Poems I heeded (now be-rym'd fo long) No more than thou, great GEORGE! a birthday fong. I ne'er with wits or witlings pafs'd my days, orange at my fide; But fick of fops, and poetry, and prate, 230 Proud as Apollo on his forked hill, Sate full-blown Bufo puff'd by ev'ry quill; Fed with foft Dedication all day long, Horace and he went hand in hand in song. His Library (where bufts of Poets dead And a true Pindar stood without a head) Receiv'd of wits an undistinguish'd race, Who first his judgment afk'd, and then a place: VARIATIONS. After Ver. 234. in the MS. To Bards reciting he vouchfaf'd a nod, And fnuff'd their incenfe like a gracious god. NOTES. 235 VER. 236.-a true Pindar flood without a head] Ridicules the affectation of Antiquaries, who frequently exhibit the beadlefs Trunks and Terms of Statues, for Plato, Homer, Pindar, &c. Vide Fulv. Urfin. &c. Much they extoll'd his pictures, much his feat, And flatter'd ev'ry day, and some days eat: 240 Till grown more frugal in his riper days, He paid fome bards with port, and fome with praise, To fome a dry rehearsal was affign'd, And others (harder still) he paid in kind. May fome choice patron blefs each grey goofe May ev'ry Bavius have his Bufo still! 250 So when a Statesman wants a day's defence, NOTES. VER. 248.-help'd to bury] Mr. Dryden, after having lived in exigencies, had a magnificent Funeral bestowed upon him by the contribution of feveral perfons.of Quality. P. VER. 251. So when a Statesman, &c.] Notwithstanding this ridicule on the public neceffities of the Great, our Poet was candid enough to confefs that they are not always to be imputed to them, as their private diftreffes generally may. For, (when uninfected by the neighbourhood of Party) he speaks of thofe neceffities much more difpaffionately. "Our Minifters like Gladiators live, « 'Tis half their bus nefs blows to ward, or give ; "The good their Virtue would effect, or Senfe, "Dies between Exigents and Self-defence." MS. Blefs'd be the Great, for those they take away, 255 MyVerfe, and QUEENSE'RY weeping o'er thy urn! Oh let me live my own, and die fo too! 261 (To live and die is all I have to do:) Maintain a Poet's dignity and ease, And fee what friends, and read what books I please: Above a Patron, tho' I condescend Sometimes to call a Minifter my friend. I was not born for Courts or great affairs; Nor know, if Dennis be alive or dead. VARIATIONS. After Ver. 270. in the MS. 265 270 Friendships from youth I fought, and feek them ftill: By not making the World bis School, he means, he did not form his fyftem of morality on the principles or practice of men in bufinefs. NOTES. VER. 265 tho' I condefcend, &c.] He thought it, and he justly thought it, a condefcenfion in an honeft Man to accept the friendship of any one, how high foever, whofe conduct in life was governed only on principle of poly for of what minifters he speaks, may be feen by the character he gives, in the next line, of the Courts they belong to. Why am I ask'd what next shall see the light? Heav'ns! 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 foul to fave? "I found him clofe with Swift---Indeed? no " doubt 275 "(Cries prating Balbus) fomething will come out." 'Tis all in vain, deny it as I will; "No, fuch a Genius never can lie ftill;" And then for mine obligingly mistakes The firft Lampoon Sir Will. or Bubo makes. 280 Poor guiltless I! and can I chufe but smile, When ev'ry Coxcomb knows me by my Style? VARIATIONS. After Ver. 282. in the MS. P. What if I fing Auguftus, great and good? NOTES. VER. 271. Why am I afk'd, &c.] This is intended as a reproof of thofe impertinent complaints, which were continually made to him by thofe who called themfelves his friends, for not entertaining the Town as often as it wanted amufement.A French Writer fays well on this occafion-Dès qu'on eft auteur, il femble qu'on foit aux gages d'un tas de fainéans, pour leur fournir de quoi amufer leur oifiveté. VER. 273. —r, to be grave, &c.] This important truth, concerning the Soul, was always fo prefent with him, that, in his more ferious hours he used to fay, That he was certain of its immortality, that he feemed to feel it, as it were, within him by intuition. VER. 282. When ev'ry Coxcomb knows me by my Style?] The difcovery of a conceal'd author by his Style, not only requires Curft be the verfe, how well foe'er it flow, That tends to make one worthy man my foe, VARIATIONS. P. Be nice no more, but, with a mouth profound, NOTES. a perfect intimacy with his writings, but great skill in the nature of compofition. But, in the practice of these Critics, knowing an Author by his ftyle, is like judging of a man's whole perfon from the view of one of his moles. When Mr. Pope wrote the Advertisement to the first edit on of the new Dunciad, intimating, that "it was by a different "hand from the other, and found in detached pieces, in"correct and unfinished," I objected to him the affectation of ufing fo unpromifing an attempt to mislead his Reader. He replied, that I thought too highly of the public taste; that, most commonly, it was formed on that of half a dozen people in fashion; who took the lead, and who fometimes. have intruded on the Town the dulleft performances, for works of wit: while, at the fame time, fome true effort of genius, without name or recommendation, hath paffed by the public eye, unobferved or neglected: That he once before made the trial, I now objected to, with fuccefs, in the Essay on Man: which was at first given (as he told me) to Dr. Younge, to Dr. Defaguliers, to Lord Bolingbroke, to Lord Paget, and, in short, to every body but to him who was capable of writing it. However, to make him amends, this fame Public, when let into the fecret, would, for fome time after, fuffer no poem with a moral title, to pafs for any man's but his. So the Efay on Human Life, the Effay on Reafon, and many others of a worfe tendency, were very liberally bestowed upon him. |