EPISTLE TO DR ARBUTHNOT. ADVERTISEMENT To the first publication of this Epistle. THIS paper is a sort of bill of complaint, begun many years since, and drawn up by snatches, as the several occasions offered. I had no thoughts of publishing it, till it pleased some Persons of Rank and Fortune (the Authors of Verses to the Imitator of Horace, and of an Epistle to a Doctor of Divinity from a Nobleman at Hampton Court) to attack, in a very extraordinary manner, not only my Writings (of which, being public, the Public is judge) but my Person, Morals, and Family, whereof, to those who know me not, a truer information may be requisite. Being divided between the necessity to say something of myself, and my own laziness to undertake so awkward a task, I thought it the shortest way to put the last hand to this Epistle. If it have any thing pleasing, it will be that by which I am most desirous to please, the Truth and the Sentiment; and if any thing offensive, it will be only to those I am least sorry to offend, the vicious or the ungenerous. Many will know their own pictures in it, there being not a circumstance but what is true; but I have, for the most part, spared their Names, and they may escape being laughed at, if they please. I would have some of them know, it was owing to the request of the learned and candid Friend to whom it is inscribed, that I make not as free use of theirs as they have done of mine. However, I shall have this advantage, and honour, on my side, that whereas, by their proceeding, any abuse may be directed at any man, no injury can possibly be done by mine, since a nameless character can never be found out, but by its truth and likeness. P. [Parts of this poem, and notably the famous passage relating to Addison, had been written many years previously and published as fragments. But there is ne trace of disjointedness in this, one of the most finished of Pope's compositions, which may be almost regarded in the light of a poetical apology pro vitâ, and an attempt for ever to silence the most notable of the poet's detractors. It was appropriately addressed to the most generally esteemed member of Pope's circle of friends and literary associates—one who in the last letter which he wrote to Pope (Arbuthnot died about a month after the publication of the Epistle) expressed his belief, that since their first acquaintance there had not been any of those little suspicions or jealousies that often affect the sincerest friendships;' and his certainty that there had been none such on his own side. Pope was about this time in need of the support of such approval as the judgment of his friends as well as his own self-consciousness could bestow, to support him in the tempest which he had raised not only by his Dunciad among the small fry of his literary enemies, but by his first Imitations of Horace among former friends, such as Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Lord Hervey (see note to v. 305). The Epistle, singularly perfect and rounded in form is, notwithstanding its fragmentary origin, of the highest interest from an ethical as well as a literary point of view; nor is it possible to forbear from admiring its lofty conclusion, where that Resignation is upheld to which in actual life it was never given to the poet to attain.] [Of these squibs the former was said to be a joint production of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Lord Hervey; the latter was written by Hervey alone. See Carruthers' Life of Pope, ch. viii.] EPISTLE TO DR ARBUTHNOT1, BEING THE PROLOGUE TO THE SATIRES. HUT, shut the door, good John2! fatigu'd, I said, P. SHT The Dog-star rages! nay 'tis past a doubt, All Bedlam, or Parnassus, is let out: Fire in cach cye, and papers in each hand, 5 They rave, recite, and madden round the land. What walls can guard me, or what shades can hide? They pierce my thickets, thro' my Grot they glide; By land, by water, they renew the charge; They stop the chariot, and they board the barge. 10 No place is sacred, not the Church is free; Ev'n Sunday shines no Sabbath-day to me; Then from the Mint walks forth the Man of rhyme, Is there a Parson, much bemus'd in beer 5, A maudlin Poetess, a rhyming Peer, A Clerk, foredoom'd his father's soul to cross, [John Arbuthnot (born in 1675, died in 1735) besides being a most distinguished member of his profession, the medical, was eminent as a mathematician and a classical scholar. As a politician he was firmly attached to the Tory party, and with Swift became a member of the October Club, established in 1710 by Oxford, Bolingbroke and their political and literary friends. He was also a member of the Scriblerus Club, and to him is attributed the chief share in the famous treatise of M.S. on the Art of Sinking in Poetry, which was published in the Miscellanies of Pope and Swift. The History of John Bull, the Art of Political Lying and other jeux d'esprit of the same kind, were Arbuthnot's own. On the accession of George I. Arbuthnot was deprived of his post as Physician extraordinary at Court. Of Pope's sentiments towards Arbuthnot this Epistle offers the best testimony; Swift said of him that he has more wit than we all have; and more humanity than wit.'] 2 Shut, shut the door, good John!] John Searl, his old and faithful servant: whom he has remembered, under that character, in his Will. Warburton. 3 [See Pers. Sat. III. v. 5. Several touches in the Epistle appear to be derived from the same Satire.] 15 20 4 Mint.] A place to which insolvent debtors retired, to enjoy an illegal protection, which they were there suffered to afford one another, from the persecution of their creditors. Warburton. 