VERBATIM FROM BOILEAU,

UN JOUR DIT UN AUTEUR, etc.

ONCE (fays an Author, where I need not say)
Two Trav'lers found an Oyster in their way;
Both fierce, both hungry; the dispute grew strong,
While Scale in hand Dame Juftice paft along.
Before her each with clamour pleads the Laws,
Explain'd the matter, and would win the cause,
Dame Justice weighing long the doubtful Right,
Takes, opens, swallows it, before their fight.
The cause of strife remov'd fo rarely well,
There take (fays Juftice), take ye each a Shell,
We thrive at Westminster on Fools like you;
'Twas a fat Oyster-Live in peace-Adieu.

IT will be no unuseful or unpleafing amusement to compare this tranflation with the original :

"Un jour, dit un Auteur, n'importe en quel chapitre,

Deux voyageurs à jeun rencontrerent une huître,

Tous deux la conteftoient, lorfque dans leur chemin,

La juftice paffa, la balance à la main.

Devant elle à grand bruit ils expliquent la chofe.
Tous deux avec depens veulent gagner leur caufe.
La juftice pefant ce droit litigieux,

Demande l'huitre, l'ouvre, & l'avale à leur yeux,
Et par ce bel arreft terminant la bataille :

Tenez voilà, dit elle, à chacun une écaille.

Des fottifes d'autrui, nous vivons au palais;

Meffieurs, l'huître étoit bonne. Adicu, Vivez en paix."

In the fifth, fixth, feventh, ninth, and twelfth verfes, Pope is inferior to the original.

WARTON.

ANSWER TO THE FOLLOWING QUESTION OF

MRS. HOW.

HAT IS PRUDERY?

WHAT

'Tis a Beldam,

Seen with Wit and Beauty feldom.
'Tis a fear that starts at fhadows;
'Tis, (no, 'tis'n't) like Mifs Meadows.
'Tis a Virgin hard of Feature,
Old, and void of all good-nature;
Lean and fretful, would feem wife;
Yet plays the fool before fhe dies.
'Tis an ugly envious Shrew,
That rails at dear Lepell and You.

5

10

VER. II. That rails at dear Lepell] Mifs Lepell was one of the maids of honour to Queen Caroline, and she afterwards was married to Lord Hervey. She and Mifs Mary Bellenden, mentioned in Gay's ballad, and in Pope's letters, were the ornaments of the court, for beauty, engaging manners, and amiable character. I have a MS. letter from her, written at Paris to Lord Melcomb, which fufficiently evinces her fuperior understanding, and might be claffed with the letters of Lady M. W. Montagu.

In Gay's ballad fhe is defignated as,

"Youth's youngest daughter, fweet Lepell."

He also celebrates her with Miss Bellenden, in his ballad, intitled, Damon and Cupid :

"So well I'm known at Court,

None asks where beauty dwells,

But readily refort,

To Bellenden's or Lepell's."

Of Mifs Meadows, mentioned in this little jeu d'efprit, I find the following notice in a MS. poem of Lord Melcomb, the celebrated Bubb Dodington:

As chafte as "Hervey or Mifs Meadows!”

AMONG these smaller poems of our Author, the following couplet was expofed, on a dog's collar, which he gave to the Prince of Wales:

"I am his Highness's dog at Kew;

Pray tell me, Sir, whose dog are you?"

which was taken from Sir William Temple's Miscellanies, vol. iii. p. 323. faid to be the answer of Mr. Grantham's Fool to one who afked him whofe fool he was, WARTON.

OCCASIONED BY SOME VERSES OF HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

USE, 'tis enough: at length thy labour ends, And thou shalt live, for Buckingham commends. Let Crouds of Critics now my Verse assail, Let Dennis write, and nameless numbers rail : This more than pays whole years of thankless pain, Time, health, and fortune, are not lost in vain. Sheffield approves, confenting Phoebus bends, And I and Malice from this hour are friends.

NOTES.

VER. 2. Buckingham commends,] It would be difficult to add any thing to the finished portrait of this nobleman, given by Mr. Walpole in his Anecdotes, vol. ii. p. 118. WARTON.

VER. 5 and 6. This more] A very groundlefs complaint! Few authors, during their lives, were more respected and revered than himself by persons of rank and judges of merit.

WARTON.

A PROLOGUE

BY MR. POPE,

To a Play for Mr. DENNIS's Benefit in 1733, when he was old, blind, and in great Diftrefs, a little before his Death.

As

s when that Hero, who in each Campaign,

Had brav'd the Goth, and many a Vandal flain, Lay fortune-ftruck, a spectacle of Woe!

Wept by each Friend, forgiv'n by ev'ry Foe;
Was there a gen❜rous, a reflecting mind,
But pitied BELISARIUS old and blind?
Was there a Chief but melted at the Sight?
A common Soldier, but who clubb'd his Mite?

NOTES.

5

Such,

VER. 6. But pitied Belifarius, &c.] Nothing could be more happily imagined than this allufion, nor more finely conducted. The continued pleasantry is fo delicately touched, that it took nothing from the self-fatisfaction which the critic who heard it, had in his own merit, or the audience in their charity. In a word, this benevolent irony is profecuted with fo masterly a hand, that the Poet fuppofed, had Dennis himself the wit to fee it, he would have had the ingenuity to approve of it.

"This dreaded Satʼrift, Dennis will confefs,
Foe to his pride, but friend to his distress."

WARBURTON.

VER. 7. Was there a Chief, &c.] The fine figure of the Commander in that capital picture of Belifarius at Chifwick, fupplied the Poet with this beautiful idea. WARBURTON.