Hear BETHEL's Sermon, one not vers'd in schools, Preach as I please, I doubt our curious men Oldfield1 with more than Harpy throat endued, Cries "Send me, Gods! a whole Hog barbecued 2! The Robin-red-breast till of late had rest3, And children sacred held a Martin's nest, Till Becca-ficos sold so dev'lish dear To one that was, or would have been a Peer. I'll have a party at the Bedford-head1; Or ev'n to crack live Crawfish recommend; I'd never doubt at Court to make a friend. 1 Oldfield] This eminent Glutton ran thro' in a fortune of fifteen hundred pounds a year in the simple luxury of good eating. Warburton. Hog barbecued, etc.] A West Indian term of gluttony, a hog roasted whole, stuffed with spice, and basted with Madeira wine. P. [How gross an antithesis to Charles Lamb's favourite delicate sucking-pig!] 3['Cet aimable oiseau se mange à la broche et en salmi.' Almanach des Gourmands, quoted Mr Hayward's Essay on the Art of Dining.] 4 Bedford-head;] A famous Eating-House. P. [In Covent-Garden.] 5 Edward Wortley Montagu, the husband of Lady Mary. Carruthers. [Their son Edward, alluded to in v. 56, was a source of constant annoyance to both his parents; and Lady M. speaks of the impossibility of his behaving as a rational creature.'] One half-pint bottle serves them both to dine, But on some lucky day (as when they found 55 A lost Bank-bill, or heard their Son was drown'd) At such a feast, old vinegar to spare, Is what two souls so gen'rous cannot bear: He knows to live, who keeps the middle state, Now hear what blessings Temperance can bring: How pale, each Worshipful and Rev'rend guest To seem but mortal, ev'n in sound Divines1. On morning wings how active springs the Mind Or tir'd in search of Truth, or search of Rhyme; Our fathers prais'd rank Ven'son. You suppose 1 [Warburton remarks on the orthodox turn given by Pope to the Epicureanism of Horace.] 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 955 100 2 [A delicacy still in vogue at academical feasts.] 3 [Lord Hervey.] Who has not learned, fresh sturgeon and ham-pie 105 110 "Right," cries his Lordship, "for a rogue in need "To have a Taste is insolence indeed: 66 "In me 'tis noble, suits my birth and state, Oh Impudence of wealth! with all thy store, 115 120 Who thinks that Fortune cannot change her mind, Prepares a dreadful jest for all mankind. 125 In_peace provides fit arms against a war? Thus BETHEL spoke, who always speaks his thought, And always thinks the very thing he ought: 130 And, as I love, would imitate the Man. 'Tis true, no Turbots dignify my boards, But gudgeons, flounders, what my Thames affords: To Hounslow-heath I point and Bansted-down*, Thence comes your mutton, and these chicks my own: From yon old walnut-tree a show'r shall fall; 145 And grapes, long ling'ring on my only wall, And figs from standard and espalier join; Then cheerful healths (your Mistress shall have place), [The Duke of Marlborough.] 2 [See notes to Moral Essays, Ep. III. vv. 115 and 118.] 3 [Pope's father originally purchased twenty acres of land in the outskirts of Windsor Forest, 150 which he sold in 1716. The sum which he left Fortune not much of humbling me can boast; My lands are sold, my father's house is gone; 155 I'll hire another's; is not that my own, And yours, my friends? thro' whose free-opening gate None comes too early, none departs too late; (For I, who hold sage Homer's rule the best, Welcome the coming, speed the going guest2.) 