illuftrate his theory from Women, the "frugal Crone," and "poor Narciffa ;" and yet he fays, in the next Epiftle on Women, "In Men, we various RULING PASSIONS find; In Women, two almost divide the kind; The Love of Pleasure, and the Love of Sway!" Neither of these Paffions belonged to the Women, whose example he has introduced to illuftrate the Character and ruling Paffions of Men. were rolled up The regular This is not When Warburton firft faw this Epiftle, it was entirely disjointed, and without "connection, order, or dependence." It was, he fays, fo jumbled together, as if the feveral parts of a Poem together, drawn at random, and set down as they rofe. difpofition of it was entirely owing to Warburton. faying much in favour of Pope's being fuch a mighty "Man of method," as he would willingly perfuade us he was. In my opinion this is the worst of Pope's Epiftles: it is founded upon an abfurd and unphilofophical principle; and, though it is enlivened by humourous and accurate touches of character, it neither exhibits much extent of thought, or fuperior happiness of fancy. Warton has obferved with his natural warmth, that the lines 166 to 174. difplay a "perfect anatomy of the human mind!" but, if we can neither judge of Men's Characters by Paffions or Actions, the Ruling Paffion lies under the fame difficulty. If Actions can denote the Ruling Paffion, and no other, there is little observation required: but the whole theory is full of inconfiftency. EPISTLE II. TO A LADY, Of the CHARACTERS of WOMEN. NOTHING fo true as what you once let fall, "Moft Women have no Characters at all." Matter too foft a lasting mark to bear, And beft diftinguish'd by black, brown, or fair. NOTES. How Of the Characters of WOMEN.] There is nothing in Mr. Pope's Works more highly finished, or written with greater fpirit, than this Epiftle: Yet its fuccefs was in no proportion to the pains he took in compofing it, or the effort of genius difplayed in adorning it. Something he chanced to drop in a fhort advertisement prefixed to it, on its first publication, may perhaps account for the fmall attention the Public gave to it. He faid, that no one Characer in it was drawn from the Life. They believed him on his word; and expreffed little curiofity about a satire in which there was nothing perfonal. WARBURTON. VER. I. Nothing fo true] Bolingbroke, a judge of the subject, thought this Epistle the matter-piece of Pope. But the bitterness of the fatire is not always concealed in a laugh. The characters are lively, though uncommon. I scarcely remember one of them in our comic writers of the best order. The ridiculous is heightened by many strokes of humour, carried even to the borders of extravagance, as much as the two laft lines, of Boileau, quoted in the next page. The female foibles have been the fubject of perhaps more wit in every language, than any other topic that can be named. The fixth fatire of Juvenal, though deteftable for its obscenity, R 3 How many pictures of one Nymph we view, 5 Here NOTES. obfcenity, is undoubtedly the moft witty of all his fixteen, and is curious for the picture it exhibits of the private lives of the Roman ladies. If this Epiftle yields, in any respect, to the tenth fatire of Boileau on the fame fubject, it is in the delicacy and variety of the tranfitions by which the French writer paffes from one character to another, always connecting each with the foregoing. It was a common faying of Boileau, fpeaking of La Bruyere, that one of the moft difficult parts of compofition was the art of tranfition. That we may fee how happily Pope has caught the manner of Boileau, let us furvey one of his portraits: it fhall be that of his learned lady : 66 Qui s'offrira d'abord? c'est cette Scavante, Qu'eftime Roberval, et que Sauveur frequente. D'où vient qu'elle a l'œil trouble, et le teint fi terni ? Un Aftrolabe en main, elle a dans fa goûtiere Il fuivre Jupiter paffé le nuit entiere : Il faut chez Du Vernay voir la diffection." None of Pope's female characters excel the Doris of Congreve in delicate touches of raillery and ridicule. WARTON. VER. 5. How many picures] The Poet's purpose here is to shew, that the characters of Women are generally inconfiftent with themfelves; and this he illuftrates by so happy a fimilitude, that we fee the folly described in it arifes from that very principle which gives birth to this inconfiftency of character. WARBURTON. VER. 7, 8. 10, &c. Arcadia's Countefs,-Paftora by a fountain,— Leda with a Swan,-Magdalen,-Cecilia-] Attitudes in which feveral ladies affected to be drawn, and fometimes one lady in them all. Here Fannia, leering on her own good man, With fimp'ring Angels, Palms, and Harps divine; If Folly grow romantic, I must paint it. Come then, the colours and the ground prepare! Dip in the Rainbow, trick her off in Air; Chufe a firm Cloud, before it fall, and in it Catch, ere fhe change, the Cynthia of this minute. NOTES. ΙΟ 15 19 Rufa, all. The Poet's politenefs and complaifance to the fex is obferv able in this inftance, amongst others, that whereas in the Characters of Men he has sometimes made use of real names, in the Characters of Women always fictitious. POPE. But notwithstanding all the Poet's caution and complaifance, this general fatire, or rather moral analysis of human nature, as it appears in the two fexes, will be always received very differently by them. The Men bear a general fatire most heroically; the Women with the utmost impatience. This is not from any itronger consciousness of guilt, for I believe the fum of Virtue in the female world does (from many accidental caufes) far exceed the fum of Virtue in the male; but from the fear that fuch reprefentations may hurt the fex in the opinion of the men whereas the men are not at all apprehenfive that their follies or vices would prejudice them in the opinion of the women. WARBURTON. VER. 20. Catch, ere fhe change, the Cynthia of this minute.] Alluding in the expreffion to the precept of Frefnoy, "formæ veneres captando fugaces." WARBURTON "Like a dove's neck the shifts her tranfient charms." Young, Sat. 5. Rufa, whofe eye quick-glancing o'er the Park, Attracts each light gay meteor of a Spark, Agrees as ill with Rufa ftudying Locke, As Sappho's di'monds with her dirty fmock; NOTES. Or VER. 21. Inftances of contrarieties, given even from such characters as are moft ftrongly marked, and feemingly therefore most confiftent: As, I. In the Affected, Ver. 21, &c. POPE. VER. 21. Rufa, whofe eye] This character of Rufa, and the fucceeding ones of Silia, Papillia, Narciffa, and Flavia, are precifely and entirely in the ftyle and manner of the portraits Young has given us in his Fifth Satire on Women. The pictures of Young are sketched with a lighter and more sportive pencil; thofe of our Author with a firmer hand and a chafter manner. Pope put forth all his ftrength to excel his witty rival in this the beft part of the Univerfal Paffion; and he has fucceeded accordingly. Both Pope and Boileau (see his tenth fatire) have been cenfured for their feverity on the fair fex. They have been reckoned as bad as Euripides; but furely they are nothing like an old comic poet, Eubulus, in a fragment preferved in that most entertaining book, the Excerpta ex Trag. et Comed. of Grotius, 4to, p. 659. who, after mentioning Medæa, Clytemneftra, and Phædra, fuddenly ftops, and wickedly pretends that his memory fails him in enabling him to mention any one good character among women. The ladies of France revenged themfelves on Boileau, by faying he was made incapable of love and marriage by an accident that befel him in his early youth. WARTON. VER. 23. Agrees as ill] This thought is expreffed with great humour in the following ftanza, faid to mean Q. Carcline: "Tho' Artemifia talks, by fits, Of councils, claffics, fathers, wits; Reads Malbranche, Boyle, and Locke: Yet in fome things, methinks, fhe fails, And wear a cleaner fmock." WARBURTON. VER. 24. As Sappho's di'monds, &c.] It appears very clear that by Sappho, throughout, Lady Montagu must have been meant. Mr. Dallaway's arguments on this fubject have great weight, and I con |
