Copy 1, Volume 3

The works of Alexander Pope, esq. with notes and illustrations by himself and others. To which are added a new life of the author, an estimate of his poetical character and writings, and occasional remarks / by William Roscoe. Esq.

  • Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The works of Alexander Pope, esq. with notes and illustrations by himself and others. To which are added a new life of the author, an estimate of his poetical character and writings, and occasional remarks / by William Roscoe. Esq. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    28/402 (page 14)
    Sudden they seize th’ amaz’d, defenceless prize, And high in air Britannia’s standard flies. =—-110 See! from the brake the whirring pheasant springs, And mounts exulting on triumphant wings: Short is his joy; he feels the fiery wound, Flutters in blood, and panting beats the ground. Ah! what avail his glossy, varying dyes, 115 His purple crest, and scarlet-circled eyes, : The vivid green his shining plumes unfold, His painted wings, and breast that flames with gold? Nor yet, when moist Arcturus clouds the sky, The woods and fields their pleasing toils deny. 120 To plains with well-breath’d beagles we repair, And trace the mazes of the circling hare: (Beasts, urg’d by us, their fellow-beasts pursue, And learn of man each other to undo.) With slaught’ring guns th’ unweary’d fowler roves, When frosts have whiten’d all the naked groves ; Where doves in flocks the leafless trees o’ershade, And lonely woodcocks haunt the wat’ry glade. VARIATIONS. Ver. 107. It stood thus in the first Editions : Pleas’d in the Gen’ral’s sight, the host lie down Sudden before some unsuspecting town ; The young, the old, one instant makes our prize, And o’er their captive heads Britannia’s standard flies. Ver. 126. O’er rustling leaves around the naked groves. This is a better line. Warton. IMITATIONS. Ver. 115. © nec te tua plurima, Pantheu, Labentem pietas, vel Apollinis insula texit.” _—-Virg. Warburton.