Unlearn’d, he knew no schoolman's subtle art,
No language, but the language of the heart.
By Nature honest, by Experience wise,

400
Healthy by temp’rance, and by exercise ;
His life, tho' long, to sickness past unknown,
His death was instant, and without a groan.
O grant me, thus to live, and thus to die!

404 Who sprung from Kings shall know less joy than I.

O Friend! may each domestic bliss be thine!
Be no unpleasing Melancholy mine :
Me, let the tender office long engage,
To rock the cradle of reposing Age,
With lenient arts extend a Mother's breath,

410 Make Languor smile, and smooth the bed of Death,

Explore

NOTES.

Ver. 397. Nor dar'd an Oath,] He was a non-juror, and would not take the oath of allegiance or supremacy, or the oath against the Pope.

VIR.408. Me, let the tender office] Thefe exquisite lines give is a very interesting picture of the exemplary filial piety of our Author! There is a pensive and pathetic sweetness in the very flow of them. The eye that has been wearied and oppressed by the harsh and austere colouring of some of the preceding passages, turns away with pleasure from these afperities, and reposes with complacency on the soft tints of domestic tenderness. We are naturally gratified to see men descending from their heights, into the familiar offices of common life; and the sensation is the more pleasing to us, because admiration is turned into affection. In the very entertaining Memoirs of the Life of Racine (published by his fon) we find no passage more amusing and interesting, than where that great Poet sends an excuse to Monsieur, the Duke, who had earnestly invited him to dine at the Hotel de Conde, because he had promised to partake of a great fish that his children had got for him, and he could not think of disappointing them.

Melancthon

VOL. IV.

Explore the thought, explain the asking eye,
And keep a while one parent from the sky!
On cares like these, if length of days attend,
May Heav'n, to bless those days, preserve my friend,
Preserve him social, cheerful, and serene,
And just as rich as when he serv'd a QUEEN.
A. Whether that blessing be deny'd or giv’n,
Thus far was right, the rest belongs to Heav'n.

416

NOTES.

Melan&thon appeared in an amiable light, when he was seen holding a book in one hand, and attentively reading, and with the other, rocking the cradle of his infant ehild. And we read with more satisfaction,

- παιδος ορεξατο φαιδιμος Εκτωρ. . Αψ δ' δπαϊς προς κολπον ευζωνοιο τιθηνης

Εκλινθη ιαχων

than we do,

Τρις μεν ορεξατ ιαν' το δε τετρατον ικετο τεκμαρ
Αιγας-

WARTON. VER. 409. To rock the cradle} This tender image is from the Essays of Montaign. Mr. Gray was equally remarkable for affectionate attention to his aged mother; so was Ariosto. Pope's mother was a sister of Cooper's wife, the very celebrated minia. ture painter. Lord Carleton had a portrait of Cooper, in crayons, which Mrs. Pope faid was not very like; and which, descending to Lord Burlington, was given by his Lordship to Kent. “I have a drawing,” says Mr. Walpole, “ of Pope's father, as he lay dead in his bed, by his brother in-law, Cooper.” It was Mr. Pope's. Anecdotes of Painting, vol. iii. p. 115.

WARTON. VER. 417. And just as rich as when he serv'd a QUEEN.] An honest compliment to his Friend's real and unaffected ditinterest. edness, when he was the favourite Physician of Queen Anne.

WARBURTON. VER. 417. And just as rich, &c.] After the death of Queen Anne, Arbuthnot removed from St. James's Street to Dover Street, probably not in so good circumstances, or such extensive practice, as before. In a letter to Pope, he says, “ Martin's office is now the second door, on the left hand, in Dover street, where he will be glad to see Dr. Parnell, Mr. Pope, and his old Friends, to whom he can still afford a half pint of claret.”

ADVERTISEMENT.

Person;

THE
HE Occasion of publishing these Imitations was the

Clamour raised on some of my Epistles. An Answer from Horace was both more full, and of more Dignity, than any I could have made in my own

; and the Example of much greater Freedom in fo eminent a Divine as Dr. Donne, seemed a proof with what indignation and contempt a Christian may treat Vice or Folly, in ever so low, or ever so high a Station. Both these Authors were acceptable to the Princes and Ministers under whom they lived. The Satires of Dr. Donne I versified, at the desire of the Earl of Oxford, while he was Lord Treasurer, and of the Duke of Shrewsbury, who had been-Secretary of State ; neither of whom looked upon a Satire on Vicious Courts as any Reflection on those they served in. And indeed there is not in the world a greater error, than that which Fools are so apt to fall into, and Knaves with good reason to encourage, the mistaking a Satirist for a Libeller ; whereas to a true Satirist nothing is so odious as a Libeller, for the same reason as to a man truly virtuous nothing is so hateful as a Hypocrite. Uni æquus Virtuti atque ejus Amicis. POPE.