MISCELLANEOUS. A PARAPHRASE (ON THOMAS À KEMPIS, 1. III. c. 2). [Done by the Author at twelve years old; and first published from the Caryll Papers in the Athenæum, July 15th, 1854.] SPE PEAK, Gracious Lord, oh, speak; thy Servant hears: Speak words of Comfort in my willing Ears; And since my Tongue is in thy praises slow, Speak thou in words, but let me speak in deeds! Nor speak alone, but give me grace to hear 5 Let it not stop when entered at the Ear, But sink, and take deep rooting in my heart. IO As the parch'd Earth drinks Rain (but grace afford) With such a Gust1 will I receive thy word. Nor with the Israelites shall I desire Thy heav'nly word by Moses to receive, Lest I should die: but Thou who didst inspire 15 Rather with Samuel I beseech with tears, Speak, gracious Lord, oh, speak, thy servant hears. Moses, indeed, may say the words, but Thou 20 They preach the Doctrine, but thou mak'st us do't; 25 30 Let them be Silent then; and thou alone, My God! speak comfort to my ravish'd ears; Light of my eyes, my Consolation, Speak when thou wilt, for still thy Servant hears. Whate'er thou speak'st, let this be understood: 35 Thy greater Glory, and my greater Good! 1 [i. e. taste.] TO THE AUTHOR OF A POEM ENTITLED SUCCESSIO. [FIRST published in Lintot's Miscellanies; avowed by Pope as written by him ' when fourteen years of age, in note to Dunciad, Bk. I. v. 181. Elkanah Settle, the city poet, and the Doeg of Absalom and Achitophel, had written a poem in celebration of the settlement of the crown on the house of Brunswick. Of this poem vv. 4 and 17-18 were afterwards, with slight alterations, inserted in the Dunciad as vv. 183-4 and 181-2 of Bk. 1.] BEC QEGONE, ye Critics, and restrain your spite, A swarm of drones that buzz'd about your head. And pond'rous slugs move nimbly through the sky. ARGUS. 'HOMER'S account of Ulysses's dog Argus is the most pathetic imaginable, all the circumstances consider'd, and an excellent proof of the old bard's goodnature. Ulysses had left him at Ithaca when he embark'd for Troy, and found him at his return after twenty years (which by the way is not unnatural, as some critics have said, since I remember the dam of my dog was twenty-two years old when she died. May the omen of longevity prove fortunate to her successors!). ! You shall have it in verse.' Pope to H. Cromwell, Oct. 19, 1709. WHEN wise Ulysses, from his native coast Long kept by wars, and long by tempests toss'd, Perhaps by Charilus, the juvenile satirist designed Flecknoe or Shadwell, who had received their immortality of Dulness from his master Catholic in poetry and opinions: Dryden. D'Israeli, cited by Roscoe. Arriv'd at last, poor, old, disguis'd, alone, To all his friends and ev'n his Queen unknown; The faithful dog alone his rightful master knew! Like an old servant, now cashier'd, he lay; And longing to behold his ancient Lord again. Him when he saw-he rose, and crawl'd to meet, ('Twas all he could) and fawn'd, and kiss'd his feet, IO 15 IMITATION OF MARTIAL. [LIB. X. Epigr. XXIII. Mentioned as Pope's 'imitation of Martin's epigram on Antonius Primus,' by Sir William Trumball, in a letter to Pope, Jan. 19,a 1716.] AT T length, my Friend, (while Time, with still career, } OCCASIONED BY SOME VERSES OF HIS GRACE MUSE, 'tis enough; at length thy labour ends, And thou shalt live, for Buckingham commends. Let Crowds of Critics now my verse assail, This more than pays whole years of thankless pain; 1 How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, Stol'n on his wing my three-and-twentieth year! Milton's Sonnets. Carruthers. 5 10 5 2 The verses referred to are the commendatory lines prefixed to Pope's poem by B. Roscoe. [As to Sheffield, Duke of Buckinghamshire, see note to Essay on Criticism, v. 724.] ON MRS TOFTS, A CELEBRATED OPERA-SINGER'. O bright is thy Beauty, so charming thy Song, As had drawn both the Beasts and their Orpheus along; But such is thy Av'rice, and such is thy Pride, That the Beasts must have starv'd, and the Poet have died. EPIGRAM ON THE FEUDS ABOUT HANDEL [SOMETIMES, but incorrectly, attributed to Swift.] You EPIGRAM. YOU beat your Pate, and fancy Wit will come: EPITAPH. [IMITATED by Goldsmith in his Epitaph on Edward Purdon, 'a bookseller's hack.'] TELL then, poor G lies under Ground! WELL So there's an End of honest Jack. So little Justice here he found, 'Tis ten to one he'll ne'er come back. ЕРІТАРН. [FROM the Latin on Joannes Mirandula. The lines were afterwards applied by Pope to Lord Coningsby; as to whom cf. Moral Essays, Ep. 111. v. 397.] TO A LADY WITH "THE TEMPLE OF FAME." ["I send you my Temple of Fame, which is just come out; but my sentiments about it you will see better by this epigram."-Pope to Martha Blount, 1714.] W1 THAT'S Fame with Men, by Custom of the Nation, About them both why keep we such a pother? IMPROMPTU TO LADY WINCHILSEA. OCCASIONED BY FOUR SATIRICAL VERSES ON WOMEN-WITS, IN THE 66 [THE four verses are apparently Canto IV. vv. 59-62. The Countess of Winchilsea, a poetess whom Rowe hailed as inspired by 'more than Delphic ardour,' replied by some pretty lines, where she declares that, 'disarmed with so genteel an air,' she gives over the contest. Her reply will be found in Roscoe's Supplement, pp. 183-6.] N vain you boast Poetic Names of yore, IN And cite those Sapphos we admire no more: EPIGRAM ON THE TOASTS OF THE KIT-CAT CLUB, ANNO 1716. 5 10 [THE Kit-Cat Club was so named from Christopher Katt, a famous pastrycook. Steele, Addison, and many other wits were members, and Tonson secretary. It was customary to write verses in honour of the "Toasts,' and engrave them upon the glasses. Each member gave his picture to the club.] WH WHENCE deathless Kit-Cat took its Name, the origin belongs to the times of Henry IV. of France. Pope's epigram refers to the state of Europe after the peace of Utrecht in 1715, as a peace resulting (which was not in truth the case) from general exhaustion.] [Alluding to the wars concerning the Spanish succession, in which England certainly had no direct interest, under Queen Anne.] |