175 A man's true merit 'tis not hard to find; NOTES. 180 dressed to him two or three years after his death. Are these things probable? "As to philosophy (which is your own province) I have much the same to say as I have said already about the publication. It is no proof he did not publish his pieces separately, because at times he published them together; and no proof that he was never a Stoic or Old Academic, because at times he was an Epicurean. "Nunc agilis fio, et mersor civilibus undis, Virtutis veræ custos, rigidusque satelles." These lines (I say) can never be tortured into Epicureanism, as the editor of Arrian well knows. And what did Horace study in his youth, when at Athens, inter silvas Academi? Was it the doctrine of Epicurus? He might as well have studied the doctrine of Calvin at St. Omer's. It is hard not to take a man's own word in matters merely relative to himself." Ver. 180. A Persian tale] Amb. Philips translated a Book called the Persian Tales, a book full of fancy and imagination. P. Philips, certainly not a very animated or first-rate writer, yet appears not to deserve quite so much contempt, if we look at his first and fifth pastoral, his epistle from Copenhagen, his ode on the Death of Earl Cowper, his translations of the two first Olympic odes of Pindar, the two odes of Sappho, and, above all, his pleasing tragedy of the Distress'd Mother. The secret grounds of Philips's malignity to Pope, are said to be, the ridicule and laughter he met with from all the Hanover Club, of which he was secretary, for mistaking the incomparable ironical paper in the Guardian, No. 40, which was written by Pope, for a serious criticism on pastoral poetry. The learned Heyne also mistook this irony, as appears by p. 202. v. 1. of his Virgil. He, who still wanting, tho' he lives on theft, Steals much, spends little, yet has nothing left: 184 And He, who now to sense, now nonsense, learning, Means not, but blunders round about a meaning: And He, whose fustian's so sublimely bad, It is not Poetry, but prose run mad : All these, my modest Satire bade translate, And own'd that nine such Poets made a Tate. 190 NOTES. Ver. 189. All these, my modest Satire bade translate,] See their works, in the Translations of classical books by several hands. P. Ver. 190. And own'd that nine such Poets] Before this piece was published, Dr. Young had addressed two Epistles to our Author, in the year 1730, concerning the Authors of the age; in which are many passages that bear a great resemblance to many of Pope's; though Pope has heightened, improved, and condensed, the hints, images, and sentiments, of Young. Shall we not censure all the motley train, Rich, poor, male, female, young, old, gay, or sad, Profoundly dull, or shallowly polite, Men that read well, or men that only write; How did they fume, and stamp, and roar, and chafe! And swear, not ADDISON himself was safe. Peace to all such! but were there One whose fires True Genius kindles, and fair Fame inspires; NOTES. Ver. 192. And swear, not ADDISON himself was safe.] This is an artful preparative for the following transitions, and finely obviates what might be thought unfavourable of the severity of the satire, by those who were strangers to the provocation. W. Ver. 193. but were there One whose fires, &c.] Our Poet's friendship with Mr. Addison began in the year 1713. It was cultivated on both sides with all the marks of mutual esteem and affection, and a constant intercourse of good offices. Mr. Addison was always commending moderation; warned his friend against a blind attachment to party; and blamed Steele for his indiscreet zeal. The translation of the Iliad being now on foot, he recommended it to the public, and joined with the Tories in pushing the subscription; but at the same time advised Mr. Pope not to be content with the applause of one half of the nation. On the other hand, Mr. Pope made his friend's interest his own, (see note on Ver. 215. Ep. I. B. ii. of Hor.) and, when Dennis so brutally attacked the Tragedy of Cato, he wrote the piece called A Narrative of his Madness. Thus things continued till Mr. Pope's growing reputation, and superior genius in Poetry, gave umbrage to his friend's false delicacy and then it was he encouraged Philips and others (see his Letters) in their clamours against him as a Tory and Jacobite, who had assisted in writing the Examiners; and, under an affected care for the Government, would have hid, even from himself, the true grounds of his disgust. But his jealousy soon broke out, and discovered itself, first to Mr. Pope, and, not long after, to all the world. The Rape of the Lock had been written in a very hasty manner, and printed in a collection of Miscellanies. The success it met with encouraged the Author to revise and enlarge it, and give it a more important air; which was done by advancing it into a mock-epic poem. In order to this it was to have its Machinery; which, by the happiest invention, he took from the Rosicrucian System. Full of this noble conception, he communicated his scheme to Mr. Addison, who, he imagined, would have been equally delighted with the improvement. On the con Blest with each talent and each art to please, And born to write, converse, and live with ease: NOTES. 