User: Can you write me a poem about matthew prior and battle of blenheim in the style of Lilian Garis?
Assistant: Sure, here's a poem about matthew prior and battle of blenheim in the style of Lilian Garis:
  poems of Rochester, and was asked whether he would allow the
convention, and offence against morality.
versification equal to that of Pope.'"
Matthew Prior is one of those that have burst out from an obscure
others say that he was the son of a joiner of London:  he was
The same year he published "The City Mouse and Country Mouse," to
Montague.  There is a story of great pain suffered, and of tears
suppose him vexed, it would be hard to deny him sense enough to
conceal his uneasiness.
nobles, to which Europe has perhaps scarcely seen anything equal,
transaction.
The conduct of Prior, in this splendid initiation into public
The death of Queen Mary (in 1695) produced a subject for all the
writers--perhaps no funeral was ever so poetically attended.
presented to the king, by whom it was not likely to be ever read.
distinction.  As he was one day surveying the apartments at
Versailles, being shown the "Victories of Louis," painted by Le
Brun, and asked whether the King of England's palace had any such
The pictures of Le Brun are not only in themselves sufficiently
This year (1700) produced one of his longest and most splendid
compositions, the "Carmen Seculare," in which he exhausts all his
Among the advantages to arise from the future years of William's
reign, he mentions a Society for Useful Arts, and among them:-
"Some that with care true eloquence shall teach,
And to just idioms fix our doubtful speech;
That from our writers distant realms may know
The thanks we to our monarchs owe,
And schools profess our tongue through every land
That has invoked his aid, or blessed his hand."
Tickell, in his "Prospect of Peace," has the same hope of a new
academy:-
"In happy chains our daring language bound,
Shall sport no more in arbitrary sound."
Whether the similitude of those passages, which exhibit the same
persuaded the king to the Partition Treaty, a treaty in which he
himself had been ministerially employed.
leisure to make or to polish verses.  When the Battle of Blenheim
epistle to Boileau.  He published, soon afterwards, a volume of
poems, with the encomiastic character of his deceased patron, the
The Battle of Ramillies soon afterwards (in 1706) excited him to
another effort of poetry.  On this occasion he had fewer or less
formidable rivals, and it would be not easy to name any other
composition produced by that event which is now remembered.
when France was disgraced and overpowered in every quarter of the
calamities, and the name of an Englishman was reverenced through
money, the unreasonable conduct of the allies, the avarice of
generals, the tyranny of minions, and the general danger of
intelligence.
The negotiation was begun at Prior's house, where the queen's
ambassador, though no public character.  By some mistake of the
queen's orders the court of France had been disgusted, and
Bolingbroke says in his letter, "Dear Mat,--Hide the nakedness of
Soon after, the Duke of Shrewsbury went on a formal embassy to
confidence by Louis, who sent him with a letter to the queen,
Paris, Bolingbroke wrote to Prior thus:- "Monsieur de Torcy has a
On the 1st of August, 1714, ensued the downfall of the Tories and
before a committee of the Privy Council, of which Mr. Walpole was
there is printed an account not unentertaining, behaved with the
boisterousness of men elated by recent authority.  They are
represented as asking questions sometimes vague, sometimes
insidious, and writing answers different from those which they
come before a legal judicature, he should have contradicted or
present when the preliminary articles were talked of or signed at
their solemn promise that nothing which I should say should hurt
myself, I had no reason to trust them, for they violated that
promise about five hours after.  However, I owned I was there
tedious by writing his "Alma."  He was, however, soon after
discharged.  He had now his liberty, but he had nothing else.
Whatever the profit of his employments might have been, he had
always spent it; and at the age of fifty-three was, with all his
The price of the volume was two guineas; the whole collection was
purchase of Down Hall, which Prior was to enjoy during life, and
Harley after his decease.  He had now, what wits and philosophers
tranquillity.  But it seems that busy men seldom live long in a
state of quiet.  It is not unlikely that his health declined, he
complains of deafness; "for," says he, "I took little care of my
ears while I was not sure if my head was my own."
Of any occurrences of his remaining life I have found no account.
He died at Wimpole, a seat of the Earl of Oxford, on the 18th of
Sui Temporis Historiam meditanti,
Paulatim obrepens Febris
Operi simul et Vitae filum abrupit,
Hagae anno 1690 celebrata,
Tum iis,
Qui anno 1697 Pacem RYSWICKI confecerunt,
Tum iis,
Qui apud Gallos annie proximis Legationem obierunt
Eodem etiani anno 1657 in Hibernia
Necnon in utroque Honorabili consessu
Qui anno 1700 ordinandis Commercii negotiis,
Quique anno 1711 dirigendis Portorii rebus,
Postremo ab ANNA,
Felicissimae memoriae Regina,
Ad LUDOVICUM XIV. Galliae Regem
De Pace stabilienda
(Pace etiam num durante
Diuque ut boni jam omnes sperant duratura),
Cum sunma potestate Legatus;
Hos omnes, quibus cumulates est, Titulos
Humanitatis, Ingenii, Ereditionis laude
Cui enim nascenti faciles arriserant Mesae.
Hunc Puerum Schola hic Regia perpolivit;
Jevenem in Collegio S'ti Johannis
Cantabrigia optimis Scientiis instruxit;
Virum denique auxit, et perfecit,
Multa cum viris Principibus censuetudo;
Ita natus, ita institutus,
A Vatam Choro avelli numquam potuit,
Sed solebat saepe rerum civilium gravitatem
Amoeniorum Literarum Studiis condire:
Et cum omne adeo Poetices genus
Haud infeliciter tentaret,
Tum in Fabellis concinne lepideque texendis
Neminem habuit parem.
Haec liberalis animi oblectamenta:
Quam nullo illi labore constiterint,
Facile ii perspexere, quibus usus est Amici;
Apud quos Urbanitatem et Leporum plenus
Cum ad rem, quaecunque forte inciderat,
Apte varie copioseque alluderet,
Interea nihil quaesitum, nihil vi expressum
Sed omnia ultro effluere,
Et quasi jugi e foote affatim exuberare,
Ita suos tandem dubios reliquit,
therefore, must now be destitute of his private character and
familiar practices.  He lived at a time when the rage of party
designs, but by peculiar affection, to the Earl of Oxford and his
He was, however, in Pope's opinion, fit only to make verses, and
experience of his own knowledge and dexterity, at last sent to
Prior fell to railing at the performer with all the terms of
vous entendre."
In a gay French company, where every one sang a little song or
"Mais cette voix, et ces beaux yeux,
Font Cupidon trop dangereux,
Et je suis triste quand je crie
Chloe probably was sometimes ideal:  but the woman with whom he
"'--strained to the height,
In that celestial colloquy sublime,
Dazzled and spent, sunk down, and sought repair.'"
Poor Prior; why was he so STRAINED, and in such WANT OF REPAIR,
His tales have obtained general approbation, being written with
introduced by a preface, neither necessary nor pleasing, neither
grave nor merry.  "Paulo Purganti," which has likewise a preface,
affectation not disagreeable, with modern images.  "The Young
exercises of a skilful versifier, resolved at all adventures to
write something about Chloe, and trying to be amorous by dint of
BATHING.  Then Cupid is MISTAKEN; then Cupid is DISARMED; then he
tries to act the lover without the help of gods or goddesses, his
this world."
compare it with the original.  The epistle to Boileau is not so
happy.  The "Poems to the King," are now perused only by young
censure it by caprice without danger of detection; for who can be
His poem on the Battle of Ramillies is necessarily tedious by the
length, cold and lifeless like this, may be easily written on any
In his epilogues to Phaedra and to Lucius he is very happily
beautiful.
present moment.
"Solomon" is the work to which he entrusted the protection of his
veneration.  His affection was natural; it had undoubtedly been
perceived in it many excellences, and did not discover that it
Tediousness is the most fatal of all faults; negligence or errors
faults are censured and forgotten, but the power of tediousness
propagates itself.  He that is weary the first hour is more weary
tendency, pass more and more slowly through every successive
ourselves; and the act of composition fills and delights the mind
subsided.  And even if he should control his desire of immediate
consults his friends he will probably find men who have more
kindness than judgment, or more fear to offend than desire to
instruct.  The tediousness of this poem proceeds not from the
philosopher to reason.
original production, with how much justice this epigram may tell,
"De Sacerdote Furem consolante.
"Quidam sacrificus furem comitatus euntem
Huc ubi dat sontes carnificina neci.
Ne sis moestus, ait; summi conviva Tonantis
Jam cum coelitibus (si modo credis) eris.
Ille gemens, si vera mihi solatia praebes,
Hospes apud superos sis meus oro, refert.
Sacrificus contra; mihi non convivia fas est
Ducere, jejunas hac edo luce nihil."
English poets; and he was one of the first that resolutely
idleness; he has no careless lines, or entangled sentiments; his
disproportion of his rhymes, which have not always sufficient
consonance, and from the admission of broken lines into his
"Solomon;" but perhaps he thought, like Cowley, that hemistichs
ought to be admitted into heroic poetry.
He had apparently such rectitude of judgment as secured him from
come till they were called, and were then put by constraint into
striking.  He has altered the stanza of Spenser as a house is
"She flying fast from Heaven's fated face,
And from the world that her discovered wide,
Fled to the wasteful wilderness space,
From living eyes her open shame to hide,
And lurked in rocks and caves long unespied.
But that fair crew of knights, and Una fair,
Did in that castle afterwards abide,
To rest themselves, and weary powers repair,
Where store they found of all that dainty was and rare?"
"To the close rock the frightened raven flies,
Soon as the rising eagle cuts the air;
The shaggy wolf unseen and trembling lies,
When the hoarse roar proclaims the lion near.
Ill-starred did we our forts and lines forsake,
To dare our British foes to open fight:
Our conquest we by stratagem should make;
Our triumph had been founded in our flight.
