Philadelphia, July, 1851.
35. _Pope's Translations or Imitations of Horace_ (Vol. i., p.
230.).--As you have, I hope, very largely increased the number of
readers and contributors since I asked the question above referred to,
and as it has as yet received no answer, I hope you will allow me to
repeat it, in the hope that some of your new correspondents may be able
to tell me what satirical "_Imitation of Horace_" can have been, so
early as 1716, attributed to Pope?
I would also, on the same grounds, beg leave to repeat another question,
formerly proposed by P. C. S. S. and by myself (Vol. i, pp. 201. 246.):
What is the precise meaning of the last couplet of these lines of Pope:
"The hero William, and the martyr Charles,
One knighted Blackmore and one pensioned Quarles,
_Which made old Ben and surly Dennis swear,
'No Lord's anointed, but a Russian bear.'_"
That Pope had a precise meaning cannot be doubted; but I have never
heard a reasonable guess at what it might be.