VII. On the Monument of the Honourable ROBERT DIGBY, and of his Sifter MARY, erected by their Father the Lord DIGBY, in the Church of Sherborne in Dorfet Shire, 1727. Go! fair example of untainted youth, Of modest wisdom, and pacific truth: Compos'd in fuff'rings, and in joy sedate, Good without noife, without pretension great, Juft of thy word, in ev'ry thought sincere, 5 Who knew no Wish but what the world might hear; Of softest manners, unaffected mind, Lover of peace, and friend of human kind: Go live! for Heav'n's Eternal year is thine, Go, and exalt thy Moral to Divine. And thou, bleft Maid! attendant on his doom, Penfive haft follow'd to the filent tomb, NOTES. Steer'd VER. 11. And thou, bleft Maid!] Mr. Robert Digby, third fon of Lord Digby, who is yet remembered with respect at Sherborne, died of a confumption, and was, foon after followed by the amiable and affectionate sister, who hung over his fick bed. The following letter from her fifter to Pope, on the fubject of their brother's illness, is in the British Museum, with part of the tranflation of the Odyffey on the back of it : "Dear Sir, Sherborne, July 18, 1724. "I am fure this will want no excufe to you, and it carries good news of a friend. My brother has not had any fit of his ague Steer'd the fame course to the fame quiet fhore, Go then, where only bliss fincere is known! 15 Go, where to love and to enjoy are one! Yet take these Tears, Mortality's relief, 'Tis all a Father, all a Friend can give! NOTES. 20 ague fince Sunday; he has flept a little every night, but with fome interruptions by the cramp. Laft night he began to drink affes' milk, which had its ufual effect, in giving him a good night's reft, and free from pain. I am, dear Sir, in great haste, but with great truth, your friend and fervant, E. DIGBY. "All here are your fervants." MY father, who was an intimate friend and contemporary at Magdalen College, Oxford, with Mr. Robert Digby, was always faying that this excellent character was not over-drawn, and had every virtue in it here enumerated; and that Mr. Digby had more of the mitis fapientia, as Horace finely expreffes it, than any man he had ever known. The fame faid the amiable Mr. Holdsworth, author of Mufcipula. They were all three pupils of Dr. Sacheverell, who at that time was the friend of Addison, and was in great vogue as an able tutor, before he entered fo violently into thofe abfurd politics that fo much disgraced him. WARTON. VIII. ON SIR GODFREY KNELLER, IN WESTMINSTER-ABBEY, 1723. KNELLER, by Heav'n and not a Master taught, Whose Art was Nature, and whofe Pictures Thought; Now for two Ages having fnatch'd from fate Living, great Nature fear'd he might outvie 5 IMITATIONS. VEK. 7. Imitated from the famous Epitaph on Raphael. VER. 7. Living, great Nature] Much better tranflated by Mr. W. Harrison, of New College, a favourite of Swift, communicated to me by Dr. Lowth : "Here Raphael lies, by whofe untimely end Nature both loft a rival and a friend" Notwithstanding the partiality of Pope, this artift little deferved to be confulted by our Poet, as he was, concerning the arrangements of the fubjects reprefented on the shield of Achilles. Thefe required a genius of a higher order. Mr Flaxman, lately arrived from Italy, by a diligent fludy of the antique, and the force of his genius genius, has given defigns from Homer far beyond any that have yet appeared. WARTON. There are some very good pictures by Kneller, at Donhead Hall, near Shaftesbury, Wilts, the feat of his defcendant John Kneller, Efq. particularly a St. Cecilia, and the Conversion of St. Paul; his natural daughter is painted in the character of Cecilia, which, in action and attitude, is very like that of the late Mrs. Sheridan, by Sir Joshua Reynolds. I fhould have imagined Sir Joshua must have seen it, or perhaps a copy of it. painting by Sir Godfrey, at Donhead Hall, of Pope. There is a I take this opportunity of explaining a ridiculous anecdote, which Warton has admitted of Kneller's vanity. Walpole has related it in this manner: "Sir Godfrey," fays Pope, "if God bad confulted you, the world would have been made more perfect." " 'Fore God," replies Kneller, "I think fo." Now the real story is this: When Pope, with an affected and pert fuperiority, faid, "If Sir Godfrey had been confulted, the world would have been made more perfect;" Kneller immediately turned the laugh upon Pope, by looking at his diminutive person, and faying, with a good-humoured fmile, "Fore God, there are fome little things in it, I think I COULD have mended." This is humourous and pleasant; whereas, as the wits have told the flory themselves, Sir Godfrey's Aupidity appears equal to his vanity. IX. ON GENERAL HENRY WITHERS. IN WESTMINSTER-ABBEY, 1729. HERE, WITHERS, reft! thou bravest, gentlest mind, For thee the hardy Vet'ran drops a tear, WITHERS, adieu! yet not with thee remove |