So-Satire is no more-I feel it die No Gazetteer more innocent than I- NOTES. Pope also has consigned to posterity this aspersion: "and all her children bless'd!" 85 90 95 "I am happy to have it in my power to remove this stigma from the memory of this great Princess. She sent her blessing to her Son, and a message of forgiveness, and told Sir Robert Walpole she would have seen him with pleasure, but prudence forbad the interview, as it might embarrass and irritate the King." Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole, p. 497.-Bowles. Ver. 84. No Gazetteer more innocent than I—] The Gazetteer is one of the low appendices to the Secretary of State's office; and his business is to write the government's newspaper, published by authority. Sir Richard Steele for some time had this post; and he describes the condition of it very well, in the Apology for himself and his Writings : My next appearance as a writer was in the quality of the lowest minister of state, to wit, in the office of Gazetteer; where I worked faithfully according to order, without ever erring against the rule observed by all ministers, to keep that paper very innocent and very insipid. It was to the reproaches I heard every Gazette day against the writer of it, that I owe the fortitude of being remarkably negligent of what people say, which I do not deserve.” -Warburton. 66 Ver. 87. Why so? if satire] About this time a great spirit of liberty was prevalent. All the men of wit and genius, who indeed were all in the opposition, joined in increasing it. Glover wrote his Leonidas with this view; Nugent, his Odes to Mankind, and to Mr. Pulteney; King, his Miltonis Epistola, and Templum Libertatis; Thomson his Britannia, his Liberty, and his tragedy of Agamemnon; Mallet, his Mustapha; and Brooke, his Gustavus Vasa; our author, his Imitations of Horace, and these two Dialogues; and Johnson, his London.-Warton. Ver. 92. Immortal S-k, and grave Dere.] A title given that Lord by king James II. He was of the Bedchamber to king William; he was so to king George I.; he was so to king George II. This Lord was very skilful in all the forms of the House, in which he discharged himself with great gravity.-Pope. Pope alludes to Charles Hamilton, third son of the Duke of Hamilton, who was created Earl of Selkirk in 1687.- Bowles. There, where no passion, pride, or shame transport, All tears are wiped for ever from all eyes; No cheek is known to blush, no heart to throb, Save when they lose a question, or a job. 101 P. Good heaven forbid, that I should blast their glory, Who know how like Whig ministers to Tory. 105 And, when three sovereigns died, could scarce be vex'd, NOTES. 110 Ver. 97. There, where no passion, &c.] The excellent writer De l'Esprit des Loix gives the following character of the Spirit of Courts, and the Principle of Monarchies: "Qu'on lise ce que les historiens de tous les tems ont dit sur la cour des monarques; qu'on se rappelle les conversations des hommes de tous les pays sur le misérable caractère des coURTISANS ; ce ne sont point des choses de spéculation, mais d'une triste expérience. L'ambition dans l'oisiveté, la bassesse dans l'orgueil, le désir de s'enrichir sans travail, l'aversion pour la vérité; la flatterie, la trahison, la perfidie, l'abandon de tous ses engagemens, le mépris des devoirs du citoyen, la crainte de la vertu du prince, l'espérance de ses foiblesses, et plus que tous cela, LE RIDICULE PERPETUEL JETTE SUR LA VERTU, sont, je crois, le caractère de la plupart des courtisans marqué dans tous les lieux et dans tous les tems. Or il est très mal-aisé que les principaux d'un état soient malhonnêtes gens, et que les inférieurs soient gens de bien, que ceux-là soient trompeurs, et que ceux-ci consentent à n'être que dupes. Que si dans le peuple il se trouve quelque malheureux honnête homme, le Cardinal de Richelieu dans son Testament politique insinue, qu'un monarque doit se garder de s'en servir. Tant il est vrai que la vertu n'est pas le ressort de ce gouvernement."-Warburton. This testament, which Voltaire laboured to prove to be spurious, has lately been shown to be genuine. The passage in our author far exceeds a celebrated one in Pastor Fido, where Guarini thus characterizes courts and courtiers. L'ingannare, il mentir, la frode, il furto, E la rapina di pietà vestita, Crescer col danno e precipizio altrui, E far à se de l'altrui biasmo onore, Atto v. Scena 1: Son le virtù di quella genti infida.