He, who still wanting, though he lives on theft, Steals much, spends little, yet has nothing left; And he, who now to sense, now nonsense lean

ing,

185

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 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;
Bless'd with each talent and each art to please; 195
And born to write, converse, and live with ease:
Should such a man, too fond to rule alone,
Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne,

192 Not Addison himself was safe. The true nature of Pope's quarrel with Addison has been disputed but we have at least the fact, that a quarrel existed, and we have also from Warburton the statement which Pope desired to be considered as true. Pope charges him severally with having urged the writers of the Examiners to attack him as a tory and jacobite; with having jealously advised him against introducing the sylphid machinery into the Rape of the Lock;' and with having attempted to thwart the translation of the 'Iliad,' by publishing, under the name of Tickell, a translation of the first book from his own pen. Such are the quarrels of the sons of fame. It is clear, that the first charge is without proof, the second is trifling, and the third might be alike negligence, ambition, or enmity. The character, Peace to all such,' was sent separately to Addison, in the wrath of the time, and afterwards inserted in the satire it has always been regarded as one of the finest specimens of the writer's sarcasm, equally elegant, easy, and keen.

205

View him with scornful, yet with jealous eyes,
And hate for arts that caused himself to rise; 200
Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,
And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer;
Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike;
Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike;
Alike reserved to blame or to commend;
A timorous foe, and a suspicious friend;
Dreading ev'n fools, by flatterers besieged,
And so obliging, that he ne'er obliged;
Like Cato, give his little senate laws,
And sit attentive to his own applause;
While wits and templars every sentence raise,
And wonder with a foolish face of praise-
Who but must laugh, if such a man there be?
Who would not weep, if Atticus were he?
What though my name stood rubric on the
walls,

Or plaster'd posts, with claps, in capitals?
Or smoking forth, a hundred hawkers' load,
On wings of winds came flying all abroad?
I sought no homage from the race that write;
I kept, like Asian monarchs, from their sight:
Poems I heeded (now berhymed so long)

210

215

221

No more than thou, great George! a birth-day

song.

I ne'er with wits or witlings pass'd my days,
To spread about the itch of verse and praise;
Nor like a puppy daggled through the town, 225
To fetch and carry sing-song up and down;
Nor at rehearsals sweat, and mouth'd, and
cried,

With handkerchief and orange at my side;

But sick of fops, and poetry, and prate,
To Bufo left the whole Castalian state.

230

235

240

Proud as Apollo on his forked hill, Sate full-blown Bufo puff'd by every quill; Fed with soft dedication all day long, Horace and he went hand in hand in song. His library, where busts of poets dead And a true Pindar stood without a head, Received of wits an undistinguish'd race, Who first his judgment ask'd, and then a place : Much they extoll'd his pictures, much his seat; And flatter'd every day, and some days eat: Till grown more frugal in his riper days, He paid some bards with port, and some with praise; To some a dry rehearsal was assign'd, And others (harder still) he paid in kind. Dryden alone (what wonder?) came not nigh; Dryden alone escaped this judging eye: But still the great have kindness in reserve; He help'd to bury whom he help'd to starve. May some choice patron bless each gray goose quill!

May every Bavius have his Bufo still!

246

250

232 Sate full-blown Bufo. This character has been supposed to allude to lord Halifax. Against this supposition, it has been observed, that Halifax died in 1715, when Pope was but twenty-seven. But this was by no means too unripe an age to have sustained injury, or have felt resentment. The character evidently applies to a patron, a poet, and that poet a minister. Halifax was known as the three: if not to him, to whom else will it apply? Pope was not accustomed to fight with the air. But Halifax deserves the praise at least of liberality seeing the stage at a low ebb, he offered £500 as a premium for the best comedy; an example more admired than followed by future lord chamberlains.

envy

So when a statesman wants a day's defence,
Or holds a whole week's war with sense,
Or simple pride for flattery makes demands,
May dunce by dunce be whistled off my hands!
Bless'd be the great, for those they take away, 255
And those they left me; for they left me Gay;
Left me to see neglected genius bloom,
Neglected die, and tell it on his tomb:
Of all thy blameless life the sole return
My verse, and Queensbury weeping o'er thy
urn!

O, let me live my own, and die so too, (To live and die is all I have to do)

260

256 They left me Gay. Gentleness of manners and mediocrity of genius were Gay's passports to fame he obtained the reputation of a poet by living among poets; and he was suffered to live among them, because, while his manners pleased, his talents were incapable of rivalry. His Fables' are acknowleged triflings: of the 'Beggars' Opera' it is impossible that he should have been more than the nominal author : its sarcastic, searching, and characteristic force was totally beyond his conception: he was capable of neither its wit nor its wickedness. While we have evidence, on the one hand, that the idea of the Newgate Pastoral' was suggested by Swift, and the plan submitted to Pope; we have, on the other, evidence, in the singular insipidity of his subsequent opera, 'Polly,' that Gay was destitute of all dramatic power. His life was vexed by disappointments at court ; and Addison has been charged with thus doing injury to the friend of Pope: but the sources were higher-the queen and sir Robert Walpole. Gay had sought preferment through Mrs. Howard, notoriously the king's mistress: and he who sought it through this channel, deserved to lose it. He writes to Swift, Mrs. Howard has declared herself very strongly to both the king and queen as my protector.' The queen, naturally hostile to this species of influence, traversed it on all occasions, and Gay failed. The Beggars' Opera,' which came out soon after, was filled with satire on the minister, though satire which never came from Gay; and the failure was irretrievable.

POPE.

Maintain a poet's dignity and ease,

And see what friends, and read what books I

please:

Above a patron, though I condescend

Sometimes to call a minister my friend.
I was not born for courts or great affairs;

265

I pay my debts, believe, and say my prayers;
Can sleep without a poem in my head,

270

Nor know if Dennis be alive or dead.

Why am I ask'd what next shall see the light? Heavens! was I born for nothing but to write? Has life no joys for me? or, to be grave, Have I no friend to serve, no soul to save? 'I found him close with Swift.'- Indeed? no

doubt,'

275

Cries prating Balbus, something will come out.' 'Tis all in vain, deny it as I will :

No, such a genius never can lie still ;'

And then for mine obligingly mistakes

The first lampoon sir Will or Bubo makes. 280

་

280 Will or Bubo makes. Sir William Young, and Bubb Doddington, afterwards lord Melcombe. Doddington's name has gone down to perpetual contempt by the avowed baseness of his principles. His well-known Diary' is a trite, trifling, and nearly unintelligible performance; useful only as a proof of the diligence with which a political trader may consign himself to infamy.

Doddington had many advantages of nature and fortune : he was handsome, well-bred, a wit in the court circles, and the possessor of considerable wealth. Lady M. Montague, a sufficient judge of all the merits and demerits of her society, pronounces him the all-accomplished Mr. Doddington.' He was a frequent speaker in the house, and became an ostentatious partisan of Frederic, prince of Wales. Walpole has preserved a curious extravagance of Doddington's sorrow on his death.