WITH this Motto in the first edition :

Ne rubeam pingui donatus munere.-HOR.

"This fine imitation was first published in 1737. The strong satire with which it abounds was concealed with such delicate art and address, that many persons, and some of the highest rank in the Court, as I have been well informed, read it as a panegyric on the king and ministry, and congratulated themselves that Pope had left the Opposition, in which he had been engaged. But it may seem strange they should not see the drift and intention of such lines as the six first, the twenty-ninth, the three hundred and fifty-fourth, the three hundred and fifty-sixth, the three hundred and seventy-sixth, the three hundred and ninety-fourth, and many other lines."-WARTON. Pope, in his celebrated letter to Lord Hervey, has the hardihood to boast himself a man who never wrote a line in which the religion or government of his country, the ROYAL FAMILY, or their ministry, were disrespectfully mentioned.' The case was very much altered, when he wrote this Imitation, the drift of which cannot be mistaken. I have before taken notice of the circumstances of the times when it was published, which the reader should keep in mind, as they are the best comment on some passages of particular severity.

"No one, however, can be insensible of the great powers of language, and consummate dexterity of satire, which this Epistle evinces."BOWLES.

This is certainly the finest of all the Imitations. The admirable skill with which the courtly compliments of Horace are converted into the keenest sarcasm, the ingenuity of the parallels, and the sound common sense of the criticism, all combine to give the poem the air of a spirited original composition. It is difficult to believe that any one can have been so stupid as to imagine that Pope's compliments to the King were seriously intended; indeed, we know that he was in danger of a prosecution in consequence of v. 224, which fact alone would seem sufficient to prove the incorrectness of Warton's statement.

The Imitation was published by Cooper, and, as appears from a letter of Barber to Swift, appeared on the 23rd June, 1737.

It was registered at Stationers' Hall, 6th March, 1737, as follows: Horace, Epistle i., Imitated by Mr. Pope;" the owner of the copyright being Robert Dodsley.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE reflections of Horace, and the judgments passed in his Epistle to Augustus, seemed so seasonable to the present times, that I could not help applying them to the use of my own country. The author thought them considerable enough to address them to his Prince; whom he paints with all the great and good qualities of a monarch, upon whom the Romans depended for the increase of an Absolute Empire. But to make the poem entirely English, I was willing to add one or two of those which contribute to the happiness of a Free People, and are more consistent with the welfare of our Neighbours.

This Epistle will shew the learned world to have fallen into two mistakes: one, that Augustus was a Patron of Poets in general; whereas he not only prohibited all but the best writers to name him, but recommended that care even to the civil magistrate: Admonebat Prætores, ne paterentur nomen suum obsolefieri, &c. The other, that this piece was only a general Discourse of Poetry; whereas it was an Apology for the Poets, in order to render Augustus more their patron. Horace here pleads the cause of his cotemporaries, first against the taste of the Town, whose humour it was to magnify the authors of the preceding age; secondly against the Court and Nobility, who encouraged only the writers for the theatre; and lastly against the Emperor himself, who had conceived them of little use to the Government. He shews (by a view of the progress of learning, and the change of taste among the Romans) that the introduction of the polite arts of Greece had given the writers of his time great advantages over their

predecessors; that their Morals were much improved, and the licence of those ancient poets restrained: that Satire and Comedy were become more just and useful; that whatever extravagances were left on the stage, were owing to the Ill Taste of the Nobility; that poets, under due regulations, were in many respects useful to the State; and concludes, that it was upon them the Emperor himself must depend, for his fame with posterity.

We may further learn from this Epistle, that Horace made his court to this great Prince by writing with a decent freedom toward him, with a just contempt of his low flatterers, and with a manly regard to his own character.-POPE.

THE FIRST EPISTLE

OF THE

SECOND BOOK OF HORACE.

TO AUGUSTUS.1

WHILE you, great patron of mankind!' sustain
The balanced world, and open all the main;'
Your country, chief, in arms abroad defend,"
At home, with morals, arts, and laws amend;