ON MRS TOFTS,

A CELEBRATED OPERA-SINGER'.

So bright is thy Beauty, so charming thy Song,

As had drawn both the Beasts and their Orpheus along;

But such is thy Av'rice, and such is thy Pride,

That the Beasts must have starv'd, and the Poet have died.

EPIGRAM ON THE FEUDS ABOUT HANDEL
AND BONONCINI3.

[SOMETIMES, but incorrectly, attributed to Swift.]

TRANGE! all this Difference should be
'Twixt Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee!

ST

YOU

EPIGRAM.

YOU beat your Pate, and fancy Wit will come:
Knock as you please, there's nobody at home.

EPITAPH.

[IMITATED by Goldsmith in his Epitaph on Edward Purdon, 'a bookseller's

hack.']

[FROM the Latin on Joannes Mirandula3. The lines were afterwards applied by Pope to Lord Coningsby; as to whom cf. Moral Essays, Ep. 111. v. 397.]

TO A LADY WITH "THE TEMPLE OF FAME."

["I send you my Temple of Fame, which is just come out; but my sentiments about it you will see better by this epigram."-Pope to Martha Blount, 1714.]

WHA

HAT'S Fame with Men, by Custom of the Nation,
Is call'd in Women only Reputation;

About them both why keep we such a pother?

Part you with one, and I'll renounce the other.

IMPROMPTU TO LADY WINCHILSEA.

OCCASIONED BY FOUR SATIRICAL VERSES ON WOMEN-WITS, IN THE
66 RAPE OF THE LOCK."

[THE four verses are apparently Canto IV. vv. 59–62. The Countess of Winchilsea, a poetess whom Rowe hailed as inspired by more than Delphic ardour,' replied by some pretty lines, where she declares that, 'disarmed with so genteel an air,' she gives over the contest. Her reply will be found in Roscoe's Supplement, pp. 183-6.]

N vain you boast Poetic Names of yore,

IN

And cite those Sapphos we admire no more:
Fate doom'd the Fall of every Female Wit;
But doom'd it then, when first Ardelia writ.
Of all Examples by the World confess'd,
I knew Ardelia could not quote the best;
Who, like her Mistress on Britannia's Throne1,
Fights and subdues in Quarrels not her own.
To write their Praise you but in vain essay;
E'en while you write, you take that Praise away:
Light to the Stars the Sun does thus restore,
But shines himself till they are seen no more.

EPIGRAM

ON THE TOASTS OF THE KIT-CAT CLUB, ANNO 1716.

5

ΙΟ

[THE Kit-Cat Club was so named from Christopher Katt, a famous pastrycook. Steele, Addison, and many other wits were members, and Tonson secretary. It was customary to write verses in honour of the 'Toasts,' and engrave them upon the glasses. Each member gave his picture to the club.]

W

WHENCE deathless Kit-Cat took its Name,
Few Critics can unriddle;
Some say from Pastry-cook it came,
And some from Cat and Fiddle.

the origin belongs to the times of Henry IV. of France. Pope's epigram refers to the state of Europe after the peace of Utrecht in 1715, as a peace resulting (which was not in truth the case)

from general exhaustion.]

[Alluding to the wars concerning the Spanish succession, in which England certainly had no direct interest, under Queen Anne.]

INCE my old friend is grown so great
As to be Minister of State,

I'm told, but 'tis not true, I hope,
That Craggs will be ashamed of Pope.
CRAGGS.-Alas! if I am such a creature

To grow the worse for growing greater;
Why, faith, in spite of all my brags,
'Tis Pope must be ashamed of Craggs.

ON DRAWINGS OF THE STATUES OF APOLLO, VENUS,
AND HERCULES,

MADE FOR POPE BY SIR GODFREY KNELLER.

7HAT god, what genius, did the pencil move,

WHA

When Kneller painted these?

'Twas friendship warm as Phoebus, kind as love,
And strong as Hercules.

PROLOGUE TO THE "THREE HOURS AFTER
MARRIAGE."

[From the Miscellanies of Pope, Swift, Arbuthnot, and Gay.]

[THOUGH I am not aware on what evidence Roscoe and Carruthers agree in ascribing the Prologue of this farce to Pope, instead of leaving its joint honours like those of the farce itself to Gay and Arbuthnot (for both contributed to the volume of Miscellanies in which it was published) as well as him; yet the following has been inserted on account of the interest attaching to the piece, as the origin of Pope's quarrel with Cibber. A brief notice of the play, which was produced at Drury-Lane on Jan. 16th, 1717, will be found in the Introductory Memoir: and the play itself in most editions of Gay, and in Bowles' edition of Pope, vol. x.]

Α

UTHORS are judg'd by strange capricious Rules;

The great ones are thought mad, the small ones Fools:

1 [See p. 442.]

