKENHAM,

COMPOSED of

Marbles, Spars, Gems, Ores, and Minerals3.

HOU who shalt stop, where Thames' translucent wave
Shines a broad Mirror thro' the shadowy Cave;

Where ling'ring drops from min'ral Roofs distill,
And pointed Crystals break the sparkling Rill,
Unpolish'd Gems no ray on Pride bestow,
And latent Metals innocently glow:

5

Approach! Great NATURE studiously behold;
And eye the Mine without a wish for Gold.
Approach; but awful! Lo! th' Egerian Grot,

Where, nobly-pensive, ST JOHN sate and thought;

Where British sighs from dying WYNDHAM stole,

10

And the bright flame was shot thro' MARCHMONT's Soul.
Let such, such only tread this sacred Floor,
Who dare to love their Country, and be poor.

1 [Frederick, Prince of Wales. Roscoe traces the idea of this epigram to Sir W. Temple's Heads designed for an Essay on Conversation.]

[Margherita Durastanti was brought out at the English Opera-house by Handel, and sang in his operas and those of Bononisni from 1719 to 1723. She then retired, finding herself unable to contend with the superior powers of Cuzzoni. She took a formal leave of the English stage, for which occasion the above lines were composed

Arbuthnot

by Pope, at her patron's desire.
wrote a burlesque version of them, which is not
remarbably witty. See Hogarth's Memoirs of
the Musical Drama.]

[As to Pope's grotto, see Introductory Memoir, p. xxxiv.Ĵ

4 [See Epil. to Satires. Dial. II. v. 88.] 5 [The Earl of Marchmont, afterwards one of Pope's executors.]

VERSES TO MR C.1

ST JAMES'S PALACE. LONDON, Oct. 22.

EW words are best; I wish you well;

BETHEL, I'm told, will soon be here;
Some morning walks along the Mall,
And ev'ning friends, will end the year.
If, in this interval, between

The falling leaf and coming frost,
You please to see, on Twit'nam green,
Your friend, your poet, and your host:
For three whole days you here may rest
From Office bus'ness, news and strife;
And (what most folks would think a jest)
Want nothing else, except your wife.

TO MR GAY,

WHO HAD CONGRATULATED MR POPE ON FINISHING HIS HOUSE AND

GARDENS.

H, friend! 'tis true-this truth you lovers know—

AH

In vain my structures rise, my gardens grow;

In vain fair Thames reflects the double scenes
Of hanging mountains, and of sloping greens:
Joy lives not here, to happier seats it flies,
And only dwells where WORTLEY casts her eyes.
What are the gay parterre, the chequer'd shade,
The morning bower, the ev'ning colonnade,
But soft recesses of uneasy minds,

To sigh unheard in, to the passing winds?
So the struck deer in some sequester'd part
Lies down to die, the arrow at his heart;
He, stretch'd unseen in coverts hid from day,
Bleeds drop by drop, and pants his life away.

UPON THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH'S HOUSE

AT WOODSTOCK.

Atria longa patent; sed nec cœnantibus usquam,
Nec somno, locus est: quam bene non habitas.'
MARTIAL, Epigr. [XII. 50. vv. 7, 8.]

5

ΙΟ

[BLENHEIM, built by Vanbrugh. In his buildings,' says Sir Joshua Reynolds, 'there is a greater display of imagination than we shall find perhaps in any other. At the same time the heaviness of his style of architecture was the subject of the constant ridicule of Horace Walpole and others.]

ham.]

[Probably Craggs, who was in office at the time when Pope established himself at Twicken

EE, sir, here's the grand approach;

SEP

This way is for his Grace's coach:
There lies the bridge, and here's the clock,
Observe the lion and the cock,

The spacious court, the colonnade,

And mark how wide the hall is made!
The chimneys are so well design'd,
They never smoke in any wind.
This gallery's contrived for walking,
The windows to retire and talk in;
The council chamber for debate,
And all the rest are rooms of state.

Thanks, sir, cried I, 'tis very fine,

But where d'ye sleep, or where d'ye dine?
I find, by all you have been telling,
That 'tis a house, but not a dwelling1.

55

ΙΟ

15

ON BEAUFORT HOUSE GATE AT CHISWICK.

[THE Lord Treasurer Middlesex's house at Chelsea, after passing to the Duke of Beaufort, was called Beaufort House. It was afterwards sold to Sir Hans Sloane. When the House was taken down in 1740, its gateway, built by Inigo Jones, was given by Sir Hans Sloane to the Earl of Burlington, who removed it with the greatest care to his garden at Chiswick, where it may be still seen. See Cunningham's London.]

