XV. Carlton and Chandois thy arrival grace; Hanmer, whofe eloquence th' unbiass'd sways; 115 Harley, whofe goodness opens in his face, And fhews his heart the feat where virtue stays. Ned Blount advances next, with bufy pace, In hafte, but fauntring, hearty in his ways: I fee the friendly Carylls come by dozens, 120 Their wives, their uncles, daughters, fons, and coufins. XVI. Arbuthnot there I fee, in phyfic's art, As Galen learn'd, or fam'd Hippocrate; Whofe company drives forrow from the heart, As all disease his medicines diffipate : Kneller amid the triumph bears his part, Who could (were mankind loft) anew create: What can th' extent of his vaft foul confine? A painter, critic, engineer, divine! 125 XVII. Thee NOTES. VER. 115. Hanmer,] Speaker of the Houfe of Commons. VER. 126. Kneller amid, &c.] This is no more than a compli. ment to the vanity of Sir Godfrey, which Pope and other wits were always putting to the ftrongest trials. "Sir Godfrey," says Pope "I believe if God Almighty had had your affiftance, the world would have been formed more perfect." "Fore God," fays Kneller, "I believe fo." He was frequently (as Mr. Walpole ob. ferves) very free and fingular in his converfation on religion. This adulation of Pope, Addison, Prior, &c. appears to have heightened his natural abfurdities, as he had not discernment enough to dif VOL. II. DD cover XVII. Thee Jervas hails, robust and debonair, 130 Now have [we] conquer'd Homer, friends, he cries: Dartneuf, grave joker, joyous Ford is there, And wond'ring Maine, fo fat with laughing eyes, (Gay, Maine, and Cheney, boon companions dear, Gay fat, Maine fatter, Cheney huge of fize,) 135 Yea Dennis, Gildon, (hearing thou haft riches,) And honeft, hatlefs Cromwell, with red breeches. XVIII. O Wanley, whence com'ft thou with fhorten'd hair, And vifage from thy fhelves with duft befprent? "Forfooth NOTES. cover that they were only foothing him to paint for them gratis, or diverting themselves at the expence of his credulity. Sir Godfrey had drawn for Pope the ftatues of Apollo, Venus, and Hercules. Pope paid for them with the following ftanza: "What god, what genius did the pencil move, When Kneller painted these ! 'Twas friendship warm as Phoebus, kind as love, And ftrong as Hercules " On thefe lines, which their author wifely fuppreffed, Mr. Walpole has offered a very juft criticifm. See his Anecdotes, &c. vol. iii. p. 112. (Additions to Pope's Works, printed in 1776.) This abfurd anecdote of Sir Godfrey is explained elsewhere. See his Epitaph. VER. 132. joyous Ford is there,] Charles Ford, Efq. was by Swift's interelt appointed Gazetteer. See the Dean's Letter to Mrs. Dingley, dated July 1, 1712. WARTON. VER. 139 with dut befprent ?] So in the Dunciad, b iii v. 185. Of fober face, with learned duft befprent?" Ibid. "Forfooth (quoth he) from placing Homer there, "For ancients to compyle is myne entente: "Of ancients only hath Lord Harley care; "But hither me hath my meeke lady fent : 141 "In manuscript of Greeke rede we thilke fame, "But book yprint beft plefyth my gude dame." 145 XIX. Yonder I fee, among th' expecting croud, Evans with laugh jocofe, and tragic Young; High-bufkin'd Booth, grave Mawbert, wand'ring Frowd, And Titcomb's belly waddles flow along. · XX. Lo the two Doncastles in Berkshire known! NOTES. way. 150 155 Lo VER. 149. flow along ] The names of the majority of perfons here enumerated, are in want of no illuftration; and concerning a few of them, it would be difficult to fupply any. Titcomb, however, is mentioned in a letter from Pope to Congreve. "There is a grand revolution at Will's, Morrice has quitted for a coffee-house in the city, and Titcomb is restored to the great joy of Cromwell, who was at a lofs for a perfon to converse with on the fathers, and church history." Ibid. VER. 152. partnership they fay] Alluding to the rival transla tion of Homer. Lo Tooker, Eckerfhall, Sykes, Rawlinfon! But who can count the leaves, the stars, the fand? Lo Stonor, Fenton, Caldwell, Ward, and Broome! Lo thousands more, but I want rhyme and room! XXI. How lov'd! how honour'd thou! yet be not vain! And what rewards his grateful country pay? 165 THERE is fomething truly interefting in this sketch of Gay's; it fets before us, in a moft familiar manner, the friends and companions of the day; and it is, moreover, beautifully touched and finished. * Almost all the perfons introduced have fome ftriking or humourous characteristic; we feem to fee them before us. The old beau, "Cromwell with red breeches;" Ned Blount, "with busy pace, in hafle, but fauntering;" Evans, with "laugh jocofe," and tragic Young and laftly, my "Maiftre Wanley," the honeft but folemn librarian of Lord Oxford. The following characteristic letter from Pope to him, is one of those in the British Museum, on the back of which he wrote his translation: "To *Evans was the Epigrammatift of St. John's College, Oxford. 64 "To my worthy and special Friend, Maistre Wanley, dwelling "at my fingular goode Lord's, my Lord of Oxford, kindly prefent. "Worthy Sir, "I shall take it as a fingular mark of your friendly difpofition "and kindneffe to me, if you will recommend to my palate, "from the experienced taste of yours, a doufaine quartes of goode and wholesome wine, fuch as yee drink at the Genoa "Arms, for the which I will in honorable fort be indebted, “and well and truly pay the owner thereof, your faid merchant "of wines at the faid Genoa Arms. As witnefs this myne hand, "which also witneffeth its mafter to be, in footh and fincerity of heart, "Goode Sir, "Your's ever bounden, "A. POPE. "From Twickenham, this fyrfte "of Julie, 1725." |