—Warton. Ver. 107. And, when three sovereigns died, could scarce be vex'd,] The three sovereigns, I presume, were Mary, William, and Anne; the gracious prince, George the First.-Wakefield. And at a peer, or peeress, shall I fret, But shall the dignity of Vice be lost? Ye gods! shall Cibber's son, without rebuke, 115 Swear like a Lord, or Rich outwhore a Duke? A favourite's porter with his master vie, Be bribed as often, and as often lie? Shall Ward draw contracts with a statesman's skill? Or Japhet pocket, like his Grace, a will? 120 Is it for Bond, or Peter, (paltry things,) To pay their debts, or keep their faith, like kings? NOTES. Ver. 111. or peeress, shall I fret,] I have been informed that these verses related to Lady M. W. Montagu and her sister the Countess of Mar. Lady Mary was certainly extravagant, speculated in money matters, and perhaps might have been under temporary difficulties. Pope was willing to lay hold of every report against her; but if there ever was an idea of her having neglected her sister, it could not have been true, for they corresponded always with the greatest tenderness and affection; and Lady Mar could not have been in any great degree of penury, for when Lord Mar was banished, his Scotch estate, which had been settled on his wife, was freely given her by George I. for the maintenance of herself and daughter. She lived at Paris, where she corresponded with her sister, who invites her perpetually to a life of gaiety and expense, very unsuitable to a state of indigence.—Bowles. Ver. 115, 116. Cibber's son,-Rich] Two players: look for them in the Dunciad.-Pope. Ver. 122. To pay their debts,] This severe line relates to a fact of too delicate a nature to be explained.-Warton. Ver. 123. If Blount] Author of an impious foolish book called The Oracles of Reason, who being in love with a near kinswoman of his, and rejected, gave himself a stab in the arm, as pretending to kill himself, of the consequence of which he really died.-Pope. Ver. 123. If Blount despatch'd himself,] He was the younger son of Sir Henry Blount, who wrote an admirable account of a Voyage to the Levant, 1636; and younger brother of Sir Thomas Pope Blount, who wrote the Censura Authorum. And this Charles Blount was not only the author of The Oracles of Reason, but of an infidel treatise, intitled, Anima Mundi, and of the Life of Apollonius Tyanaus, in folio, 1680; with notes said to be taken from the manuscript of Lord Herbert of Cherbury. It was his sister-in-law with whom he was in love, when he destroyed himself.— Warton. VARIATIONS. Ver. 112. In some editions : But shall a printer, weary of his life, Learn, from their books, to hang himself and wife? 125 NOTES. Ver. 124. Passeran!] Author of another book of the same stamp, called, A Philosophical Discourse on Death, being a defence of suicide. He was a nobleman of Piedmont, banished from his country for his impieties, and lived in the utmost misery, yet feared to practise his own precepts; of which there went a pleasant story about that time. Amongst his pupils to whom he read in moral philosophy, there was, it seems, a noted gamester, who lodged under the same roof with him. This useful citizen, after a run of ill luck, came one morning early into the philosopher's bedchamber with two loaded pistols; and, as Englishmen do not understand raillery in a case of this nature, told the Piedmontese, on presenting him with one of his pistols, "that now was come the time to put his doctrine in practice that as to himself, having lost his last stake, he was become an useless member in society, and so was resolved to quit his station; and that as to him, his guide, philosopher, and friend, surrounded with miseries, the outcast of government, and the sport even of that chance which he adored, he doubtless would rejoice for such an opportunity to bear him company." All this was said and done with so much resolution and solemnity, that the Italian found himself under a necessity to cry out Murder; which brought in company to his relief.-This unhappy man at last died a penitent.