Note 1228 — AN ESSAY ON MAN, IN FOUR EPISTLES (continued 3)
Reading edition
After ver. 220 in ed. 1:
A cheat, a whore, who starts not at the name, In all the Inns of Court, or Drury Lane?
These two omitted in the subsequent editions.—Pope.
The dishonest lawyer, and woman of the town, applied soft names to their vices, and were startled to be called by their proper appellations. The couplet was followed in the MS. by some further illustrations:—
B[lun]t but does K—— brings matters on; Rogues but do business; spies but serve the crown; Sid has the secret, Chartres H[e]r[ve]y the court, and Huggins knows the town; Kind-hearted Peter helps the rich in want, Nero's a wag, and Messaline gallant.
The last couplet assumed a second form:
Nero's a wag, Faustina some suspect Of gallantry, and Sutton of neglect.
Sutton, Peter Walter, Hervey, Huggins, Chartres, and Blunt will reappear in connection with the offences for which they are satirised here. Sid was Lord Godophin, who was lampooned under the name of Sid Hamet by Swift. Pope, in his Moral Essays, Epist. 1, ver. 86, speaks of his
Newmarket fame, and judgment in a bet;
and the phrase, "Sid has the secret" is an insinuation that his "judgment in a bet" sometimes arose from his being privy to the tricks of the turf.