(So darkness strikes the sense' no less than light :) All see 'tis vice, and itch of vulgar praise. When flattery glares, all hate it in a queen,' While one there is who charms us with his spleen. 1 "Fills the eye," in all the editions before Warburton's. 2 James Brydges; first Duke of Chandos. Pope of course intended by this compliment to remove the impression, that the character of Timon in the Fourth Moral Essay was intended for the Duke. 3 On a printed leaf of this Essay among the Warburton papers, Pope has crossed out "Shylock," and writ ten over it the real name "Selkirk," for whom see Epilogue to Satires, Dialogue i. 92, and note, and Moral Essays iii. ver. 92, 94, and notes. The name Shylock is applied in the Third Moral Essay, ver. 94, to Wortley Montagu. Milton's Paradise Lost, Bk. iv. 799. 5 The principal male character in Wycherley's Plain Dealer. "Generous" is not a very happy epithet for Manly, who is chiefly distinguished for his coarseness and want of manners. On the other hand, Macaulay's description of him as "the greatest rascal to be found in Wycherley's own writings," (Essay on the Comic Dramatists) is so curiously inappropriate that it can only be explained by supposing the writer to have confounded in his memory Manly with Vernish. 6 It seems doubtful whether Pope had any particular parasite in view. Characters of the Times says that 55 60 Umbra was Walter Carey, Esq., M.P. -CROKER. See note to ver. 177 of the Second Imitation of Donne. 7 In the earlier editions: Who but detests the endearments of Courtine. Queen Caroline's habit of saying what she thought would be pleasant to those about her is amusingly taken off in a comedietta written for her by Lord Hervey, the subject of which is his own reported death. The Queen is represented in conversation with her Court. Amongst others she addresses the Duchess of Hamilton : "Queen.-One cannot help wishing you joy, Madam, every time one sees you, of the good matches your daughters have made. "Duchess.-Considering how they behaved I wonder indeed they had any matches at all; but for any other two women of quality, one would think it no great catch for one to be married to a fool, and t'other to a beggar. 66 Queen. Oh fie, fie! my good Duchess! One cannot help laughing, you are so lively; but your expressions are very strong.". Lord Hervey's Memoirs, vol. ii., p. 171. But these plain characters we rarely find; Though strong the bent, yet quick the turns of mind : Or' affectations quite reverse the soul. See the same man, in vigour, in the gout; Thinks who endures a knave, is next a knave, Who would not praise Patritio's' high desert, and therefore an index of his real "Here," in edition of 1733. "There," in edition of 1733. 3 i.e. Men of policy sometimes think it advisable to use flat falsehood instead of the refinements of artifice, while the cunning tell truth only for the purpose of deception. 4 i.e. It is difficult to detect the fool himself in the midst of his inconsistent follies. i.e. "Full of professions when a candidate for a seat in Parliament," (for the Middlesex members are put into nomination at Hackney,) "and faithless to those professions when the object of them is secure."--WAKE FIELD. Perhaps Dartineuf, but it is possible that no individual was meant, as he borrowed the name from the epicure of Horace. - CROKER. The character does not answer to that of Dartineuf, of whom Swift says in his Journal to Stella, March 22, 1711 : "Dartineuf, a great punster, invited me to dinner to-day. Do not you know Dartineuf? That is the man that knows everything, and that everybody knows; and that knows where a lot of rabble are going on a holiday, and when they were there last." 7 Lord Godolphin.-WARBURTON. 8 This high praise of Godolphin is not quite deserved. His conduct both to James II. and William III. was marked by base treachery. See Macaulay's History of England, vol. iv. 57, 58. 9 This is no doubt meant for a side He thanks you not; his pride is in piquet,' What made (say Montaigne, or more sage Charron !)3 Otho a warrior, Cromwell a buffoon?" A perjured prince a leaden saint revere ? stroke at Marlborough, who had been accused by the Tories in the early part of the century of prolonging the war against Louis XIV. to serve his own interest. Burnet says of him: "He loved gaming the most of any man of business I ever knew, and gave one reason for it because it delivered him from the obligation to talk much." We see from Lord Hervey's Memoirs that the second Lord Godolphin was also a curiously mixed character, combining a refined taste for letters and scholarship, with a passion for horseracing and the company of jockeys. 2 After ver. 86 in the former editions : Triumphant leaders at an army's head, Hemmed round with glories, pilfer cloth or bread, As meanly plunder as they bravely fought, Now save a people, and now save a groat. The Duke of Marlborough was accused, in 1711, of having received an annual bribe of five or six thousand pounds from the contractors of bread for the army. The evidence having been laid before the Queen, she determined to dismiss the Duke from all his employments. For the suppression of these lines see Introductory Remarks to the Second Moral Essay. 3 Charron was an admirer of Montaigne; had contracted a strict friendship with him; and has transferred an infinite number of his thoughts into his famous book De la Sagesse, but his moderating everywhere the extravagant Pyrrhonism of his friend is the reason why the Poet calls him BURTON. 