195 trary, he had the mortification to see his friend receive it coldly; and even to advise him against any alteration; for that the poem, in its original state, was a delicious little thing, and, as he expressed it, merum sal. Mr. Pope was shocked for his friend; and then first began to open his eyes to his Character. Soon after this, a translation of the first book of the Iliad appeared under the name of Mr. Tickell; which coming out at a critical juncture, when Mr. Pope was in the midst of his engagements on the same subject, and by a creature of Mr. Addison's, made him suspect this to be another shaft from the same quiver: And after a diligent inquiry, and laying many odd circumstances together, he was fully convinced that it was not only published with Mr. Addison's participation, but was indeed his own performance. And Sir R. Steele, in the ninth Edition of the Drummer (which Tickell had omitted to insert amongst Addison's Works) in a long epistle to Congreve, affirms very intelligibly, that Addison, and not Tickell, was the translator of the first book of the Iliad to which the latter had set his name. Mr. Pope, in his first resentment of this usage, was resolved to expose this new Version in a severe critique upon it. I have now by me the Copy he had marked for this purpose; in which he has classed the several faults in translation, language, and numbers, under their proper heads. But the growing splendour of his own works so eclipsed the faint efforts of this opposition, that he trusted to its own weakness and malignity for the justice due unto it. About this time, Mr. Addison's son-in-law, the E. of Warwick, told Mr. Pope, that it was in vain to think of being well with his Father, who was naturally a jealous man; that Mr. Pope's talents in poetry had hurt him; and to such a degree, that he had underhand encouraged Gildon to write a thing about Wycherley; in which he had scurrilously abused Mr. Pope and his family; and for this service he had given Gildon ten guineas, after the pamphlet was printed. The very next day, Mr. Pope, in great heat, wrote Mr. Addison a Letter, wherein he told him, he was no stranger to his behaviour; which, however, he should not imitate but that what he thought faulty in him, he would tell him fairly to his face: and what deserved praise he would not deny him to the world; and, as a proof of this disposition Should such a man, too fond to rule alone, NOTES. 200 205 towards him, he had sent him the enclosed; which was the CHARACTER, first published separately, and afterward inserted in this place of the Epist. to Dr. Arbuthnot. This plain dealing had no ill effect. Mr. Addison treated Mr. Pope with civility, and, as Mr. Pope believed, with justice, from this time to his death; which happened about three years after. It appears, from a collection of Swift's Letters lately published, that Mr. Addison, when party was at its height, used Swift much better than he had used Pope, on that account, though he had been more roughly treated by Swift than Pope's nature would suffer him to treat any one. But the reason is plain. Swift was Addison's rival only in politics: Pope was his rival in poetry; an opposition less tolerable, as more personal. However, Addison's social talents, in the entertainment and enjoyment of his intimate friends, charmed both Pope and Swift alike; as a quality far superior to any thing that was to be found in any other man. W. Ver. 193. but were there One whose fires, &c.] The strokes in this Character are highly finished. Atterbury so well understood the force of them, that, in one of his letters to Mr. Pope, he says, "Since you now know where your Strength lies, I hope you will not suffer that talent to lie unemployed." He did not; and, by that means, brought satiric poetry to its perfection. W. Ver. 198. Bear, like the Turk,] This is from Bacon de Aug. Scient. lib. 3. p. 180. And the thought was also used by Ld. Orrery, and by Denham. |