'Tis ours by craft and by surprise to gain;
'Tis theirs to meet in arms, and battle in the plain."
regularity of measures; for, when he commenced poet, he had not
lightness, and facility.  What is smooth is not soft.  His verses
uncle's, "The vessel long retains the scent which it first
occasions and nobler subjects, when habit was overpowered by the
necessity of reflection, he wanted not wisdom as a statesman, or
elegance as a poet.
William Congreve descended from a family in Staffordshire of so
great antiquity, that it claims a place among the few that extend
novel called "Incognita; or, Love and Duty Reconciled;" it is
composed with great elaborateness of dialogue, and incessant
manager allowed its author the privilege of the house.
Few plays have ever been so beneficial to the writer, for it
hundred pounds a year.  Congreve's conversation must surely have
been at least equally pleasing with his writings.
presupposes a familiar knowledge of many characters, and exact
nothing flows necessarily from the occasion, or is dictated by
nature.  The characters, both of men and women, are either
coward; and Fondlewife, a jealous Puritan; and the catastrophe
arises from a mistake, not very probably produced, by marrying a
informs its tenement."
Next year he gave another specimen of his abilities in The Double
against their will.  But though taste is obstinate, it is very
In another year (1695) his prolific pen produced Love for Love, a
common.  Dryden calculated nativities; both Cromwell and King
tragedian, where he exhibited two years afterwards (1687) The
Mourning Bride, a tragedy, so written as to show him sufficiently
But whatever objections may be made either to his comic or tragic
some time to shine in eminence, have passed their probation of
whole system of doctrine into disrepute, and from the Restoration
published "A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the
little notice, when they were accumulated and exposed together,
excited horror.  The wise and the pious caught the alarm, and the
licentiousness to be openly taught at the public charge.
very young man, elated with success, and impatient of censure,
assumed an air of confidence and security.  His chief art of
controversy is to retort upon his adversary his own words:  he is
purpose or his prey."
acknowledged, with universal conviction, that the perusal of his
obligations by which life ought to be regulated.
The stage found other advocates, and the dispute was protracted
Of the powers by which this important victory was achieved, a
Sir Samps.  "Sampson's a very good name; for your Sampsons were
strong dogs from the beginning."
From this time his life ceased to be public; he lived for himself
Having owed his fortune to Halifax, he continued, always of his
reverenced.  His security therefore was never violated; and when,
"Non obtusa adeo gestamus pectora Poeni,
Nec tam aversus equos Tyria sol jungit ab urbe."
He that was thus honoured by the adverse party might naturally
suppose without trust or care, but which, with his post in the
mentioned him with respect, and among other testimonies to his
merit, Steele made him the patron of his "Miscellany," and Pope
inscribed to him his translations of the "Iliad."  But he treated
fashion than of wit; and, when he received a visit from Voltaire,
In his retirement he may be supposed to have applied himself to
house in Surrey Street in the Strand, January 29, 1728-9.  Having
superfluous and useless, might have given great assistance to the
imprudence of his relation, reduced to difficulties and distress.
Congreve has merit of the highest kind; he is an original writer,
inspected them many years have passed, but what remains upon my
memory is, that his characters are commonly fictitious and
artificial, with very little of nature, and not much of life.  He
consist in gay remarks and unexpected answers; but that which he
It was a fancied noise; for all is hushed.
It bore the accent of a human voice.
It was thy fear, or else some transient wind
Whistling through hollows of this vaulted isle:
We'll listen -
No, all is hushed and still as death.--'Tis dreadful!
How reverend is the face of this tall pile,
Whose ancient pillars rear their marble heads,
To bear aloft its arched and ponderous roof,
By its own weight made steadfast and immovable,
Looking tranquillity!  It strikes an awe
And terror on my aching sight; the tombs
And monumental caves of death look cold,
And shoot a chillness to my trembling heart.
Give use thy hand, and let me hear thy voice;
Nay, quickly speak to me, and let me hear
Thy voice--my own affrights me with its echoes.
Mary in lines like these:-
"The rocks are cleft, and new-descending rills
Furrow the brows of all the impending hills.
The water-gods to floods their rivulets turn,
And each, with streaming eyes, supplies his wanting urn.
The fauns forsake the woods, the nymphs the grove,
And round the plain in sad distractions rove:
In prickly brakes their tender limbs they tear,
And leave on thorns their locks of golden hair.
With their sharp nails, themselves the satyrs wound,
And tug their shaggy beards, and bite with grief the ground.
Lo Pan himself, beneath a blasted oak,
Dejected lies, his pipe in pieces broke
See Pales weeping too in wild despair,
And to the piercing winds her bosses bare.
And see yon fading myrtle, where appears
The Queen of Love, all bathed in flowing tears;
See how she wrings her hands, and beats her breast,
And tears her useless girdle from her waist:
Hear the sad murmurs of her sighing doves!
For grief they sigh, forgetful of their loves."
And many years after he gave no proof that time had improved his
wisdom or his wit, for, on the death of the Marquis of Blandford,
"And now the winds, which had so long been still,
Began the swelling air with sighs to fill;
The water-nymphs, who motionless remained
Like images of ice, while she complained,
Now loosed their streams; as when descending rains
Roll the steep torrents headlong o'er the plains.
The prone creation who so long had gazed
Charmed with her cries, and at her griefs amazed,
Began to roar and howl with horrid yell,
Dismal to hear, and terrible to tell!
Nothing but groans and sighs were heard around,
And echo multiplied each mournful sound."
"The hovering winds on downy wings shall wait around,
And catch, and waft to foreign lands, the flying sound."
It cannot but be proper to show what they shall have to catch and
"'Twas now, when flowery lawns the prospect made,
And flowing brooks beneath a forest shade,
A lowing heifer, loveliest of the herd,
Stood feeding by; while two fierce bulls prepared
Their armed heads for light, by fate of war to prove
The victor worthy of the fair one's love;
Unthought presage of what met next my view;
For soon the shady scene withdrew.
And now, for woods, and fields, and springing flowers,
Behold a town arise, bulwarked with walls and lofty towers;
Two rival armies all the plain o'erspread,
Each in battalia ranged, and shining arms arrayed
With eagle eyes beholding both from far,
Namur, the price and mistress of the war."
The "Birth of the Muse" is a miserable fiction.  One good line it
"This said, no more remained.  The ethereal host
Again impatient crowd the crystal coast.
The father now, within his spacious hands,
Encompassed all the mingled mass of seas and lands;
And, having heaved aloft the ponderous sphere,
He launched the world to float in ambient air."
sprightliness are wanting; his "Hymn to Venus," from Homer, is
His "Art of Pleasing" is founded on a vulgar, but perhaps
impracticable principle, and the staleness of the sense is not
concealed by any novelty of illustration or elegance of diction.
Sir Richard Blackmore is one of those men whose writings have
mentioned by enemies than by friends.  He was the son of Robert
Blackmore, of Corsham in Wiltshire, styled by Wood Gentleman, and
educated in a country school, he was at thirteen sent to
which he seems to have passed with very little attention to the
business of the place; for, in his poems, the ancient names of
nations or places, which he often introduces, are pronounced by
chance.  He afterwards travelled.  At Padua he was made doctor of
In some part of his life, it is not known when, his indigence
perspicacity of malice, animated by wit, has ever fixed upon his
private life.
When he first engaged in the study of physic, he inquired, as he
sought for better, he commenced physician, and obtained high
adversaries had recourse in the penury of scandal.
Blackmore, therefore, was made a poet not by necessity but
I believe it is peculiar to him that his first public work was an
published (in 1695) "Prince Arthur," in ten books, written, as he
uncertain hours as his profession afforded, and for the greatest
reception, at a time when literary curiosity was yet confined to
particular classes of the nation.  Such success naturally raised
animosity; and Dennis attacked it by a formal criticism, more
tedious and disgusting than the work which he condemns.  To this
critical abilities."  He seems to have been more delighted with
Arthur," in two years more (1697) he sent into the world "King
Arthur" in twelve.  The provocation was now doubled, and the
knighthood, with the present of a gold chaise and medal.  The
What Blackmore could contribute to the Succession, or what he
through his whole life.
malignity, lived long enough to ridicule in a Prologue.
The wits easily confederated against him, as Dryden, whose favour
besides, given them reason for resentment, as, in his preface to
The same year he published a "Satire on Wit," a proclamation of
defiance which united the poets almost all against him, and which
Here is again discovered the inhabitant of Cheapside, whose head
cannot keep his poetry unmingled with trade.  To hinder that
intellectual bankruptcy which he affects to fear he will erect a
"Bank for Wit."  In this poem he justly censured Dryden's
present occasion.  Jacob says "it is corrected and revised from
another impression," but the labour of revision was thrown away.
collection.  Whoever judges of this by any other of Blackmore's
performances will do it injury.  The praise given it by Addison
(Spectator, 339) is too well known to be transcribed; but some
notice is due to the testimony of Dennis, who calls it a
solidity and strength of its reasoning."
Why an author surpasses himself it is natural to inquire.  I have
could, either improvement or correction; so that," said Philips,
"there are perhaps nowhere in the book thirty lines together that
The relation of Philips, I suppose, was true; but when all
reasonable, all credible allowance is made for this friendly
distribution of its parts, the choice of topics, the train of
argument, and, what is yet more, the general predominance of
philosophical judgment and poetical spirit.  Correction seldom
effects more than the suppression of faults:  a happy line, or a
single elegance, may perhaps be added; but of a large work, the
make verses was his transcendent pleasure, and, as he was not
stopped, he considered the polite world as destitute of
described, had retired to a house in the country to enjoy
philosophical leisure, and resolved to instruct the public by
hero of the club is one Mr. Johnson, such a constellation of
"The first I shall name is Mr. Johnson, a gentleman that owes to
distinguishing, just, and delicate; his judgment clear, and his
reason strong, accompanied with an imagination full of spirit, of
unbiassed by the authority of those who have lazily followed each
felicity in finding out trifles.  He is no less industrious to
beauties than exposing the blemishes of a laudable writing.  Like
The rest of the lay monks seem to be but feeble mortals an
comparison with the gigantic Johnson, who yet, with all his
abilities and the help of the fraternity, could drive the
publication but to forty papers, which were afterwards collected
Some years afterwards (1716 and 1717) he published two volumes of
Blackmore's prose is not the prose of a poet, for it is languid,
"As to its efficient cause, WIT owes its production to an
extraordinary and peculiar temperament in the constitution of the
exalted ferments, and an affluence of animal spirits, refined and
operations of the mind, by which means the imagination can with
great facility range the wide field of Nature, contemplate an
infinite variety of objects, and, by observing the similitude and
purpose.  Hence beautiful allusions, surprising metaphors, and
different qualities, relations, and habitudes, it can at pleasure
religion of their country, no doubt but the author would have
their turn to show particular respect and friendship to this
insolent derider of the worship of his country, till at last the
from the excessive esteem and love that men in power, during the
acquainted with their character."
