Then fhall thy CRAGGS (and let me call him mine) On the caft ore, another Pollio, fhine;

With aspect open, shall erect his head,

And round the orb in lafting notes be read,

65

Statefman, yet friend to Truth! of foul fincere, "In action faithful, and in honour clear;

"Who

NOTES.

This elegant copy of Verses was fo acceptable to Addison, that it was the foundation of a lafting friendship betwixt them. Tickell deferves a higher place among poets than is ufually allotted to him.

VER. 67. Statesman, yet friend to Truth, &c.] It should be remembered, that this poem was compofed to be printed before Mr. Addifon's Difcourfe on Medals, in which there is the following cenfure of long legends upon coins: "The firft fault I find with a modern legend is its diffusiveness. You have fometimes the whole fide of a medal over-run with it. One would fancy the Author had a design of being Ciceronian-but it is not only the tediousness of these inscriptions that I find fault with; fuppofing them of a moderate length, why muft they be in verfe? We should be furprised to see the title of a serious book in rhyme." Dial. iii.

W.

VER. 67. Statefman,] These nervous and finished lines were afterwards infcribed as an epitaph on this worthy man's monument in Westminster Abbey, with the alteration of two words in the laft verfe; which there ftands thus:

"Prais'd, wept, and honour'd by the Muse he lov’d.”

It was Craggs, who raised himself by his abilities, his father being a barber, that, in the most friendly and alluring manner, offered our Author a penfion of three hundred pounds per annum ; which if he had accepted we should have been deprived of his best fatires. Poets have a high fpirit of liberty and independence. They neither feek or expect rewards.

Mecanafes do not create geniuses. Neither Spenfer, nor Milton, nor Dante, nor Taffo, nor Corneille, were patronized by the governments under which they lived. And Horace, and Virgil,

I

and

"Who broke no promife, ferv'd no private end,

"Who gain'd no title, and who lost no friend d; 70 "Ennobled by himself, by all approv'd,

"And prais'd unenvy'd, by the Muse he lov'd."

NOTES.

and Boileau were formed before they had an opportunity of flattering Auguftus and Lewis XIV.

Though Pope enlifted under the banner of Bolingbroke, in what was called the country party, and in violent oppofition to the measures of Walpole, yet his clear and good fenfe enabled him to see the follies and virulence of all parties; and it was his favourite maxim, that, however factious men thought proper to diftinguish themselves by names, yet when they got into power, they all acted much in the fame manner; faying,

"I know how like Whig minifters to Tory."

And among his manuscripts were four very fenfible, though not very poetical lines, which contain the most solid apology that can be made for a minister of this country:

"Our ministers like gladiators live:

"Tis half their business blows to ward, or give:
The good their virtue would effect, or sense,

Dies between exigents and felf-defence."

Yet he appears fometimes to have forgotten this candid reflec, tion.

VER. ult. And prais'd unenvy'd, by the Mufe he lov'd.] It was not likely that men acting in fo different spheres, as were those of Mr. Craggs and Mr. Pope, should have their friendship disturb'd by envy. We muft fuppofe then that fome circumftances in the friendship of Mr. Pope and Mr. Addifon are hinted at in this place.

W.

APPENDIX.