X.

ON MR. ELIJAH FENTON,

AT EASTHAMSTED IN BERKS, 1730.

T

HIS modest Stone, what few vain marbles can,
May truly fay, Here lies an honest Man :

A Poet, blest beyond the Poet's fate,

Whom Heav'n kept facred from the Proud and Great : Foe to loud Praife, and Friend to learned Eafe,

5

Content with Science in the Vale of Peace.

Calmly he look'd on either Life, and here
Saw nothing to regret, or there to fear;

From Nature's temp'rate feast rofe fatisfy'd,

9

Thank'd Heav'n that he had liv'd, and that he dy'd.

NOTES.

VER. 9. From Nature's temp'rate feaft, &c.] Wakefield quotes Horace:

Inde fit, ut raro qui se vixisse beatum
Dicat, et exacto contentus tempore vitæ,
Cedat, uti conviva fatur, reperire queamus.

HIS integrity, his learning, and his genius, deserved this character; it is not in any respect over-wrought. His poems are not sufficiently read and admired. The Epistle to Southerne, the Ode to the Sun, the Fair Nun, and, above all, the Ode to Lord Gower, are excellent. Akenside frequently faid to me, that he thought this Ode the best in our language, next to Alexander's Feaft. " I envy Fenton," said Pope to Mr. Walter Harte, "his Horatian Epistle to Lambard." Parts of Mariamne are beautiful, and it ought to take its turn on the stage. Just before he died, Fenton was introduced into Mr. Craggs' family by Pope's recommendation. WARTON.

ΧΙ.

ON MR. GAY,

IN WESTMINSTER-ABBEY, 1732.

OF Manners gentle, of Affections mild;

In Wit, a Man; Simplicity, a Child :
With native Humour temp'ring virtuous Rage,
Form'd to delight at once and lash the age :
Above Temptation, in a low Estate,
And uncorrupted ev'n among the Great :
A fafe Companion, and an easy Friend,
Unblam'd through Life, lamented in thy End.
These are thy Honours! not that here thy Bust
Is mix'd with Heroes, or with Kings thy dust;
But that the Worthy and the Good shall say,
Striking their pensive bosoms-Here lies GAY.

NOTES.

5

10

VER. 1. Of Manners gentle,] " The eight first lines," says Johnson, " have no grammar, the adjectives are without any substantives, and the epithets without a fubject."

It is fomewhat fingular that there should be an improper expref. sion in Bishop Warburton's own epitaph. His genius and learning are called two talents, but learning is an acquirement. WARTON. VER. 2. In Wit, &c.] This seems derived from Dryden's Elegy on Mrs. Anne Killegrew:

" Her wit was more than man; her innocence a child."

WAKEFIELD.

V+R. 3. virtuous Rage,] Silius Italicus, v. 652, has the fame

expreffion :

Virtutis facram rabiem.

WAKEFIELD,

VER. 12. Here lies GAY.] i. e. in the hearts of the good and worthy. -- Mr. Pope told me his conceit in this line was not generally understood. For, by peculiar ill-luck, the formu'ary expreffion which makes the beauty, misteads the reader into a sense which takes it quite away. WARBURTON.

The conceit in the last line is certainly very puerile, and a false thought borrowed from Crashaw:

"Entomb'd, not in this stone but in my heart."

CRASHAW, Poems, p. 94.

WARTON.

XII.

INTENDED FOR SIR ISAAC NEWTON,

IN WESTMINSTER-ABBEY.

ISAACUS NEWTONUS:

Quem Immortalem

Teftantur Tempus, Natura, Cælum :
Mortalem

Hoc marmor fatetur.

Nature and Nature's Laws lay hid in Night:
GOD faid, Let Newton be! and all was Light.

NOTES.

VER. 1. Nature] The antithesis betwixt Mortalem and Immortalem is much unfuited to the subject; and the fecond English line, "God faid, &c." borders a little on the profane. The magnificent Fiat of Mofes will be always striking and admired, notwithstanding the cold objections of Le Clerc and Huet.

WARTON.

VER. 2. Let Newton be!] He was born on the very day on which Galileo died. When Ramsay was one day complimenting him on his discoveries in philosophy, he answered, as I read it in Spence's Anecdotes, "Alas! I am only like a child picking up pebbles on the shore of the great ocean of truth." WARTON.

And all was Light.] It had been better and there was Light - as more conformable to the reality of the fact, and to the allufion whereby it is celebrated. WARBURTON.

XIII.

ON DR. FRANCIS ATTERBURY,

BISHOP OF ROCHESTER.

Who died in Exile at Paris, 1732, (bis only Daughter having expired in his Arms, immediately after she arrived in France to see him.)

YES, we have liv'd-one pang, and then

we part!

May Heav'n, dear Father! now have all thy

Heart.

Yet ah! how once we lov'd, remember still,
Till you are dust like me.

HE.

Dear Shade! I will:

Then mix this dust with thine-O spotless Ghost!

NOTES.

O more

VER. I. Yes, we have liv'd-] I know not why this Dialogue should be called an Epitaph. Dr. Johnson says, "it is contemptible, and should have been fuppressed for the Author's sake." I see no reason for this harsh sentence passed upon it. WARTON.

Dr. Johnfon fays, "the contemptible Dialogue between He and She,' should have been fuppreffed."

Many of our old Epitaphs are written in dialogue. In this instance, nothing could so well express the story of the Daughter and Father meeting in a foreign country, he exiled, and the dying in his arms!