In another place he speaks with becoming abhorrence of a GODLESS
coiner of the accusation, but never denied it, and was afterwards
One of his essays is upon the spleen, which is treated by him so
much to his own satisfaction, that he has published the same
than could be expected from the common tenor of his prose:-
"--As the several combinations of splenetic madness and folly
produce an infinite variety of irregular under-standing, so the
amicable accommodation and alliance between several virtues and
degree of piety with ill-nature and ungoverned passions.  Nor are
unjust, impious lovers of their country, and flagitious heroes,
good-natured sharpers, immoral men of honour, and libertines who
will sooner die than change their religion; and though it is true
medical honours.
Having succeeded so well in his book on Creation, by which he
established the great principle of all religion, he thought his
undertaking imperfect, unless he likewise enforced the truth of
used in Churches," which being recommended by the archbishops and
He was not yet deterred from heroic poetry.  There was another
Contempt is a kind of gangrene, which, if it seizes one part of a
despised as a poet, was in time neglected as a physician; his
practice, which was once invidiously great, forsook him in the
latter part of his life, but being by nature, or by principle,
something in them of vexation and discontent, discovered by a
perpetual attempt to degrade physic from its sublimity, and to
represent it as attainable without much previous or concomitant
supercilious derision of transmitted knowledge.  Of this indecent
"As for this book of aphorisms, it is like my Lord Bacon's of the
entertained every day with more valuable sentiments at the table
conversation of ingenious and learned men."
I am unwilling, however, to leave him in total disgrace, and will
learning, that signifies nothing for the service of mankind; and
useful practiser than a heavy notional scholar, encumbered with a
behind him "The Accomplished Preacher; or, an Essay upon Divine
Eloquence," which was printed after his death by Mr. White of
Nayland, in Essex, the minister who attended his death-bed, and
Blackmore, by the unremitted enmity of the wits, whom he provoked
treatment than he deserved.  His name was so long used to point
when his boldness of reprehension naturally turned upon him many
eyes desirous to espy faults which many tongues would have made
never discovered to have disturbed his quiet, or to have lessened
endeavouring to depreciate and degrade him, he either despised or
principles, and he left minute researches to those whom he
accuracy of thought, nor elegance of diction.  It has either been
In his descriptions both of life and nature, the poet and the
philosopher happily co-operate; truth is recommended by elegance,
"But that which Arthur with most pleasure heard
Were noble strains, by Mopas sung the bard,
Who to his harp in lofty verse began,
And through the secret maze of Nature ran.
He the Great Spirit sung, that all things filled,
That the tumultuous waves of Chaos stilled;
Whose nod disposed the jarring seeds to peace,
And made the wars of hostile Atoms cease.
All Beings, we in fruitful Nature find,
Proceeded from the Great Eternal mind:
Streams of his unexhausted spring of power,
And, cherished with his influence, endure.
He spread the pure cerulean fields on high,
And arched the chambers of the vaulted sky,
Which he, to suit their glory with their height,
Adorned with globes, that reel, as drunk with light.
His hand directed all the tuneful spheres,
He turned their orbs, and polished all the stars.
He filled the Sun's vast lamp with golden light:
And bid the silver Moon adorn the night.
He spread the airy Ocean without shores,
Where birds are wafted with their feathered oars.
Then sung the bard how the light vapours rise
From the warm earth, and cloud the smiling skies;
He sung how some, chilled in their airy flight,
Fall scattered down in pearly dew by night;
How some, raised higher, sit in secret steams
On the reflected points of bounding beams,
Till, chilled with cold, they shade th' ethereal plain,
Then on the thirsty earth descend in rain;
How some, whose parts a slight contexture show,
Sink hovering through the air in fleecy snow;
How part is spun in silken threads, and clings
Entangled in the grass is gluey strings;
How others stamp to stones, with rushing sound
Fall from their crystal quarries to the ground;
How some are laid in trains, that kindled fly,
In harmless fires by night, about the sky;
How some in winds blow with impetuous force,
And carry ruin where they bend their course,
While some conspire to form a gentle breeze,
To fan the air, and play among the trees;
How some, enraged, grow turbulent and loud,
Pent in the bowels of a frowning cloud,
That cracks, as if the axis of the world
Was broke, and Heaven's bright towers were downwards hurled.
He sung how earth's wide ball, at Jove's command,
Did in the midst on airy columns stand;
And how the soul of plants, in prison held,
And bound with sluggish fetters, lies concealed,
Till with the spring's warm beams, almost released
From the dull weight, with which it lay opprest,
Its vigour spreads, and makes the teeming earth
Heave up, and labour with the sprouting birth:
The active spirit freedom seeks in vain,
It only works and twists a stronger chain;
Urging its prison's sides to break a way,
It makes that wider, where 'tis forced to stay:
Till, having formed its living house, it rears
Its head, and in a tender plant appears.
Hence springs the oak, the beauty of the grove,
Whose stately trunk fierce storms can scarcely move.
Hence grows the cedar, hence the swelling vine
Does round the elm its purple clusters twine.
Hence painted flowers the smiling gardens bless,
Both with their fragrant scent and gaudy dress.
Hence the white lily in full beauty grows,
Hence the blue violet and blushing rose.
He sung how sunbeams brood upon the earth,
And in the glebe hatch such a numerous birth;
Which way the genial warmth in Summer storms
Turns putrid vapours to a bed of worms;
How rain, transformed by this prolific power,
Falls from the clouds an animated shower.
He sung the embryo's growth within the womb,
And how the parts their various shapes assume.
With what rare art the wondrous structure's wrought,
From one crude mass to such perfection brought;
That no part useless, none misplaced we see,
None are forgot, and more would monstrous be."
Alexander Pope was born in London, May 22, 1688, of parents whose
never discovered till Mr. Tyers told, on the authority of Mrs.
fondness "The Little Nightingale."
Being not sent early to school, he was taught to read by an aunt;
attempted original composition.
From the care of Taverner, under whom his proficiency was
considerable, he was removed to a school at Twyford, near
master's gardener, who personated Ajax.
"Metamorphoses."  If he kept the same proportion in his other
About the time of the Revolution his father, who was undoubtedly
"Tully's Offices," it is now vain to inquire.  Of a youth so
successfully employed, and so conspicuously improved, a minute
Pope, finding little advantage from external help, resolved
thenceforward to direct himself, and at twelve formed a plan of
study, which he completed with little other incitement than the
subjects and obliging him to correct his performances by many
revisals, after which the old gentleman, when he was satisfied,
take him to the coffee-house which Dryden frequented, and pleased
young admirer?
forward boys have attained, and which is not equal to Cowley's
performance at the same age.  His time was now wholly spent in
published.  He must have been at this time, if he had no help, a
considerable proficient in the Latin tongue.
numbers surpassed his original; but this is a small part of his
praise; he discovers such acquaintance both with human life and
Next year he was desirous of opening to himself new sources of
does not appear to have ever made much use in his subsequent
genius that ever was."  Self-confidence is the first requisite to
judgment, afterwards destroyed.  "Alcander," the epic poem, was
burnt by the persuasion of Atterbury.  The tragedy was founded on
himself that their interviews ended in friendship and
correspondence.  Pope was, through his whole life, ambitious of
From the age of sixteen the life of Pope, as an author, may be
afterwards.
from his maturer studies.
humour.  Pope was proud of his notice.  Wycherley wrote verses in
revision, and when Pope, perhaps proud of such confidence, was
correction.  Their correspondence afforded the public its first
Walsh, a name yet preserved among the minor poets, was one of his
wanting health for violent and money for expensive pleasures, and
authors presented with undistinguishing voracity, and with an
appetite for knowledge too eager to be nice.  In a mind like his,
with those of Pope.  The same year was written the "Essay on
knowledge both of ancient and modern learning, as are not often
attained by the maturest age and longest experience.  It was
humanity, and magnanimity.  How the attack was clandestine is not
Its success he admits to be secured by the false opinions then
prevalent; the author he concludes to be "young and raw."
"First, because he discovers a sufficiency beyond his little
ability, and hath rashly undertaken a task infinitely above his
force.  Secondly, while this little author struts and affects the
pedantic slave to authority and opinion.  Thirdly, he hath, like
"There are whom Heaven has blessed with store of wit,
Yet want as much again to manage it:
For wit and judgment ever are at strife--"
"What is this wit -
Where wanted scorned; and envied where acquired?"
I have preserved, I think, all that is reasonable in Dennis's
criticism; it remains that justice be done to his delicacy.  "For
modern; for had he been born of Grecian parents, and his father
monkey, should differ so much from human shape as his unthinking,
hostility between Pope and Dennis, which, though it was suspended
him, he discovers, by mentioning him very often, that he felt his
Dennis was not his only censurer; the zealous Papists thought the
praised; but to these objections he had not much regard.
Robotham, secretary to the king for Hanover, and by Resnel; and
intended by the author.
intermediate ideas may be formed, such as, when it is once shown,
In the Spectator was published the "Messiah," which he first
when his "Essay" was published.  The lady's name and adventures I
her, but found it rejected in favour of a young gentleman of
inferior condition.  Having discovered the correspondence between
nothing to fear.  Her lover took care to repeat his vows; but his
dignifying the amorous fiery of a raving girl.
dreading a surreptitious edition, was forced to publish it.
have some doubt; for at Paris, a few years ago, a niece of Mrs.