5 85 90 more sage Charron."-WAR 4 Tacitus seems to ascribe the change in Otho's conduct after he became Emperor to dissimulation ("Dilatæ voluptates, dissimulata luxuria," Hist. I. 70). Dryden, too, implies that there was no real change in his character. He did not, like soft Otho, hope prevent, But stayed and suffered Fortune to repent. On the other hand, the account which Tacitus gives of his unselfish behaviour on the eve of his suicide (Hist. ii. 48, 49) indicates that his general character had been really elevated by the change in his position. Hume says of Cromwell: "He maintained a dignity without either affectation or ostentation; and supported with strangers that high idea with which his great exploits and prodigious fortune had impressed them. Among his ancient friends he could relax himself; and by trifling and amusement, jesting and making verses, he feared not to expose himself to their most familiar approaches. With others he sometimes pushed matters to the length of rustic buffoonery; and he would amuse himself by putting burning coals into the boots and hose of the officers who attended him." Many other instances of Cromwell's buffoonery are given by Hume in his History of England, Chap. Ixi. 5 Louis XI. of France wore in his hat a leaden image of the Virgin Mary, which when he swore by he feared to break his oath.-POPE. 6 Philip, Duke of Orleans, Regent The throne a bigot keep, a genius quit, And just her wisest monarch made a fool ?* Know, God and nature only are the same: In man, the judgment shoots at flying game;' A bird of passage! gone as soon as found, Now in the moon, perhaps, now under ground. in the minority of Louis XV., superstitious in judicial astrology, though an unbeliever in all religion.-POPE. 1 Philip V. of Spain, who, after renouncing the throne for religion, resumed it to gratify his queen; and Victor Amadeus II., King of Sardinia, who resigned the crown, and, trying to re-assume it, was imprisoned till his death.-POPE. Philip V. resigned his crown to his eldest son, Don Louis, in 1724; but he continued to exercise regal authority, and remounted the throne on the death of the young king. An account of the abdication of Victor Amadeus is given in the British Chronologist under 3rd September, 1730: "Victor Amadeus, King of Sardinia and Duke of Savoy, resigned his crown into the hands of his son Charles Emanuel, Prince of Piedmont, now King of Sardinia. The abdicated prince was then sixty-four years of age, and designed to lead the life of a private nobleman, with the Countess Dowager of St. Sebastians, whom he designed to marry he reserved a revenue of 100,000 crowns per annum, and contented himself with the title of Marquis of Tende, having neither guards nor officers of state, or any thing that might distinguish him from a private man: and this he did after he had reigned fifty years with as great reputation as any sovereign in Europe." And again under 28th September, 1731: "Victor Amadeus, King of Sardinia and Duke of Savoy, who had abdicated the government, and placed his son on the throne, either being weary of a private life, or incited by the Countess, his consort; or lastly, looking on himself to be slighted by his son and ministers, had formed a design to remount the throne. But the young king, under pretence of a conspiracy against his government, caused his father to be made prisoner, and kept in close confinement; and the Countess his consort to be removed to a distance from him to prevent further troubles." 2 The Czarina Iwanowna; Louis XV.; Clement XII. ; and Victor Amadeus II. Instead of "wisest" the earlier editions read "ablest." The question raised in ver. 93 is improperly introduced in this context, as it relates to the providence of God, not to the character of Man. Of Victor Amadeus, Voltaire says in his Précis du Siècle de Louis XV.: "La société de sa maîtresse, devenue sa femme, la dévotion et le repos, ne purent satisfaire une âme occupée pendant cinquante ans des affaires de l'Europe. Il fit voir quelle est la faiblesse humaine, et combien il est difficile de remplir son cœur sur le trône et hors de trône." II. In vain the sage,' with retrospective eye, Would from the apparent What conclude the Why; That what we chanced was what we meant to do. Some plunge in bus'ness, others shave their crowns:2 Not always actions show the man: we find Perhaps the wind just shifted from the east: Pride guides his steps, and bids him shun the great : He dreads a death-bed like the meanest slave: His pride in reas'ning, not in acting lies. But grant that actions best discover man; Take the most strong, and sort them as you can: 1 "The grave," in all editions before Warburton's. 2 Become monks.-CROKER. 3 "Adust complexion" means "fiery temperament." The description is untrue. Both Charles and Philip had the typical Flemish disposition, cool and phlegmatic. Charles retired into the convent of S. Justo in 100 105 110 115 120 Estremadura, when his health became broken. Philip took the field out of policy, and he does not appear to have been present in person either at the battle of St. Quentin or of Gravelines. 4 "They choose some general air, and according to that interpret all the actions of a man, of which if |