-Warburton. Ver. 125. But shall a printer, &c.] A fact that happened in London a few years past. The unhappy man left behind him a paper justifying his action by the reasonings of some of these authors.-Pope. In the Gentleman's Magazine for April, 1732, it is related, that Richard Smith, a bookbinder, and prisoner for debt in the King's Bench, and Bridget his wife, were found hanging in their chamber, about two yards distant from each other; and below in their kitchen, their little child, two years old, shot through the head in its cradle. They were neatly dressed in clean linen, a curtain was drawn between the man and woman, a pistol loaded lying near him, and a knife by her. They left two letters, one for the landlord about his rent, and the other to Mr. Brindley, endeavouring to justify the manner and causes of their death; and begging their dog and cat might be taken care of. Voltaire also has given this account in an Essay on English suicides. Mélanges, vol. iv.-Warton. One of the letters written by these mistaken and unfortunate people, is very curious, though we cannot but deplore the perverted mode of reasoning, which, in their statement, these poor people, to whom Pope alludes, employed. The letter to the landlord is, 66 SIR, "To MR. BRighted. "The necessity of my affairs has obliged me to give you this trouble; I hope I have left more than is sufficient for the money I owe you. I beg of you that you will be pleased to send these inclosed papers, as directed, immediately by some porter, and that without showing them to any one. Your humble servant, "RICHARD SMITH. 'P. S. I have a suit of black clothes at the Cock in Mint-street, which lies for 17s. 6d. ["If Her birth, her beauty, crowds and courts confess, 145 NOTES. 150 abandoned licence. And now, no sooner was THEODORA (in the poet's phrase) owNED by Greatness, than she, whom not long before it was thought unlucky to meet, and a pollution to touch, became the idol of the Court. There was not a single magistrate (says Procopius) that expressed the least indignation at the shame and dishonour brought upon the state; not a single prelate that showed the least desolation for the public scandal. They all drove to Court so precipitately, as if they were striving to prevent one another in her good graces. Nay, the very soldiers were emulous of the honour of becoming the champions of her virtue. As for the common people, who had so long been the spectators of her servility, her buffoonery, and her prostitution, they all in a body threw themselves at her feet, as slaves at the footstool of their mistress. In a word, there was no man, of what condition soever, who showed the least dislike of so monstrous an elevation. In the mean time, Theodora's first care was to fill her coffers, which she soon did, with immense wealth. To this end, Justinian and she pretended to differ in their party principles. The one protected the blue, and the other the green faction; till in a long course of intrigue, by sometimes giving up the one to plunder and confiscation, and sometimes the other, they left nothing to either. See Procop. Anec. c. ix. x.-Warburton. Upon this note Gibbon observes, vol. iv. p. 26: "Without Warburton's critical Telescope, I should never have seen, in this general picture of triumphant vice, any personal allusion to Theodora." Her infamous conduct may be read in the fourth volume of the Menagiana. What Bayle says of J. Scaliger may be justly applied to many of Warburton's notes: "Les commentaires qui viennent de lui, sont pleines de conjectures hardies, ingénieuses, et fort savantes; mais il n'est guères apparent, que les auteurs ayent songés à tout de ce qu'il leur fait dire. On s'éloigne de leur sens aussi bien, quand on a beaucoup d'esprit, que quand on n'en a pas." Répub. des Lett. 1684.-Warton. Ver. 148. And hers the Gospel is, and hers the laws,] i. e. She disposed of the honours of both.-Warburton. Ver. 149. scarlet head,] Alluding to the scarlet whore of the Apocalypse. -Warburton. Ver. 151. Lo! at the wheels] A group of allegorical persons, worthy the pencil of Rubens! and described in expressions worthy of Virgil! This is perhaps the noblest passage in all his works, without any exception whatever.-Warton. |