ON HIS GROTTO AT TWICKENHAM,

COMPOSED OF

MARBLES, SPARS, GEMS, ORES, AND MINERALS.

THOU who shalt stop, where Thames' translucent wave
Shines a broad Mirror through the shadowy Cave;
Where ling'ring drops from min'ral Roofs distil,
And pointed Crystals break the sparkling Rill,
Unpolish'd Gems no ray on Pride bestow,
And latent Metals innocently glow:

Approach. Great NATURE studiously behold!
And eye the Mine without a wish for Gold.

5

Approach: But awful! Lo! the Aegerian Grot,
Where, nobly pensive, ST. JOHN sate and thought; 10

NOTES.

On his Grotto] The improving and finishing his Grot was the favourite amusement of his declining years; and the beauty of his poetic genius, in the disposition and ornaments of this romantic recess, appears to as much advantage as in his best contrived Poems.-Warburton.

Ver. 8. eye the Mine]

"Aurum irrepertum, et sic melius situm

Cum terra celet."-Horat. l. 3. od. 3.

Ver. 9. Aegerian Grot,] These are two charming lines; but are blemished by two bad rhymes, Grot to Thought; scarce excusable in so short a poem, in which every syllable ought to be correct.

It is remarkable that Juvenal, having mentioned this celebrated cave, takes occasion to inveigh against artificial grotto-work, and adulterating the simple beauties of nature, in lines uncommonly poetical:

"In vallem Egeriæ descendimus, et speluncas
Dissimiles veris ; quanto præstantius esset
Numen aquæ, viridi si margine clauderet undas
Herba, nec ingenuum violarent marmora tophum!"

Sat. iii. v. 17.

Milton, in an exquisite Latin poem, addressed to Salsillus, vol. ii. p. 532, has beautifully feigned that Numa is still living in this dark grove and grotto, in the perpetual enjoyment of his Egeria.-Warton.

Ver 10. Where, nobly pensive, ST. JOHN] Lord Bolingbroke's account of

After Ver. 6. in the MS.

VARIATIONS.

You see that Island's wealth, where, only free,

Earth to her entrails feels not Tyranny.

i. e. Britain is the only place in the globe which feels not tyranny even to its very entrails.-Warburton.

Where British sighs from dying WYNDHAM stole,
And the bright flame was shot through MARCHMONT'S

Soul.

Let such, such only, tread this sacred Floor,

Who dare to love their Country, and be poor.

NOTES.

the conversations, and manner of Pope's friends passing their time in his Garden, is not uninteresting:

"All I dare promise you is, that my thoughts, in what order soever they flow, shall be communicated to you, just as they pass through my mind, just as they used to be when we conversed together on these or any other subject, when we sauntered alone, or, as we have often done, with good Arbuthnot, and the jocose Dean of St. Patrick, among the multiplied scenes of your little Garden." Letter to Sir William Wyndham.-Bowles.

Ver. 11. Dying Wyndham] Sir William Wyndham was a most upright and amiable man, and conscientiously attached to the exiled House of James. Born of a Tory family; "imbued," says Mr. Coxe, "from his earlier years with notions of Divine right, he uniformly opposed the succession of the House of Brunswick."

By marriage, in the reign of Edward the Sixth, with the daughter of Sir John Sydenham, of Orchard, the elder line of the ancient family of this name, from Wymondham in Norfolk, was settled at Orchard, since called Orchard Wyndham, in Somersetshire. Sir William was lineally descended from this branch. He was born in the year 1686, and upon the death of his father, succeeded to the title of Baronet. He married in 1708, Lady Catherine Seymour, daughter of Charles, Duke of Somerset.

Pope's connexion with him was probably owing to Lord Bolingbroke, through life his intimate friend, and with whom he kept up a constant correspondence, which was continued with his son, afterwards Earl of Egremont, till the death of Lord Bolingbroke. Under Lord Oxford's administration he was made Master of the Buck-Hounds, and was afterwards Secretary at War, and Chancellor of the Exchequer. For obvious reasons, he experienced a great reverse of fortune on the accession of George I. and was committed to the Tower in 1716. He was released under bail, and continued to be highly respected for his probity and abilities. He died in 1740.-Bowles.

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 11. Where British sighs from dying Wyndham stole,] In his MS. it was thus:

To Wyndham's breast the patriot passions stole, which made the whole allude to a certain anecdote of not much consequence to any but the parties concerned.-Warburton.

TO MR. GAY,

WHO HAD CONGRATULATED MR. POPE ON FINISHING HIS

HOUSE AND GARDENS.

"AH, friend! 'tis true-this truth you lovers know—
In vain my structures rise, my gardens grow,
In vain fair Thames reflects the double scenes
Of hanging mountains, and of sloping greens:
Joy lives not here, to happier seats it flies,
And only dwells where WORTLEY casts her eyes.

