Part 2

P. 18, line 4. William Shippen (1673-1743) was an extreme Tory, noted for his outspoken attacks on the Walpole ministry, one of which landed him in the Tower. Sir William Yonge (c. 1693-1755) was notorious, at least among the opposition, for voluble but empty speeches in support of Walpole, "melodious nothings" as one satirist put it. See also Hervey, p. 36, and TE, 4, 394. The attack on _The Art of Politicks_ quoted above complains that Shippen and Yonge should be mentioned in the same breath, but Bramston's point obviously is that the young MP cares nothing for either side.

P. 20, line 8. Polly Peachum is of course the heroine of Gay's _Beggar's Opera_. The role was played by Lavinia Fenton, who immediately became the toast of London. "Old Sir John" may be Sir John Hobart (1693-1756), although he was only fifteen years older than Miss Fenton (see Sedgwick, 2, 142). His name was sometimes spelled "Hubbard," and the following stanza appears in "A New Ballad Inscrib'd to Polly Peachum" (British Library C-116.i.4 #38), the cavalier typography of which perhaps indicates hasty composition:

Then came Sir J---- H---- Thundring at thy Cubboard: But you cast them like a Lubboard And did soon dispatch him.

Whoever he was, Sir John lost out to Charles Paulet, third Duke of Bolton, who kept Miss Fenton faithfully as his mistress, had three children by her, and married her on the death of his wife in 1751.

P. 21, line 10. The House of Commons had used St. Stephen's Chapel as its meeting place since the mid-sixteenth century. Dover-Court is "a proverbial term for a company, in which all are speakers and none hearers" (Bell).

P. 23, line 2. Waits: "a small body of wind instrumentalists maintained by a city or town at the public charge" (OED).

line 10. To sell bargains is to return indecent answers to civil questions.

P. 24, line 6. Mother Needham was a prominent bawd, notorious for her foul language. See TE, 4, 374-75, and 5, 293-94.

lines 7-8. "Oldfieldismus" and "Kibberismus" refer respectively to the styles of Anne Oldfield, a well-known actress, and Colley Cibber, playwright, stage manager, and hero of the _Dunciad_. Mrs. Oldfield was generally respected, but Pope, like Bramston, seems to have disliked her (TE, 4, 375).

line 11. Tallboy was a booby young lover in Richard Brome's comedy _The Jovial Crew_ (1641), popular throughout the eighteenth century.

P. 26, line 12. Mist: Nathaniel Mist, Tory journalist. See TE, 5, 448. Eusden: Laurence Eusden, Poet Laureate 1718-30, often ridiculed by Pope.

line 14. Cibber's opera is _Love in a Riddle_ (1729), designed to capitalize on the craze for ballad opera created by _The Beggar's Opera_.

P. 27, line 5. Censor: Sir Richard Steele as Isaac Bickerstaffe, the nominal author of _The Tatler_.

P. 29, line 6. Where Edmund Curll stood was in the pillory.

P. 31, line 3. Hugo Grotius's classic of political science, _De jure belli ac pacis_, was published in 1625 and translated in 1654.

P. 32, line 1. Wickfort: Abraham de Wicquefort, _l'Ambassadeur et ses fonctions_ (La Haye, 1680). It was summarized in _The Craftsman_ of 23 Sept. 1727.

line 4. John Banks was the author of _The Unhappy Favourite; or the Earl of Essex_ (1681) and of _The Island Queens, or the Death of Mary, Queen of Scotland_ (prohibited in 1684; a revision was produced in 1704). Bell says that although "written in the most contemptible language, yet they never fail to melt the audience into tears, merely by the force of judicious and well-arranged plots and incidents."

P. 33, line 1. Arch-Bishop: William Wake, Archbishop of Canterbury since 1716. He was 72 in 1729. Master of the Rolls: Sir Joseph Jekyll, who had held the office since 1717, was about 66 in 1729.

line 12. Spence: Thomas Spence (d. 1737), Serjeant-at-Arms.