Fermor, who presided in an English convent, mentioned Pope's work
This has been too hastily considered as an instance of Addison's
there had been no examples, he might very reasonably and kindly
He, indeed, could never afterwards produce anything of such
unexampled excellence.  Those performances, which strike with
published some remarks upon it with very little force and with no
About this time he published the "Temple of Fame," which, as he
tells Steele in their correspondence, he had written two years
before--that is, when he was only twenty-two years old, an early
time of life for so much learning and so much observation as that
remarks, of which the most reasonable is that some of the lines
represent motion as exhibited by sculpture.
Of the Epistle from "Eloisa to Abelard," I do not know the date.
religious hope and resignation gives an elevation and dignity to
principle he slighted it.
addition begins we are not told.  The lines relating to the peace
politician, he could not live a day; and, as a poet, he must have
prologue; and, when Dennis published his remarks, undertook, not
There is reason to believe that Addison gave no encouragement to
this disingenuous hostility, for, says Pope, in a letter to him,
This year was printed in the Guardian the ironical comparison
between the pastorals of Philips and Pope, a composition of
artifice, criticism, and literature, to which nothing equal will
easily be found.  The superiority of Pope is so ingeniously
design, and, as it seems, had malice enough to conceal his
It appears that about this time Pope had a strong inclination to
hand of Betterton.
books.  He therefore resolved to try how far the favour of the
public extended by soliciting a subscription to a version of the
Dryden's "Virgil," and it had been tried again with great success
subscribers, in six volumes in quarto, for six guineas, a sum
according to the value of money at that time by no means
genius should be wasted upon a work not original, but proposed no
great eagerness; but the highest bidder was Bernard Lintot, who
Of the quartos it was, I believe, stipulated that none should be
printed but for the author, that the subscription might not be
price, for half a guinea each volume, books so little inferior to
subjoined to the text in the same page, and are therefore more
easily consulted.  Of this edition two thousand five hundred were
finding himself at first embarrassed with difficulties which
more acquainted with Homer's images and expressions, and practice
represents himself as despatching regularly fifty verses a day,
encourage him defame him.  He that wants money would rather be
thought angry than poor; and he that wishes to save his money
conceals his avarice by his malice.  Addison had hinted his
suspicion that Pope was too much a Tory; and some of the Tories
To those who censured his politics were added enemies more
dangerous, who called in question his knowledge of Greek, and his
public opposition, but in one of his letters escapes from them as
twenty-five, with an irregular education and a course of life of
which much seems to have passed in conversation, it is not very
likely that he overflowed with Greek.  But when he felt himself
deficient he sought assistance, and what man of learning would
refuse to help him?  Minute inquiries into the force of words are
accidental notions and crowding the mind with images which time
Latin, except the music of the numbers.
Hobbes, and Ogilby.  With Chapman, whose work, though now totally
Something might be gathered from Dacier, but no man loves to be
little money.
The history of the notes has never been traced.  Broome, an his
discovered to have been Jortin, a man since well known to the
learned world, who complained that Pope, having accepted and
Broome then offered his service a second time, which was probably
supposed to require more time than the text.  According to this
calculation, the progress of Pope may seem to have been slow; but
Indolence, interruption, business, and pleasure, all take their
thousand causes that can, and ten thousand that cannot, be
recounted.  Perhaps no extensive and multifarious performance was
By the success of his subscription Pope was relieved from those
disqualification for public employment, but never proposed a
occasional supplies.  Craggs was not long in power, and was never
With the product of this subscription, which he had too much
discretion to squander, he secured his future life from want, by
considerable annuities.  The estate of the Duke of Buckingham was
It cannot be unwelcome to literary curiosity, that I deduce thus
minutely the history of the English "Iliad."  It is certainly the
desirable to know how it was performed, and by what gradations it
Bolingbroke as a curiosity, descended from him to Mallet, and is
now, by the solicitation of the late Dr. Maty, reposited in the
From the first copy I have procured a few transcripts, and shall
exhibit first the printed lines; then, in a small print, those of
The beginning of the first book stands thus:-
The wrath of Peleus' son, the direful spring
Of all the Grecian woes, O Goddess, sing,
That wrath which hurled to Pluto's gloomy reign
The souls of mighty chiefs untimely slain.
The stern Pelides' rage, O Goddess, sing,
wrath
Of all the woes of Greece too fatal spring,
That screwed with warriors dead the Phrygian plain,
heroes
And peopled the dark with heroes slain:
filled the shady hell with chiefs untimely
Whose limbs, unburied on the naked shore,
Devouring dogs and hungry vultures tore,
Since great Achilles and Atrides strove;
Such was the sovereign doom, and such the will of Jove.
Whose limbs, unburied on the hostile shore,
Devouring dogs and greedy vultures tore,
Since first Atrides and Achilles strove;
Such was the sovereign doom, and such the will of Jove.
Declare, O Muse, in what ill-fated hour
Sprung the fierce strife from what offended Power?
Latona's son a dire contagion spread,
And heaped the camp with mountains of the dead;
The King of Men his reverend priest defied,
And for the King's offence the people died.
Declare, O Goddess, what offended Power
Enflamed their rage in that ill-omened hour;
anger fatal, hapless
Phoebus himself the dire debate procured,
fierce
To avenge the wrongs his injured priest endured;
For this the god a dire infection spread,
And heaped the camp with millions of the dead:
The King of men the sacred sire defied,
And for the King's offence the people died.
For Chryses sought with costly gifts to gain
His captive daughter from the Victor's chain;
Suppliant the venerable father stands,
Apollo's awful ensigns grace his hands,
By these he begs, and, lowly bending down,
Extends the sceptre and the laurel crown.
For Chryses sought by presents to regain
costly gifts to gain
His captive daughter from the Victor's chain;
Suppliant the venerable father stands,
Apollo's awful ensigns graced his hands.
By these he begs, and, lowly bending down
The golden sceptre and the laurel crown,
Presents the sceptre
For these as ensigns of his god he bare,
The god who sends his golden shaft afar;
Then low on earth the venerable man,
Suppliant before the brother kings began.
He sued to all, but chief implored for grace,
The brother kings of Atreus' royal race;
Ye kings and warriors, may your vows be crowned,
And Troy's proud walls lie level with the ground;
May Jove restore you, when your toils are o'er,
Safe to the pleasures of your native shore.
To all he sued, but chief implored for grace
The brother kings of Atreus' royal race.
Ye sons of Atreus, may your vows be crowned,
kings and warriors
Your labours, by the gods be all your labours crowned;
So may the gods your arms with conquest bless,
And Troy's proud walls lie level with the ground;
Till laid
And crown your labours with desired success;
May Jove restore you when your toils are o'er
Safe to the pleasures of your native shore.
But, oh! relieve a wretched parent's pain,
And give Chryses to these arms again;
If mercy fail, yet let my present move,
And dread avenging Phoebus, son of Jove.
But, oh! relieve a hapless parent's pain,
And give my daughter to these arms again;
Receive my gifts, if mercy fails, yet let my present move,
And fear the god who deals his darts around,
avenging Phoebus, son of Jove.
The Greeks, in shouts, their joint assent declare,
The priest to reverence, and release the fair:
Not so Atrides; he, with kingly pride,
Repulsed the sacred sire, and thus replied.
He said, the Greeks their joint assent declare,
The father said, the generous Greeks relent,
To accept the ransom, and restore the fair:
Revere the priest, and speak their joint assent;
Not so the tyrant; he, with kingly pride,
Repulsed the sacred sire, and thus replied
Of these lines, and of the whole first book, I am told that there
interlineations.
slight differences do not require to be elaborately displayed.
Now pleasing sleep had sealed each mortal eye:
Stretched in the tents the Grecian leaders lie;
The Immortals slumbered on their thrones above,
All but the ever-wakeful eye of Jove.
To honour Thetis' son he bends his care,
And plunge the Greeks in all the woes of war.
Then bids an empty phantom rise to sight,
And thus commands the vision of the night:
directs
Fly hence, delusive dream, and, light as air,
To Agamemnon's royal tent repair;
Bid him in arms draw forth the embattled train,
March all his legions to the dusty plain.
Now tell the King 'tis given him to destroy
Declare even now
The lofty walls of wide-extended Troy;
towers
For now no more the gods with fate contend;
At Juno's suit the heavenly factions end.
Destruction hovers o'er yon devoted wall,
hangs
And nodding Ilion waits the impending fall.
Invocation to the catalogue of ships.
Say, virgins, seated round the throne divine,
All-knowing goddesses! immortal nine!
Since earth's wide regions, heaven's unmeasured height,
And hell's abyss, hide nothing from your sight
(We, wretched mortals! lost in doubts below,
But guess by rumour, and but boast we know),
Oh! say what heroes, fired by thirst of fame,
Or urged by wrongs, to Troy's destruction came!
To count them all demands a thousand tongues,
A throat of brass and adamantine lungs.
Now virgin goddesses, immortal nine!
That round Olympus' heavenly summit shine,
Who see through heaven and earth, and hell profound,
And all things know, and all things can resound!
Relate what armies sought the Trojan land,
What nations followed, and what chiefs command;
(For doubtful fame distracts mankind below,
And nothing can we tell, and nothing know)
Without your aid, to count the unnumbered train,
A thousand mouths, a thousand tongues, were vain.
But Pallas now Tydides' soul inspires,
Fills with her force, and warms with all her fires:
Above the Greeks his deathless fame to raise,
And crown her hero with distinguished praise,
High on his helm celestial lightnings play,
His beamy shield emits a living ray;
The unwearied blaze incessant streams supplies,
Like the red star that fires the autumnal skies.
But Pallas now Tydides' soul inspires,
Fills with her rage, and warms with all her fires;
force
O'er all the Greeks decrees his fame to raise,
Above the Greeks her warrior's fame to raise,
his deathless
And crown her hero with immortal praise:
distinguished
Bright from his beamy crest the lightnings play,
High on helm
From his broad buckler flashed the living ray;
High on his helm celestial lightnings play,
His beamy shield emits a living ray;
The goddess with her breath the flame supplies,
Bright as the star whose fires in autumn rise;
Her breath divine thick streaming flames supplies,
Bright as the star that fires the autumnal skies:
The unwearied blaze incessant streams supplies,
Like the red star that fires the autumnal skies.
