Ambrose Philips, author among other things of a set of "Pastorals" that appeared in the same volume with Pope, 1709. Pope and he soon became bitter enemies. He was patronized by a Bishop Boulter.
"99 Sappho":
Here as elsewhere Pope uses the name of the Greek poetess for his enemy, Lady Mary Wortley Montague.
"109 Grubstreet":
a wretched street in London, inhabited in Pope"s day by hack writers, most of whom were his enemies.
"111 Curll"
(see note to l. 53) had printed a number of Pope"s letters without the poet"s consent some years before this poem was written.
"113-132"
Pope here describes the flatterers who were foolish enough to pay him personal compliments. They compare him to Horace who was short like Pope, though fat, and who seems to have suffered from colds; also to Alexander, one of whose shoulders was higher than the other, and to Ovid, whose other name, Naso, might indicate that long noses were a characteristic feature of his family. Pope really had large and beautiful eyes. Maro, l. 122, is Virgil.
"123"
With this line Pope begins an account of his life as a poet. For his precocity, see Introduction, p. xii.
"129 ease:"
amuse, entertain.
"friend, not Wife:"
the reference is, perhaps, to Martha Blount, Pope"s friend, and may have been meant as a contradiction of his reported secret marriage to her.
"132 to bear:"
to endure the pains and troubles of an invalid"s life.
"133 Granville:"
George Granville, Lord Lansdowne, a poet and patron of letters to whom Pope had dedicated his "Windsor Forest."
"134 Walsh:"
see note on "Essay on Criticism," l. 729.
"135 Garth:"
Sir Samuel Garth, like Arbuthnot, a doctor, a man of letters, and an early friend of Pope.
"137"
Charles Talbot, Duke of Shrewsbury; John, Lord Somers; and John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham; all leading statesmen and patrons of literature in Queen Anne"s day.
"138 Rochester:"
Francis Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, an intimate friend of Pope.
"139 St. John:"
Bolingbroke. For Pope"s relations with him, see introduction to the "Essay on Man," p. 116.
"143"
Gilbert Burnet and John Oldmixon had written historical works from the Whig point of view. Roger Cooke, a now forgotten writer, had published a "Detection of the Court and State of England." Pope in a note on this line calls them all three authors of secret and scandalous history.
"146"
The reference is to Pope"s early descriptive poems, the "Pastorals" and "Windsor Forest."
"147 gentle f.a.n.n.y"s:"
a sneer at Lord Hervey"s verses. See the introduction to this poem, p.
126.
"149 Gildon:"
a critic of the time who had repeatedly attacked Pope. The poet told Spence that he had heard Addison gave Gildon ten pounds to slander him.
"151 Dennis:"
see note on "Essay on Criticism." l. 270.