But Welsted most the poet's healing balm The more thou ticklest, gripes his fist the faster. 210 REMARKS. seen in a letter he printed to Mr. Pope, wherein several noble Lords are treated in a most extraordinary language, particularly the Lord Bolingbroke abused for that very PEACE which he here makes the single work of the Earl of Oxford, directed by God Almighty. Ver. 205. Bentley his mouth &c.] An imitation of Butler, Hudibras, Part i. Canto i. v. 81. "For rhetoric, he could not ope His mouth, but out there flew a trope.” P.† Wakefield. Ver. 207. Welsted] Leonard Welsted, author of The Triumvirate, or a Letter in verse from Palemon to Celia at Bath, which was meant for a satire on Mr. P. and some of his friends, about the year 1718. He writ other things which we cannot remember. Smedley, in his Metamorphosis of Scriblerus, mentions one, the Hymn of a Gentleman to his Creator; and there was another, in praise either of a Cellar or a Garret. L. W. characterized in the treatise Пepi Báles, or the Art of Sinking, as a Didapper, and after, as an Eel, is said to be this person, by Dennis, Daily Journal of May 11, 1728. He was also characterized under another animal, a Mole, by the author of the ensuing simile, which was handed about at the same time: "Dear Welsted, mark, in dirty hole, That painful animal, a Mole; What mighty stir it keeps below! To make a Mole-hill all this strife! It digs, pokes, undermines for life; How VARIATIONS. Ver. 207. In the first Edd. But Oldmixon the poet's healing balm, &c. W.t While thus each hand promotes the pleasing pain, And quick sensations skip from vein to vein, REMARKS. How proud a little dirt to spread ; It blunders into light-and dies." You have him again in Book iii. ver. 169. P. Ver. 209. Unlucky Welsted!] How unfortunate poor Leonard was in the art of tickling, will appear from the following extract of an original Letter of his to Dodington, dated the "Tower, Saturday, Nov. 14, 1730: "Sir, "I cannot but be in fear, that I do not stand in that degree of favour with you, which I had reason to hope I did; and some suspicions have occurred to me on this occasion, which give me inexpressible uneasiness, not to say torment. "I must therefore beg leave to assure you, on my honour, as a gentleman, and by every thing sacred, that as I have never mentioned you in conversation but with the highest respect and gratitude, so I have never writ any thing that had a view to you, but what was perfectly honourable and well intended. "There is a line in a late poem, viz. the "One Epistle,” which I presume you may have seen, that carries in it a slight raillery of Dr. Young; but this was sincerely without my approbation, and I was overborne in it, as a thing of that nature that I could not well give offence to him, or any one else: and as for the first Ode of Horace, which I had the honour to address to you, I hope it is not in the heart of men to conceive, that I foresaw and wilfully designed the ridicule, which I found with grief followed upon it; or that I could be guilty of such low and wretched disingenuity and impertinence. I am indeed utterly incapable of every thing of this sort and I wish you, Sir, nothing worse, than that the whole Young, Thomson, Fielding, Bentley, Voltaire, Glover, Lyttelton, Lord Chesterfield, Lord Peterborough, Dr. Sharpe, &c. were among Dodington's intimate friends. A youth, unknown to Phoebus, in despair, REMARKS. whole world may always have the same sentiments of esteem towards you that I have, and speak of you at all times as I do, and, when they write in your praise, be more happy in their way of doing ut, than I was. "It concerns me not at all how much lower I may be in your estimation as a writer, than Mr. Thomson, or any other person, further than seriously to reflect, if I do not deserve to be so, and if you do not judge truer than any other man in that regard; but whether I may be ever so happy to receive any mark of your patronage hereafter, or not, nothing has, nothing ever will tempt me to treat ill, or lightly, or with any paltry slyness whatever, a gentleman of your character and quality, and that has laid great obligations on me. “Think of me, Sir, as you please in every other light, no matter how meanly; but I beg you will be so just as to give me credit in what I have here said, and not suppose any thing in these or other instances which I am not capable of, even in imagi nation. It would be an uncommon satisfaction to me to know, if I were really acquitted in your thoughts: and this, Sir, if you will please to exact so severe a thing from me, shall be the last favour I will ever request of you; and I have the honour to be, with the greatest truth and respect, Sir, "Your most obedient and obliged humble servant, "LEON. WELSTED." One might be tempted to suppose Pope had seen this very Letter when he wrote, "Unlucky Welsted, thy unfeeling master, The more thou ticklest, gripes his fist the faster." It should not be forgotten, that in the first edition, printed in London, 1729, Oldmixon is the unfortunate tickler. The character was afterwards given to Welsted. Welsted was originally the "Diver," instead of Arnall, as it is now: "Who brings up half the bottom on his head." And Dennis was introduced where Oldmixon now appears : 66 In naked majesty Oldmixon stands." It What force have pious vows! The Queen of Love 220 Now turn to diff'rent sports (the Goddess cries) And learn, my sons, the wond'rous power of Noise. To move, to raise, to ravish ev'ry heart, With Shakespear's nature, or with Jonson's art, Let others aim. 'Tis yours to shake the soul 225 With thunder rumbling from the mustard bowl, REMARKS. It must be owned, these alterations take off from the propriety of the satire; but they lead us to think Pope substituted Welsted in the place of Oldmixon, from the circumstance of his unfortunate misunderstanding with his patron, which this Letter explains.. Bowles. Ver. 213. A youth, unknown to Phœbus, &c.] The satire of this episode being levelled at the base flatteries of authors to worthless wealth or greatness, concludes here with an excellent lesson to such men, that although their pens and praises were as exquisite as they conceit of themselves, yet, even in their own mercenary views, a creature unlettered, who serveth the passions, or pimpeth to the pleasures, of such vain, braggart, puffed Nobility, shall with those patrons be much more inward, and of them much higher rewarded. SCRIBLErus. P. Ver. 226. With thunder rumbling from the mustard bowl,] The IMITATIONS. Ver. 223, 225. To move, to raise, &c. Let others aim. 'Tis yours to shake, &c.] "Excudent alii spirantia mollius æra, Credo equidem, vivos ducent de marmore vultus, &c. Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento; Hæ tibi erunt artes" Virgil. Æneid. vi. P. old 230 With horns and trumpets now to madness swell, Now thousand tongues are heard in one loud din: And Snip-snap short, and Interruption smart, 240 REMARKS. old way of making thunder and mustard were the same; but since, it is more advantageously performed by troughs of wood with stops in them. Whether Mr. Dennis was the inventor of that improvement, I know not; but it is certain, that being once at a Tragedy of a new author, he fell into a great passion at hearing some, and cried, "'Sdeath! that is my thunder." P. Ver. 238. Norton,] See ver. 415.-J. Durant Breval, author of a very extraordinary book of travels, and some poems. See before, Note on ver. 126. P. Ver. 239. Dennis and Dissonance,] "Which two lines, (says Harris, in his Philological Enquiries, p. 101.) though truly poetical and humourous, may be suspected by some to shew their art too conspicuously, and too nearly to resemble that verse of old Ennius; "O Titi, tuti, tati, tibi tanta, tyranna tulisti.” Alliteration, I must add, is a figure too lavishly used by many modern writers; there are beautiful examples of it in Lucretius and Virgil; and Dryden, who had so fine and just an ear, often adopted it with much success. But in his most harmonious lines, he seldom extended it beyond two words: it is apt to fall into affectation if carried farther. Warton. |