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A FAREWELL TO LONDON [ ] IN THE YEAR 1715 - Alexander Pope, The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope [1903]

Edition used:

The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope. Cambridge Edition, ed. Henry W. Boynton (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1903).

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A FAREWELL TO LONDON[ ]

IN THE YEAR 1715

    • Dear, damn’d, distracting town, farewell!
    • Thy fools no more I’ll tease:
    • This year in peace, ye Critics, dwell,
    • Ye Harlots, sleep at ease!
    • Soft B—s and rough C[ragg]s, adieu!
    • Earl Warwick, make your moan;
    • The lively II[inchenbroo]k and you
    • May knock up whores alone.
    • To drink and droll be Rowe allow’d
    • Till the third watchman’s toll;
    • Let Jervas gratis paint, and Froude
    • Save threepence and his soul.
    • Farewell Arbuthnot’s raillery
    • On every learned sot;
    • And Garth, the best good Christian he,
    • Although he knows it not.
    • Lintot, farewell! thy bard must go;
    • Farewell, unhappy Tonson!
    • Heav’n gives thee for thy loss of Rowe,
    • Lean Philips and fat Johnson.
    • Why should I stay? Both parties rage;
    • My vixen mistress squalls;
    • The Wits in envious feuds engage;
    • And Homer (damn him!) calls.
    • The love of arts lies cold and dead
    • In Halifax’s urn;
    • And not one Muse of all he fed
    • Has yet the grace to mourn.
    • My friends, by turns, my friends confound,
    • Betray, and are betray’d:
    • Poor Y[ounge]r’s sold for fifty pounds,
    • And B[ickne]ll is a jade.
    • Why make I friendships with the great,
    • When I no favour seek?
    • Or follow girls seven hours in eight?—
    • I need but once a week.
    • Still idle, with a busy air,
    • Deep whimseys to contrive;
    • The gayest valetudinaire,
    • Most thinking rake alive.
    • Solicitous for others’ ends,
    • Tho’ fond of dear repose;
    • Careless or drowsy with my friends,
    • And frolic with my foes.
    • Luxurious lobster-nights, farewell,
    • For sober, studious days!
    • And Burlington’s delicious meal,
    • For salads, tarts, and pease!
    • Adieu to all but Gay alone,
    • Whose soul sincere and free,
    • Loves all mankind but flatters none,
    • And so may starve with me.

[Page 103.] A Farewell to London.

Stanza ii. C—s is evidently Craggs; and H—k, as Carruthers interprets the hiatus, Lord Hinchinbrook, a young nobleman of spirit and fashion. (Ward.)

Stanza viii., lines 3 and 4. Most likely Miss Younger and Mrs. Bicknell, sisters, both actresses. (Carruthers.)