160 "Pray heav'n it last!" (cries SWIFT!) "as you go on; "I wish to God this house had been your own: "Pity! to build, without a son or wife: 165 66 'Why, you'll enjoy it only all your life." Well, if the use be mine, can it concern one3, 170 The Chanc'ry takes your rents for twenty year: At best, it falls to some ungracious son, Who cries, "My father's damn'd, and all's my own." Shades, that to BACON could retreat afford", 175 Become the portion of a booby Lord; And Hemsley, once proud Buckingham's delight®, Let lands and houses have what Lords they will, fends Dr Johnson, himself in general no enemy of more liberal potations: 'When he had two guests in his house he would set at supper a single pint of wine upon the table, and having taken himself two small glasses would retire and say, "Gentlemen, I leave you to your wine.""] [Practically, England has had a standing army since the time of Charles II.; legally, the existence of the army depends on the annual Mutiny-bills, of which the first was passed in 1689. From the first years of Walpole's administration, the army (independently of the Irish establishment) continued in ordinary times to number about 17,000 men; but even its virtual perpetuity was not acknowledged; and as late as 1732 Pulteney declared that he always had been, and always would be, against a standing army of any kind.' See Hallam, Const. History, chap. xvI.] From Hom. Od. Bk. xv. v. 74. Warton. Well, if the use be mine, etc.] In a letter to this Mr Bethel, of March 20, 1743, he says, "My Landlady, Mrs Vernon, being dead, this "Garden and House are offered me in sale; and, "I believe (together with the cottages on each side my grass-plot next the Thames) will come at about a thousand pounds. If I thought any very particular friend would be pleased to live 46 180 "in it after my death (for, as it is, it serves all my purposes as well during life) I would pur"chase it," &c. Warburton. [Pope never carried out this intention.] ▲ Or, in a jointure, vanish from the heir;] The expression well describes the surprise an heir must be in, to find himself excluded by that Instrument which was made to secure his succession. For Butler humorously defines a Jointure to be the act whereby Parents 'turn Their Children's Tenants, ere they're born.' Warburton. 5 [Gorhambury, near St Alban's, the seat of Lord Bacon, was at the time of his disgrace conveyed by him to his quondam secretary, Sir J. Meantys, whose heir sold it to Sir Harbottle Grimston, whose grandson left it to his nephew (Wm. Lucklyn, who took the name of Grimston), whose second son was in 1719 created Viscount Grimston. This is the 'booby lord' to whom Pope refers.] proud Buckingham's etc.] Villiers Duke of Buckingham. P. The estate of Helmsley was purchased by Sir Charles Duncombe, Lord Mayor in 1709, who changed its name to Duncombe Park. Carruthers. THE FIRST EPISTLE OF THE FIRST BOOK OF HORACE. EPISTLE I. To LORD BOLINGBROKE1. [HORACE'S Epistle is addressed to Maecenas; and explains the causes why he had relinquished lyrical poetry in order to study philosophy as an eclectic after the fashion of Aristippus. It then proceeds to show that true happiness depends upon virtue and wisdom, to which that study leads, and not upon the external comforts of life.] T. JOHN, whose love indulg'd my labours past, STM Matures my present, and shall bound my last! Why will you break the Sabbath of my days 2? "Lest stiff, and stately, void of fire or force, "You limp, like Blackmore on a Lord Mayor's horse "." The Rhymes and Rattles of the Man or Boy; [Cf. note to Essay on Man, Ep. 1.] Sabbath of my days?] i.e. The 49th year, the age of the Author. Warburton. 3 [Colley Cibber retired from the stage after a histrionic career of more than 40 years in 1733; but returned in 1734 and did not make his 'positively last appearance' till 1745.] [Warburton compares Moral Essays, Ep. IV. v. 30. Pope is said by Warton to allude to the entrance of Lord Peterborough's Lawn at Bevismount near Southampton.] 5 Ev'n in Brunswick's cause.] In the former 5 10 15 20 Editions it was, Britain's cause. But the terms are synonymous. Warburton. [Hardly always so in Pope's mouth.] 6 You limp, like Blackmore on a Lord Mayor's horse. The fame of this heavy Poet, however problematical elsewhere, was universally received in the City of London. His versification is here exactly described: stiff, and not strong; stately and yet dull, like the sober and slow-paced Animal generally employed to mount the Lord Mayor: and therefore here humorously opposed to Pegasus. P. [Blackmore was City Physician.] |