When fresh he rears his radiant orb to sight,
And bathed in ocean shoots a keener light,
Such glories Pallas on the chief bestowed,
Such from his arms the fierce effulgence flowed;
Onward she drives him, furious to engage,
Where the fight burns, and where the thickest rage.
When fresh he rears his radiant orb to sight,
And gilds old ocean with a blaze of light,
Bright as the star that fires the autumnal skies,
Fresh from the deep, and gilds the seas and skies:
Such glories Pallas on her chief bestowed,
Such sparkling rays from his bright armour flowed,
Such sparkling rays from his bright armour flowed,
Onward she drives him headlong to engage,
furious
Where the war bleeds, and where the fiercest rage.
fight burns, thickest
The sons of Dares first the combat sought,
A wealthy priest, but rich without a fault;
In Vulcan's fane the father's days were led,
The sons to toils of glorious battle bred;
There lived a Trojan--Dares was his name,
The priest of Vulcan, rich, yet void of blame;
The sons of Dares first the combat sought,
A wealthy priest, but rich without a fault.
Conclusion of Book VIII. v. 687.
As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night,
O'er heaven's clear azure spreads her sacred light,
When not a breath disturbs the deep serene,
And not a cloud o'ercasts the solemn scene;
Around her throne the vivid planets roll,
And stars unnumbered gild the glowing pole:
O'er the dark trees a yellower verdure shed,
And tip with silver every mountain's head:
Then shine the vales--the rocks in prospect rise,
A flood of glory bursts from all the skies;
The conscious swains, rejoicing in the sight,
Eye the blue vault, and bless the useful light.
So many flames before proud Ilion blaze,
And lighten glimmering Xanthus with their rays;
The long reflections of the distant fires
Gleam on the walls, and tremble on the spires.
A thousand piles the dusky horrors gild,
And shoot a shady lustre o'er the field;
Full fifty guards each flaming pile attend,
Whose umbered arms by fits thick flashes send;
Loud neigh the coursers o'er their heaps of corn,
And ardent warriors wait the rising morn.
As when in stillness of the silent night,
As when the moon in all her lustre bright,
As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night,
O'er Heaven's clear azure sheds her silver light;
pure spreads sacred
As still in air the trembling lustre stood,
And o'er its golden border shoots a flood;
When no loose gale disturbs the deep serene,
not a breath
And no dim cloud o'ercasts the solemn scene;
not a
Around her silver throne the planets glow,
And stars unnumbered trembling beams bestow;
Around her throne the vivid planets roll,
And stars unnumbered gild the glowing pole:
Clear gleams of light o'er the dark trees are seen,
o'er the dark trees a yellow sheds
O'er the dark trees a yellower green they shed,
gleam
verdure
And tip with silver all the mountain heads
forest
And tip with silver every mountain's head.
The valleys open, and the forests rise,
The vales appear, the rocks in prospect rise,
Then shine the vales, the rocks in prospect rise,
All nature stands revealed before our eyes;
A flood of glory bursts from all the skies.
The conscious shepherd, joyful at the sight,
Eyes the blue vault, and numbers every light.
The conscious swains rejoicing at the sight,
shepherds gazing with delight
Eye the blue vault, and bless the vivid light.
glorious
useful
So many flames before the navy blaze,
proud Ilion
And lighten glimmering Xanthus with their rays,
Wide o'er the fields to Troy extend the gleams,
And tip the distant spires with fainter beams;
The long reflections of the distant fires
Gild the high walls, and tremble on the spires;
Gleam on the walls, and tremble on the spires;
A thousand fires at distant stations bright,
Gild the dark prospect, and dispel the night.
Of these specimens every man who has cultivated poetry, or who
delights to trace the mind from the rudeness of its first
conceptions to the elegance of its last, will naturally desire a
The "Iliad" was published volume by volume, as the translation
heartily at my embarrassment:  said I had not been long enough
acquainted with Lord Halifax to know his way yet; that I need not
It is seldom that the great or the wise suspect that they are
country, which is really all the difference I set between an easy
country, there will appear a better reason; for I must of
consequence be very much (as I sincerely am) yours, &c."
These voluntary offers, and this faint acceptance, ended without
till he saw at what rate his praise was valued; he would be
"troublesome out of gratitude, not expectation."  Halifax thought
knew what he should receive.  Their commerce had its beginning in
kindness between friends, the beginning is often scarcely
discernible to themselves, and the process is continued by petty
provocations, and incivilities sometimes peevishly returned, and
officiously or insidiously quicken his attention to offences,
heighten his disgust, and stimulate his resentment.  Of such
Jervas the painter once pleased himself (August 20,1714) with
him.  When I came to the antechamber to wait, before prayers, Dr.
master of requests.  Then he instructed a young nobleman that the
translation of 'Homer' into English verse, for which HE MUST HAVE
print till _I_ HAVE a thousand guineas for him."
About this time it is likely that Steele, who was, with all his
political fury, good-natured and officious, procured an interview
opposed; and Addison affected a contemptuous unconcern, and in a
not, by too much arrogance, alienate the public.
To this Pope is said to have replied with great keenness and
The first volume of "Homer" was (1715) in time published; and a
rival version of the first "Iliad," for rivals the time of their
sufficiently resentful to Craggs, their common friend.
When Addison's opinion was asked, he declared the versions to be
both good, but Tickell's the best that had ever been written; and
Pope intended, at another time, a rigorous criticism of Tickell's
which he had abused both me and my relations very grossly.  Lord
Warwick himself told me one day that it was in vain for me to
following manner.  I then adjoined the first sketch of what has
since been called my satire on Addison.  Mr Addison used me very
civilly ever after."
The verses on Addison, when they were sent to Atterbury, were
subscription enabled to live more by choice, having persuaded his
afterwards procured so much celebration, and removed thither with
A grotto is not often the wish or pleasure of all Englishmen, who
amusements seem frivolous and childish.  Whether it be that men,
While the volumes of his "Homer" were annually published, he
elegance, which was afterwards reprinted, with some passages
gotten by himself, he had traded very successfully in times when
sudden riches were rarely attainable.
In this disastrous year (1720) of national infatuation, when more
hundred and seventeen pounds twelve shillings, he seems never to
have reflected afterwards without vexation; for Theobald a man of
character.  From this time Pope became an enemy to editors,
attention upon his works, which, though often mentioned, had been
"Odyssey," as he had said of the "Iliad," he says that he had
In 1723, while he was engaged in this new version, he appeared
before the Lords at the memorable trial of Bishop Atterbury, with
Broome, who was not over liberally rewarded.  The public was
carefully kept ignorant of the several shares; and an account was
On the English "Odyssey" a criticism was published by Spence, at
that time Prelector of Poetry at Oxford, a man whose learning was
criticism, however, was commonly just; what he thought he thought
great familiarity, attended him in his last hours, and compiled
inserted the "Memoirs of a Parish Clerk," in ridicule of Burnet's
were often committed for papers of uncertain and accidental value
essays were in danger where gold and diamonds are safe.  A cat
printed them.
account, occasion to the "Dunciad."
defend themselves.  At the head of the "Dunces" he placed poor
interposing in the quarrel, got a place in a subsequent edition,
complained that for a time he was in danger of starving, as the
booksellers had no longer any confidence in his capacity.  The
prevalence of this poem was gradual and slow:  the plan, if not
wholly new, was little understood by common readers.  Many of the
sympathises with the sorrows of vanity.
The history of the "Dunciad" is very minutely related by Pope
"When Dr. Swift and Mr. Pope thought it proper, for reasons
specified in the preface to their 'Miscellanies,' to publish such
peculiar right over their names as was necessary to this design.
whole impression was taken and dispersed by several noblemen and
persons of the first distinction.
"Many ludicrous circumstances attended it.  The 'Dunces' (for by
this name they were called) held weekly clubs, to consult of
hostilities against the author.  One wrote a letter to a great
minister, assuring him Mr. Pope was the greatest enemy the
distinguished, to the great honour also of the gentlemen of the
indulges the common vanity of common men, and triumphs in those
distinctions which he affected to despise.  He is proud that his
believe, that which, by telling in the text the names, and in the
intelligible and diverting.  The critics had now declared their
approbation of the plan, and the common reader began to like it
without fear.  Those who were strangers to petty literature, and
effects of those shafts of malice which they had hitherto
contemplated as shot into the air.
resentment in the newspapers by epigrams or invectives.  Ducket,
indeed, being mentioned as loving Burnet with "pious passion,"
pretended that his moral character was injured, and for some time
represented as diving for the prize, expostulated with Pope in a
manner so much superior to all mean solicitation, that Pope was
reduced to sneak and shuffle, sometimes to deny, and sometimes to
After this general war upon dulness, he seems to have indulged
himself a while in tranquillity, but his subsequent productions
supposed, and by the Earl of Burlington, to whom the poem is
addressed, was privately said, to mean the Duke of Chandos, a man
ingratitude and treachery of Pope, who was said to have been
indebted to the patronage of Chandos for a present of a thousand
pounds, and who gained the opportunity of insulting him by the
character so amiable brought upon him, he tried all means of
between them, it had been less easily excused.
almost persuade him, to write no more, which is a compliment this
ridiculous, for the world can easily go on without him, and in a
The following year deprived him of Gay, a man whom he had known
early, and whom he seemed to love with more tenderness than any
One of the passages of Pope's life, which seems to deserve some
bookseller, of no good fame, were by him printed and sold.  This
volume containing some letters from noblemen, Pope incited a
prosecution against him in the House of Lords for breach of
purchase to his own advantage.  That Curll gave a true account of
which no price had ever been demanded, as he made known his
suppressed; but, as they had been already exposed, it was
impracticable now to retract them.  From the perusal of those
letters, Mr. Allen first conceived the desire of knowing him; and
property by a genuine edition, he offered to pay the cost.  This,
sufficient profit.  In the preface he tells that his letters were
prepare the public for such an incident; and, to strengthen this
Curll.  When they were thus published and avowed, as they had
literary, were little known, or little regarded, they awaked no
popular kindness or resentment.  The book never became much the
subject of conversation.  Some read it as a contemporary history,
praise or public censure.  It had, however, in some degree, the
recommendation of novelty.  Our language had few letters, except
Pope is seen in this collection as connected with the other
contemporary wits, and certainly suffers no disgrace in the
comparison; but it must be remembered that he had the power of
writes afterwards with complete ease.  Pope may be said to write
whom he had personally offended, and to those whose opinion the
world considered as decisive, and whom he suspected of envy or
"Expatiate freely o'er this scene of man,
for which he wrote afterwards,
"A mighty maze, BUT NOT WITHOUT A PLAN;"
The other alteration was of these lines:-
"And spike of pride, AND IN THY REASON'S SPITE,
One truths is clear, whatever is, is right:
but having afterwards discovered, or been shown, that the "truth"
"And spite of pride IN ERRING REASON'S SPITE."