5 Some lines in this Epistle had been used in a letter to Thomson [the author of the Seasons] when he was in Italy, and transferred from him to Arbuthnot, which naturally displeased the former, though they lived always on terms of civility and friendship: and Pope earnestly exerted himself, and used all his interest to promote the success of Thomson's Agamemnon. Warton. [The readers of the Seasons will remember the poet's tribute to the virtues of the 'brown October' in Autumn.] The idea is from Boileau's Art of Poetry'charbonner les murailles.' Bowles. 7 After v. 20 in the MS., 'Is there a Bard in durance? turn them free, With all their brandish'd reams they run to me: Is there a Prentice, having seen two plays, Who would do something in his Seinpstress' praise.' Warburton. 8 [As to Pope's Villa at Twickenham, or 'Twitenham' as he preferred to write the name, see Introductory Memoir, p. xxxiv.] Arthur, whose giddy son neglects the Laws, Friend to my Life! (which did not you prolong, If foes, they write, if friends, they read me dead. With honest anguish, and an aching head; This saving counsel, "Keep your piece nine years 4." Rhymes ere he wakes, and prints before Term ends, 1 Arthur,] Arthur Moore, a leading politician of Queen Anne's time, who had raised himself by ability and unscrupulousness to place and power. His son James Moore (afterwards James MooreSmythe), a small placeman and poetaster, and an acquaintance of the Blount family, became a noted object of Pope's scorn. See above all the famous description of the Phantom' in the Dunciad, bk. II. vv. 35-50, and cf. Lines to Martha Blount, in Miscellaneous Poems.] 2 [Compare the charming dedication of Thackeray's Pendennis.] 3 Seiz'd and tied down to judge.] Alluding to the scene in [Wycherley's] Plain-Dealer, where Oldfox gags, and ties down the Widow to hear his well-penn'dstanzas. Warburton. Rather from Horace; vide his Druso. Warton. [Hor. Sat. Bk. I. S. III. v. 86.] 4 [Hor. de Arte Poet. v. 388.] 5 Rhymes ere he wakes,] A pleasant allusion to those words of Milton, Dictates to me slumbring, or inspires Easy my unpremeditated Verse. 40 45 50 55 Warburton. 6 [A service commonly rendered by popular authors of that age to their less successful brethren. Pope wrote a Prologue to a play acted for the benefit of his ancient enemy Dennis in 1733. See Miscellaneous Poems.] 7 Pitholeon] The name taken from a foolish Poet of Rhodes, who pretended much to Greek. Schol. in Horat. 1. i. Dr Bentley pretends, that this Pitholeon libelled Cæsar also. See notes on Hor. Sat. 10. lib. i. P. 8 [Edmund Curll the bookseller.-See Introductory Memoir, p. xxxii.] 9 Meaning the London Journal; a paper in favour of Sir R. Walpole's ministry. Warton. 10 Alludes to a tragedy called the Virgin Queen, by Mr R. Barford, published 1729, who displeased Pope by daring to adopt the fine machinery of his Sylphs in an heroi-comical poem called the Assembly. (1725.) Warton. If I dislike it, "Furies, death and rage!" If I approve, There (thank my stars) my whole Commission ends, 60 Fir'd that the house reject him, "Sdeath I'll print it, 'Lintot, dull rogue! will think your price too much:' "And shame the fools- -Your Int'rest, Sir, with Lintot?!" All my demurs but double his Attacks; 65 At last he whispers, "Do; and we go snacks "." 'Tis sung, when Midas' Ears began to spring, His very Minister who spy'd them first, כן (Some say his Queen") was forc'd to speak, or burst. A. Good friend, forbear! you deal in dang'rous things. 75 I'd never name Queens, Ministers, or Kings; 80 The truth once told (and wherefore should we lie?) The Queen of Midas slept, and so may I. No creature smarts so little as a fool. Let peals of laughter, Codrus! round thee break, 85 Who shames a Scribbler? break one cobweb thro',. His Butchers1 Henley, his free-masons Moore ?? Still to one Bishop Philips seem a wit3? 100 Still Sappho A. Hold! for God's sake-you'll offend, I too could write, and I am twice as tall; But foes like these P. One Flatt'rer's worse than all. Of all mad creatures, if the learn'd are right, 105 It is the slaver kills, and not the bite. 66 A fool quite angry is quite innocent: Why did I write? what sin to me unknown No duty broke, no father disobey'd9. 110 115 120 125 130 The Muse but serv'd to ease some friend, not Wife, [Henley, see Dunciad, III. 199 and foll.] His oratory was among the butchers in Newport Market and Butcher Row. Bowles.] 2 free-masons Moore?] He was of this society, and frequently headed their processions. Warburton. 3 Boulter, afterwards Primate of all Ireland, was Ambrose Philips' great friend and patron. Bowles. [Ambrose, or namby-pamby, Philips, whose Pastorals were published in the same Miscellany as those of Pope, and with whom the latter quarrelled. He became M. P. for Armagh through the influence of his patron.] 4 [Some of Pope's letters to Cromwell had been surreptitiously printed by Curll in 1726.] 5 Sir! you have an Eye] It is remarkable that amongst these compliments on his infirmities and deformities, he mentions his eye, which was fine, sharp, and piercing. Warburton. 6 After v. 124 in the MS. 7 [See Introductory Memoir, p. xlvi.] 8 From Ovid [Trist. bk. Iv. El. x. vv. 25-6.] Warton. 9 No father disobey'd.] When Mr Pope was yet a Child, his Father, though no Poet, would set him to make English verses. He was pretty difficult to please, and would often send the boy back to new turn them. When they were to his mind, he took great pleasure in them, and would say, These are good rhymes. Warburton. |