A simple Quaker, or a Quaker's wife,' The Quaker's wife was Mrs. Drummond, of whose preaching a long account is given in Spence's Anecdotes, p. 346. In the British Chronologist under October, 1735, it is stated that "Mrs. Drummond, a young Scottish lady, having turned Quaker, came up to London, and preached in that city, and in most of the great towns of England, particularly to the whole University of Cambridge." 2 A poor bishopric in Wales, as poorly supplied.-POPE. Dr. Harris died 28th August, 1738, and it is stated that the see was then only worth £600, the Deanery of Wells which he held with it being £700. Mawson succeeded Harris.-CROKER. Warton says that Harris was a prelate of irreproachable character, who is said never to have offended Pope." In the reading of v. 37 of the First Imitation of Horace in the Chauncy MS., the name "Harris " occurs. If this is meant for the bishop, it would certainly appear that Pope must have had some grudge against him. Noble, in his continuation of Granger's Biographies (vol. iii. 490), says that Harris was recommended by Gibson to the see of Llandaff at the instance of the Duke of Argyle, 135 140 145 and that he owed his promotion to a patriotic book on dress, written when he was Prebendary of Canterbury, called Treatise on the Modes, or Farewell to Freneh Kicks, in which he urged his countrymen to dress according to their own taste, and to discard French fashions. 3 In the folio, "low-born Allen.” Mr. Pope, on the republication of this poem, in a letter to Mr. Allen, writes thus: "I am going to insert in the body of my works, my two last poems in quarto. I always profit myself of the opinion of the public to correct myself on such occasions; and sometimes the merits of particular men, whose names I have made free with, for examples either of good or bad, determine me to alterations. I have found a virtue in you more than I certainly knew before, till I had made experiment of it, I mean humility. I must therefore, in justice to my own conscience of it, bear testimony to it, and change the epithet I first gave you of 'low born' to 'humble.' I shall take care to do you the justice to tell everybody this change was not made at yours, or any friend's request for you, but my own knowledge you merited it."-WARBURTON. • Warburton says: "The poet in Her birth, her beauty, crowds and courts confess, Chaste matrons praise her, and grave bishops bless; Hear her black trumpet through the land proclaim, this whole passage was willing to be Warton, however, quotes Gibbon, 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." 150 155 160 165 How then can Pope be supposed to have alluded to Theodora ? 2 Modern readers may require to be reminded that in Pope's days carting, or exhibiting from a cart, was a punishment of prostitutes and procuresses.-CROKER. 3 A sneer at the peace at any price policy of Walpole. The reader of London, which appeared on the same day as this satire, will remember numerous allusions which Johnson makes to the aggrandisement of Spain at the expense of England. 4 The Pagod. He probably selected this word with an eye to the many adventurers who about this period were returning from India with vast fortunes, and were buying seats in the House of Commons to profit by Walpole's system of parliamentary corruption. The wit of cheats, the courage of a whore, At crimes that 'scape, or triumph o'er the law: Yet may this verse (if such a verse remain) Show there was one who held it in disdain. 170 DIALOGUE II. FR. 'Tis all a libel-Paxton (Sir) will say.' P. Not yet, my friend! to-morrow 'faith it may;' And for that very cause I print to-day. How should I fret to mangle every line, 3 In reverence to the sins of Thirty-nine! 1 Late Solicitor to the Treasury.— WARBURTON. Nicholas Paxton. He is referred to again in ver. 141: When Paxton gives him double pots and pay? Horace Walpole mentions him in a letter, April 15, 1742, as having been prosecuted for malversation. He was committed to Newgate and remained there during the session. Mr. Croker says: In the poem called A Supplement to 1738. "Not by Mr. Pope." Pope is made to account for his gall to Paxton thus: The largest shower should on his head descend, Who spoiled a gracious plot, and hanged my friend. The allusion, of course, is to Atterbury's plot. 2 An allusion to the Play-house Act, which was declared by the Op. position to be the first step towards the suppression of all freedom of the press. The line seems also to have reference to the old maxim "The greater the truth, the greater the libel." To-day, he says (ver. 8), there is something of invention in my satire, but to-morrow it will be the literal truth. 3 Imitated from An Epilogue by Dryden : The sweating Muse does almost leave the chase, She puffs, and hardly keeps your Protean vice's pace. F. Yet none but you by name the guilty lash; P. How, Sir! not damn the sharper, but the dice?" Ye reverend atheists-F. Scandal! name them. P. Why that's the thing you bid me not to do. Who starved a sister, who foreswore a debt,^ I never named; the town's inquiring yet. Who? 10 15 20 The poisoning dame-F. You mean-P. I don't-F. You do. P. The bribed elector-F. There you stoop too low. The Ordinary of Newgate, who publishes the memoirs of the malefactors, and is often prevailed upon to be so tender of their reputation as to set down no more than the initials of their name.-POPE. 2 Imitated from Martial, lib. x. xxxiii. Hunc servare modum nostri novere libelli, It is pity that the liveliness of the reply cannot excuse the bad reasoning the dice, though they rhyme to vice, can never stand for it; which his argument requires they should do. For dice are only the instruments of fraud; but the ques 25 30 Suppose I censure-you know what I mean To save a bishop, may I name a dean? F. A dean, sir? No; his fortune is not made, Much less the 'prentice who to-morrow may. Down, down, proud Satire! though a realm be spoiled, Or, if a court or country's made a job, Go drench a pickpocket, and join the mob. The poor and friendless villain, than the great? Scarce hurts the lawyer, but undoes the scribe. To tax directors, who (thank God) have plums;' May pinch e'en there-why lay it on a king. P. Must Satire, then, nor rise nor fall? F. Yes, strike that Wild, I'll justify the blow. P. Strike? why the man was hanged ten years ago: 55 Who now that obsolete example fears? E'en Peter trembles only for his ears." 1 In a former edition there was the following note on this line: "For as the reasonable De la Bruyère observes, Qui ne sait être un Erasme, doit penser à être Evêque." Dr. Warburton omitted it after he got a seat on the bench.-WARTON. 2 Jonathan Wild, a famous thief, and thief impeacher, who was at last caught in his own train and hanged. -POPE. 3 Pickpockets were sometimes "ducked," and sometimes pumped upon.-CROKER. 4 One hundred thousand pounds. See Moral Essays, iii. 122. 5 Jonathan Wild was hanged on the 24th of May, 1725. 6 Peter had, the year before this, narrowly escaped the pillory for forgery; and got off with a severe rebuke only from the Bench.-POPE. |