Note 395 — A BOOK FOR A RAINY DAY (continued 3)
Reading edition
No allusion to Sir Cloudesley Shovel was intended by Pope. The line occurs in the Moral Essays, Epistle iii.—
“When Hopkins dies, a thousand lights attend The wretch, who living saved a candle’s end; Shouldering God’s altar a vile image stands, Belies his features, nay extends his hands; That live-long wig which Gorgon’s self might own, Eternal buckle takes in Parian stone.”
Pope’s own note to the last line reads: “Ridicule the wretched taste of carving large periwigs on bustos, of which there are several vile examples among the tombs of Westminster and elsewhere.” Pope’s real victim, Hopkins, was “Vulture” Hopkins, who died in his house in Broad Street in 1732, leaving a fortune of £300,000 with peculiar conditions attached. Several thousand pounds were expended on his funeral.