(Tho' but, perhaps, a muster-roll of Names 1)
How will our Fathers rise up in a rage,
And swear, all shame is lost in George's Age!
You'd think no Fools disgrac'd the former reign,
Did not some grave Examples yet remain,
Who scorn a Lad should teach his father skill,
And, having once been wrong, will be so still.
He, who to seem more deep than you or I,
Extols old Bards, or Merlin's Prophecy,
Mistake him not; he envies, not admires,
And to debase the Sons, exalts the Sires.
Had ancient times conspir'd to disallow

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What then was new, what had been ancient now?
Or what remain'd, so worthy to be read
By learned Critics, of the mighty Dead?

In Days of Fase, when now the weary Sword
Was sheath'd, and Luxury with Charles restor❜d;
In ev'ry taste of foreign Courts improv'd,
"All, by the King's Example, liv'd and lov'd 2."
Then Peers grew proud in Horsemanship t' excel3,
Newmarket's Glory rose, as Britain's fell;
The Soldier breath'd the Gallantries of France,
And ev'ry flow'ry Courtier writ Romance.
Then Marble, soften'd into life, grew warm5:
And yielding Metal flow'd to human form:
Lely on animated Canvas stole

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The sleepy Eye, that spoke the melting soul".

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No wonder then, when all was Love and sport,
The willing Muses were debauch'd at Court:
On each enervate string they taught the note
To pant, or tremble thro' an Eunuch's throat.
But Britain, changeful as a Child at play,
Now calls in Princes, and now turns away.
Now Whig, now Tory, what we lov'd we hate;

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Now all for Pleasure, now for Church and State;
Now for Prerogative, and now for Laws;
Effects unhappy from a Noble Cause.

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Time was, a sober Englishman would knock
His servants up, and rise by five o'clock,

1 A muster-roll of Names] An absurd custom of several Actors, to pronounce with emphasis the mere Proper Names of Greeks or Romans, which (as they call it) fill the mouth of the Player. P. [Like the Bombomachides Clutomestoridysarchides' of Plautus.]

2 A verse of the Lord Lansdown. P.

3 in Horsemanship t'excel, And ev'ry flow'ry Courtier writ Romance.] The Duke of Newcastle's book of Horsemanship: the Romance of Parthenissa, by the Earl of Örrery, and most of the French Romances translated by Persons of Quality. P.

4 [Newmarket, which became popular with the rise of horse-racing under James I., was a

favourite resort of Charles II., whose palace there still stands.]

5 [The two most eminent sculptors of the Restoration period were Cibber, a Dane, and Gibbons, a Dutchman.]

[Sir Peter Lely, by birth a Westphalian, died in 1680, after accumulating a large fortune. Warton compares for the delightful expression, the sleepy eye,' an epigram of Antipater, 'which it is not probable Pope could have seen.']

7 On each enervate string, etc.] The Siege of Rhodes by Sir William Davenant, the first Opera sung in England. P. [It was brought out in 1656.]

Instruct his Family in ev'ry rule,

And send his Wife to church, his Son to school.
To worship like his Fathers, was his care;
To teach their frugal Virtues to his Heir;
To prove, that Luxury could never hold;
And place, on good Security, his Gold.

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Now times are chang'd, and one Poetic Itch
Has seiz'd the Court and City, poor and rich:

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Sons, Sires, and Grandsires, all will wear the bays,

Our Wives read Milton, and our Daughters Plays,
To Theatres, and to Rehearsals throng,
And all our Grace at table is a Song.

I, who so oft renounce the Muses, lie,

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Not's self e'er tells more Fibs than I;
When sick of Muse, our follies we deplore,

And promise our best Friends to rhyme no more;
We wake next morning in a raging fit,
And call for pen and ink to show our Wit.

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He serv'd a 'Prenticeship, who sets up shop;
Ward try'd on Puppies, and the Poor, his Drop1;
Ev'n Radcliff's Doctors travel first to France,
Nor dare to practise till they've learn'd to dance2.
Who builds a Bridge that never drove a pile?
(Should Ripley3 venture, all the world would smile)
But those who cannot write, and those who can,
All rhyme, and scrawl, and scribble, to a man.
Yet, Sir, reflect, the mischief is not great;
These Madmen never hurt the Church or State:
Sometimes the Folly benefits Mankind;
And rarely Av'rice taints the tuneful mind.
Allow him but his plaything of a Pen,
He ne'er rebels, or plots, like other men:
Flight of Cashiers, or Mobs, he'll never mind;
And knows no losses while the Muse is kind.

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To cheat a Friend, or Ward, he leaves to Peter";

The good man heaps up nothing but mere metre,
Enjoys his Garden and his book in quiet;
And then-a perfect Hermit in his diet.

Of little use the Man you may suppose,
Who says in verse what others say in prose;
Yet let me show, a Poet's of some weight,
And (tho' no Soldier) useful to the State 6.

Ward.] A famous Empiric, whose Pill and Drop had several surprizing effects, and were one of the principal subjects of writing and conversation at this time. P.

