Steer'd the fame course to the fame quiet fhore, Go then, where only blifs fincere is known! 15 Go, where to love and to enjoy are one! Yet take these Tears, Mortality's relief, 'Tis all a Father, all a Friend can give! NOTES. 20 ague fince Sunday; he has flept a little every night, but with fome interruptions by the cramp. Laft night he began to drink affes' milk, which had its usual effect, in giving him a good night's reft, and free from pain. I am, dear Sir, in great hafte, but with great truth, your friend and fervant, E. DIGBY, "All here are your fervants." MY father, who was an intimate friend and contemporary at Magdalen College, Oxford, with Mr. Robert Digby, was always faying that this excellent character was not over-drawn, and had every virtue in it here enumerated; and that Mr. Digby had more of the initis fapientia, as Horace finely expreffes it, than any man he had ever known. The fame faid the amiable Mr. Holdsworth, author of Mufcipula. They were all three pupils of Dr. Sacheverell, who at that time was the friend of Addison, and was in great vogue as an able tutor, before he entered fo violently into those abfurd politics that fo much difgraced him. WARTON. VIII. ON SIR GODFREY KNELLER, IN WESTMINSTER-ABBEY, 1723. KNELLER, by Heav'n and not a Master taught, Whofe Art was Nature, and whofe Pictures Thought; Now for two Ages having fnatch'd from fate Living, great Nature fear'd he might outvie IMITATIONS. VER. 7. Imitated from the famous Epitaph on Raphael. Raphael, timuit, quo fofpite, vinci Rerum magna parens, et moriente, mori.” NOTES. 5 РОРБ. VER. 7. Living, great Nature] Much better tranflated by Mr. W. Harrison, of New College, a favourite of Swift, communicated to me by Dr. Lowth: "Here Raphael lies, by whofe untimely end Nature both loft a rival and a friend." Notwithstanding the partiality of Pope, this artift little deferved to be confulted by our Poet, as he was, concerning the arrange ments of the fubjects reprefented on the fhield of Achilles. Thefe required a genius of a higher order. Mr. Flaxman, lately arrived from Italy, by a diligent ftudy of the antique, and the force of his genius, has given defigns from Homer far beyond any that have yet appeared. WARTON. There are some very good pictures by Kneller, at Donhead Hall, near Shaftesbury, Wilts, the feat of his defcendant John Kneller, Efq. particularly a St. Cecilia, and the Conversion of St. Paul; his natural daughter is painted in the character of Cecilia, which, in action and attitude, is very like that of the late Mrs. Sheridan, by Sir Joshua Reynolds. I fhould have imagined Sir Joshua must have seen it, or perhaps a copy of it. painting by Sir Godfrey, at Donhead Hall, of Pope. There is a I take this opportunity of explaining a ridiculous anecdote, which Warton has admitted of Kneller's vanity. Walpole has related it in this manner: "Sir Godfrey," fays Pope, "if God had confulted you, the world would have been made more perfect." "'Fore God," replies Kneller, "I think fo." Now the real story is this: When Pope, with an affected and pert fuperiority, faid, "If Sir Godfrey had been confulted, the world would have been made more perfe&;" Kneller immediately turned the laugh upon Pope, by looking at his diminutive perfon, and saying, with a good-humoured fmile, "Fore God, there are fome little things in it, I think I COULD have mended." This is humourous and pleasant; whereas, as the wits have told the flory themfelves, Sir Godfrey's fupidity appears equal to his vanity. IX. ON GENERAL HENRY WITHERS. IN WESTMINSTER-ABBEY, 1729. HERE, WITHERS, rest! thou bravest, gentlest mind, For thee the hardy Vet'ran drops a tear, WITHERS, adieu! yet not with thee remove X. ON MR. ELIJAH FENTON, AT EASTHAMSTED IN BERKS, 1730. HIS modeft Stone, what few vain marbles can, THIS May truly fay, Here lies an honest Man : A Poet, bleft beyond the Poet's fate, Whom Heav'n kept facred from the Proud and Great: Foe to loud Praife, and Friend to learned Eafe, 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; Thank'd Heav'n that he had liv'd, and that he dy'd. NOTES. 5 9 VER. 9 From Nature's tempʼrate feaf, &c.] Wakefield quotes Horace : Inde fit, ut raro qui fe vixiffe beatum Dicat, et exacto contentus tempore vitæ, HIS integrity, his learning, and his genius, deferved this character; it is not in any respect over-wrought. His poems are not fufficiently read and admired. The Epiftle to Southerne, the Ode to the Sun, the Fair Nun, and, above all, the Ode to Lord Gower, are excellent. Akenfide frequently faid to me, that he thought this Ode the best in our language, next to Alexander's Feaft. "I envy Fenton," faid Pope to Mr Walter Harte, "his Horatian Epiftle to Lambard." Parts of Mariamne are beautiful, and it ought to take its turn on the flage. Juft before he died, Fenton was introduced into Mr. Craggs' family by Pope's recommenda tion. WARTON. |