But y ancient friends (tho' poor, or out of play) That touch my bell, I cannot turn away. 140 "Tis true, no Turbots dignify my boards, own: my 144 a From old walnut-tree a fhow'r fhall fall; yon And grapes, long ling'ring on my only wall, My Life's amusements have been just the same, C My lands are fold, my father's house is gone; 155 I'll hire another's; is not that my own, And yours, myfriends? thro'whose free-op'ning gate None comes too early, none departs too late; NOTES. fings he receives. But it contains, too, a fober reproof of People of Condition, for their unmanly and brutal difufe of so natural a duty. Nam & propriae telluris herum natura neque illum, Nec me, nec quemquam ftatuit. nos expulit ille; Illum aut nequities aut f vafri infcitia juris, g Poftremum expellet certe vivacior heres. h Nunc ager Umbreni fub nomine, nuper Ofelli Dictus erat: nulli proprius; fed cedit in usum NOTES. VER. 165. Well, if the use be mine, etc.] In a letter to this Mr. Bethel, of March 20, 1743, he says, "My Landlady, Mrs. "Vernon, being dead, this Garden and House are offered me in fale; and, I believe (together with the cottages on each "fide my grafs-plot next the Thames) will come at about a "thousand pounds. If I thought any very particular friend "would be pleased to live in it after my death (for, as it is, it ferves all my purposes as well during life) I would purchase "it; and more particularly could I hope two Things, That (For I, who hold fage Homer's rule the best, Welcome the coming, speed the going guest.)160 Pray heav'n it laft! (cries SWIFT!) as you go on; "I wish to God this houfe had been your own: Pity! to build, without a fon or wife: your life." Why, you'll enjoy it only all Well, if the use be mine, can it concern one, 165 Whether the name belong to Pope or Vernon? What's Property? dear Swift! you see it alter d From you to me, from me to Peter Walter; Or, in a jointure, vanish from the heir; Or in pure equity (the cafe not clear) 170 The Chanc'ry takes your rents for twenty year: At best, it falls to fome & ungracious fon, Who cries, "My father's damn'd, and all's my own. Shades, that to BACON could retreat afford, 175 Become the portion of a booby Lord; NOTES. "the Friend who fhould like it, was fo much younger and "healthier than myself, as to have a profpect of its continuing "his fome years longer than I can of its continuing mine. "But most of those I love are travelling out of the world, not "into it; and unless I have fuch a view given me, I have no "vanity nor pleasure that does not stop short of the Grave.". So that we fee, what fome of his Friends would not believe, his thoughts in profe and verfe were the fame. VER. 170. Or, in a jointure, vanish from the heir;] The ex i Nunc mihi, nunc alii. quocirca vivite fortes, Fortiaque adverfis opponite pectora rebus. NOTES. preffion well describes the furprize an heir must be in, to find himself excluded by that Inftrument which was made to fecure his fucceffion. For Butler humourously defines a Jointure to be the act whereby Parents turn Their Childrens Tenants, e're they're born. 97 And Hemsley, once proud Buckingham's delight, Slides to a Scriv'ner or a city Knight. 'Let lands and houses have what Lords they will, Let Us be fix'd, and our own masters still. ingham. 180 Villers Duke of Buck P. VER. 189. Let lands and houfes etc.] The turn of his imitation, in the concluding part, obliged him to diverfify the fentiment. They are equally noble: but Horace's is expreffed with the greater force. |