Commiffabere Maximi; Si torrere jecur quæris idoneum. Namque et nobilis, et decens, Et pro folicitis non tacitus reis, Et centum puer artium, Late figna feret militiæ tuæ, Et, quandoque potentior Largis muneribus riferit æmuli, Albanos prope te lacus Ponet marmoream fub trabe citrea. Illic plurima naribus Duces thura; lyræque et Berecynthia Delectabere tibiæ Miftis carminibus, non fine fistula. Illic bis pueri die Numen cum teneris virginibus tuum Laudantes, pede candido In morem Salium ter quatient humum. Me Noble and young, who ftrikes the heart With ev'ry fprightly, ev'ry decent part; Equal, the injur❜d to defend, To charm the Miftrefs, or to fix the Friend. Shall ftretch thy conquefts over half the kind: To him each Rival fhall fubmit, Make but his Riches equal to his Wit. Then fhall thy Form the Marble grace, (Thy Grecian Form) and Chloe lend the Face: 20 His House, embosom'd in the Grove, Sacred to focial life and focial love, Shall glitter o'er the pendent green, Where Thames reflects the vifionary scene: Thither, the filver-founding lyres Shall call the fmiling Loves, and young Defires; There, ev'ry Grace and Mufe fhall throng, Exalt the dance, or animate the song; There Youths and Nymphs, in confort gay, Shall hail the rifing, close the parting day. NOTES. 25 30 With VER. 18. Make but his Riches, &c.] Seward has an anecdote of Lord Mansfield, refpecting the difficulties of his early life; I know not what foundation there is for it. He fays, that Murray, acquainting Lord Foley, that he feared he must give up the law, and go into orders, on account of his flender income; Lord Foley generously requested his acceptance of two hundred pounds a year. VER. 21. His Houfe, &c.] This alludes to Mr. Murray's intention at one time of taking the leafe of Pope's house and grounds at Twickenham, before he became fo diftinguished. Me nec fœmina, nec puer Jam, nec fpes animi credula mutui, Nec certare juvat mero, Nec vincire novis tempora floribus. Sed cur, heu! Ligurine, cur Manat rara meas lacryma per genas? Cur facunda parum decoro Inter verba cadit lingua filentio? Nocturnis With me, alas! thofe joys are o'er; For me, the vernal garlands bloom no more. Adieu! fond hope of mutual fire, The still-believing, still-renew'd defire; Adieu! the heart-expanding bowl, And all the kind Deceivers of the foul! But why? ah tell me, ah too dear! Steals down my cheek, th' involuntary Tear? Why words fo flowing, thoughts fo free, 35 Stop, or turn nonsense, at one glance of thee? 40 Thee, dreft in Fancy's airy beam, Abfent I follow through th' extended Dream; Now, now I feize, I clafp thy charms, And now you burst (ah cruel!) from my arms; NOTES. And VER. 33. fond hope of mutual fire,] This related to Martha Blount, for whom Pope felt, till the day of his death, "Still believing, ftill renew'd defire." This is natural: we cannot fo well reconcile our imagination to the idea of Pope, over the "Heart-expanding bowl;" gay world by but it is a fact, that foon after his initiation into the Bolingbroke, he affected the bon vivant. He prides himself upon being "the gayeft valetudinaire,” most thinking rake alive. Some of his letters, the original of which are in my hands, to Martha Blount, seem to have been written immediately after he had left the "focial board," at Lord Cobham's; and are full of that inflated fondnefs which at such a time might be supposed to have reigned in his heart, and to have dictated language he would not have written otherwise. VER. 37. ab tell me, ah too dear!] It was in the original, "But why, my Patty, ah too dear!" |