H

VI.

ON MRS CORBET,

Who died of a Cancer in her Breast1.

ERE rests a Woman, good without pretence,

Blest with plain Reason, and with sober Sense:

No Conquests she, but o'er herself, desir'd,

No Arts essay'd, but not to be admir'd.

Passion and Pride were to her soul unknown,
Convinc'd that Virtue only is our own.
So unaffected, so compos'd a mind;

So firm, yet soft; so strong, yet so refin'd;
Heav'n, as its purest gold, by Tortures try'd;
The Saint sustain'd it, but the Woman died.

VII.

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IO

ON THE MONUMENT OF THE HONOURABLE ROBERT DIGBY, AND OF HIS SISTER MARY,

Erected by their Father, the Lord DIGBY, in the Church of Sherborne

G

in Dorsetshire, 17273.

O! fair Example of untainted youth,
Of modest wisdom, and pacific truth:

Compos'd in suff'rings, and in joy sedate,

Good without noise, without pretension great.

Just of thy Word, in ev'ry thought sincere,

Who knew no wish but what the world might hear:

Of softest manners, unaffected mind,

5

Lover of peace, and friend of human kind:

Go live! for Heav'n's Eternal year is thine,
Go, and exalt thy Moral to Divine.

10

And thou, blest Maid! attendant on his doom,
Pensive hast follow'd to the silent tomb,
Steer'd the same course to the same quiet shore,
Not parted long, and now to part no more!
Go then, where only bliss sincere is known!
Go, where to love and to enjoy are one!
Yet take these Tears, Mortality's relief,
And till we share your joys, forgive our grief:
These little rites, a Stone, a Verse, receive;
'Tis all a Father, all a Friend can give!

'Peace to thy gentle shade, and endless rest! Blest in thy Genius, in thy Love too blest! One grateful Woman to thy fame supplies What a whole thankless land to his denies.' But further alterations and additions were made in the inscription, until it read as it now stands on the monument in Westminster Abbey to Rowe and his daughter.]

This epitaph is on a monument in St Mar-
garet's Church, Westminster, where the date of
Mrs Elizabeth Corbet's death is recorded as
March 1st, 1724.
Mr Hunter conceives that she

15

201

was the Mrs Corbet who was a sister of Pope's mother. Carruthers. [Hunter enumerates Mrs Corbet among the Roman Catholic members of the Turner family; and as the notice preceding the epitaph on the monument speaks of her as the daughter of Sir Uvedale Corbett, Bart., it is irreconcileable with Hunter's statement.]

2 [Robert Digby was a frequent correspondent of Pope's during the years 1717 to 1724. He died in 1726; and Pope laments his death in a letter to his brother Edward Digby.]

VIII.

ON SIR GODFREY KNELLER,

In Westminster-Abbey, 17231.

NELLER, by Heav'n, and not a Master, taught,

K Whose Art was Nature, and whose Pictures Thought;

Now for two ages having snatch'd from fate
Whate'er was beauteous, or whate'er was great,
Lies crown'd with Princes' honours, Poets' lays,
Due to his Merit, and brave Thirst of praise.
Living, great Nature fear'd he might outvie
Her works; and dying, fears herself may die.

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ance.

IX.

ON GENERAL HENRY WITHERS,
In Westminster-Abbey, 17293.

HERE, WITHERS, Test, thou bravest, gentlest mind,

Thy Country's friend, but more of human kind.

Oh born to Arms! O Worth in Youth approv'd!
O soft Humanity, in Age belov'd!

For thee the hardy Vet'ran drops a tear,

And the gay Courtier feels the sigh sincere.
WITHERS, adieu! yet not with thee remove
Thy Martial spirit, or thy Social love!
Amidst Corruption, Luxury, and Rage,
Still leave some ancient Virtues to our age:
Nor let us say (those English glories gone)
The last true Briton lies beneath this stone.

1 Pope had made Sir Godfrey Kneller, on his death-bed, a promise to write his epitaph, which he seems to have performed with reluctHe thought it the worst thing he ever wrote in his life." (Spence.) Roscoe. [Sir Godfrey Kneller was born at Lübeck in 1648, and after being introduced by the Duke of Monmouth to King Charles II., filled the office of Statepainter under that monarch and his successors up to George I., in whose reign (in 1726) he died.] 2 Imitated from the famous Epitaph on Raphael.

Raphael, timuit, quo sospite, vinci
Rerum magna parens, et moriente, mori. P.
Much better translated by Mr W. Harrison, of
New College, Oxford, a favourite of Swift:

'Here Raphael lies, by whose untimely end
Nature both lost a rival and a friend.'

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scended from a military stock, and bred in arms in Britain, Dunkirk, and Tangier. Through the whole course of the two last wars of England with France, he served in Ireland, in the Low Countries, and in Germany: was present in every battle and at every siege, and distinguished in all by an activity, a valour and a zeal which nature gave and honour improved. A love of glory and of his country animated and raised him above that spirit which the trade of war inspires a desire of acquiring riches and honours by the miseries of mankind. His temper was humane, his benevolence universal, and among all those ancient virtues which he preserved in practice and in credit none was more remarkable than his hospitality. He died at the age of 78, on the 11th of November, 1729, to whom this monument is erected by his companion in the wars and his friend through life, HENRY DISNEY.'

Both Withers and Disney (who rests beside his comrade) are mentioned among Pope's friends by Gay, who alludes to the hospitality panegyrized in the above epitaph.]

