2»d s. No 45., Nov. 8. '56.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



363 



♦ I'm forc'd to load thera with a clog, 



To make them study : ' Here's a rogue 



Affronts the school, we'll make thee rue it : 

 — ' Indeed, I never meant to do it I ' 

 No ? didst thou not th' Oration print 

 Imperfect, with false Latin in't? 



• O pardon ! ' — No, Sir, have a care, 

 False Latin's never pardon'd here ! 



' Indeed, I'll ne'er do so agen, 



* Pray handle me like gentlemen : ' — 

 Yes, that we will. Sir, never fear it. 

 Your betters have been forc'd to bear it. 

 Thus shaking the tyrannick rod. 

 Insulting thy backside they stood. 

 And with a lash, as is their fashion, 

 Finish'd each smart expostulation. 



" Tho' all that can by man be said, 

 Can ne'er beat sense into thy head ; 

 Yet sure this method cannot fail. 

 Quick to convey it to thy tail. 

 As when a purge, that's upwards ta'en, 

 Scours not the stubborn bowels clean ; 

 More surely operating clyster, 

 At t'other end they administer. 



" I Westminster so much should hate, 

 Had I been yerkt like thee thereat : 

 I'm sure I should not care at all. 

 To come so near it as the Hall. 

 Hast thou not oft enough in Court 

 Appear'd, and often smarted for't ? 

 And dost thou not, with many a brand. 

 Recorded for a Pirate stand ? 

 Glad that a fine could pay th' arrears, 

 And clear the mortgage of thy ears ! 

 Then what relief dost hope to draw, 

 From that which still condemns thee. Law ? 

 And if from Law no help there be, 

 I'm sure there's none from Equity : 

 Lay hand on heart, and timely think. 

 The more thou stir'st, the more thou'lt stink : 

 And tho' it sorely gauls thee yet, 

 Well as thou canst, sit down with it : 

 And since to rage will do no good, 

 Pull in thy horns, and kiss the Rod ; 

 And while thou canst, retreat, for fear 

 They fall once more upon thy rear. 



" Tho' 'tis vexatious, Mun, I grant, 

 To hear the passing truants taunt, 

 And ask thee at thy shop in jeer, 

 ' Which is the way to IVestminster ? ' 

 Oh ! how th' unlucky urchins laugh'd, 

 To think they'd niaul'd thee fore and aft ; 

 'Tis such a sensible affront ! 

 Why, Pope will make an epic on't! 

 Bernard will chuckle at thy moan, 

 And all the booksellers in town. 

 From ToNSON down to Boddingtc 

 Fleet Street and Teniple-Bir around. 

 The Strand and Holborn, this shall sound : 

 For ever this shall grate thine ear, 

 ' Which is the wav to Westminster ? ' " 



moan, "i 



SGTON. J 



Prefixed is a plate, divided into three compart- 

 ments : the first exhibits Curll being " presented 

 with the ceremony of the blanket." In the second, 

 he is prostrated on a table receiving a flagellation 

 where one wound, 'tis said, 



" hurts honour more 

 Than twenty when laid on before." 



In the third, he is on his bended knees between 

 two files of the Westminster scholars, " asking 

 pardon of the aforesaid Mr. Barber." 



This satirical piece has been very generally 

 attributed to Samuel Wesley "■, eldest son of the 

 Rector of Epworth, first a scholar, and afterwards 

 for nearly twenty years usher, of Westminster 

 School ; and in a copy now before us there is 

 written on the title-page, in an old if not con- 

 temporary hand, " By Sam Wesley." He is thus 

 noticed in The Curliad^ p. 10. : 



"The Rev. Mr. Wesley, one of the assistants of West- 

 minster School, is omitted in the Dunciad Variorum. This 

 line — 



'And furious Dennis foam in Wesley's rage '— 

 is now altered — 



' And all the Mighty Mad in Dennis rage.' 



The former edition being now pretended to have been 

 a surreptitious one : wherein likewise stood this couplet, 

 viz.: 



' A Gothic Vatican ! of Greece and Rome 

 Well purg'd and worthy Wesley, Watts, and Broome.' 



The names are now changed to Withers, Quarles, and 

 Blome, with this palliation for the three priests, that they 

 * were persons eminent for good life ; the one (Mr. Samuel 

 Wesley) writ the Life of Christ in verse ; the other (Isaac 

 Watts) some valuable pieces in the lyric kind on pious 

 subjects, the title of his poems being Hora Lyrica. 

 And Mr. John Broome has assured me that the assistance 

 he gave Mr. Pope in his notes upon Homer were lucu- 

 brations of labour not small." 



How far this poetical effusion led to the friend- 

 ship which subsequently existed between Pope 

 and Samuel Wesley is uncertain ; but that they 

 were on friendly terms is evident from the follow- 

 ing interesting letter, printed in the GentlemarCs 

 Magazine, Ivii. 589. : 



" To the Rev. Mr. Wesley, at Tiverton, Devon. 



"Twitenham, Oct. 21 [1734?]. 

 " Dear Sir, — Your letter had not been so long un- 

 answered, but that I was not returned from a journey of 

 some weeks when it arrived at this place. You mavde- 

 pend upon the money for the Earl of PeterborowJ^ Mr. 

 Bethel, Dr. Swift, and Mr. Echersall, which I will pay 

 beforehand to any one j'ou shall direct ; and I think you 

 may set down Dr. Delany, whom I will write to. I de- 

 sired my Lord Oxford, some months since, to tell you 

 this : it was just upon my going to take a last leave of 

 Lord Peterborow, in so much hurry that I had not time 

 to write ; and my Lord Oxford undertook to tell it you 

 from me. I agree with you in the opinion of Savage's 

 strange performance, which does not deserve the benefit of 

 the clergy. Mrs. Wesley has my sincere thanks for her 

 good wishes in favour of this wretched tabernacle vay 

 body ; the soul that is so unhappy to inhabit it deserves 

 her regard something better, because, it really harbours 

 much good- will for her husband and herself, no man 

 being more truly, dear Sir, your affectionate and faithful 

 servant, " Alexander Pope." 



♦ In The Memoirs of the Society of Grub Street, vol. i. 

 p. 16., the work is distinctly said to have been written by 

 Wesley. _ 



