Gold imp'd by thee, can compass hardest things, Can pocket States, can fetch or carry Kings; Or fhip off Senates to a distant Shore; Our fates and fortunes, as the winds fhall blow: Oh! that fuch bulky Bribes as all might fee, Still, as of old, incumber'd Villainy! Could France or Rome divert our brave defigns, With all their brandies or with all their wines? V.ARIATIONS. After 50. in the MS. To break a trust were Peter brib'd with wine, NOTES. VER. 42.-fetch or carry Kings;] In our author's time, many Princes had been sent about the world, and great changes of Kings projected in Europe. The partition-treaty had difpofed of Spain; France had fet up a King for England, who was fent to Scot land, and back again; King Stanislaus was sent to Poland, and back again; the Duke of Anjou was fent to Spain, and Don Carlos to Italy. P. 45 50 VER. 44. Or hip off Senates: to fome diftant Shore ;] Alludes to feveral Minifters, Counfellors, and Patriots banished in our times to Siberia, and to that MORE GLORIOUS FATE of the PARLIAMENT of PARIS, banifhed to Pontoife in the year 1720. P. VER. 47. Pregnant with thousands fits the Scrap, unfeen,] The imagery is very fublime, and alludes to the course of a destroying pefti What could they more than Knights and Squires confound, Or water all the Quorum ten miles round? A Statesman's slumbers how this speech would spoil! "Sir, Spain has fent a thousand jars of oil; cr 56 Huge bales of British cloth blockade the door, "A hundred oxen at your levee roar.” 60 Poor Avarice one torment more would find; Nor could Profufion fquander all in kind. Aftride his cheese Sir Morgan might we meet; And Worldly crying coals from ftreet to street, Whom with a wig fo wild, and mien so maz'd, Pity mistakes for fome poor tradesman craz’d. Had Colepepper's whole wealth been hops and hogs, Could he himself have fent it to the dogs? 66 His Grace will game: to White's a Bull be led, With spurning heels and with a butting head. NOTES. lence. The Pfalmift, in his expreffion of the peftilence that walketh in darkness, fupplied him with the grandeur of his idea. VER. 63. Somé Mifers of great wealth, proprietors of the coal-mines, had entered at this time into an affociation to keep up coals to an extravagant price, whereby the poor were reduced almost to starve, till one of them taking the advantage of underfelling the reft, defeated the defign. One of thefe Mifers was worth ten thoufand, another feven thoufand a year. P. VER. 65. Colepepper] Sir WILLIAM COLEPEPPER, Bart. a perfon of an ancient family, and ample fortune, 7༠ To White's be carry'd, as to ancient games, 75 Drive to St. James's a whole herd of swine? VARIATIONS. VER. 77. Since then, &c.] In the former Edd. COMMENTARY, VER. 77. Since then, my Lord, on fuch a World &c.] Having thus ironically defcribed the incumbrance which the want of money would occafion to all criminal exceffes in the use of Riches, particularly to Gaming, which being now become of public concern, he affects much regard to: Oh filthy check on all induftrious skill, NOTES. without one other quality of a Gentleman, who, after ruining himself at the Gamingtable, paft the reft of his days in fitting there to see the ruin of others; preferring to sub fift upon borrowing and begging, rather than to enter into any reputable method of life, and refufing a poft in the army which was offered him. P, P. What Riches give us let us then enquire: Meat, Fire, and Cloaths. B. What more? P. Meat, Cloaths, and Fire. COMMENTARY. 80 he concludes the previous Question without deciding it, in the fame ironical manner, Since then, my Lord, on fuch a World we fall: That is, fince for these great purposes we must have Money, let us now feriously inquire into its true Ufe. VER. 79. What Riches give us &c.] He examines therefore in the first place (from 78 to 97) I. Of what Ufe Riches are to ourselves: What Riches give us let us then enquire: Meat, Fire, and Cloaths. What more ? Meat, Cloaths, and Fire. The mere turn of the expreffion here fhews, without further reafoning, that all the infinite ways of fpending on ourselves, contrived in the infolence of Wealth, by thofe who would more than live, are only these three things diverfified throughout every wearied mode of Luxury and Wantonnefs. Yet as little as this is, adds the poet (from 81 to 85) it is only to be had by the moderate ufe of Riches; Avarice and Profufion not allowing the poffeffors of the moft exorbitant wealth even this little : Alas! 'tis more than Turner finds they give. But what is it you would expect them to give? continues the poet (from 84 to 91) Would you have them capable of refloring thofe real bleffings, which men have left by their Vices or their Villainies; or of fatisfying thofe imaginary ones, which they have gotten by their irregular Appetites and Paffions? Thefe, fure, the bad or foolish man cannot have the face to demand; and thefe, by the wife provifion of Nature, Riches are incapable of giving, if he had. Is this too little? would you more than live? COMMENTARY. But now admit, purfues our author (from 90 to 97) that wealth might, in some cases, alleviate the unmerited miseries of life, by procuring medicines both for the mind and body; yet it NO. TE S. VER. 82. Turner] One, who, being poffeffed of three hundred thousand pounds, laid down his Coach, because Intereft was reduced from five to four per cent. and then put feventy thousand into the Charitable Corporation for better intereft; which fum having loft, he took it so much to heart, that he kept his chamber ever after. It is thought he would not have outlived it, but that he was heir to another confiderable eftate, which he daily expected, and that by this courfe of life he faved both cloaths and all other expences. P. VER. 84. Unhappy Wharton,] A Nobleman of great qualities, but as unfortunate in the application of them, as if they had been vices and follies. See his Character in the first Epiftle. P.. VER. 85. Hopkins,] A Citizen, whose rapacity obtained him the name of Vultur Hopkins. He lived worthlefs, but died worth three hundred thousand pounds, which he would give to no perfon living, but left it fo as not to be inherited till after the fecond generation. His counfel reprefenting to him how many years it must be, before this could take effect, and that his money could only lie at intereft all that time, he expreffed great joy thereat, and said, "They would then be as long "in fpending, as he had been "in getting it." But the Chancery afterwards fet afide the will, and gave it to the heir at law. P. VER. 86. Japhet, Nose and Ears? JAPHET CROOK, alias Sir Peter Stranger, was punished with the lofs of those |