What are the gay parterre, the chequer'd shade,
The morning bower, the ev'ning colonnade,
But soft recesses of uneasy minds,

To sigh unheard in, to the passing winds?
So the struck deer in some sequester'd part
Lies down to die, the arrow at his heart,
He, stretch'd unseen in coverts hid from day,
Bleeds drop by drop, and pants his life away."

5

10

VERBATIM FROM BOILEAU.

UN JOUR, DIT UN AUTEUR, &c.

ONCE (says an Author, where, I need not say)
Two Trav❜llers found an Oyster in their way;
Both fierce, both hungry; the dispute grew strong,
While Scale in hand Dame Justice past along.
Before her each with clamour pleads the Laws,
Explain'd the matter, and would win the cause.
Dame Justice weighing long the doubtful Right,
Takes, opens, swallows it before their sight.

The cause of strife remov'd so rarely well,
There take (says Justice), take ye each a Shell.
We thrive at Westminster on Fools like you :
'Twas a fat Oyster-Live in peace-Adieu.

It will be no unuseful or unpleasing amusement to compare this translation with the original :

"Un jour, dit un Auteur, n'importe en quel chapitre,
Deux voyageurs à jeun rencontrèrent une huître ;
Tous deux la contestoient, lorsque dans leur chemin,
La Justice passa, la balance à la main.

Devant elle à grand bruit ils expliquent la chose;
Tous deux avec dépens veulent gagner leur cause.
La Justice pesant ce droit litigieux,

Demande l'huître, l'ouvre, et l'avale à leurs yeux,
Et par ce bel arrest terminant la bataille :

Tenez voilà, dit-elle, à chacun une écaille.

Des sottises d'autrui, nous vivons au palais;

Messieurs, l'huître étoit bonne. Adieu, Vivez en paix."

In the fifth, sixth, seventh, ninth, and twelfth verses, Pope is inferior to the original.—Warton.

ANSWER

TO THE

FOLLOWING QUESTION OF MRS. HOW.

WHAT IS PRUDERY?

'Tis a Beldam,

Seen with Wit and Beauty seldom,
"Tis a fear that starts at shadows;

'Tis, (no, 'tis n't) like Miss Meadows.
'Tis a Virgin hard of Feature,
Old, and void of all good-nature;
Lean and fretful, would seem wise;
Yet plays the fool before she dies.

'Tis an ugly envious Shrew,

That rails at dear Lepell and You.

NOTES.

5

10

Ver. 11. That rails at dear Lepell] Miss Lepell was one of the maids

of honour to Queen Caroline, and she afterwards was married to Lord Hervey. She and Miss Mary Bellenden, mentioned in Gay's ballad, and in Pope's letters, were the ornaments of the court, for beauty, engaging manners, and amiable character. I have a MS. letter from her, written at Paris, to Lord Melcomb, which sufficiently evinces her superior understanding, and might be classed with the letters of Lady M. W. Montagu.

In Gay's ballad she is designated as,

"Youth's youngest daughter, sweet Lepell."-Bowles.

In Gay's poem it is Miss Mary Lepell who is designated as "youth's youngest daughter." Lady Hervey is alluded to in the preceding line. "Now, Hervey, fair of face, I mark full well.

With her Youth's youngest daughter, sweet Lepell."

TO MR. THOMAS SOUTHERN,

ON HIS BIRTH-DAY, 1742.

RESIGN'D to live, prepar'd to die,
With not one sin, but Poetry,
This day Tom's fair account has run
(Without a blot) to eighty-one.
Kind Boyle, before his poet, lays
A table, with a cloth of bays;
And Ireland, mother of sweet singers,
Presents her Harp still to his fingers.
The feast, his tow'ring genius marks
In yonder wild goose and the larks!

NOTES.

5

10

Ver. 3. This day Tom's] This amiable writer lived the longest, and died one of the richest, of all our poets. In 1737, Mr. Gray, writing to a friend, says very agreeably," We have here old Mr. Southern, who often comes to see us; he is now seventy-seven years old, and has almost wholly lost his memory; but is as agreeable an old man as can be, at least I persuade myself so, when I look at him, and think of Isabella and Oroonoko." He was certainly a great master of the pathetic; and in the latter part of his life became sensible of the impropriety he had been guilty of in mixing Tragedy with Comedy. He was the first play-writer that had the benefit of a third night. He told Dryden that he once had cleared seven hundred pounds by one of his plays.-Warton.

Ver. 6. A table,] Mr. Southern was invited to dine on his birth-day with this nobleman (Lord Orrery), who had prepared for him the entertainment of which the bill of fare is here set down.- Warton.

Ver. 8. Presents her Harp] The Harp is generally wove on the Irish linen; such as table-cloths, &c.-Warburton.