I SHALL here present the Reader with a valuable literary curiosity, a Fragment of an unpublished Satire of Pope, intitled, ONE THOUSAND SEVEN Hundred AND FORTY; communicated to me by the kindness of the learned and worthy Dr. Wilson, formerly fellow and librarian of Trinity College, Dublin; who speaks of the Fragment in the following terms:

"This poem I transcribed from a rough draft in Pope's own hand. He left many blanks for fear of the Argus eye of those, who, if they cannot find, can fabricate treason; yet, spite of his precaution, it fell into the hands of his enemies. To the hieroglyphics, there are direct allusions, I think in some of the notes on the Dunciad. It was lent me by a grandson of Lord Chetwynd, an intimate friend of the famous Lord Bolingbroke, who gratified his curiosity by a boxful of the rubbish and sweepings of Pope's study, whose executor he was, in conjunction with Lord Marchmont." Warton.

1

1740,

A POEM.

(The Notes by Mr. Bowles.)

O WRETCHED B---, jealous now of all,
What God, what mortal, shall prevent thy fall?
Turn, turn thy eyes from wicked men in place,
And see what succour from the patriot race.

C---, his own proud dupe, thinks monarchs things
Made just for him, as other fools for kings;
Controls, decides, insults thee every hour,
And antedates the hatred due to power.

10

Through clouds of passion P --'s views are clear; He foams a patriot to subside a peer; Impatient sees his country bought and sold, And damns the market where he takes no gold.

Ver. 1. O wretched B---,] There is no doubt but that this interesting fragment was the beginning of the very Satire to which Warburton alludes in the last poem.

Pope was afraid to go on in his career of personal acrimony. Paul Whitehead, having thrown out an indecent sarcasm against Dr. Sherlock, was threatened with a prosecution. This was meant as a hint to Pope; and it is very plain his satiric progress was interrupted, for his alarm evidently appears. In this poem, (which certainly was part of his plan, as a continuation of the Epilogue,) he seems,

"Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike."

I have added some explanatory names.

a Britain.

b Cobham.

Grave, righteous 'S- jogs on till, past belief, He finds himself companion with a thief.

To purge and let thee blood, with fire and sword, Is all the help stern S-- would afford.

That those who bind and rob thee, would not
kill,

Good 'C-- hopes, and candidly sits still.
Of 'Ch-s W-- who speaks at all,

20

No more than of Sir Har-y or Sir P-.
Whose names once up, they thought it was not

wrong

To lie in bed, but sure they lay too long.

"G--r, C-m, B-t, pay thee due regards, Unless the ladies bid them mind their cards. with wit that must

And Cd who speaks so well and writes,
Whom (saving W.) every S. harper bites,

must needs

Whose wit and
equally provoke one,
Finds thee, at best, the butt to crack his joke on.
As for the rest, each winter up they run,

k

And all are clear, that something must be done. 30
Then urged by C--t, or by C--t stopp'd,
Inflamed by 'P--, and by P-- dropp'd;

They follow reverently each wondrous wight,
Amazed that one can read, that one can write :

Perhaps the Earl of Carlisle.

Sandys. d Shippen.
f Sir Charles Hanbury Williams.

Sir Henry Oxenden and Sir Paul Methuen,

с

e

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h Lords Gower, Cobham, and Bathurst.
1 Lord Chesterfield.

Lord Carteret.

William Pulteney, created in 1742 Earl of Bath.

So geese to gander prone obedience keep,
Hiss if he hiss, and if he slumber, sleep.
Till having done whate'er was fit or fine,
Utter'd a speech, and ask'd their friends to dine;
Each hurries back to his paternal ground,
Content but for five shillings in the pound,
Yearly defeated, yearly hopes they give,
And all agree, Sir Robert cannot live.

Rise, rise, great 'W--, fated to appear,
Spite of thyself, a glorious minister!
Speak the loud language princes.
And treat with half the ..

At length to B-- kind, as to thy
Espouse the nation, you .

m

What can thy H . .

•

Dress in Dutch.

Though still he travels on no bad pretence,

35

40

45

50

To show....

0

Or those foul copies of thy face and tongue, Veracious "W--- and frontless Young; Sagacious Bub, so late a friend, and there So late a foe, yet more sagacious 'H---? Hervey and Hervey's school, 'F-, H--y, 'H--n, Yea, moral 'Ebor, or religious Winton.

55

1 Walpole.

1

Either Sir Robert's brother Horace, who had just quitted his embassy at the Hague, or his son Horace, who was then on his travels.

" W. Winnington.

• Sir William Young.

Probably Hare, bishop of Chichester.

› Dodington.
Fox and Henley.

• Hinton.

* Blackburn, Archbishop of York, and Hoadley, bishop of Winchester.