Note 52 — SPRING:
Reading edition
An allusion to the royal oak, in which Charles II. had been hid from the pursuit after the battle of Worcester.—Pope.
This wretched pun on the word "bears" is called "dextrous" by Wakefield, but Warton says that it is "one of the most trifling and puerile conceits" in all Pope's works, and is only exceeded in badness by the riddle "which follows of the thistle and the lily."