The second and third epistles were published, and Pope was, I
have ridiculed Pope, among those who enjoyed his confidence, as
concealed, and for a time flourished in the sunshine of universal
French prose, and afterwards by Resnel into verse.  Both
reprinted Resnel's version, with particular remarks upon every
paragraph.
metaphysical systems of theology, and all schemes of virtue and
fervid and vehement, supplied by incessant and unlimited inquiry,
scholar, the reasoner, and the wit.  But his knowledge was too
opposition disposed him to treat his adversaries with such
sentences are unmeasured.  He had in the early part of his life
The arrogance of Warburton excited against him every artifice of
differently at different times of poetical merit may be easily
allowed.  Such opinions are often admitted, and dismissed without
changing his mind about questions of greater importance?
"Sir,--I have just received from Mr. R. two more of your letters.
By this fond and eager acceptance of an exculpatory comment Pope
intentionally attacked religion; and Bolingbroke, if he meant to
parted with mutual aversion.  From this time Pope lived in the
closest intimacy with his commentator, and amply rewarded his
Pope lived at this time AMONG THE GREAT, with that reception and
respect to which his works entitled him, and which he had not
Richmond, Queen Caroline had declared her intention to visit him.
never been offered had never been refused.
Bathurst," in which Bathurst is introduced as speaking.  He
invariable tendency, and operates upon the whole system of life,
either openly, cut more secretly by the intervention of some
predominating humour, but by the first book which they read, some
country, for society politically regulated is a state
contradistinguished from a state of nature, and any attention to
predestination or over-ruling principle which cannot be resisted.
resistless authority of his ruling passion.
after, in an epistle supposed to have been addressed to Martha
Blount, but which the last edition has taken from her, the
"Characters of Women."  This poem, which was laboured with great
diligence and in the author's opinion with great success, was
neglected at its first publication, as the commentator supposes,
because the public was informed by an advertisement that it
subject was vice too high to be yet exposed.  The time, however,
great honour to the writer's gratitude.
originally said of Ennius, and accommodating his satires on
public.  Pope seems to have known their imbecility and therefore
The "Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot," which seems to be derived in its
should have been missed by Arbuthnot, a man estimable for his
learning, amiable for his life, and venerable for his piety.
Arbuthnot was a man of great comprehension, skilful in his
profession, versed in the sciences, acquainted with ancient
literature, and able to animate his mass of knowledge by a bright
ardour of religious zeal.  In this poem Pope seems to reckon with
lines upon Addison, of which the last couplet has been twice
corrected.  It was at first -
"Who would not smile if such a man there be?
Who would not laugh if Addison were he?"
"Who would not grieve if such a man there be?
Who would not laugh if Addison were he?"
At last it is -
"Who but must laugh if such a man there he?
Who would not weep if Atticus were he?"
He was at this time at open war with Lord Hervey, who had
distinguished himself as a steady adherent to the ministry, and
invective against Pope, whom he calls, "Hard as thy heart, and as
others; which Fox in a reply to Lyttelton, took an opportunity of
About this time Paul Whitehead, a small poet, was summoned before
escaped, but Dodsley's shop and family made his appearance
prevailing over the corruption of the time.  He was not likely to
should be more safe if he were less busy.
polite letters.  If the whole may be estimated by this specimen,
which seems to be the production of Arbuthnot, with a few touches
cures diseases that were never felt.  For this reason this joint
The design cannot boast of much originality; for, besides its
general resemblance to "Don Quixote," there will be found in it
particular imitations of the "History of Mr. Ouffle."
contented, though the rest had been suppressed.
consulted the modern writers of Latin poetry, a class of authors
whom Boileau endeavoured to bring into contempt, and who are too
generally neglected.  Pope, however, was not ashamed of their
volumes, but injuriously omitted his predecessor's preface.  To
these books, which had nothing but the mere text, no regard was
"If ever I write any more Epistles in verse, one of them shall be
Reason and Science.  2. A view of the useful and therefore
these, exemplified by Pictures, Characters, and Examples."
This work in its full extent--being now afflicted with an asthma,
other worthless scribblers, he had mentioned Cibber, who, in his
"Apology," complains of the great Poet's unkindness as more
injurious, "because," says he, "I never have offended him."
It might have been expected that Pope should have been in some
degree mollified by this submissive gentleness, but no such
consequence appeared.  Though he condescended to commend Cibber
once, he mentioned him afterwards contemptuously in one of his
resolution from that time never to bear another blow without
returning it, and to tire out his adversary by perseverance if he
The incessant and unappeasable malignity of Pope he imputes to a
theatrical transactions, he said, that he once thought to have
declare, that as often as he played that part he would repeat the
understanding, that, from a contention like his with Cibber, the
"Dunciad;" but he had the fate of Cassandra.  I gave no credit to
Cibber, according to his engagement, repaid the "Dunciad" with
painter on a visit, when one of Cibber's pamphlets came into the
anguish:  and young Richardson said to his father, when they
longer strained his faculties with any original composition, nor
proposed any other employment for his remaining life than the
revisal and correction of his former works, in which he received
advice and assistance from Warburton, whom he appears to have
Ruffhead, by which it appears that Pope was thoughtless enough to
practice of physic, forced himself up into sudden reputation.
dismiss him.
While he was yet capable of amusement and conversation, as he was
liking his errand, crossed his legs and sat still; but Lord
Marchmont, who was younger and less captious, waited on the lady,
approach the chamber of sickness as female weakness, or human
frailty; perhaps he was conscious to himself of peevishness and
suffered his heart to be alienated from her, he could have found
think.  Bolingbroke sometimes wept over him in this state of
helpless decay; and being told by Spence, that Pope, at the
seemed to have survived his understanding, answered, "It has so."
suppressed his voice.
Twickenham, near his father and mother, where a monument has been
He left the care of his papers to his executors; first to Lord
Bolingbroke, and, if he should not be living, to the Earl of
solicit preference as the publisher, and was told that the parcel
printed than were allowed; but, soon after his death, the printer
danger from the example.  Bolingbroke, however, was not yet
employed Mallet, another friend of Pope, to tell the tale to the
shown to a number more than sufficient to preserve the author's
indecent arrogance that she parted from Mrs. Allen in a state of
irreconcilable dislike, and the door was for ever barred against
her.  This exclusion she resented with so much bitterness as to
refuse any legacy from Pope unless he left the world with a
disavowal of obligation to Allen.  Having been long under her
lover, persuaded that she had suffered improper treatment, he
complied with her demand, and polluted his will with female
resentment.  Allen accepted the legacy, which he gave to the
nearer to the truth.
The person of Pope is well known not to have been formed by the
behind and before.  He is said to have been beautiful in his
infancy, but he was of a constitution originally feeble and weak;
coffee, which he very frequently required.
Most of what can be told concerning his petty peculiarities was
communicated by a female domestic of the Earl of Oxford, who knew
"C'est que l'enfant toujours est homme,
C'est que l'homme est toujours enfant."
The reputation which his friendship gave procured him many
invitations, but he was a very troublesome inmate.  He brought no
call, she would not ask for wages.  He had another fault, easily
incident to those who, suffering much pain, think themselves
luxury, which he did not suffer to stand neglected.  The death of
pertinacious diligence of study and meditation.  In all his
intercourse with mankind he had great delight in artifice, and
small occasions, that Lady Bolingbroke used to say, in a French
attributed to no particular motive, must have proceeded from his
Bolingbroke.  In familiar or convivial conversation, it does not
apophthegm only stands upon record.  When an objection, raised
against his inscription for Shakespeare, was defended by the
He was fretful and easily displeased, and allowed himself to be
capriciously resentful.  He would sometimes leave Lord Oxford
Of his domestic character, frugality was a part eminently
remarkable.  Having determined not to be dependent, he determined
petty artifices of parsimony, such as the practice of writing his
scantiness of entertainment, as, when he had two guests in his
house, he would set at supper a single pint upon the table; and
having himself taken two small glasses, would retire, and say,
"Gentlemen.  I leave you to your wine."  Yet he tells his friends
amounted only to about eight hundred pounds a year, of which,
very honourably obtained, his imagination seems to have been too
possessions, seems to be that of enumerating the men of high rank
poets have ever aspired.  Pope never set genius to sale; he never
consequence.  To his latter works, however, he took care to annex
perpetual and unclouded effulgence of general benevolence, and
particular fondness.  There is nothing but liberality, gratitude,
transaction which offers strange temptations to fallacy and
sophistication than epistolary intercourse.  In the eagerness of
reader, and takes his chance of approbation among the different
show more severity than knowledge.  The writer commonly believes
certainly not sincere, for his high value of himself was
sufficiently observed; and of what could he be proud but of his
dreadful winter of Forty, she was called from her bed by him four
perpetual vexation; but he wished to despise his critics, and
sometimes pleased, with the natural emotions of common men.  His
lives among them.  It is evident that his own importance swells
might live, very few were so much fools as ever to inquire.  Some
expresses it, I think, most frequently in his correspondence with
amidst ignorance and barbarity, unable to find among their
contemporaries either virtue or intelligence, and persecuted by
those that could not understand them.
carelessness; he was irritable and resentful; his malignity to
contemptible I never heard any adequate reason.  He was sometimes
ungrateful mention of Allen in his will was the effect of his
adherence to one whom he had known much longer, and whom he
almost to enforce belief, that in the papers entrusted to his
executors was found a defamatory Life of Swift, which he had
prepared as an instrument of vengeance, to be used if any
remains.
