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He published likewise a revival in smoother numbers of Dr. 211 Donne's Satires, which was recommended to him by the Duke of Shrewsbury and the Earl of Oxford'. They made no great impression on the publick. Pope seems to have known their imbecillity, and therefore suppressed them while he was yet contending to rise in reputation, but ventured them when he thought their deficiencies more likely to be imputed to Donne than to himself 2.

The Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot3, which seems to be derived in 212 its first design from Boileau's Address à son Esprit,' was published in January, 1735, about a month before the death of him to whom it is inscribed. It is to be regretted that either honour or pleasure 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 213 profession, versed in the sciences, acquainted with ancient literature, and able to animate his mass of knowledge by a bright and active imagination; a scholar with great brilliancy of wit; a wit, who, in the crowd of life, retained and discovered a noble ardour of religious zeal".

In this poem Pope seems to reckon with the publick. He 214 vindicates himself from censures; and with dignity, rather than arrogance, enforces his own claims to kindness and respect.

Into this poem are interwoven several paragraphs which had 215 been before printed as a fragment, and among them the satirical

of Bolingbroke. Spence's Anec. p. 297.

In the Advertisement to the Imitations of Horace Pope says:'The Satires of Dr. Donne I versified at the desire of the Earl of Oxford, while he was Lord Treasurer, and of the Duke of Shrewsbury.' Warburton, iv. 51. Warburton adds:-'He called it versifying them, because, indeed, the lines have nothing more of numbers than their being composed of a certain quantity of syllables.' Ib. p. 241. Oxford ceased to be Treasurer in 1714. The text, as it stands, is full of allusions to incidents which had occurred since the accession of George II [1727]. Pope's Works (Elwin and Courthope), iii. 424.

2 Warburton, in a later edition of

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Pope's Works, says that in answer 'to the great clamour his satiric writings had raised against him, Pope had it in his purpose to show that two of the most respectable characters in the modest age of Elizabeth, Dr. Donne and Bishop Hall, had shown vice in stronger colours than he had done.... He intended to have given two or three of Hall's Satires' Warburton, 1770, iv. 239. See also post, POPE, 380. For an anecdote of Johnson and Donne's Satires see John. Misc. ii. 404.

3

Post, POPE, 370.

Johnson refers, I think, to Boileau's Épître à mes vers.

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5 In the proof-sheet, amiable for his wit.' That certainly he was not. • See Appendix L.

216

lines upon Addison, of which the last couplet has been twice corrected. It was at first,

Then,

'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 be?
Who would not weep if Atticus were he'?'

He was at this time at open war with Lord Hervey 2, who had distinguished himself as a steady adherent to the Ministry; and, being offended with a contemptuous answer to one of his pamphlets, had summoned Pulteney to a duel 3. Whether he or Pope made the first attack, perhaps cannot now be easily known: he had written an invective against Pope, whom he calls Hard as thy heart, and as thy birth obscure", and

1 Prol. Sat. 1. 213; ante, POPE, 115.

'In Pope's Longleat MSS. and the Miscellanies' there is a fourth version :

'What pity, heaven! if such a man
there be,

Who would not weep if A-n were
he?'

Pope's Works (Elwin and Courthope),
iii. 257 n.

2

Voltaire, after translating Pope's attack on Hervey (Prol. Sat. II. 305– 33), continues:-Vous observerez encore que la plupart de ces invectives tombent sur la figure de mylord Harvey, et que Pope lui reproche jusqu'à ses grâces. Quand on songe que c'était un petit homme contrefait, bossu par devant et par derrière, qui parlait ainsi, on voit à quel point l'amour propre et la colère sont aveugles.' Euvres, xlii. 157. See post, POPE, 255.

3 It was fought on Jan. 25, 1730-1. Hervey challenged Pulteney as 'the reputed author of A Proper Reply to a late scurrilous Libel, intituled Sedition and Defamation displayed.' Gent. Mag. 1731, pp. 28, 42.

Hervey lays the blame on Pope in the following lines:

'So much for Pope-nor this I would have said,

Had not the spider first his venom shed; [cast, For the first stone I ne'er unjustly But who can blame the hand that throws the last?' Lord Hervey's Memoirs, Preface, p. 40.

1884,

5 This line is quoted from Verses to the Imitator of Horace, attributed to Lady M. W. Montagu. Warton, iv. 4. For her denial of any share in these verses-a denial not accepted by her editor or by Croker-see her Letters, 1837, 1.62, and Hervey's Mem. Pref. p. 39. See also in Prol. Sat. Pope's note on 1. 381, and post, POPE, 265, 285, 370n.

