Go see Sir ROBERT! P. See Sir Robert!-hum And never laugh-for all my life to come? He does not think me what he thinks mankind. 30 36 F. Why, yes; with scripture still you may be free; A horse-laugh, if you please, at honesty ; A joke on JEKYL, or some odd old Whig 40 Whom all Lord Chamberlains allow the stage: The worthy youth shall ne'er be in a rage: 45 But VER. 39. A joke on JEKYL,] Sir Joseph Jekyl, Master of the Rolls, a true Whig in his principles, and a man of the utmost probity. VER. 47. Why, answer, LYTTELTON,] George Lyttelton, Secretary to the Prince of Wales, distinguished both for his writ ings and speeches in the spirit of liberty. But were his verses vile, his whisper base, Sets half the world, God knows, against the rest; 50 56 Did not the sneer of more impartial men At sense and virtue, balance all agen. 60 Judicious wits spread wide the ridicule, P. Dear Sir, forgive the prejudice of youth: 65 70 O come, VER. 51. FLEURY,] Cardinal; and Minister to Louis XV. VER. 66. Henley-Osborn,] See them in their places in the Dunciad. VER. 68. The flow'rs of Bubo, and the flow of Young!] Sir William Young. VER. 71. F's] Foxe's. O come, that easy, Ciceronian style, So Latin, yet so English all the while, As, tho' the pride of Middleton and Bland, And let, a God's-name, ev'ry fool and knave grave. 75 80 85 F. Why so? if satire knows its time and place You still may lash the greatest-in disgrace : For merit will by turns forsake them all; Would you know when? exactly when they fall. 90 But let all satire in all changes spare Immortal S-k, and grave De -re. Silent VER. 73. O come, that easy, Ciceronian style,] Dr. Bland of Eton was a very bad writer, Dr. Middleton a remarkable good one; perhaps, our best: but he was the friend of Pope's enemy, Lord Hervey. VER. 80. CAROLINA] Queen consort to King George II. She died in 1737. Her death gave occasion, as is observed above, to many indiscreet and mean performances unworthy of her memory, whose last moments manifested the utmost courage and resolution. VER. 92. Immortal S-k,] Charles Hamilton, third son of the Duke of Hamilton, who was created Earl of Selkirk in 1687. Silent and soft, as saints remove to heav'n, There, where no passion, pride, or shame transport, Lull'd with the sweet nepenthe of a court; 95 There, where no father's, brother's, friend's disgrace Once break their rest, or stir them from their place : But past the sense of human miseries, All tears are wip'd for ever from all eyes; No cheek is known to blush, no heart to throb, ΙΟΙ P. Good heav'n forbid, that I should blast their glory, Who know how like Whig ministers to Tory, 105 And when three sov'reigns dy'd, could scarce be vext, Have I, in silent wonder, seen such things 110 Ye gods! shall Cibber's son, without rebuke, 115 A fav'rite's VER. 112. In some editions, Who starves a mother VER. 115. Cibber's son —. Rich] Two players look for them in the Dunciad. 9 A fav'rite's porter with his master vie, Be brib'd as often, and as often lie? Shall Ward draw contracts with a statesman's skill? Or Japhet pocket, like his grace, a will? Is it for Bond, or Peter, (paltry things,) 120 To pay their debts, or keep their faith, like kings? If Blount dispatch'd himself, he play'd the man, And so may'st thou, illustrious Passeran ! But shall a printer, weary of his life, 125 Learn, from their books, to hang himself and wife? 130 A simple VER 123. If Blount dispatch'd himself,] He was the younger son of Sir Henry Blount, who wrote an admirable account of a Voyage to the Levant, 1636; and younger brother of Sir Thomas Pope Blount, who wrote the Censura Authorum. And this Charles Blount was not only the author of The Oracles of Reason, but of an infidel treatise, intitled Anima Mundi, and of the Life of Apollonius Tyanaus, in folio, 1680; with notes said to be taken from the manuscript of Lord Herbert of Cherbury. It was his sisterin-law, with whom he was in love, when he destroyed himself. VER. 124. Passeran!] Author of another book of the same stamp, called, A Philosophical Discourse on Death, being a defence of suicide. He was a nobleman of Piedmont, banished from his country for his impieties, and lived in the utmost misery, but died at last a penitent. VER. 125. But shall a printer, c.] A fact that happened in London a few years past. The unhappy man left behind him a paper justifying his action by the reasonings of some of these authors. |