Part 34 (1/2)

”No longer now that Golden Age appears, When Patriarch-wits survived a thousand years: Now length of fame (our second life) is lost, And bare threescore is all ev'n that can boast: Our sons their fathers' failing language see, And such as Chaucer is shall Dryden be.”

_with theirs should sail_, ”attendant sail.” ”Essay on Man,” IV, 383-6.

P. 126. _There died_. ”Eloisa to Abelard,” 40.

P. 127. _If ever chance_. Ibid., 347.

_Bolingbroke_. Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke (1678-1751). ”The Essay plainly appears the fabric of a poet: what Bolingbroke supplied could be only the first principles; the order, ill.u.s.tration, and embellishments must be all Pope's.” Pope's Works, ed. Elwin and Courthope, II, 264.

P. 128. _he spins_, ”draweth out.” ”Love's Labour's Lost,” v, 1, 18.

_the very words_. Cf. ”Macbeth,” i, 3, 88: ”the selfsame tune and words.”

_Now night descending_. ”Dunciad,” I, 89.

_Virtue may choose_. ”Epilogue to the Satires,” Dialogue I, 137.

P. 129. _character of Chartres_. ”Moral Essays, Epistle III.”

_his compliments_. See p. 322.

_Where Murray_. ”Imitations of Horace, Epistle VI,” 52. William Murray (1705-1793), Chief Justice of England, created Lord Mansfield in 1776.

_Why rail_. ”Epilogue to Satires,” Dialogue II, 138.

_Despise low joys_. ”Epistle to Mr. Murray,” 60.

P. 130. _character of Addison_. ”Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot,” 193-214.

_Buckingham_. George Villiers, second duke of Buckingham (1628-1687), statesman, wit, and poet.

_Alas! how changed_. ”Moral Essays,” III, 305.

_Arbuthnot_, John (1667-1735), physician and man of letters, whom Thackeray introduced in attendance at the death-bed of Francis Esmond. ”He had a very notable share in the immortal History of John Bull, and the inimitable and praiseworthy Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus.... Arbuthnot's style is distinguished from that of his contemporaries, even by a greater degree of terseness and conciseness. He leaves out every superfluous word; is sparing of connecting particles, and introductory phrases; uses always the simplest forms of construction; and is more a master of the idiomatic peculiarities and internal resources of the language than almost any other writer.” ”English Poets,” Lecture VI.

_Charles Jervas_ (1675-1739) gave Pope lessons in painting. He is also known as a translator of ”Don Quixote.”

_Why did I write_. ”Epistle to Arbuthnot,” 125.

P. 131. _Oh, lasting as those colours_. ”Epistle to Mr. Jervas,” 63.

_who have eyes_. Psalms, cxv, 5; cx.x.xv, 16, etc.

_It will never do._ Hazlitt was fond of mimicking this phrase with which Jeffrey so unfortunately opened his well-known review of Wordsworth's ”Excursion.”

_I lisp'd in numbers._ ”Epistle to Arbuthnot,” 128.

_Et quum conabar scribere_. Cf. Ovid's ”Tristia,” IV, x, 26: ”Et, quod tentabam dicere, versus erat.”

PERIODICAL ESSAYISTS