P. 34, line 3. Toft: In 1726 one Mary Toft claimed to have given birth to seventeen live rabbits, and some who should have known better believed her. See Pope's poem on her, _TE_, 6, 259, and Hogarth's engraving.

throws: i.e., throes, labor pains.

line 8: Bromley and Hanmer: William Bromley (?1663-1732), MP for Oxford 1701-32, Speaker 1710-13; Sir Thomas Hanmer (1677-1746), who represented several constituencies from 1701-27 and was Speaker 1714-15. They were Tory heroes, at least to Atterbury, for having refused the places offered them by George I in 1715 (Foord, p. 51).

P. 35, line 1. Tonson: Jacob Tonson, prominent bookseller.

line 9. Cler. Dom. Com.: "Clerk of the House of Commons."

P. 36, line 2. Die Martis is Tuesday; Thursday is Die Jovis.

line 6. Wyndham: Sir William Wyndham, MP for Somerset 1710-40, prominent opposition leader from the 1720s. See Sedgwick, 2, 562-64, for his reputation. Hervey believed that his high reputation was partly due to Walpole's henchmen, who inflated it in order to deflate Pultney's (p. 21).

P. 44, line 4. Sir Robert Fagg was better known for horse-racing and wenching than for politics; he appears in Hogarth's painting of _The Beggar's Opera_ admiring Lavinia Fenton and in the ballad cited in my note to p. 20, line 8. Running for Parliament in the borough of Steyning, Sussex, in 1722, he came in third in a five-man race with nineteen votes. He also ran third in 1727; the vote is not recorded, unless Bramston's "two Voices" is to be taken literally.

Université de Montréal

NOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION

[A] Letter to John Caryll, 6 Feb. 1731. _Correspondence_, ed. George Sherburn (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956), 3, 173. See also Antony Coleman's introduction to James Miller's _Harlequin-Horace_ (1731; ARS 178).

[B] D. F. Foxon, _English Verse 1701-1750_ (Cambridge: The University Press, 1975), 1, 77. I should also like to thank Mr. Foxon for generous personal help.

[C] I owe my knowledge of Bell's edition to Kent Mullikin of the University of North Carolina.

[D] Woolston was convicted on four counts of blasphemy on 4 March 1729. His offending works were six _Discourses on the Miracles of our Saviour_ (1727-29). He never succeeded in paying his fine of £100 (Pope, _Poems_ (Twickenham Edition, genl. ed. John Butt; London: Methuen, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1939-69), 5, 459). Hereafter referred to as _TE_.

Methuen's resignation is erroneously dated in 1730 in _DNB_ and in Romney Sedgwick, _The House of Commons 1715-1754_ (New York: Oxford University Press, 1970), 2, 254. See Abel Boyer, _The Political State of Great Britain, 37_ (May 1729), 523, and John, Lord Hervey. _Some Materials towards Memoirs of the Reign of King George II_, ed. Romney Sedgwick (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1931), pp. 101-02. According to Hervey, Methuen's ostensible reason for resigning was his dislike of the general conduct of the court, his real reason his failure to be appointed Secretary of State.

[E] Translations of Horace are taken from the Loeb Library edition, trans. H. Rushton Fairclough (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1961). Line numbers of the Latin verse are in the text.

[F] "Verses on the Art of Politicks," _Additions to the Works of Alexander Pope, Esq. Together with Many Original Poems and Letters, of Contemporary Writers, Never Before Published_ (London, 1776). 1. 158-59. I have been unable to discover where the poem was first printed.

[G] J. H. Plumb. _Sir Robert Walpole_ (London: Cresset). Vol. I (1956). pp. 249-50; Sir Edward Knatchbull, _Parliamentary Diary, 1722-30_, ed. A. N. Newman (London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1963), p. 42.

[H] Most of my information about the Scipios comes from the _Oxford Companion to Classical Literature_.