Yet sure the best are most severely fated,
For Fools are only laugh'd at, Wits are hated.
Blockheads with Reason Men of Sense abhor;
But Fool 'gainst Fool is barb'rous Civil War.
Why on all Authors then should Critics fall,
Since some have writ, and shown no Wit at all?
Condemn a Play of theirs, and they evade it,

5

Cry, "Damn not us, but damn the French who made it." 10
By running Goods, these graceless Owlers1 gain;

These are the Rules of France, the Plots of Spain:

But Wit, like Wine, from happier climates brought,

Dash'd by these Rogues, turns English common Draught.

They pall Molière's and Lopez' sprightly strain,

And teach dull Harlequins to grin in vain.
How shall our Author hope a gentler Fate,
Who dares most impudently not translate?
It had been civil in these ticklish times,

To fetch his Fools and Knaves from foreign Climes,
Spaniards and French abuse to the World's End,
But spare old England, lest you hurt a Friend.
If any Fool is by our Satire bit,

Let him hiss loud, to show you all, he's hit.
Poets make Characters, as Salesmen Clothes,
We take no Measure of your Fops and Beaus,
But here all Sizes and all Shapes you meet,
And fit yourselves, like Chaps in Monmouth-street.
Gallants! look here, this Fools-cap has an Air,
Goodly and smart, with Ears of Issachar.
Let no one Fool engross it, or confine,

A common Blessing! now 'tis yours, now mine.
But Poets in all Ages had the Care
To keep this Cap, for such as will, to wear,
Our Author has it now, (for every Wit
Of Course resign'd it to the next that writ :)
And thus upon the Stage 'tis fairly thrown;
Let him that takes it, wear it as his own.

15

20

25

Shows a cap with ears.

35

Flings down the cap, and exit.

PROLOGUE DESIGNED FOR MR D'URFEY'S 5
LAST PLAY.

[First published in Pope and Swift's Miscellanies.]

G

ROWN old in Rhyme, 'twere barbarous to discard
Your persevering, unexhausted Bard:

1 [i.e. smugglers: prop. woollers.] [Lopez de Vega, the most prolific of Spanish dramatists.]

3 [Cheap salesmen.]

4 [C. Johnson, in the Prologue to his Sultaness, thus referred to this exit and the farce: 'Some wags have been, who boldly durst adven

ture

To club a Farce by Tripartite-Indenture:
But let them share their dividend of praise
And their own Fools-cap wear, instead of Bays.'
Which attack procured him a place in the Dun-
ciad. Geneste's Account of the Stage, &c. 11.
P. 598.1

[As to D'Urfey or Durfey, see p. 65.]

Damnation follows Death in other men ;

But your damn'd Poet lives, and writes again.
Th' adventurous Lover is successful still,

Who strives to please the Fair against her Will:
Be kind, and make him in his Wishes easy,

Who in your own Despite has strove to please ye.
He scorn'd to borrow from the Wits of yore;
But ever writ, as none e'er writ before.

5

10

You Modern Wits, should each man bring his Claim,
Have desperate Debentures on your Fame;
And little would be left you, I'm afraid,

If all your Debts to Greece and Rome were paid.
From his deep Fund our Author largely draws;
Nor sinks his Credit lower than it was.
Though Plays for Honour in old time he made,
'Tis now for better Reasons to be paid.
Believe him, he has known the World too long,
And seen the Death of much immortal Song.
He says, poor Poets lost, while Players won,
As Pimps grow rich, while Gallants are undone.
Though Tom the Poet writ with ease and pleasure,
The Comic Tom abounds in other treasure.
Fame is at best an unperforming Cheat;
But 'tis substantial Happiness, to eat.

Let Ease, his last Request, be of your giving,
Nor force him to be damn'd to get his Living.

A PROLOGUE BY MR POPE,

To a Play for Mr DENNIS'S Benefit, in 1733, when he was old, blind, and in great Distress, a little before his Death1.

S when that Hero, who in each Campaign,

Had brav'd the Goth, and many a Vandal slain,

1 Dennis being much distressed very near the close of his life, it was proposed to act a play for his benefit; and Thomson, Mallet, Benjamin Martin and Pope took the lead upon the occasion. The play, which was the Provoked Husband (by Vanbrugh and Cibber), was represented at the Haymarket, Dec. 18th, 1733; and Pope condescended so far as to lay aside his resentment against his former antagonist as to write a Prologue, which was spoken by Theophilus Cibber (the Laureate's son). Ġeneste, English Stage, Vol. III. p. 318. [The annalist adds, with much truth, that Pope's benevolence was not so pure as could be wished; for his Pro

15

20

25

5

logue was throughout a sneer at the poor old critic, who happily, either from vanity or the decay of his intellects, failed to perceive its tendency. He died twenty days afterwards. As to the general character of the relations between Pope and Dennis, see Introductory Memoir, p. xxiv.] The furious patriotism of Dennis is of course alluded to in the appeal for 'British' sympathy.]

2 Was there a Chief, etc.] The fine figure of the Commander in that capital Picture of Belisarius at Chiswick, supplied the Poet with this beautiful idea. Warburton.