[IN illustration Mitford refers to Pope's letter to Lord Bathurst of September 13, 1732, where Mr L.' is spoken of as more inclined to admire God in his greater works, the tall timber.' From Mr Mitford's notes to his edition of Gray's Correspondence with the Rev. Norton Nichols. As to Lord Bathurst's improvements at Cirencester, to which these lines allude, see Moral Essays, Ep. IV. vv. 186 ff.]

It is, my lord, a mere conundrum

To call things woods for what grows under 'em.

For shrubs, when nothing else at top is,

Can only constitute a coppice.

But if you will not take my word,
See anno quint. of Richard Third;

And that's a coppice call'd, when dock'd,
Witness an. prim. of Harry Oct.
If this a wood you will maintain,
Merely because it is no plain,
Holland, for all that I can see,
May e'en as well be term'd the sea,
Or C- -by1 be fair harangued

An honest man, because not hang'd."

INSCRIPTION ON A PUNCH-BOWL,

IN THE SOUTH-SEA YEAR [1720], FOR A CLUB, CHASED WITH JUPITER PLACING CALLISTO IN THE SKIES, AND EUROPA WITH The Bull.

OME, fill the South Sea goblet full;

The gods shall of our stock take care;

Europa pleas'd accepts the Bull,

And Jove with joy puts off the Bear?.

Ο

VERBATIM FROM BOILEAU.

Un Jour dit un Auteur, etc.3

NCE (says an Author; where, I need not say)
Two Trav'lers found an Oyster in their way;
Both fierce, both hungry; the dispute grew strong,
While Scale in hand Dame Justice past along.
Before her each with clamour pleads the Laws,
Explain'd the matter, and would win the cause.
Dame Justice weighing long the doubtful Right,
Takes, opens, swallows it, before their sight.
The cause of strife remov'd so rarely well,
"There take" (says Justice) "take ye each a Shell.
We thrive at Westminster on Fools like you:
'Twas a fat Oyster-Live in peace-Adieu."

1 Thomas, first Lord Coningsby, a zealous promoter of the Revolution of 1688. Carruthers.

[There seems no doubt that these terms originated in the South-Sea year; and that they gradually came into general use. See a lively discussion of the subject, and of the meaning of the terms, in Notes and Queries for 1859.]

3 [This famous fable is narrated at the close

of Boileau's Second Epistle; and is said to be originally derived from an old Italian comedy. La Fontaine, who also versified the fable, substituted a judge (named Perrin Dandin) for 'Justice'; wherein, according to Boileau's opinion, he erred; inasmuch as it is not the judges only, but all the officers of justice, who empty the pockets of litigants. From a note to Amsterdam edition (1735) of Euvres de Boileau.]

MY

EPIGRAM.

Y Lord1 complains that Pope, stark mad with gardens,
Has cut three trees, the value of three farthings.

But he's my neighbour," cries the peer polite:

"And if he visit me, I'll waive the right.'

What! on compulsion, and against my will,

A lord's acquaintance? Let him file his bill!

EPIGRAM.

5

[EXPLAINED by Carruthers to refer to the large sums of money given in charity on account of the severity of the weather about the year 1740.]

YES! 'tis the time, (I cried,) impose the chain,
Destined and due to wretches self-enslaved;

YES!

But when I saw such charity remain,

I half could wish this people should be saved.

Faith lost, and Hope, our Charity begins;
And 'tis a wise design in pitying Heaven,

If this can cover multitude of sins,

To take the only way to be forgiven.

OCCASIONED BY READING THE TRAVELS OF CAPTAIN
LEMUEL GULLIVER.

ON the publication of Gulliver's Travels Pope wrote several pieces of humour intended to accompany the work, which he sent to Swift; and they were printed in 1727 under the title of Poems occasioned by reading the Travels of Captain Lemuel Gulliver explanatory and commendatory. Roscoe. [I. II. IV. were also published in the joint Miscellanies.]

I.

TO QUINBUS FLESTRIN, THE MAN-MOUNTAIN.

An Ode by Tilly-Tit, Poet Laureate to His Majesty of Lilliput.
Translated into English.

N amaze,
Lost I gaze,

Can our eyes

Reach thy size?
May my lays
Swell with praise,
Worthy thee!
Worthy me!
Muse, inspire,

All thy fire!

Bards of old

Of him told,

When they said
Atlas' head

Propp'd the skies:

See! and believe your eyes!

See him stride

Valleys wide,

1 Lord Radnor.

Warton.