[I] _DNB_; Ray A. Kelch, _Newcastle: A Duke without Money_ (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1974), pp. 9-11; Reed Browning, _The Duke of Newcastle_ (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1975), pp. xi-xiii, 80-88.

[J] _DNB_; Browning, p. 18.

[K] Plumb, _Walpole, 2_ (1960), 52-53; Hervey, pp. 411-12; Browning, p. 113; Archibald S. Foord, _His Majesty's Opposition_, 1714-1830 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964), pp. 142-45.

[L] _The British Journal_, 258 (2 Sept. 1727), p. 1.

[M] Reported by Hervey toward the end of 1729 (p. 105).

[N] For illuminating discussions of Opposition ideology and literary strategies, see Maynard Mack, _The Garden and the City: Retirement and Politics in the Later Poetry of Pope, 1731-1743_ (Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1969); Isaac Kramnick, _Bolingbroke and his Circle: The Politicks of Nostalgia in the Age of Walpole_ (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968); and J.V. Guerinot and Rodney D. Jilg, eds., _The Beggar's Opera: Contexts_ (Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1976), esp. pp. 69-95.

[O] Part of the research for this introduction was done while I held a Leave Fellowship from the Canada Council, whom I should like to thank for their support.

[P] _All_ Mr. Heydegger's _Letters come directed to him from abroad_, A Monsieur, Monsieur _Heydegger_, Surintendant des Plaisirs d' Angleterre.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

The facsimile of _The Art of Politicks_ (1729) is reproduced by permission from a copy of the first edition (Shelf Mark: *PR3326/B287A8; Foxon B383) in the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. The total type-page (p. 19) measures 152 x 93 mm.

THE

ART of POLITICKS,

In IMITATION of

_HORACE_'s

ART of POETRY.

_LONDON_:

Printed for LAWTON GILLIVER, at _Homer_'s _Head_ against St. _Dunstan_'s Church in _Fleet-Street_.

MDCCXXIX.

THE

ART of POLITICKS,

In IMITATION of

_HORACE_'s

ART of POETRY.

[1] [Illustration] If to a Human Face Sir _James_ should draw A Gelding's Mane, and Feathers of Maccaw, A Lady's Bosom, and a Tail of Cod, Who could help laughing at a Sight so odd? Just such a Monster, Sirs, pray think before ye, When you behold one Man both _Whig_ and _Tory_. Not more extravagant are Drunkard's Dreams, Than _Low-Church_ Politicks with _High-Church_ Schemes. Painters, you'll say, may their own Fancies use, And Freeborn _Britons_ may their _Party_ chuse; That's true, I own: but can one Piece be drawn For Dove and Dragon, Elephant and Fawn?

[2] Speakers profess'd, who Gravity pretend,) With motley Sentiments their Speeches blend:) Begin like Patriots, and like Courtiers end.) Some love to roar, _the Constitution's broke_, And others on the _Nation's Debts_ to joke; Some rail, (they hate a Commonwealth so much,) What e'er the Subject be, against the _Dutch_; While others, with more fashionable Fury, Begin with _Turnpikes_, and conclude with _Fleury_; Some, when th' Affair was _Blenheim_'s glorious Battle, Declaim'd against importing _Irish Cattle_. But you, from what e'er Side you take your Name, Like _Anna_'s _Motto_, always be the same.

[3] Outsides deceive, 'tis hard the Truth to know;) _Parties_ from quaint Denominations flow,) As _Scotch_ and _Irish_ Antiquaries show.) The _Low_ are said to take Fanaticks Parts, The _High_ are bloody _Papists_ in their Hearts. Caution and Fear to highest Faults have run; In pleasing both the Parties, you please none. Who in the _House_ affects declaiming Airs, _Whales_ in _Change-Alley_ paints: in _Fish-Street, Bears_. Some Metaphors, some Handkerchiefs display;) These peep in Hats, while those with Buttons play,) And make me think it _Repetition-Day_;) There Knights haranguing hug a neighb'ring Post, And are but _Quorum_ Orators at most. Sooner than thus my want of Sense expose,) I'd deck out Bandy-Legs with Gold-Clock't Hose,) Or wear a Toupet-Wig without a Nose.) Nay, I would sooner have thy Phyz, I swear, _Surintendant des Plaisirs d' Angleterre_[P].

