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 [SOMETIMES, but incorrectly, attributed to Swift.] TRANGE! all this Difference should be ST YOU EPIGRAM. YOU beat your Pate, and fancy Wit will come: 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, 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 [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: 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, 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 I'm told, but 'tis not true, I hope, To grow the worse for growing greater; ON DRAWINGS OF THE STATUES OF APOLLO, VENUS, 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, PROLOGUE TO THE "THREE HOURS AFTER [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, 5 Cry, "Damn not us, but damn the French who made it." 10 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. To fetch his Fools and Knaves from foreign Climes, Let him hiss loud, to show you all, he's hit. A common Blessing! now 'tis yours, now mine. 15 20 25 Shows a cap with ears. 35 Flings down the cap, and exit. PROLOGUE DESIGNED FOR MR D'URFEY'S 5 [First published in Pope and Swift's Miscellanies.] G ROWN old in Rhyme, 'twere barbarous to discard 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: [As to D'Urfey or Durfey, see p. 65.] Damnation follows Death in other men ; But your damn'd Poet lives, and writes again. Who strives to please the Fair against her Will: Who in your own Despite has strove to please ye. 5 10 You Modern Wits, should each man bring his Claim, If all your Debts to Greece and Rome were paid. Let Ease, his last Request, be of your giving, 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. |