The foolish insolence of this great lady is shown in a letter written in her old age to her daughter. After speaking of Swift's 'flying in the face of mankind' with Pope she continues: -'It is pleasant to consider that, had it not been for the good nature of these very mortals they contemn, these two superior beings were entitled by their birth and hereditary fortune to be only a couple of linkboys.' Letters of Lady M. W. Montagu, iii. 18.

hints that his father was a 'hatter. To this Pope wrote a reply in verse and prose; the verses are in this poem', and the prose, though it was never sent, is printed among his Letters, but to a cool reader of the present time exhibits nothing but tedious malignity 3.

His last Satires of the general kind were two Dialogues, 217 named from the year in which they were published, Seventeen Hundred and Thirty-eight". In these poems many are praised, and many are reproached. Pope was then entangled in the opposition; a follower of the Prince of Wales, who dined at his house, and the friend of many who obstracted and censured the conduct of the Ministers. His political partiality was too plainly shewn; he forgot the prudence with which he passed, in his earlier years, uninjured and unoffending through much more violent conflicts of faction".

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Pope's Works (Elwin and Courthope), v. 433. [Hervey hints that Pope's father was a hatter in An Epistle from a Nobleman to a Doctor of Divinity, 1733, p. 7.

'For all cannot invent, who can
translate;

To bid his Genius work without that
Aid,

Would be as much mistaking of his
Trade,

As 'twould to bid your Hatter make
a Head.']

Prol. Sat. 11. 305-33.

I

3 Pope wrote to Swift on Jan. 6, 1733-4-There is a woman's war declared against me by a certain lord. His weapons are the same which women and children use, a pin to scratch and a squirt to bespatter. writ a sort of answer, but was ashamed to enter the lists with him, and, after showing it to some persons, suppressed it ;-otherwise it was such as was worthy of him and worthy of me.' Pope's Works (Elwin and Courthope), vii. 318. This answer, entitled A Letter to a Noble Lord, is printed ib. V. 423. Warburton calls it a masterpiece.' Warburton, viii. 188.

Mr. Courthope says:- Johnson was not a fair judge where any of the family of Hervey were concerned.' Pope's Works (Elwin and Courthope), v. 264. If you call a dog Hervey,'

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4 Post, POPE, 306, 371. 'It is remarkable that Johnson's London came out on the same morning with Pope's satire “1738."' Boswell's Johnson, i. 125. London and the first Dialogue appeared in May, 1738.

5 Johnson does not accept Pope's assertion :

And if yet higher the proud list should end,

Still let me say,-No follower, but a friend.' Epil. Sat. ii. 92. Pope, on October 8, 1735, mentions 'an unexpected visit of four or five hours' from the Prince. Pope's Works (Elwin and Courthope), viii. 351. Warton records an anecdote he had from Glover. The Prince was bent on riding a vicious horse. 'Pope Isaid to him with earnestness:-"I hope, Sir, the people of England will not be made miserable by a second horse," alluding to the accident that befell King William. "I think," Pope whispered to Glover, "this speech was pretty well for me."" Warton, Preface, p. 47. See also post, POPE,

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218

In the first Dialogue, having an opportunity of praising Allen of Bath, he asked his leave to mention him as a man not illustrious by any merit of ancestors, and called him in his verses 'low-born Allen. Men are seldom satisfied with praise introduced or followed by any mention of defect. Allen seems not to have taken any pleasure in his epithet, which was afterwards softened into humble Allen.'

219 In the second Dialogue he took some liberty with one of the Foxes, among others; which Fox, in a reply to Lyttelton, took an opportunity of repaying, by reproaching him with the friendship of a lampooner, who scattered his ink without fear or decency, and against whom he hoped the resentment of the Legislature would quickly be discharged 2.

220

About this time Paul Whitehead, a small poet3, was summoned before the Lords for a poem called Manners, together with Dodsley his publisher. Whitehead, who hung loose upon

genius joined in increasing it. Glover
wrote his Leonidas; Nugent his Odes
to Mankind and to Mr. Pulteney;
King [Principal of St. Mary Hall]
his Miltonis Epistola and Templum
Libertatis; Thomson his Britannia,
his Liberty, and his Agamemnon;
Mallet his Mustapha; Brooke his
Gustavus Vasa; Pope his Imitations
and these two Dialogues; and John-
son his London.' Warton, iv.
305.

