A fingle leaf shall waft an Army o'er, 45 Our fates and fortunes, as the winds fhall blow: Pregnant with thousands flits the Scrap unfeen, And filent fells a King, or buys a Queen. Oh! that fuch bulky Bribes as all might fee, Still, as of old, incumber'd Villainy! 50 Could France or Rome divert our brave defigns, With all their brandies or with all their wines? What could they more than Knights and Squires confound, Or water all the Quorum ten miles round? VARIATIONS. After Ver. 50. in the MS. To break a trust were Peter brib'd with wine, NOTES. changes of Kings projected in Europe. The partition treaty had difpofed of Spain; France had fet up a King for England, who was fent to Scotland, and back again; King Stanislaus was fent to Poland, and back again; the duke of Anjou was fent to Spain, and Don Carlos to Italy. P. VER. 44. Or ship off Senates to a diftant shore ;] Alludes to feveral Ministers, Counsellors, and Patriots banished in our times to Siberia, and to that MORE GLORIOUS FATE of the PARLIAMENT of PARIS, banished to Pontoife in the year VER. 47. Pregnant with thousands flits the Scrap unfeen.] The imagery is very fublime, and alludes to the courfe of a A Statesman's flumbers how this speech would spoil! Sir, Spain has fent a thousand jars of oil; 55 Huge bales of British cloth blockade the door; "A hundred oxen at your levee roar." 60 Poor Avarice one torment more would find; Nor could Profufion fquander all in kind. Aftride his cheese Sir Morgan might we meet; And Worldly crying coals from street to street, Whom with a wig fo wild, and mien so maz'd, Pity mistakes for fome poor tradesman craz'd. Had Colepepper's whole wealth been hops and hogs, Could he himself have fent it to the dogs? NOTES. 65 destroying peftilence. The Pfalmift, in his expreffion of the Peftilence that walketh in darkness, supplied him with the grandeur of his idea. VER. 62. Some Mifers of great wealth, proprietors of the coal-mines, had entered at this time into an Affociation to keep up coals to an extravagant price, whereby the poor were reduced almost to starve, till one of them taking the advantage of underfelling the rest, defeated the defign. One of thefe Mifers was worth ten thousand, another feven thousand a year. P. VER. 65. Colepepper,] Sir WILLIAM COLEPEPPER, Bart. a Perfon of an ancient family, and ample fortune, without one other quality of a Gentleman, who, after ruining himself at the Gaming-table, past the rest of his days in fitting there to see the ruin of others; preferring to fubfift upon borrowing and begging, rather than to enter into any reputable method of life, and refufing a Poft in the army which was of fered him. P. His Grace will game: to White's a Bull be led, 75 To spoil the nation's laft great trade, Quadrille! Since then, my Lord, on fuch a world we fall, What fay you? B. Say? Why take it, Gold and all. VARIATIONS. VER. 77. Since then, &c.] In the former Ed. Well then, fince with the world we ftand or fall, Come take it as we find it, Gold and all. COMMENTARY. VER. 77. Since then, my Lord, on such a World, &c.] Having thus ironically defcribed the incumbrance which the want of money would occafion to all criminal exceffes by the abufe of Riches, particularly to Gaming, which being now become of public concern, he affects much regard to: "Oh filthy check on all industrious skill, "To fpoil the Nation's last great trade, Quadrille !" he difmiffes the previous question without deciding on it, in the fame ironical manner, "Since then, my Lord, on fuch a world we fall: "What fay you? Say? Why take it, Gold and all." That is, fince for thefe great purposes we must have Money, let us now feriously inquire into its true ufe. P. What Riches give us let us then enquire: Meat, Fire, and Cloaths. B. What more? P. Meat, Cloaths, and Fire. Is this too little? would you more than live? COMMENTARY. 80 VER. 79. What Riches give us, &c.], He examines therefore in the first place (from Ver. 78 to 97.) I. Of what use Riches are to ourjelves. "What Riches give us let us then enquire: "Meat, Fire, and Cloaths. What more? Meat, Cloaths, and Fire." The mere turn of the expreffion, without farther reasoning, fhews that all the infinite ways of fpending on ourselves, contrived in the infolence of wealth, by thofe who would more than live, are only these three things diverfified throughout every wearied mode of luxury and wantonnefs. Yet as little as this is (adds the Poet from Ver. 81 to 85.) it is only to be had by the moderate ufe of riches; Avarice and Profufion not allowing the poffeffors of the moft exorbitant wealth even this little : "Alas! 'tis more than Turner finds they give. "Alas! 'tis more than (all his vifions paft) Unhappy Wharton, waking, found at laft!" But what is it you would expect them to give? continues the NOTES. VER. 82. Turner] One, who, being poffeffed of three hundred thousand pounds, laid down his Coach, because Intereft was reduced from five to four per cent. and then put seventy thousand into the Charitable Corporation for better Intereft; which fum having loft, he took it fo much to heart, that he kept his chamber ever after. It is thought he would Alas! 'tis more than (all his Visions paft) COMMENTARY. Poet (from Ver. 84 to 91.) Would you have them capable of reftoring those real bleffings, which men have loft by their vices or their villainies; or of fatisfying those imaginary ones, which they have gotten by their irregular appetites and paffions? Thefe, fure, the bad or foolish man cannot have the face to demand; and those, by the wife provision of Nature, Riches are incapable of giving, if he had. But now admit, purfues our Author (from Ver. 90 to 97.) that wealth might, in fome cafes, alleviate the unmerited miferies of life, by procuring medicines both for the mind and body; yet it is not to be thought it should operate like a charm, while only worn about one: Yet this, these pour men of pelf expect from it; while Avarice on the one hand, withholds them from giving at all, even to the Doctor in extremity; or Vanity diverts the donation from a Friend in life, to the Endowment of a Cat or College at their death. It is true, Riches might give the greatest of all blessings, a virtuous confeioufness of our having employed them as becomes the fubftitutes of Providence, "To ease or emulate the care of Heav'n," Ver. 230. in acts of BENEFICENCE and CHARITY; and this use is rext to be confidered. NOTES. not have outlived it, but that he was heir to another confiderable eftate, which he daily expected, and that by this courfe of life he faved both cloaths and all other expences. P. VER. 84. Unhappy Wharton,] A Nobleman of great qualities, but as unfortunate in the application of them, as if they had been vices and follies. See his Character in the fir Epistle. P. |