[4] Ye _Weekly Writers_ of seditious _News_, Take Care your _Subjects_ artfully to chuse, Write _Panegyrick_ strong, or boldly _rail_, You cannot miss _Preferment_, or a _Goal_. Wrap up your Poison well, nor fear to say What was a Lye last Night is Truth to Day; Tell this, sink that, arrive at _Ridpath_'s Praise, Let _Abel Roper_ your Ambition raise. To Lye fit Opportunity observe, Saving some double Meaning in reserve; But oh, you'll merit everlasting Fame, If you can quibble on Sir _Robert_'s Name. In _State-Affairs_ use not the Vulgar Phrase, Talk Words scarce known in good Queen _Besse_'s days. New Terms let War or Traffick introduce, And try to bring _Persuading Ships_ in Use. Coin Words: in coining ne'er mind common Sense, Provided the Original be _French_.

[5] Like _South-Sea Stock_, Expressions rise and fall: King _Edward_'s Words are now no Words at all. Did ought your Predecessors Genius cramp? Sure ev'ry Reign may have it's proper Stamp. All Sublunary things of Death partake; What Alteration does a Cent'ry make? Kings and Comedians all are mortal found, _Cæsar_ and _Pinkethman_ are under Ground. What's not destroy'd by Times devouring Hand? Where's _Troy_, and where's the _May-Pole_ in the _Strand_? Pease, Cabbages, and Turnips once grew, where Now stands new _Bond-street_, and a newer Square; Such Piles of Buildings now rise up and down; London itself seems going out of _Town_. Our Fathers cross'd from _Fulham_ in a Wherry, Their Sons enjoy a Bridge at _Putney-Ferry_. Think we that modern Words eternal are? _Toupet_, and _Tompion_, _Cosins_, and _Colmar_ Hereafter will be call'd by some plain Man A _Wig_, a _Watch_, a _Pair of Stays_, a _Fan_. To Things themselves if Time such change affords, Can there be any trusting to our Words.

[6] To screen good Ministers from Publick rage,) And how with Party Madness to engage,) We learn from _Addison_'s immortal Page.) The _Jacobite_'s ridiculous Opinion Is seen from _Tickel_'s Letter to _Avignon_. But who puts _Caleb_'s _Country-Craftsman_ out, Is still a secret, and the World's in doubt.

[7] Not long since _Parish-Clerks_, with saucy airs, Apply'd _King David_'s _Psalms_ to _State-Affairs_. Some certain _Tunes_ to Politicks belong, On both Sides Drunkards love a Party-Song.

[8] If full a-cross the Speaker's Chair I go, Can I be said the _Rules_ o'th' _House_ to know? I'll ask, nor give offence without intent, Nor through meer Sheepishness be impudent.

[9] In _Acts of Parliament_ avoid Sublime, Nor e'er Address his Majesty in Rhime; An _Act of Parliament_'s a serious thing, Begins with Year of Lord and Year of King; Keeps close to Form, in every word is strict, When it would _Pains_ and _Penalties_ inflict. Soft Words suit best _Petitioners_ intent; Soft Words, O ye _Petitioners_ of Kent!

[10] Who e'er harangues before he gives his Vote, Should send sweet Language from a tuneful Throat. _Pultney_ the coldest Breast with Zeal can fire, And _Roman Thoughts_ by _Attick Stile_ inspire; He knows from tedious Wranglings to beguile The serious _House_ into a chearful Smile; When the great Patriot paints his anxious Fears For _England_'s Safety, I am lost in Tears. But when dull Speakers strive to move compassion, I pity their poor Hearers, not the Nation: Unless young _Members_ to the purpose speak, I fall a laughing, or I fall asleep.