The religion in which he lived and died was that of the Church of
applications of sentences taken from the Scriptures, a mode of
levities he has been betrayed, it does not appear that his
A man of such exalted superiority and so little moderation would
books.  When he entered into the living world it seems to have
happened to him, as to many others, that he was less attentive to
excursive, vigorous, and diligent, eager to pursue knowledge, and
Of his intellectual character, the constituent and fundamental
principle was good sense, a prompt and intuitive perception of
possessions well, but does not increase them; it collects few
materials for its own operations, and preserves safety, but never
suggested, but what he had found in other writers that might be
accommodated to his present purpose.  These benefits of Nature he
information; he consulted the living as well as the dead; he read
found containing lines, or parts of lines, to be wrought upon at
some other time.  He was one of those few whose labour is their
pleasure; he was never elevated to negligence nor wearied to
reputation, and afterwards to keep it.
Of composition there are different methods.  Some employ at once
their productions only when, in their own opinion, they have
first thoughts in his first words, and gradually to amplify,
decorate, rectify, and refine them.  With such faculties and such
reputation.  Of this uniformity the certain consequence was
subjects chosen by himself.  His independence secured him from
drudging at a task, and labouring upon a barren topic; he never
exchanged praise for money, nor opened a shop of condolence or
reduced to the necessity of soliciting the sun to shine upon a
birthday, of calling the graces and virtues to a wedding, or of
Integrity of understanding and nicety of discernment were not
poetical prejudices, and the rejection of unnatural thoughts and
true.  His parental attention never abandoned them; what he found
many improvements after its first appearance.  It will seldom be
In acquired knowledge, the superiority must be allowed to Dryden,
author had been allowed more time for study, with better means of
images and illustrations from a more extensive circumference of
comprehensive speculation, and those of Pope by minute attention.
levelled by the roller.
inferred that of this poetical vigour Pope had only a little,
because Dryden had more; for every other writer since Milton must
performances were always hasty, either excited by some external
occasion, or extorted by domestic necessity; he composed without
consideration, and published without correction.  What his mind
could supply at call, or gather in one excursion, was all that he
expectation, and Pope never falls below it.  Dryden is read with
frequent astonishment, and Pope with perpetual delight.  This
parallel will, I hope, when it is well considered, be found just;
The Works of Pope are now to be distinctly examined, not so much
admit no subtle reasoning or deep inquiry.  Pope's pastorals are
invention, is to require what was never intended.  The imitations
versification which had in English poetry no precedent, nor has
since had an imitation.
subordination of parts terminating in the principal and original
design.  There is this want in most descriptive poems, because as
praise are those which were added to enliven the stillness of the
easier than to tell how a flower was once a blooming virgin, or a
The "Temple of Fame" has, as Steele warmly declared, a "thousand
beauties."  Every part is splendid; there is great luxuriance of
ornaments; the original vision of Chaucer was never denied to be
mentioned with either praise or blame.
The "Verses on the Unfortunate Lady" have drawn much attention by
they must be allowed to be written in some parts with vigorous
animation, and in others with gentle tenderness; nor has Pope
produced any poem in which the sense predominates more over the
diction.  But the tale is not skilfully told; it is not easy to
uncle, but never by his pride.  On such an occasion a poet may be
The "Ode for St. Cecilia's Day" was undertaken at the desire of
Steele:  in this the author is generally confessed to have
might properly be made to a modern Pindarist as Mr. Cobb received
exercise, which Cobb had presented, refuted one after another by
Pindar's authority, cried out at last, "Pindar was a bold fellow,
rigour, not unworthy the antagonist of Dryden.  Had all been like
principles and insensible of its effects.
every mode of excellence that can embellish or dignify didactic
To mention the particular beauties of the essay would be
unprofitably tedious:  but I cannot forbear to observe that the
these qualities may be sufficient to recommend it.  In didactic
were sometimes added, which, having no parallels, served only to
writers have sometimes failed; the ship-race, compared with the
sound is to be mentioned.  The time of pronunciation was in the
little flexibility, our verses can differ very little in their
"With many a weary step, and many a groan,
Up a high hill he heaves a huge round stone;
The huge round stone, resulting with a bound,
Thunders impetuous down, and smokes along the ground."
Who does not perceive the stone to move slowly upward, and roll
violently back?  But set the same numbers to another sense:-
"While many a merry tale, and many a song,
Cheered the rough road, we wished the rough road long.
The rough road, then, returning in a round,
Mocked our impatient steps, for all was fairy ground."
remark that the poet who tells us that -
"When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,
The line too labours, and the words move slow:
Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain,
Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main;"
"Waller was smooth; but Dryden taught to join
The varying verse, the full resounding line,
The long majestic march, and energy divine."
Here are the swiftness of the rapid race, and the march of slow-
paced majesty, exhibited by the same poet in the same sequence of
purposes of the poem.  The heathen deities can no longer gain
conviction of its own absurdity; they may produce effects, but
cannot conduct actions; when the phantom is put in motion it
dissolves; thus Discord may raise a mutiny, but Discord cannot
operation.  The Sylphs and Gnomes act at the toilet and the tea-
poetical existence?  If this is not sufficient to denominate his
work original, nothing original ever can be written.
In this work are exhibited in a very high degree the two most
engaging powers of an author.  New things are made familiar, and
invested with so much art of decoration that, though nothing is
fastidiously away.
single crush of overwhelming evil, but from small vexatious
The Epistle of "Eloise to Abelard" is one of the most happy
find another which so many circumstances concur to recommend.  We
translators, but I can hear of no version, unless, perhaps,
necessity to turn the Greek and Roman poetry into prose.  Whoever
from Homer; and part of the debt was now paid by his translator.
tongue; for since its appearance no writer, however deficient in
other powers, has wanted melody.  Such a series of lines, so
learned wondered at the translation.  But in the most general
applause discordant voices will always be heard.  It has been
necessitas quod cogit defendit; that may be lawfully done which
general fabric with that of Homer, in verses of the same measure,
endured no longer; and, perhaps, in the multitude of borrowed
passages, very few can be shown which he has not embellished.
intellect soon becomes luxurious, and knowledge finds no willing
reception till it is recommended by artificial diction.  Thus it
English "Iliad," when they have been touched with some unexpected
character; but to have added can be no great crime, if nothing be
therefore made him graceful, but lost him some of his sublimity.
The copious notes with which the version is accompanied, and by
which it is recommended to many readers, though they were
clear difficulties; those of Pope to vary entertainment.  It has,
than childish merriment.
Of the "Odyssey" nothing remains to be observed; the same general
Of the "Dunciad" the hint is confessedly taken from Dryden's "Mac
In this design there was petulance and malignity enough; but I
cannot think it very criminal.  An author places himself uncalled
reprehension, what should restrain them? impune diem consumpserit
alterations which have been made in the "Dunciad," not always for
The "Essay on Man" was a work of great labour and long
consideration, but certainly not the happiest of Pope's
performances.  The subject is perhaps not very proper for poetry;
metaphysical morality was to him a new study; he was proud of his
deduced an order of beings such as mankind, because infinite
Having exalted himself into the chair of wisdom, he tells us much
chain of subordinate beings "from infinite to nothing," of which
position "that though we are fools, yet God is wise."
This essay affords an egregious instance of the predominance of
sentiment so happily disguised.  The reader feels his mind full,
wonder-working sounds sink into sense, and the doctrine of the
part, but to act it well; that virtue only is our own; and that
happiness is always in our power.  Surely a man of no very
embellishments, or such sweetness of melody.  The vigorous
The "Characters of Men and Women" are the product of diligent
speculation upon human life; much labour has been bestowed upon
them, and Pope very seldom laboured in vain.  That his excellence
"Characters of Women" with Boileau's Satire; it will then be seen
The Epistle to Arbuthnot, now arbitrarily called the "Prologue to
stronger motive to exertion than self-defence, no part has more
remarked by Savage that the second was in the whole more strongly
passages equal to the contention in the first for the dignity of
Vice and the celebration of the triumph of Corruption.
irreconcilable dissimilitude, and the works will be generally
things from its concomitants, often makes the representation more
multiplicity of Homer's sentiments and descriptions.
Poetical expression includes sound as well as meaning.  "Music,"
says Dryden, "is inarticulate poetry;" among the excellences of
Pope, therefore, must be mentioned the melody of his metre.  By
censured as too uniformly musical, and as glutting the ear with
unvaried sweetness.  I suspect this objection to be the cant of
lines and vary his pauses.  But though he was thus careful of his
opinion of Fenton, too rarely; he uses them more liberally in his
Expletives he very early ejected from his verses, but he now and
then admits an epithet rather commodious than important.  Each of
French idioms, with which Bolingbroke had perhaps infected him.
"Lo, where Maeotis sleeps, and hardly flows
The freezing Tanais through a waste of snows."
But the reason of this preference I cannot discover.
regular collection, is not unlikely.  When, in his last years,
Hall's "Satires" were shown him, he wished that he had seen them
sooner.  New sentiments and new images others may produce; but to
translator, without requiring any other evidence of genius.
"To MR. BRIDGES, at the Bishop of London's, at Fulham.
"SIR,--The favour of your letter, with your remarks, can never be
troublesome a task doubles the obligation.
