EPISTLE II. EAR Col'nel, COBHAM's and your country's DEA Friend! You love a Verfe, take fuch as I can fend. A Frenchman comes, prefents you with his Boy, Bows and begins-" This Lad, Sir, is of Blois : "Obferve his fhape how clean! his locks how "curl'd! "My only fon, I'd have him fee the world: "His French is pure; his Voice too--- you shall "hear. "Sir, he's your flave, for twenty pound a year. "Mere wax as yet, you fashion him with ease, "Your Barber, Cook, Upholft'rer, what you "pleafe: 10 honour wrong. "A perfect genius at an Op'ra-fong--To fay too much, might do my honour "Take him with all his virtues, on my word; "His whole ambition was to ferve a Lord; But, Sir, to you, with what would I not part? 15 "Tho' faith, I fear, 'twill break his Mother's "heart. "Once (and but once) I caught him in a lie, "And then, unwhipp'd, he had the grace to cry: "The fault he has I fairly fhall reveal, ་ (Could you o'erlook but that) it is, to steal." 20 66 Quivis ferret idem: femel hic ceffavit, et (ut fit) "In fcalis latuit metuens pendentis habenae: "Des nummos, excepta nihil te fi fuga laedit." Ille ferat pretium, poenae fecurus, opinor. Prudens emifti vitiofum: dicta tibi eft lex. Infequeris tamen hunc, et lite moraris iniqua. Dixi me pigrum proficifcenti tibi, dixi Talibus officiis prope mancum: ne mea faevus Jurgares ad te quod epiftola nulla veniret. Quid tum profeci, mecum facientia jura Si tamen attentas? quereris fuper hoc etiam, quod Exfpectata tibi non mittam carmina mendax. • Luculli miles collecta viatica multis Aerumnis, laffus dum noctu ftertit, ad affem Perdiderat poft hoc vehemens lupus, et fibi et hofti Iratus pariter, jejunis dentibus acer, Praefidium regale loco dejecit, ut aiunt, NOTES. Summe VER. 24. I think Sir Godfrey] An eminent Juftice of Peace, who decided much in the manner of Sancho Pancha. P. Sir Godfrey Kneller. VER. 33. In Anna's Wars, etc ] Many parts of this story are well told; but, on the whole, it is much inferior to the Original. C If, after this, you took the gracelefs lad, Could you complain, my Friend, he prov'd so bad? Faith, in such case, if you should profecute, I think Sir Godfrey should decide the fuit; Who fent the Thief that stole the Cash, away, And punish'd him that put it in his d way. 26 Confider then, and judge me in this light; I told you when I went, I could not write; You faid the fame; and are you discontent With Laws, to which you gave your own affent? Nay worse, to ask for Verse at such a time! 31 D'ye think me good for nothing but to rhyme? In ANNA'S Wars, a Soldier poor and old Had dearly earn'd a little purse of gold: Tir'd with a tedious march, one luckless night, He flept, poor dog! and loft it, to a doit. This put the man in such a despʼrate mind, Between revenge, and grief, and hunger join'd Against the foe, himself, and all mankind, He leap'd the trenches, scal'd a Castle-wall, 40 Tore down a Standard, took the Fort and all. " Pro 36 NOTES. VER. 37. This put the man, etc.] Much below the Original, "Poft hoc vehemens lupus, et fibi et hofti "Iratus pariter, jejunis dentibus acer.” The laft words are particularly elegant and humorous, Summe munito, et multarum divite rerum. Clarus ob id factum, donis ornatur honeftis, Accipit et bis dena fuper feftertia nummûm. Forte fub hoc tempus caftellum evertere praetor Nefcio quod cupiens, hortari coepit eundem Verbis, quae timido quoque poffent addere mentem: I, bone, quo virtus tua te vocat: i pede faufto, Grandia laturus meritorum praemia: quid,ftas? Poft haec ille catus, quantumvis rufticus," Ibit, "Ibit eo, quo vis, qui zonam perdidit, inquit. f Romae nutriri mihi contigit, atque doceri, Iratus Graiis quantum nocuiffet Achilles. NOTES. Adjecere VER. 43. Gave him much praise, and some reward befide.] For the fake of a stroke of Satire, he has here weakened that circumstance, on which, the turn of the story depends. Horace avoided it, though the avaricious character of Lucullus was a tempting occafion to indulge his raillery. VER. 51. Let him take caftles who has ne'er a groat.] This has neither the force nor the juftness of the Original. Horace makes his Soldier fay, "Ibit eo, quo vis, qui zonam perdidit." for it was not his poverty, but his lofs, that pushed him upon danger; many being fufficient to poverty, who cannot bear the fudden change of condition occafioned by loffes. What betray'd our Poet into this inaccuracy of expreffion was, it's fuiting better with the application. But, in a great Writer, we pardon nothing. And fuch fhould not forget, that the expreffion is not perfect, but when the ideas it conveys fit both the tale and the application: for then they reflect mutual light upon one another. "Prodigious well;" his great Commander cry'd, D'ye think me, noble Gen'ral, fuch a fot? 50 "Let him take caftles who has ne'er a groat." f ' Bred up at home, full early I begun, To read in Greek the wrath of Peleus' fon. NOTES. Befides, He was VER. 52. Bred up at home, etc.] The Reader may poffibly have a curiofity to know fomething more of Mr. Pope's education than what this verse tells him; and though much more would be too trifling to enter into a juft volume of his life, it may do no dishonour to one of these cursory notes. taught his letters very early by an Aunt; and from thence, to his eighth year, he took great delight in reading. He learned to write of himself, by copying after printed books, whose characters he brought himself to imitate in great perfection. At eight, he was put under one Taverner, a Prieft, who taught him the rudiments of the Latin and Greek tongues, together: From him, in a little time, he was fent to a private school at Twiford near Winchefter. Here, he continued about a year; and was then removed to another, near Hydepark Corner. Under these two last Masters, he loft the little he had got under the Prieft. At twelve, he went with his Father into the Foreft; where he was, for a few months, under another Priest; and with as little fuccefs as before. For, as he 1 |