Ev'n Radcliff's Doctors travel first to France, Nor dare to practise till they've learn'd to dance.] By no means an insinuation as if these travelling Doctors had misspent their time. Radcliff had sent them on a medicinal mission, to examine the produce of each Country, and see in what it might be made subservient to the art

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of healing. The native commodity of France is DANCING. SCRIBL.

3 [Cf. Pope's note to Moral Essays, Ep. IV.

V. 18.]
4 [Bowles cités Coxe's Memoirs of Sir R.
Walpole for an account of the flight of Knight,
the cashier of the South Sea Company.]

5 [Conjectured by Bowles to refer to the cheating of Mr George Pitt, in the management of his estates, by Peter Walter.]

6 And (tho' no Soldier)] Horace had not

What will a Child learn sooner than a Song?
What better teach a Foreigner the tongue?

What's long or short, each accent where to place,
And speak in public with some sort of grace?

I scarce can think him such a worthless thing,
Unless he praise some Monster of a King;
Or Virtue, or Religion turn to sport,
To please a lewd or unbelieving Court.
Unhappy Dryden!-In all Charles's days,
Roscommon only boasts unspotted bays1;
And in our own (excuse some Courtly stains")
No whiter page than Addison remains.
He, from the taste obscene reclaims our youth,
And sets the Passions on the side of Truth,
Forms the soft bosom with the gentlest art,
And pours each human Virtue in the heart.
Let Ireland tell, how Wit upheld her cause,
Her Trade supported, and supplied her Laws;
And leave on SWIFT this grateful verse engrav'd:
"The Rights a Court attack'd, a Poet sav'd3.'
Behold the hand that wrought a Nation's cure,
Stretch'd to relieve the Idiot and the Poor 4,
Proud Vice to brand, or injur'd Worth adorn,
And stretch the Ray to Ages yet unborn.
Not but there are, who merit other palms;

Hopkins and Sternhold glad the heart with Psalms5:
The Boys and Girls whom charity maintains,

Implore your help in these pathetic strains:
How could Devotion touch the country pews,
Unless the Gods bestow'd a proper Muse?
Verse cheers their leisure, Verse assists their work,

acquitted himself much to his credit in this capacity (non bene relicta parmula) in the battle of Philippi. It is manifest he alludes to himself, in this whole account of a Poet's character; but with an intermixture of irony: Vivit siliquis et pane secundo has a relation to his Epicurism; Os tenerum pueri, is ridicule: The nobler office of a Poet follows, Torquet ab obscænis-Mox etiam pectus Recte facta refert, etc. which the Imitator has apply'd where he thinks it more due than to himself. He hopes to be pardon'd, if, as he is sincerely inclined to praise what deserves to be praised, he arraigns what deserves to be arraigned, in the 210, 211, and 212th Verses. P.

[V. Essay on Criticism, v. 726.]

[Warburton explains this as specially referring to the opening lines of Addison's poem To H. R. H. the Princess of Wales, in which A. claims merit for his tragedy of Cato, as purposely written to oppose the schemes of a faction, after he had previously assured Pope that the play was composed with no party views.]

3 [The first of Swift's pamphlets in defence of the independence of Irish trade was published in

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1720; the Drapier's Letters (written to oppose the patent of coining copper halfpence to be current in Ireland, granted to William Wood through the influence of the Duchess of Kendal, favourite of George I.) appeared in 1723. Swift thus writes to Pope (May 31st, 1737), after reading the above tribute: Your admirers here, I mean every man of taste, affect to be certain that the profession of friendship to me will not suffer you to be thought a flatterer. My happiness is that you are too far engaged, and in spite of you the ages to come will celebrate me, and know you were a friend who loved and esteemed me, although I died the object of Court and Party hatred.']

the Idiot and the Poor.] A foundation for the maintenance of Idiots, and a Fund for assisting the Poor, by lending small sums of money on demand. P.

5 [The time-honoured version of the Psalms by Thomas Sternhold, a courtier of King Edward VI., and John Hopkins, a Suffolk schoolmaster, in which they were assisted by others, was first published as a complete collection in 1562. The germ of this amusing passage will be found in Pope's letter to Swift of Oct. 15, 1725.]

Verse prays for Peace, or sings down Pope and Turk.
The silenc'd Preacher yields to potent strain,

And feels that grace his pray'r besought in vain;
The blessing thrills thro' all the lab'ring throng,
And Heav'n is won by Violence of Song,
Our rural Ancestors, with little blest,
Patient of labour when the end was rest,
Indulg'd the day that hous'd their annual grain,
With feasts, and off'rings, and a thankful strain:
The joy their wives, their sons, and servants share,
Ease of their toil, and part'ners of their care:
The laugh, the jest, attendants on the bowl,
Smooth'd ev'ry brow, and open'd ev'ry soul:
With growing years the pleasing Licence grew,
And Taunts alternate innocently flew.
But Times corrupt, and Nature, ill-inclin'd,
Produc'd the point that left a sting behind;
Till friend with friend, and families at strife,
Triumphant Malice rag'd thro' private life.

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Who felt the wrong, or fear'd it, took th' alarm,
Appeal'd to Law, and Justice lent her arm.