"I must own you have pleased me very much by the commendations so
judgment than to be smoothed in his vanity.  The greater part of
those deviations from the Greek which you have observed I was led
badness of their translations.  Chapman pretends to have restored
author's meaning to be as you have explained it; yet their
authority, joined to the knowledge of my own imperfectness in the
shall make my profit of them; to give you some proof that I am in
commentators.  But, though I speak thus of commentators, I will
continue to read carefully all I can procure, to make up that way
force, that no man who has a true poetical spirit is master of
himself while he reads him.  Homer makes you interested and
obliged to renders them heavy and dispirited.
"The great beauty of Homer's language, as I take it, consists in
think myself obliged to your friendship, and how truly I am, sir,
"Your most faithful humble servant,
The criticism upon Pope's Epitaphs, which was printed in "The
Every art is best taught by example.  Nothing contributes more to
To define an epitaph is useless; every one knows that it is an
On CHARLES Earl of DORSET, in the church of Wythyham in Sussex.
Dorset, the grace of courts, the Muse's pride,
Patron of arts, and judge of nature, died.
The scourge of pride, though sanctified or great,
Of fops in learning, and of knaves in state;
Yet soft in nature, though severe his lay,
His anger moral, and his wisdom gay.
Blest satirist! who touched the means so true,
As showed Vice had his hate and pity too.
Blest courtier! who could king and country please,
Yet sacred kept his friendship and his ease.
Blest peer! his great forefathers' every grace
Reflecting, and reflected on his race;
Where other Buckhursts, other Dorsets shine,
And patriots still, or pests, deck the line.
The first distich of this epitaph contains a kind of information
which few would want, that the man for whom the tomb was erected
The scourge of pride -
Of this couplet the second line is not what is intended, an
illustration of the former.  PRIDE in the GREAT, is indeed well
enough connected with knaves in state, though KNAVES is a word
formidable than foppery.
Yet soft his nature -
Blest satirist! -
Blest courtier! -
Whether a courtier can properly be commended for keeping his EASE
without sacrificing friendship to any change of times was a very
friendship sacred, because promises of friendship are very awful
Blest peer! -
The blessing ascribed to the PEER has no connection with his
peerage; they might happen to any other man whose posterity were
likely to be regarded.
I know not whether this epitaph be worthy either of the writer or
A pleasing form, a firm, yet cautious mind,
Sincere, though prudent; constant, yet resigned;
Honour unchanged, a principle profest.
Fixed to one side, but moderate to the rest;
An honest courtier, yet a patriot too,
Just to his prince, and to his country true;
Filled with the sense of age, the fire of youth,
A scorn of wrangling, yet a zeal for truth;
A generous faith, from superstition free;
A love to peace, and hate of tyranny;
Such this man was; who new from earth removed
At length enjoys that liberty he loved.
concealed?  An epitaph, and a history of a nameless hero, are
equally absurd, since the virtues and qualities so recounted in
striking or particular; but the poet is not to be blamed for the
neglected, except where the length of the poem makes slight
inaccuracies excusable, or allows room for beauties sufficient to
At the beginning of the seventh line the word FILLED is weak and
prosaic, having no particular adaptation to any of the words that
On the Hon. SIMON HARCOURT, only son of the Lord Chancellor
HARCOURT, at the Church of Stanton-Harcourt in Oxfordshire, 1720.
To this sad shrine, whoe'er thou art, draw near,
Here lies the friend most loved, the son most dear;
Who ne'er knew joy, but friendship might divide,
Or gave his father grief but when he died.
How vain is reason, eloquence how weak!
If Pope must tell what Harcourt cannot speak.
Oh let thy once-loved friend inscribe thy stone,
And with a father's sorrows mix his own!
twice, and which cannot be copied but with servile imitation.  I
cannot but wish that, of this inscription, the two last lines had
On JAMES CRAGGS, Esq., in Westminster Abbey.
Statesman, yet friend to truth; of soul sincere,
In action faithful, and in honour clear!
Who broke no premise, served no private end,
Who gained no title, and who lost no friend;
Ennobled by himself, by all approved,
Praised, wept, and honoured by the Muse he loved.
however, observe some defects.  There is a redundancy of words in
Intended for Mr. ROWE, in Westminster Abbey.
Thy reliques, Rowe, to this fair urn we trust,
And sacred, place by Dryden's awful dust;
Beneath a rude and nameless stone he lies,
To which thy tomb shall guide inquiring eyes.
Peace to thy gentle shade, and endless rest!
Blest in thy genius, in thy love too blest;
One grateful women to thy fame supplies
What a whole thankless land to his denies.
serious over the grave.
On Mrs. CORBET, who died of a Cancer in her Breast.
Here rests a woman, good without pretence,
Blest with plain reason, and with sober sense;
No conquest she, but o'er herself, desired;
No arts essayed, but not to be admired.
Passion and pride were to her soul unknown,
Convinced that Virtue only is our own.
So unaffected, so composed a mind,
So firm, yet soft, so strong, yet so refined,
Heaven, as its purest gold, by tortures tried;
The saint sustained it, but the woman died.
I have always considered this as the most valuable of all Pope's
such a character, which the dull overlook and the gay despise, it
established.  Domestic virtue, as it is exerted without great
occasions, or conspicuous consequences, in an even unnoted tenor,
that this amiable woman has no name in the verses?  If the
particular lines of this inscription be examined, it will appear
less faulty than the rest.  There is scarce one line taken from
panegyric.  Of this let the ladies judge.
On the Monument of the Hon. ROBERT DIGBY, and of his Sister MARY,
Go! fair example of untainted youth,
Of modest wisdom, and pacific truth:
Composed in sufferings, and in joy sedate,
Good without noise, without pretension great
Just of thy word, in every thought sincere,
Who knew no wish but what the world might hear:
Of softest manners, unaffected mind,
Lover of peace, and friend of human kind:
Go, live! for heaven's eternal year is thine,
Go, and exalt thy mortal to divine.
And thou, blest maid! attendant on his doom.
Pensive hast followed to the silent tomb,
Steered the same course to the same quiet shore,
Not parted long, and now to part no more!
Go, then, where only bliss sincere is known!
Go, where to love and to enjoy are one!
Yet take these tears, Mortality's relief,
And, till we share your joys, forgive our grief:
These little rites a stone, a verse receive.
'Tis all a father, all a friend can give!
better connected.
On Sir GODFREY KNELLER, in Westminster Abbey, 1723.
Kneller, by Heaven, and not a master, taught,
Whose art was Nature, and whose pictures thought;
Now for two ages, having snatched from fate
Whate'er was beauteous, or whate'er was great,
Lies crowned with Princes, honours, Poets, lays,
Due to his merit, and brave thirst of praise.
Living, great Nature feared he might outvie
Her works; and dying, fears herself may die.
construction.
On General HENRY WITHERS, in Westminster Abbey, 1729.
Here, Withers, rest! thou bravest, gentlest mind,
Thy country's friend, but more of human kind.
O born to arms!  O worth in youth approved!
O soft humanity in age beloved!
For thee the hardy veteran drops a tear,
And the gay courtier feels the sigh sincere
Withers, adieu! yet not will thee remove
Thy martial spirit, or thy social love!
Amidst corruption, luxury, and rage,
Still leave some ancient virtues to our age:
Nor let us say (those English glories gone)
The last true Briton lies beneath this stone.
The epitaph on Withers affords another instance of commonplaces,
though somewhat diversified by mingled qualities, and the
On Mr. ELIJAH FENTON, at Easthamstead in Berkshire, 1730.
This modest stone, what few vain marbles can,
May truly say, Here lies an honest man:
A poet, blest beyond the poet's fate,
Whom Heaven kept sacred from the Proud and Great:
Foe to loud praise, and friend to learned ease,
Content with science in the vale of peace.
Calmly he looked on either life, and here
Saw nothing to regret or there to fear;
From Nature's temperate feast rose satisfied,
Thanked Heaven that he lived, and that he died.
The first couplet of this epitaph is borrowed from Crashaw.  The
On Mr. GAY, in Westminster Abbey, 1732.
Of manners gentle, of affections mild;
In wit, a muse; simplicity, a child:
With native humour tempering virtuous rage,
Formed to delight at once and lash the age:
Above temptation, in a low estate,
And uncorrupted, ev'n among the Great:
A safe companion and an easy friend,
Unbiased through life, lamented in thy end,
These are thy honours! not that here thy bust
Is mixed with heroes, or with kings thy dust;
But that the worthy and the Good shall say,
Striking their pensive bosoms--Here lies GAY.
As Gay was the favourite of our author this epitaph was probably
written with an uncommon degree of attention, yet it is not more
only echoes of each other; GENTLE MANNERS and MILD AFFECTIONS, if
In the next couplet RAGE is less properly introduced after the
improper.  To be ABOVE TEMPTATION in poverty and FREE FROM
As little can be added to his character by asserting that he was
The first eight lines have no grammar; the adjectives are without
still fewer approve.
Intended for Sir ISAAC NEWTON, in Westminster Abbey.
Mortalem hoc marmor fatetur.
Nature, and Nature's laws, lay hid in night:
God said, Let Newton be!  And all was light.
If modest youth, with cool reflection crowned,
And every opening virtue blooming round,
Could save a parent's justest pride from fate,
Or add one patriot to a sinking state;
This weeping marble had not asked thy tear,
Or sadly told how many hopes lie here!
The living virtue now had shone approved,
The senate heard him, and his country loved.
Yet softer honours, and less noisy fame,
Attend the shade of gentle Buckingham:
In whom a race, for courage famed and art,
Ends in the milder merit of the heart;
And, chiefs or sages long to Britain given,
Pays the last tribute of a saint to heaven.
something like tautology; the six following lines are poor and
excellent.
"Under this stone, or under this sill,
Or under this turf, &c."
state of uncertainty, yet it could not be laid over him till his
"Ludovici Areosti humantur ossa
Sub hoc marmore, vel sub hac humo, seu
Sub quicquid voluit benignus haeres
Siv haerede benignior comes, seu
Opportunius incidens Viator:
Nam scire haud potuit futura, sed nec
Tanti erat vacuum sibi cadaver
Ut utnam cuperet parere vivens,
Vivens ista tamen sibi paravit.
Quae inscribi voluit suo sepulchro
Olim siquod haberetis sepulchrum."