Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

Adieu to all but Gay alone *,

Whofe foul, fincere and free,

Loves all mankind, but flatters none,

And fo may starve with me.

NOTES.

Gay was the favourite of Pope, and was received into his utmost confidence; a friendship was formed between them, which lafted to their feparation by death. JOHNSON.

He mentions Gay again, in his Prologue to the Satires, verse 256, with all the pathetic fenfibility of the tendereft friendship, in ftrains of fupreme excellence :

66

-They left me GAY;

Left me to fee neglected Genius bloom,
Neglected die, and tell it on his tomb;
Of all thy blameless life the fole return

My verfe, and QUEENSB'RY weeping o'er thy urn!"

WAKEFIELD.

[ocr errors]

The following Lines were fung by DURASTANTI*, when She took her leave of the English Stage. The Words were in Hafte put together by Mr. POPE, at the Request of the Earl of PETERBOROW.

G

ENEROUS, gay, and gallant nation,
Bold in arms, and bright in arts;

Land secure from all invasion,

All but Cupid's gentle darts!
From your charms, oh who would run?
Who would leave you for the fun?

Happy foil, adieu, adieu !

Let old charmers yield to new.

In arms, in arts, be ftill more fhining;

All your joys be still encreasing;

All your taftes be still refining;

All your jars for ever ceasing:

But let old charmers yield to new :

Happy foil, adieu, adieu !

NOTES.

Duraftanti was brought to England by Handel, to fing at the Opera, 1721. She was fo great a favourite at Court, that the King stood godfather to one of her children.

Upon the Duke of MARLBOROUGH'S Houfe at Woodstock.

Atria longè patent; fed nec cœnantibus ufquam,
Nec fomno locus eft: quàm bene non habites!

SEE, Sir, here's the grand approach,

MART. Epig.

This way is for his Grace's coach; There lies the bridge, and here's the clock, Obferve the lion and the cock,

The spacious court, the colonnade,

And mark how wide the hall is made!
The chimneys are fo well defign'd,
They never smoke in any wind.
This gallery's contriv'd for walking,
The windows to retire and talk in;
The council-chamber for debate,
And all the reft are rooms of state.

Thanks, Sir, cry'd I, 'tis very fine,
But where d'ye fleep, or where d'ye dine?
I find by all you have been telling,

That 'tis a house, but not a dwelling

NOTES.

The fame idea is ufed by Lord Chesterfield in his Epigram

on Burlington House:

"How well you build, let flatt'ry tell;

And all mankind, how ill you dwell!"

Verfes left by Mr. POPE, on his lying in the fame Bed which WILMOT, the celebrated Earl of ROCHESTER, Slept in, at Adderbury, then belonging to the Duke of ARGYLE, July 9th, 1739.

WITH no poetic ardour fir'd

WITH

I prefs the bed where Wilmot lay; That here he lov'd, or here expir'd, Begets no numbers grave, or gay.

Beneath thy roof, Argyle, are bred

Such thoughts as prompt the brave to lie Stretch'd out in honour's nobler bed, Beneath a nobler roof-the sky.

Such flames as high in patriots burn
Yet ftoop to bless a child or wife;
And fuch as wicked kings may mourn,
When freedom is more dear than life.

THE CHALLENGE.

A COURT BALLAD.

To the Tune of "To all you Ladies now at Land, &c."

I.

one fair lady out of court,

And two fair ladies in,

Who think the Turk* and Popet a fport,

And wit and love no fin;

Come, these foft lines, with nothing stiff in,
To Bellenden, Lepell‡, and Griffin.

With a fa, la, la.

II. What

NOTES.

* Warton has a note upon these words, “Urick, the little Turk.” One is tempted to fay, in the language of the Author of the Critic, "The interpreter is the hardest to be underflood of the two." The expreffion of the "Turk and the Pope," is very common; it is here applied equivocally, to the author, and perhaps to one of the Turks, who came to England with George the First.

The Author.

Mifs Lepell has been spoken of before. Mary Bellenden, the molt beautiful and lovely woman of her time, maid of honour to Caroline when Princess of Wales, was daughter of Lord Bellenden. She is thus defcribed, fays Mr. Coxe, in an old ballad, made upon the quarrel between George the First and the Prince of Wales at the chriflening, when the Prince and all his household were ordered to quit St. James's:

"But Bellenden we needs must praise,
Who, as down stairs fhe jumps,
Sings, "Over Hills, and far away,"
Defpifing doleful dumps."

This lovely and elegant woman rejected the addrefies of the Prince, and efpoufed in 1720 John Campbell then groom of the bed chamber to the Prince of Wales, and afterwards Duke of Argyle. See Coxe's Memoirs.

[ocr errors]
« EdellinenJatka »