Part 34

FOOTNOTES:

This amiable old man, who had been a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and doctor of civil law, was sent by Charles II. judge advocate to Tangier, and afterwards in a public character to Florence, to Turin, to Paris; and by James II. ambassador to Constantinople; to which city he went through the continent on foot. He was afterwards a lord of the treasury, and secretary of state, with the Duke of Shrewsbury, which office he resigned 1697, and retiring to East Hampstead, died there in December, 1716, aged seventy-seven. Nothing of his writing remains but an elegant character of Archbishop Dolben.--WARTON.

Pope says that Sir William Trumbull had "lately" resigned his office at the period of their acquaintance, but seven years had elapsed after the date of Sir William's retirement, before Pope had reached the age of sixteen.]

Prima Syracusio dignata est ludere versu, Nostra nec erubuit sylvas habitare Thalia.

Ecl. vi. 1.

This is the general exordium and opening of the Pastorals, in imitation of the sixth of Virgil, which some have therefore not improbably thought to have been the first originally. In the beginnings of the other three Pastorals, he imitates expressly those which now stand first of the three chief poets in this kind, Spenser, Virgil, Theocritus.

A shepherd's boy (he seeks no better name)-- Beneath the shade a spreading beech displays,-- Thyrsis, the Music of that murm'ring Spring,--

are manifestly imitations of

"--A shepherd's boy (no better do him call)."

"--Tityre, tu patulæ recubans sub tegmine fagi."

"--[Greek: Hadu ti to psithyrisma kai ha pitys, aitole, têna.]"--POPE.]

I first transferred to Rome Sicilian strains: Nor blushed the Doric muse to dwell on Mantuan plains.

Originally Pope had written,

First in these fields I sing the sylvan strains, Nor blush to sport in Windsor's peaceful plains.

Upon this he says to Walsh, "Objection that the letter is hunted too much--sing the sylvan--peaceful plains--and that the word sing is used two lines afterwards, Sicilian muses sing." He proposed to read "try" in the place of "sing;" "happy" instead of "peaceful," and adds, "Quære. If try be not properer in relation to first, as we first attempt a thing; and more modest? and if happy be not more than peaceful?" Walsh replies, "Try is better than sing. Happy does not sound right, the first syllable being short. Perhaps you may find a better word than peaceful as flow'ry." Pope rejected all three epithets, and substituted "blissful."]

Sweet Thames run softly till I end my song.--WAKEFIELD.]

Where winds with reeds and osiers whisp'ring play.

Dryden, Theodore and Honoria:

The winds within the quiv'ring branches played.--WAKEFIELD.]

And Albion's rocks repeat his rural song.--WAKEFIELD.

The term "Albion's cliffs," which is usually appropriated to the steeps that bound the sea-shore, is applied by Pope to the hills about Windsor.]

exeat aula Qui vult esse pius. Virtus et summa potestas Non coëunt.

He who would spotless live from courts must go: No union power supreme and virtue know.--WAKEFIELD.]

Happy is she that from the world retires, And carries with her what the world admires.--WILKES.]

The address to Trumbull was not in the original manuscript which passed through his hands, and the lines were probably added when the Pastorals were prepared for the press. "Little Pope," wrote Sir William to the Rev. Ralph Bridges on May 2, 1709, "was here two days ago, always full of poetry and services to Mr. Bridges. I saw in the advertisement, after he was gone, the Miscellany is published, or publishing, by Jacob Tonson, wherein are his Pastorals, and which is worse, I am told one of them is inscribed to my worship." A more inappropriate panegyric could not have been devised than to pretend that Trumbull was among poets what the nightingale was among birds. The retired statesman had a true taste for literature, but his efforts as a versifier had been limited to a dozen lines translated from Martial.]

Each poet of the air her glory sings And round him the pleased audience clap their wings.

Every one must feel the image to be burlesque, and even Dryden's authority cannot recommend it.]

Daphnis and Strephon to the shades retired, Both warmed by love, and by the muse inspired, Fresh as the morn, and as the season fair, In flow'ry vales they fed their fleecy care; And while Aurora gilds the mountain's side, Thus Daphnis spoke, and Strephon thus replied.--POPE.