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Non, quo more pyris vefci Calaber jubet hofpes, Tu me fecifti locupletem. Vefcere fodes.

Jam fatis eft. At tu quantumvis tolle. Benigne.
Non invifa feres pueris munufcula parvis.
Tam teneor dono, quam fi dimittar onuftus,
Ut libet hæc porcis hodie comedenda relinques.
Prodigus, et ftultus donat quæ fpernit, et odit :
Hæc feges ingratos tulit: et feret omnibus annis,
Vir bonus et fapiens, dignis ait effe paratum,
Nec tamen ignorat, quid distent æra lupinis?
Dignum præftabo me, etiam pro laude merentis.

Quod

My Lord, your Favours well I know; 'Tis with diftinction you bestow And not to ev'ry one that comes,

Juft as a Scotfman does his Plums.

Pray take them, Sir.-Enough's a Feast: "Eat fome, and pocket up the rest.”— What, rob your Boys? thofe pretty rogues! "No, Sir, you'll leave them to the Hogs." Thus Fools with Compliments befiege ye, Contriving never to oblige ye.

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30

Scatter your Favours on a Fop,
Ingratitude's the certain crop;

And 'tis but juft, I'll tell ye wherefore,

You give the things you never care for.
A wife man always is or fhou'd

Be mighty ready to do good:
But makes a difference in his thought
Betwixt a Guinea and a Groat.

Now this I'll fay, you'll find in me
A fafe Companion, and a free;
But if you'd have me always near-
A word, pray, in your Honour's ear.

NOTES.

35

40

I hope

VER. 35. A wife man, &c.] Pope's imitation is neither like Horace nor Swift. It has neither the eafy jocofenefs of Swift, nor the elegant, close, and more interesting style of Horace.

VER. 40. A fafe Companion, and a free;] This collocation of the words may very well pass, I think, in lighter poetry, like that before us; but has, perhaps, scarcely fufficient dignity for a serious fubject and grave numbers. WAKEFIELD.

Quod fi me noles ufquam difcedere; reddes
Forte latus, nigros anguftâ fronte capillos:
Reddes dulce loqui: reddes ridere decorum, et
Inter vina fugam Cynara mærere protervæ,

Forte per anguftam tenuis vulpecula rimam
Repferat in cumeram frumenti; paftaque, rurfus

Ire

I hope it is your Refolution

To give me back my Conftitution!

The sprightly Wit, the lively Eye,

Th' engaging Smile, the Gaiety,

45

That laugh'd down many a Summer Sun,
And kept you up fo oft till one:

And all that voluntary Vein,

As when Belinda rais'd my Strain.

A Weafel once made shift to flink
In at a Corn-loft thro' a Chink
<;
But having amply stuff'd his skin,
Could not get out as he got in;

NOTES.

50

Which

VER. 45 the lively Eye,] It is faid, that Pope's eyes were remarkably expreffive. He feems often in his writings to keep this in mind; but the passage is very unequal to the closeness and pleasing painting of the original. Perhaps four lines never were so well expreffed, as forming a delineation or accurate portrait of the Roman bard. We fee-the "forte latus," "nigros angufta fronte capillos;" the " dulce loqui," and "ridere decorum." The words of the first line fet the perfon of Horace immediately before us, and nothing can be fo characteristic of his style in his Epistles, as the words-DULCE LOQUI; RIDERE DECORUM.

VER.

ER. 50. As when Belinda] A compliment he pays himself and the Public on his Rape of the Lock. WAREURTON.

VER. 51. A Weafel once] Horace fhines particularly in these short fables which he was so fond of introducing; as he does indeed in that difficult art of telling a story well, of which the story of Philippus," Strenuus et fortis," &c. is a mafter-piece. We are in no one respect so very inferior to the French as in our fables; we have no La Fontaine. The fables of Gay, esteemed our best, are written in a pure and neat style, but have not much nature or humour. Horace's Mice are inimitable. The long introductions to the fables of Gay's fecond volume of fables read like political pamphlets. WARTON.

3

Ire foras pleno tendebat corpore frustra.

Cui muftela procul, Si vis, ait, effugere iftinc;
Macra cavum repetes ar&tum, quem macra fubîsti.
Нас ego fi compellor imagine, cun&ta refigno;
Nec fomnum plebis laudo fatur altilium, nec
Otia divitiis Arabum liberrima muto.

Sæpe verecundum laudâfti; Rexque, Paterque
Audifti coram, nec verbo parciùs abfens :
Infpice, fi poffum donata reponere lætus.

Parvum

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