Eriperis:-Redit os placidum, morefque benigni,* WHAT POPE. HAT paffed between Mr. Pope and me, I will endeavour to recollect, as well as I can; for it happened many years ago, and I never made any memorandum of it. When I was a Soph at Cambridge, Pope was about his Tranflation of Homer's Ilias, and had published part of it. Os placidum, &c. We are informed that Mr. Hogarth painted the portrait of this amiable man, which Baron engraved in the year 1750. Of this picture, which is preserved in Lambeth Palace, the Archbishop, in a letter to Mr. Duncombe, fays, "None of my friends can bear Hogarth's picture." And Mr. Duncombe, the fon, in a note to that letter, obferves, "This picture, as appears by the print engraved by Baron, exhibits rather a Caricature than a Likeness; the figure being gigantic, the features all aggravated, and outrés; and on the whole, fo far from conveying an idea of that Os placidum, morefque benigni, as Dr. JORTIN expresses it— that engaging sweetness and benevolence, which were characteristic of this Prelate, that they feem rather expreffive of Bonner, who could burn a Heretic. Lovat's hard features Hogarth might command; &e Biographical Anecdotes of Hogarth, by Nichols, published 1782. Page 242. He employed fome person (I know not who he was) to make extracts for him from Euftathius, which he inferted in his notes. At that time there was no Latin tranflation of that commentator. Alexander Politi, (if I remember right) began that work fome years afterwards, but never proceeded far in it. The perfon employed by Mr. Pope was not at leifure to go on with the work; and Mr. Pope (by his bookfeller, I fuppofe) fent to Jefferies, a bookfeller at Cambridge, to find out a student who would undertake the task. Jefferies applied to Dr. Thirlby, who was my tutor, and who pitched upon me. I would have declined the work, having, as I told my tutor, other ftudies to purfue, to fit me for taking my degree. But he,-qui quicquid volebat valdè volebat,-would not hear of any excufe. So I complied. I cannot recollect what Mr. Pope allowed for each book of Homer; I have a notion that it was three or four guincas. I took as much care as I could to perform the task to his fatisfaction: but I was afhamed to defire my tutor to give himfelf the trouble of overlooking my operations; and he, who always used to think and speak too favourably of me, faid, that I did not want his help. He never perufed one line of it, before it was printed; nor perhaps afterwards. When I had gone through fome Books (I forget how many) Mr. Jefferies let us know that Mr. Pope. had had a friend to do the reft, and that we might give over. When I fent my papers to Jefferies, to be conveyed to Mr. Pope, I inferted, as I remember, fome remarks on a paffage, where' Mr. Pope, in my opinion, had made a mistake. But, as I was not directly employed by him, but by a bookfeller, I did not inform him who I was, or fet my name to my papers. When that part of Homer came out, in which I had been concerned, I was eager, as it may be fuppofed, to see how things ftood; and much pleafed to find that he had not only used almost all my notes, but had hardly made any alteration in the expreffions. I obferved alfo, that in a fubfequent edition, he corrected the place to which I had made objections. I was in fome hopes in those days (for I was young) that Mr. Pope would make inquiry about his coadjutor, and take fome civil notice of him. But he did not; and I had no notion of obtruding myself upon him.-I never faw his face.* The above is copied from Dr. Jortin's Adverfaria. See alfo Johnson's Life of Pope, p. 42, 43. Who, on the reading of a narrative so fimple, yet in its concomitancies fo pathetic, can help exclaiming with the Poet, Probitas laudatur-et alget! Editor's Friend. POPE POPE AND SWIFT, Ir Mr. Pope had condescended to confult his Latin Grammar, he never could have faid, O mihi, biffenos multum vigilata per annos, He might have written Duncias, without being in danger of paffing for a Pedant, a Purift, or a Ciceronian. But this ingenious and religious author feems to have had two particular antipathies; one to grammatical and verbal criticifm, the other to falfe doctrine and herefy. To the first we may afcribe his treating Bentley, Burman, Kufter, and Waffe, with a contempt which recoiled upon himfelf. To the fecond, we will impute his pious zeal against thofe divines of King William's time, whom he fuppofed to be infected with the Infidel, or the Socinian, or the Latitudinarian fpirit; and not fo orthodox as himfelf, and his friends Swift, Bolingbroke, &c. Thus he laid about him, and cenfured men, of whofe literary, or of whofe theological merits or defects, he was no more a judge, than his footman John Searle. He He fays, "The following licenfe of a foreign reign, In the third of thefe lines he had Burnet in view, and his Hiftory of the Reformation; and in the fourth, Kennet; who was accufed of having faid, in a funeral fermon on fome nobleman, that converted finners, if they were men of parts, repented more fpeedily and effectually than dull rafcals.* If his witty friend Swift had confulted the rules of Profody, he would not have begun an Epigram with, Vertiginofus, inops, furdus, malè gratus amicis; and have made a falfe quantity in the first word. But writing Latin, either profe or verse, was not his talent, any more than making fermons. As to the knowledge which he is faid to have acquired of the learned languages,-Cràs credo, hodiè nihil. If he had confulted the rules of Analogy, he would not have dedicated his Tale of a Tub to Prince This paffage cannot but remind the reader of Dr. W. King's "Anfwer to Clemens Alexandrinus's Sermon, upon Quis Dives falvetur?" See that original and facetious Author's works, publifhed by Nichols. Vol. III, p. 37. Lond. 1776, and the Notes. Pofterity; |