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At length, by wholesome dread of statutes bound1,
The Poets learn'd to please, and not to wound:

Most warp'd to Flatt'ry's side; but some, more nice,
Preserv'd the freedom, and forbore the vice.
Hence Satire rose, that just the medium hit,
And heals with Morals what it hurts with Wit.

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We conquer'd France, but felt our Captive's charms;
Her Arts victorious triumph'd o'er our Arms;
Britain to soft refinements less a foe,
Wit grew polite, and Numbers learn'd to flow.
Waller was smooth 2; but Dryden taught to join
The varying verse, the full-resounding line,
The long majestic March, and Energy divine3.
Tho' still some traces of our rustic vein
And splay-foot verse, remain'd, and will remain.
Late, very late, correctness grew our care,
When the tir'd Nation breath'd from civil war.
Exact Racine, and Corneille's noble fire,
Show'd us that France had something to admire.
Not but the Tragic spirit was our own,
And full in Shakespear, fair in Otway shone*:

1 [There is no direct historical allusion in this; the law of libel was still very indefinite even in Pope's times.]

2 Waller was smooth;] Mr. Waller, about this time with the Earl of Dorset, Mr. Godolphin, and others, translated the Pompey of Corneille; and the more correct French Poets began to be in reputation. P.

3 [Cf. Essay on Criticism, vv. 358-384.] [Racine, the younger of the two great French tragedians, was more frequently translated by

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the English dramatists of the Restoration than Corneille; although Hallam is doubtless right in agreeing with Sir Walter Scott that the unnatural dialogue which prevailed in the English tragedies of that age was derived from baser models than these, viz. the French romances referred to ante, v. 145. The pathetic Otway (1651-1685) was indeed among the translators and adapters of Racine; but his Venice Preserved and Orphan, on which his fame rests, were, as dramatic pieces, original.]

But Otway fail'd to polish or refine,
And fluent Shakespear scarce effac'd a line1.
Ev'n copious Dryden wanted, or forgot 2,
The last and greatest Art, the Art to blot.
Some doubt, if equal pains, or equal fire
The humbler Muse of Comedy require.
But in known Images of life, I guess
The labour greater, as th' indulgence less.
Observe how seldom ev'n the best succeed:
Tell me if Congreve's Fools are Fools indeed3?
What pert, low Dialogue has Farquhar writ1!
How Van wants grace, who never wanted wit5!
The stage how loosely does Astræa tread,
Who fairly puts all Characters to bed!
And idle Cibber, how he breaks the laws,
To make poor Pinky eat with vast applause?!
But fill their purse, our Poet's work is done,
Alike to them, by Pathos or by Pun.

O you! whom Vanity's light bark conveys
On Fame's mad voyage by the wind of praise,
With what a shifting gale your course you ply,
For ever sunk too low, or borne too high!
Who pants for glory finds but short repose,
A breath revives him, or a breath o'erthrows.
Farewell the stage! if just as thrives the play,
The silly bard grows fat, or falls away.

There still remains, to mortify a Wit,
The many-headed Monster of the Pit:
A senseless, worthless, and unhonour'd crowd;
Who, to disturb their betters mighty proud,
Clatt'ring their sticks before ten lines are spoke,
Call for the Farce, the Bear, or the Black-joke.
What dear delight to Britons Farce affords!
Ever the taste of Mobs, but now of Lords;
(Taste, that eternal wanderer, which flies

[I remember the players often mentioned it as an honour to S., that in his writings, whatsoever he penned, he never blotted out a line. My answer hath been, 'Would he had blotted out a thousand.' Ben Jonson's Discoveries.]

Ev'n copious Dryden] copious aggravated the fault. For when a writer has great stores, he is inexcusable not to discharge the easy task of choosing from the best. Warburton.

3 ['Another fault which often may befal, Is, when the wit of some great poet shall So overflow, that is, be none at all

That ev'n his fools speak sense, as if possessed, And each by inspiration breaks his jest.' Sheffield, Duke of Buckinghamshire, Essay on Poetry.]

4 [George Farquhar (1678-1707), the author of Sir Harry Wildair and the Beaux' Stratagem.]

[John Vanbrugh (1672—1726), author of the Relapse, and architect of Blenheim. His come

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dies, though offensive on the ground mentioned by Pope, are perhaps healthier in feeling than those of any of his contemporaries.]

P.

6 Astræa] A Name taken by Mrs. Behn, Authoress of several obscene Plays, etc. [Mrs Aphra Behn owed her popularity not only to her sins, but to a wonderful knack of contriving ingenious stage-situations which must arouse the envy of modern sensational playwrights. Astrea is the title of a French romance by Honoré d'Urfé, published in 1610.]

7 [Poor Pinky is the popular low comedian, William Pinkethman, of whose face some writers, according to Cibber, made a livelihood; and concerning whom the Tatler 'informs posterity,' among other things, that 'he devours a cold chicken with great applause' (in the character of Harlequin). See Geneste's History of the Stage, III. pp. 136-9.]

8 [i. e. the black-pudding.]