[11] Can Men their inward Faculties controul? Is not the Tongue an Index to the Soul? Laugh not in time of _Service_ to your God, Nor bully, when in _Custody_ o'th' _Rod_; Look Grave, and be from Jokes and Grinning far, When brought to sue for Pardon at the _Bar_. If then you let your ill-tim'd Wit appear, Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses will sneer.

[12] For Land, or Trade, not the same Notions sire The _City-Merchant_, and the _Country-Squire_; Their Climes are distant, tho' one Cause unites The _Lairds_ of _Scotland_, and the _Cornish Knights_.

[13] To _Likelihood_ your _Characters_ confine; Don't turn _Sir Paul_ out, let _Sir Paul_ resign. In _Walpole_'s Voice (if Factions Ill intend) Give the Two _Universities_ a Friend; Give _Maidston_ Wit, and Elegance refin'd; To both the _Pelhams_ give the _Scipios_ Mind; To _Cart'ret_, Learning, Eloquence, and Parts; To _George_ the _Second_, give all _English_ Hearts.

[14] Sometimes fresh Names in Politicks produce, And Factions yet unheard of introduce; And if you dare attempt a thing so new, Make to itself the _Flying-Squadron_ true.

[15] To speak is free, no _Member_ is debarr'd: But _Funds_ and _National Accounts_ are hard: Safer on common Topicks to discourse, The _Malt-Tax_, and a _Military Force_. On these each Coffee-House will lend a hint, Besides a thousand things that are in Print. But steal not Word for Word, nor Thought for Thought: For you'll be teaz'd to death, if you are caught. When Factious Leaders boast increasing strength, Go not too far, nor follow ev'ry Length: Leave room for Change, turn with a grace about, And swear you left 'em, when you found 'em out,

[16] With Art and Modesty your Part maintain: And talk like _Col'nel Titus_, not like _Lane_; The Trading-Knight with Rants his Speech begins, Sun, Moon, and Stars, and Dragons, Saints, and Kings: But _Titus_ said, with his uncommon Sense, When the _Exclusion-Bill_ was in suspense, I hear a Lyon in the Lobby roar; Say, Mr. Speaker, shall we shut the door And keep him there, or shall we let him in To try if we can turn him out again?

[17] Some mighty Blusterers _Impeach_ with noise, And call their Private Cry, the Nation's Voice;

[18] From Folio's of Accounts they take their handles, And the whole Ballance proves a pound of Candles; As if _Paul_'s Cupola were brought to bed, After hard Labour, of a small Pin's Head.

[19] Some _Rufus_, some the _Conqueror_ bring in, And some from _Julius Cæsar_'s days begin. A cunning Speaker can command his chaps, And when the _House_ is not in humour, stops; In Falsehood Probability imploys, Nor his old Lies with newer Lies destroys.

[20] If when you speak, you'd hear a Needle fall, And make the frequent _hear-hims_ rend the wall, In matters suited to your Taste engage, Remembring still your Quality and Age. Thy task be this, young Knight, and hear my Song What Politicks to ev'ry Age belong.

[21] When _Babes_ can speak, _Babes_ should be taught to say, _King George the Second_'s Health, Huzza, Huzza! _Boys_ should learn _Latin_ for _Prince William_'s sake, And Girls _Louisa_ their Example make.

[22] More loves the _Youth_, just come to his Estate, To range the fields, than in the _House_ debate; More he delights in fav'rite Jowler's Tongue, Than in _Will Shippen_, or _Sir William Yong_: If in one Chase he can two Horses kill, He cares not twopence for the Land-Tax Bill: Loud in his Wine, in Women not o'er nice, He damns his Uncles if they give advice; Votes as his Father did, when there's a _Call_, But had much rather, never Vote at all.

