IMITATIONS OF HORACE. BOOK I., EPISTLE VII. IMITATED IN THE MANNER OF DR. SWIFT. 'Tis true, my Lord, I gave my word, "The dog-days are no more the case." 'Tis true, but winter comes apace : My Lord, your favours well I know; Just as a Scotchman does his plums. 5 10 15 20 "Pray take them, sir,-enough's a feast: And 'tis but just, I'll tell ye wherefore, Now this I'll say, you'll find in me That laughed down many a summer-sun, As when Belinda raised my strain.' Compare Prologue to Satires, ver. 208. The pronunciation of "obliged" in the eighteenth century was "obleeged," following the French. 2 Pope's references to his eyesight are contradictory. In the Imitation of Horace, 1st Epistle i., he says that he is "far from a lynx," and that he will Do what Mead and Cheselden advise To keep these limbs, and to preserve these eyes. [HOOK I. 25 35 40 45 50 On the other hand, he represents his flatterers as telling him, “Sir, you have an eye! and Warburton says in a note to that passage (Prologue to Satires, i. 118) that his "eye was fine, sharp, and piercing." Probably it was so in appearance when Warburton knew him, and in his early days it may have been as sound and strong as the word "lively " implies, but in later life he contracted the complaint for which he consulted Cheselden. 3.e., when he wrote the Rape of A weasel once made shift to slink Sir, you may spare your application, All that may make me none of mine. the Lock. Belinda was Arabella 1 Mr. Craggs gave him some South Sea subscriptions. He was so indifferent about them as to neglect making any benefit of them. He used to say it was a satisfaction to him that he did not grow rich, as he might have done, by the public calamity. - WAR BURTON. His philosophy was probably as VOL. III.-POETRY. sumed. The frequent references to his investments which occur in his correspondence, show that he was not at all indifferent to such matters. The "Child" here mentioned is Sir Francis Child, the eminent banker, and Lord Mayor of London in 1732. 2 One of his annuities was on the estate of John of Bucks, son of Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, and Katherine his wife. D D There died my father, no man's debtor, "Harley, the nation's great support,"- 1 His father died in the house in Mawson's Buildings, Chiswick, which the family had rented. 80 The rest is imitated by Swift Pope therefore says, "You may read it in his poems." |