Scots.

Dryden dedicated Marriage a-la-Mode to Wharton's infamous relation,
Rochester, whom he acknowledges not only as the defender of his poetry,
but as the promoter of his fortune. Young concludes his address to
Wharton thus: "My present fortune is his bounty, and my future his care;
which I will venture to say will be always remembered to his honour,
since he, I know, intended his generosity as an encouragement to merit,
though through his very pardonable partiality to one who bears him so
sincere a duty and respect, I happen to receive the benefit of it." That
he ever had such a patron as Wharton, Young took all the pains in his
power to conceal from the world, by excluding this dedication from his
works. He should have remembered that he, at the same time, concealed
his obligation to Wharton for _the most beautiful incident_ in what is
surely not his least beautiful composition. The passage just quoted is,
in a poem afterwards addressed to Walpole, literally copied:

Be this thy partial smile from censure free!
'Twas meant for merit, though it fell on me.

While Young, who, in his Love of Fame, complains grievously how often
"dedications wash an Aethiop white," was painting an amiable duke of
Wharton in perishable prose, Pope was, perhaps, beginning to describe
the "scorn and wonder of his days" in lasting verse.

To the patronage of such a character, had Young studied men as much as
Pope, he would have known how little to have trusted. Young, however,
was certainly indebted to it for something material; and the duke's
regard for Young, added to his "lust of praise," procured to All Souls'
college a donation, which was not forgotten by the poet when he
dedicated the Revenge.

It will surprise you to see me cite second Atkins, case 136, Stiles
_versus_ the Attorney General, March 14; 1740, as authority for the life
of a poet. But biographers do not always find such certain guides as the
oaths of the persons whom they record. Chancellor Hardwicke was to
determine whether two annuities, granted by the duke of Wharton to
Young, were for legal considerations. One was dated the 24th of March,
1719, and accounted for his grace's bounty in a style princely and
commendable, if not legal--"considering that the publick good is
advanced by the encouragement of learning and the polite arts, and being
pleased therein with the attempts of Dr. Young, in consideration
thereof, and of the love I bear him," &c. The othe