[23] We take a diff'rent Turn at _Twenty-six_, And lofty thoughts on some Lord's Daughter fix; With Men in Pow'r strict Friendship we persue, With some considerable Post in view. A Man of _Forty_ fears to change his Note, One way to Speak, and t'other way to Vote; Careful his Tongue in Passion to command, Avoids the Bar, and Speaker's Reprimand.

[24] In Bags the _Old Man_ lets his Treasure rust, Afraid to use it, or the Funds to trust; When Stocks are low, he wants the heart to buy, And through much caution sees 'em rise too high; Thinks nothing rightly done since _Seventy-eight_, Swears present _Members_ do not talk, but prate: In _Charles the Second_'s days, says he, ye Prigs, _Torys_ were _Torys_ then, and _Whigs_ were _Whigs_. Alas! this is a lamentable Truth, We lose in age, as we advance in youth: I laugh, when twenty will like eighty talk, And old _Sir John_ with _Polly Peachum_ walk.

[25] Now as to _Double_, or to _False Returns_, When pockets suffer, and when anger burns, O Thing surpassing faith! Knight strives with Knight, When both have brib'd, and neither's in the right. The Bayliff's self is sent for in that case, And all the Witnesses had face to face. Selected _Members_ soon the fraud unfold, In full Committee of the _House_ 'tis told; Th' incredible Corruption is destroy'd, The Chairman's angry, and th' Election void.

[26] Those who would captivate the well-bred throng, Should not too often speak, nor speak too long: Church, nor Church Matters ever turn to Sport, Nor make _St. Stephen's Chappel_, _Dover-Court_.

[27] The _Speaker_, when the Commons are assembl'd, May to the _Græcian Chorus_ be resembl'd; 'Tis his the Young and Modest to espouse, And see none draw, or challenge in the _House_: 'Tis his Old Hospitality to use, And three good Printers for the _House_ to chuse; To let each Representative be heard, And take due care the _Chaplain_ be preferr'd, To hear no _Motion_ made that's out of joint, And where he spies his _Member_, make his point.

[28] To Knights new chosen in old time would come The _County Trumpet_, and perhaps a _Drum_; Now when a Burgess new Elect appears, Come Trainbands, Horseguards, Footguards, Grenadeers; When the majority the Town-clerk tells, His Honour pays the Fiddles, Waits, and Bells: Harangues the _Mob_, and is as wise and great, As the most Mystic Oracle of State.

[29] When the Duke's Grandson for the County stood, His Beef was fat, and his October good; His Lordship took each Ploughman by the fist, Drunk to their Sons, their Wives and Daughters kiss'd; But when strong Beer their Freeborn Hearts inflames, They sell him Bargains, and they call him Names. Thus is it deem'd in _English_ Nobles wise To stoop for no one reason but to rise.

[30] Election matters shun with cautious awe, O all ye Judges Learned in the Law; A Judge by Bribes as much himself degrades, As Dutchess Dowager by Masquerades.

[31] Try not with Jests obscene to force a Smile, Nor lard your Speech with Mother _Needham_'s Stile: Let not your tongue to =Ôldphieldismus= run, And =Kibberismus= with abhorrence shun; Let not your looks affected words disgrace, Nor join with silver Tongue a brazen Face; Let not your hands, like Tallboys, be employ'd, And the mad rant of Tragedy avoid. Just in your Thoughts, in your Expression clear, Neither too modest, nor too bold appear.

[32] Others in vain a like Success will boast, He speaks most easy, who has study'd most.

[33] A Peer's pert Heir has to the Commons spoke A vile Reflection, or a Bawdy Joke; Call'd to the House of Lords, of this beware, 'Tis what the _Bishops Bench_ will never bear. Amongst the _Commons_ is such freedom shown, They lash each other, and attack the Throne: Yet so unskilful or so fearful some, For nine that speak there's nine-and-forty dumb.