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Not fo, when diadem'd with rays divine,

Touch'd with the Flame that breaks from Virtue's

Shrine,

Her Priestess Muse forbids the Good to die,
And opes the Temple of Eternity.

There, other Trophies deck the truly brave,
Than fuch as Anftis cafts into the Grave;
Far other Stars than * and ** wear,

And may defcend to Mordington from STAIR;

NOTES.

235

(Such

Prior burlesqued this Ode with infinite pleasantry and humour. And the fame may be faid of Prior's Epistle to Boileau. Louis XIV. who had a perfonal regard for Prior, did not, we may well imagine, know that he had ridiculed his favourite Poet. Another French flatterer read to Malherbe fome fulfome verses, in which he had reprefented France as moving out of its place to receive the King. Though this," said the honest Malherbe, my time, yet I proteít I do not remember it.”

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VER. 233 Not fo, when diadem'd with rays divine,

was in WARTON.

Touch'd with the Flame that breaks from Virtue's

Shrine.] The whole of this paffage is highly animated and beautiful. The word dialem'd has a lofty and ftriking effect. In the whole paffage, Pope had a view to Horace and Milton.

VER. 235. And opes] From Milton's Comus, ver. 14.

"That opes the Palace of Eternity."

WARTON.

VER. 237. Anfis] The chief Herald at Arms. It is the cuf tom at the funeral of great peers, to caft into the grave the broken ftaves and enfigns of honour.

wear,]

POPE.

That is,

VER 238. For other Stars than * and Kent and Grafton. The next line wants explanation. I have fome notion Lord Mordington kept a gaming-house. BENNET. VER. 239. STAIR ;] John Dalrymple Earl of Stair, Knight of the Thistle, ferved in all the wars under the Duke of Marlborough; and afterwards as Embaffador in France.

POPE,

(Such as on HOUGH's unfully'd Mitre shine,

240

Or beam, good DIGBY, from a Heart like thine ;)
Let Envy howl, while Heav'n's whole Chorus fings,
And bark at Honour not conferr'd by Kings;
Let Flatt'ry fick'ning fee the Incense rise,

Sweet to the World, and grateful to the Skies: 245
Truth guards the Poet, fanctifies the line,
And makes immortal, Verfe as mean as mine.
Yes, the laft Pen for Freedom let me draw,
When Truth stands trembling on the edge of Law ;
Here,

NOTES.

VER. 240, 241. HOUCH and DIGBY] Dr. John Hough, Biship of Worcester; and the Lord Digby. The one an affertor of the Church of England in oppofition to the falfe measures of King James II. The other as firmly attached to the cause of that King. Both acting out of principle, and equally men of honour POPE.

and virtue.

VER. 240. (Such as on HOUGH's unfull,'d mitre fhine,] Dr. John Hough, fucceffively Bishop of Oxford, Lichfield, and Worcester, was born in 1655, and died May 8, 1743, at the very advanced age of ninety two, after an epifcopacy of fifty three years. WAKEFIELD.

VER. 240. on HOUGH's unflly'd] In the fifty-feventh Pefin Letter, is an elegant and well written eulogium on this excellent prelate, by Lord Lyttelton. Thefe Letters have been too much depreciated and neglected. WARTON.

VER. 249. When Truth stands trembling]

England, with all thy faults, I love thee ftill,
My country! and while yet a nook is left
Where English minds and manners may be found,
Shall be conftrain'd to love thee. Though thy clime
Be fickle, and thy year, moft part, deform'd
With dripping rains, or wither'd by a frost,
I would not yet exchange thy fullen skies
And fields without a flower, for. warmer France
With all her vines: nor for Aufonia's groves
Of golden fruitage and her myrtle bow'rs.

Lines

Here, Last of Britons! let your Names be read;
Are none, none living? let me praise the Dead,
And for that Caufe which made your Fathers fhine,
Fall by the Votes of their degen'rate Line.

Fr. Alas! alas! pray end what you began,
And write next winter more Effays on Man.

VER. 255. in the MS.

VARIATIONS.

Quit, quit thefe themes and write Effays on Man.

NOTES.

255

Lines of the tender and benevolent Cowper, which I here infert, in order to put us again in good humour with our country, after having juft feen her placed in a difagreeable light.

WARTON.

VER. 253 of their degen'rate Line.] Such was the language at that time, ufed by our Author and his friends and affociates. Lord Chesterfield ends the account of his friend Hammond, author of the Love Elegies, with thefe words: "He looked back with a kind of religious awe and delight, upon these glori ous and happy times of Greece and Rome, when wisdom, virtue, and liberty formed the only triumvirates; in thefe fentiments he lived, and would have lived, even in these times; in thefe fentiments he died; but in these times too, ut non erepta a diis immortalibus vita, fed donata, mors videatur.

In every age, and in every nation, there is a conftant progression of manners; "For the manners of a people seldom ftand ftill, but are either POLISHING or SPOILING." WARTON.

VER. 254. pray end what] We muft own that thefe Dialogues, excellent as they are, exhibit many and ftrong marks of our Author's petulance, party-fpirit, and felf-importance; and of affuming to himself the character of cenfor-general; who, alas! if he had poffeffed a thousand times more genius, integrity, and ability, than he actually enjoyed, could not have altered or amended the manners of a rich and commercial, and confequently of a luxurious and diffipated nation. But we make ourfelves unhappy, by hoping to poffefs incompatible things; we want to have wealth without corruption, and liberty without virtue ! WARTON.

VER. ult.] This was the laft Poem of the kind printed by our Author, with a refolution to publish no more; but to enter thus, in the most plain and folemn manner he could, a fort of PROTEST against that infuperable corruption and depravity of manners, which he had been so unhappy as to live to fee. Could he have hoped to have amended any, he had continued those attacks; but bad men were grown so shameless and so powerful, that Ridicule was become as unfafe as it was ineffectual. The Poem raised him, as he knew it would, fome enemies; but he had reafon to be fatisfied with the approbation of good men, and the teftimony of his own confcience.

POPE.

Could Pope, with his good fenfe, unless felf-love had blinded him, seriously believe, that his pen could effect fuch mighty purposes, even if the objects of his Satire were fo notorious, that every good and wife man would have been on his fide, and nothing was dictated by private spleen, and political asperity! Alas, we might fay, in the language of Poor Cowper,

"Leviathan is not fo tam'd;

Laugh'd at, he laughs again, and ftricken hard
Turns to the ftroke his adamantine fcales."

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