Let low-born Allen with an awk-
ward shame,

Do good by stealth, and blush to

find it fame.' Dial. i. 1. 136. Pope had asked leave to mention him as 'no man of high birth or quality.' Pope's Works (Elwin and Courthope), ix. 194. On reprinting the poem he wrote to him :-'I have found a virtue in you more than I certainly knew before,... I mean humility. I must, therefore, change the epithet I first gave you of low-born to humble! Ib. p. 195. See ante, POPE, 168.

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2 Post, LYTTELTON, 8. Marchmont wrote on his copy of the Dialogues the names of the persons designated. Hervey and Fox fill up the first two blanks in Dial. i. 69–72:— 'The gracious dew of pulpit eloquence

And all the well-whipt cream of courtly sense.

That first was H-vy's, F-'s next, and then

The S-te's, and then H-vy's once

again.' Marchmont Papers, ii. 96. Pope refers to sermons, speeches, addresses, and epitaphs on the Queen's death. He suspected Hervey of having written Fox's speech on the address, which address being adopted became the Senate's,' and which Hervey embodied in his celebrated epitaph on the Queen in Latin and English. Pope's Works (Elwin and Courthope), iii. 463 n. [See also Croker's preface to his edition of Lord Hervey's Memoirs of the Reign of George II (1884 ed.), i. 43, 48.]

The passage referred to by Johnson is in Dialogue ii. 166, where Pope returns to the subject:—

'And how did, pray, the florid youth offend

Whose speech you took, and gave it to a friend?'

He continues in a 'filthy simile.' Lyttelton is praised in 1. 131 of the same Dialogue.

3 Boswell's Johnson, i. 124.

4

Post, DYER, 7. Dodsley gave Johnson ten guineas for his London. Ib. p. 124.

society, sculked and escaped; but Dodsley's shop and family made his appearance necessary. He was, however, soon dismissed; and the whole process was probably intended rather to intimidate Pope than to punish Whitehead 2.

Pope never afterwards attempted to join the patriot with the 221 poet, nor drew his pen upon statesmen 3. That he desisted from his attempts of reformation is imputed, by his commentator, to his despair of prevailing over the corruption of the time*. He was not likely to have been ever of opinion that the dread of his satire would countervail the love of power or of money: he pleased himself with being important and formidable, and gratified sometimes his pride, and sometimes his resentment; till at last he began to think he should be more safe if he were less busy 5.

The Memoirs of Scriblerus, published about this time, extend 222 only to the first book of a work, projected in concert by Pope, Swift, and Arbuthnot, who used to meet in the time of Queen Anne, and denominated themselves the 'Scriblerus Club.' Their

Johnson said of one Lewis:'Sir, he lived in London, and hung loose upon society.' Boswell's Johnson, i. 226.

26

'Whitehead,' writes Warton, 'left in his poem a very unguarded line

66

And Sherlock's shop and Henley's are the same."

For this the Bishop of Salisbury [Sherlock] summoned him to appear before the House of Lords. As he could not be found, his printer, Dodsley, was taken, as he himself informed me, to a spunging-house in the Butcher-row [Boswell's Johnson, i. 400, iii. 302], under the custody of a messenger, which cost him £70. The next morning the neighbouring street was crowded with the carriages of some of the first noblemen and gentlemen who came to offer their services to be his bail.' Warton, Preface, p. 46. He was kept in custody a week. Gent. Mag. 1739, p. 104.

3 Warburton, in a later edition of Pope's Works (1770, iv. 334 n.), states in reference to the lines On Receiving from Lady F. Shirley a Standish and two Pens that Pope, 'in great resentment,' on being threatened with a prosecution in the House of Lords,

'began a Third Dialogue, which being
no secret, matters were soon compro-
mised. His enemies agreed to drop
the prosecution, and he promised to
leave the Third Dialogue unfinished
and suppressed. This affair occa-
sioned this beautiful little poem.' See
also Pope's Works (Elwin and
Courthope), iv. 460, where in the last
stanza lift is a misprint for list.

4 Warburton, iv. 333.

5 'When one of Pope's last satires
was published a gentleman, in the
presence of Lord Chesterfield, said
he wondered nobody beat Pope for
his abusiveness. Lord C. said:-
"Sir, what is everybody's business is
nobody's business." HORACE WAL-
POLE, Philobiblon Soc. Misc. x. 28.

'Because a thing is everybody's
business it is nobody's business.'
Tatler, No. 18. [Defoe in 1725 wrote
a tract with this proverb for its title.]

[In the third volume, Pt. ii, of Pope's Works, 8vo. Containing the Dunciad, Book iv, and the Memoirs of Scriblerus. Never before Printed. London. Printed for R.Dodsley. 1742. There is in the Brit. Mus. a Dublin edition of the Scriblerus Memoirs, printed separately, dated 1741.]

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