So-Satire is no more>I feel it die 85 Be grac'd thro' Life, and flatter'd in his Grave. F. Why so ? if Satire knows its Time and Place, You still may lash the greatest-in Disgrace: For Merit will by turns forsake them all; Would you know when? exactly when they fall. 90 But let all Satire in all Changes spare Immortal S-k, and grave Dere! Silent and foft, as Saints remove to Heav'n, All Tyes diffolv'd, and ev'ry Sin forgiv'n, These may fome gentle ministerial Wing 95 Receive, and place for ever near a King ! There, where no Paffion, Pride, or Shame transport, Lulled with the sweet Nepenthe of a Court; VER. 92. Immortal S-k, and grave De-re!] A title given Ebat Lord by King James II. He was of the Bedchamber to King William; he was so to King George 1. he was so to King George II. This Lord was very skilful in all the forms of the House, in which he discharged himself with great gravity. VER. 97. There, where no Paffion, etc.] The excellent writer De l’Esprit des Loix gives the following character of the Spirit of Courts, and the Principle of Monarchies : “ Qu'on “ lise ce que les Historiens de tous les tems ont dit sur la Cour “ des Monarques; qu'on se rapelle les conversations des hommes .66. de tous les Païs sur le miserable caractère des COURTISANS; ce ne sont point des choses de speculation, mais d'une triste « expérience. L'ambition dans l'oisiveté, la bassefle dans “ l'orgueil, lo defir de s'enrichir sans travail, l'averfion pour la « verité ; la flaterie, la trahison, la perfidie, l'abandon de tous “ ses engagemens, le mepris des devoirs du Citoyen, la crainte 101 There, where no Father's, Brother's, Friend's disgrace 105 110 VARIATIONS, Ver. 112. in some editions, Who Itarves a Mother, “ de la vertu du Prince, l'esperance de ses foiblesses, et plus, que tout cela, LE RIDICULE PERPETUEL JETTE SUR LA VERTU, font, je crois, le Caractére de la plupart des “ Courtisans marqué dans tous les lieux et dans tous les tems. “ Or il est très mal-aisé que les Principaux d'un Etat soient “ malhonnêtes-gens, & que les inferieurs foient gens-de-bien, que ceux-la foyent trompeurs, & que ceux-fi consentent à “ n'être que dupes. Que si dans le Peuple il se trouve quelque “ malheureux honnête-homme, le Cardinal de Richelieu dans son “ Teftament politique insinue, qu’un Monarque doit fe garder de “ s'en fervir. Tant-il est vrai que la Vertu n'est pas le ressort de ce Gouvernment." VER. 108. gracious Prince] The style of Addresses on an aeceflion, Virtue, I grant you, is an empty boast; 120 125 VER. 113. Virtue, I grant you, is an empty boast;] A satirical ambiguity- either that those farve who bave it, or that those who boast of it, bave it not: and both together (he insinuates) make up the present state of modern virtue. Ver. 115. Cibber's Son, -Ricb] Two Players : look for them in the Dunciad. Ver. 123. If Blount.] Author of an impious and foolish book called the Oracles of Reason, who being in love with a near kinswoman of his, and rejected, gave himself a ftab in the arm, as pretending to kill himself, of the consequence of which he really died. Ver. 124. Passeran!) Author of another book of the fame stamp, called A pbilosopbical discourse on death, being a defence of suicide. He was a nobleman of Piedmont, banished from his country for his impieties, and lived in the utmost misery, yet feared to practise his own precepts.-This unhappy man at last died a penitent. Ver. 125. But fall a Printer, etc.) A Fact that happened in London a few years past. The unhappy man left behind him This, this, my friend, I cannot, must not bear; Let modeft Foster, if he will, excell a paper justifying his action by the reasonings of some of thefe authors. VER. 129. This calls the Church to deprecate our Sin, ] Alluding to the forms of prayer, composed in the times of public calamity; where the fault is generally laid upon the People. VER. 130. Gin.] A fpiritunus liquor, the exorbitant use of which had almost destroyed the lowest rank of the People till it was restrained by an act of Parliament in 1936. VER. 134. Landaffe.) A poor Bishoprick in Wales, as poorly supplied. VER. 135. Let bumble ALLIN with an aukward Sbame, -Do good by Aealtb, and blush to find it Fame.] We are so absolutely governed by custom, that to act contrary to it, creates even in virtuous men, who are ever inodeft, a kind of diffidence, which is the parent of Sbame. But when, to this, there is joined a consciousness that, in forfaking caftom, you follow truth and reason, the indignation arising from such a conscious virtue, mixing with Sbame, produces that amiable aukwardness, in going out of the fathion, which the Poet, here, celebrates : and blush to find it Fame, i. e. He blushed at the degeneracy of his times, which, at best, gave his goodness its due commendation (the thing he never aimed at) inftead of following and imitating his example, which Virtue may choose the high or low Degree, was the reason why some acts of it were not done by stealtb, but more openly. Ver. 138. 'Tis juft alike to Virtue, and to me;] He gives the season for it, in the line that presently follows, She's still the same, below'd, contented thing. So that the sense of the text is this, “ It is all one to Virtue on “ whom her influence falls, whether on high or low, because « it fill produces the same effect, their content; and it is all one "' to me, because it ftill produces the same effect, my love," |