X.

ON MR ELIJAH FENTON,

At Easthamstead in Berks, 17301.

HIS modest Stone, what few vain Marbles can,
May truly say, Here lies an honest Man:

TH

A Poet, blest beyond the Poet's fate,

Whom Heav'n kept sacred from the Proud and Great:

Foe to loud Praise, and Friend to learned Ease,

Content with Science in the Vale of Peace.

Calmly he look'd on either Life, and here

Saw nothing to regret, or there to fear;

From Nature's temp'rate feast rose satisfy'd3,

Thank'd Heav'n that he had liv'd, and that he died.

IO

XI.

ON MR GAY,

In Westminster-Abbey, 1732.

F Manners gentle, of Affections mild;

OF

In Wit, a Man; Simplicity, a Child:
With native Humour temp'ring virtuous Rage,
Form'd to delight at once and lash the age:
Above Temptation, in a low Estate,
And uncorrupted, ev'n among the Great:
A safe Companion, and an easy Friend,
Unblam'd thro' Life, lamented in thy End.
These are Thy Honours! not that here thy Bust
Is mix'd with Heroes, or with Kings thy dust;
But that the Worthy and the Good shall say,
Striking their pensive bosoms-Here lies GAY4.

[Elijah Fenton was born in 1683. Fenton, together with Broome, wrote part of the translation of the Odyssey in a style so similar to Pope's that most readers would fail to distinguish between the work of the latter and that of his coadjutors. A survey of Fenton's works shows a striking reproduction on his part of most of the species of poetry cultivated by Pope. Fenton has a pastoral (Florelio) to correspond to Pope's fourth and favourite Pastoral; a paraphrase of the 14th chapter of Isaiah to correspond to Pope's Messiah; an epistle from Sappho to Phaon, Epistles, Prologues, and Translations and Imitations of Horace. Fenton was a thorough master of versification, and excelled Pope in his command of a variety of metres. His Ode to Lord Gower

10

(which Pope placed next in merit to Dryden's
St Cecilia) avoids the faults committed by Pope
in his own 'Pindaric' essay; and his blank
verse translation of the 11th book of the Odyssey
is dignified without heaviness. Fenton's tragedy
of Mariamne seems to have owed its success in
part to the judicious suggestions of the author of
Oroonoko.]

2 The modest front of this small floor
Believe me, reader, can say more
Than many a braver marble can:
Here lies a truly honest man.

Crashaw, Epitaph upon Mr Ashton. Johnson.
3 Cf. Hor. Sat. Lib. 1. 1. 117-119.
Wake-
field.

INTENDED FOR SIR ISAAC NEWTON,
In Westminster-Abbey1.

ISAACUS NEWTONUS:
Quem Immortalem

Testantur Tempus, Natura, Cœlum:

Mortalem

Hoc marmor fatetur.

Nature and Nature's Laws lay hid in Night:
GOD said, Let Newton be! and all was Light".

XIII.

ON DR FRANCIS ATTERBURY,

Bishop of Rochester,

Who died in Exile at Paris, 1732, (his only Daughter having expired in his arms, immediately after she arrived in France to see him3.)

DIALOGUE 4.
SHE.

ES, we have liv'd-one pang, and then we part!
May Heav'n, dear Father! now have all thy Heart.
Yet ah! how once, we lov'd, remember still,

HE.

Then mix this dust with thine-O spotless Ghost!
O more than Fortune, Friends, or Country lost!
Is there on Earth one care, one wish beside?
Yes SAVE MY COUNTRY,

XIV.

ON EDMUND D. OF BUCKINGHAM,
Who died in the Nineteenth Year of his Age, 17351:

F modest Youth, with cool Reflection crown'd,

IF And ev'ry op'ning Virtue blooming round,

Could save a Parent's justest Pride from fate,
Or add one Patriot to a sinking state;
This weeping marble had not ask'd thy Tear,
Or sadly told, how many Hopes lie here!
The living Virtue now had shone approv'd,
The Senate heard him, and his Country lov'd.
Yet softer Honours, and less noisy Fame
Attend the shade of gentle BUCKINGHAM:
In whom a Race, for Courage fam'd and Art,
Ends in the milder Merit of the Heart;
And Chiefs or Sages long to Britain giv'n,
Pays the last Tribute of a Saint to Heav'n.

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XV.

FOR ONE WHO WOULD NOT BE BURIED IN
WESTMINSTER-ABBEY 2.

HEROES, and KINGS! your distance keep:

In peace let one poor Poet sleep,

Who never flatter'd Folks like you:
Let Horace blush, and Virgil too.

Whatever an Heir, or a Friend in his stead,
Or any good creature shall lay o'er my head,
Lies one who ne'er car'd, and still cares not a pin
What they said, or may say of the mortal within:
But, who living and dying, serene still and free,
Trusts in GOD, that as well as he was, he shall be.

1 Only son of John Sheffield, Duke of Buckinghamshire, by Katharine Darnley, natural daughter of James II. Roscoe.

[These lines were placed by Warburton on the monument erected by him to Pope in Twickenham Church, seventeen years after his death. Mr Carruthers points out that this execrable

5

piece of bad taste was in contravention of Pope's own desire as expressed in his will, where he directs that only the date of his death, and his age, should be inscribed on his tomb.]

3 [Imitated from Ariosto's epitaph on himself.]