The Dunciad: With notes variorum, and the prolegomena of Scriblerus. Written in the year, 1727.

THE DUNCIAD.

ARGUMENT to BOOK the FIRST.

The Proposition, the Invocation, and the Inscription. Then the Original of the great Empire of Dul∣ness, and cause of the continuance thereof. The be∣loved seat of the Goddess is described, with her chief attendants and officers, her functions, opera∣tions, and effects. Then the poem hastes into the midst of things, presenting her on the evening of a Lord Mayor's day, revolving the long succession of her sons, and the glories past and to come. She fixes her eye on Tibbald to be the instrument of that great event which is the Subject of the poem. He is described pensive in his study, giving up the

cause, and apprehending the period of her empire from the old age of the present monarch Settle: Wherefore debating whether to betake himself to Law or Politicks, he raises an altar of proper books, and (making first his solemn prayer and declaration) purposes thereon to sacrifice all his unsuccessful wri∣tings. As the pile is kindled, the Goddess behold∣ing the slame from her seat, flies in person and puts it out, by casting upon it the poem of Thule. She forthwith reveals berself to him, transports him to her Temple, unfolds her arts, and initiates him into her mysteries: then announcing the death of Settle that night, anoints, and proclaims him Successor.

BOOKS and the Man I sing, the first who brings The Smithfield Muses to the Ear of Kings.

Say great Patricians! (since your selves inspire These wond'rous works; so Jove and Fate require) Line 5

Say from what cause, in vain decry'd and curst,Line 5 Still Dunce the second reigns like Dunce the first.

In eldest time, e'er mortals writ or read, E're Pallas issu'd from the Thund'rer's head,

Dulness o'er all possess'd her antient right, Daughter of Chaos and eternal Night:Line 10 Fate in their dotage this fair ideot gave, Gross as her sire, and as her mother grave, Laborious, heavy, busy, bold, and blind, She rul'd in native Anarchy, the mind.

Still her old empire to confirm, she tries,Line 15 For born a Goddess, Dulness never dies.

O thou, whatever Title please thine ear, Dean, Drapier, Bickerstaff, or Gulliver! Whether thou chuse Cervantes' serious air, Or laugh and shake in Rab'lais easy Chair,Line 20 Or praise the Court, or magnify Mankind, Or thy griev'd Country's copper chains unbind;

From thy Baeotia tho' Her Pow'r retires, Grieve not, my SWIFT! at ought our realm acquires Here pleas'd behold her mighty wings out-spread,Line 25 To hatch a new Saturnian Age of Lead.

Where wave the tatter'd ensigns of Rag-Fair, A yawning ruin hangs and nods in air;

Keen, hollow winds howl thro' the bleak recess, Emblem of Music caus'd by Emptiness.Line 30 Here in one bed two shiv'ring Sisters lye, The Cave of Poverty and Poetry.

This, the Great Mother dearer held than all The clubs of Quidnunc's, or her own Guild-hall. Here stood her Opium, here she nurs'd her Owls,Line 35 And destin'd here th' imperial seat of fools Hence springs each weekly Muse, the living boast Of Curl's chaste press, and Lintot's rubric post,

Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiac lay, Hence the soft sing-song on Cecilia's day,Line 40 Sepulchral Lyes, our holy walls to grace, And New-year Odes, and all the Grubstreet race.

'Twas here in clouded majesty she shone; Four guardian Virtues, round, support her throne; Line 45

Fierce champion Fortitude, that knows no fearsLine 45 Of hisses, blows, or want, or loss of ears: Calm Temperance, whose blessings those partake Who hunger, and who thirst, for scribling sake:

Prudence, whose glass presents th' approaching jayl: Poetic Justice, with her lifted scale;Line 50 Where, in nice balance, truth with gold she weighs, And solid pudding against empty praise.

Here she beholds the Chaos dark and deep, Where nameless Somethings in their causes sleep, Line 55

Till genial Jacob, or a warm Third-dayLine 55 Call forth each mass, a poem, or a play: How hints, like spawn, scarce quick in embryo lie, How new-born nonsense first is taught to cry, Maggots half-form'd, in rhyme exactly meet, And learn to crawl upon poetic feet.Line 60 Here one poor word a hundred clenches makes, And ductile dulness new meanders takes;

There motley Images her fancy strike, Figures ill-pair'd, and Similies unlike, She sees a Mob of Metaphors advance,Line 65 Pleas'd with the madness of the mazy dance: How Tragedy and Comedy embrace; How Farce and Epic get a jumbled race; How Time himself stands still at her command, Realms shift their place, and Ocean turns to land.Line 70 Here gay Description Aegypt glads with show'rs, Or gives to Zembla fruits, to Barca flow'rs;

Glitt'ring with ice here hoary hills are seen, There painted vallies of eternal green, On cold December fragrant chaplets blow,Line 76 And heavy harvests nod beneath the snow.

All these and more, the cloud-compelling Queen Beholds thro fogs, that magnify the scene: She, tinsel'd o'er in robes of varying hues, With self-applause her wild creation views,Line 80 Sees momentary monsters rise and fall, And with her own fools-colours gild them all.

'Twas on the day, when Thorold, rich and grave, Like Cimon triumph'd both on land and wave:

(Pomps without guilt, of bloodless swords and maces, Glad chains, warm furs, broad banners, and broad faces) Now Night descending, the proud scene was o'er, But liv'd, in Settle's numbers, one day more.

Now May'rs and Shrieves all hush'd and satiate lay, Yet eat, in dreams, the custard of the day;Line 90 While pensive Poets painful vigils keep, Sleepless themselves to give their readers sleep. Much to the mindful Queen the feast recalls What City Swans once sung within the walls; Line 95

Much she revolves their arts, their ancient praise,Line 95 And sure succession down from Heywood's days. She saw with joy the line immortal run, Each sire imprest and glaring in his son; So watchful Bruin forms with plastic care Each growing lump, and brings it to a Bear.Line 100 She saw old Pryn in restless Daniel shine, And Eusden eke out Blackmore's endless line;

She saw slow Philips creep like Tate's poor page, And all the mighty Mad in Dennis rage.

In each she marks her image full exprest,Line 105 But chief, in Tibbald's monster-breeding breast;

Sees Gods with Daemons in strange league ingage, And earth, and heav'n, and hell her battles wage.

She ey'd the Bard, where supperless he sate, And pin'd, unconscious of his rising fate;Line 110

Studious he sate, with all his books around, Sinking from thought to thought, a vast profund!

Plung'd for his sense, but found no bottom there; Then writ, and flounder'd on, in mere despair. Line 115

He roll'd his eyes that witness'd huge dismay,Line 115 Where yet unpawn'd, much learned lumber lay:

Volumes, whose size the space exactly fill'd, Or which fond authors were so good to gild, Or where, by sculpture made for ever known, The page admires new beauties, not its own.Line 120

Here swells, the shelf with Ogilby the great: There, stamp'd with arms, Newcastle shines compleat:

Here all his suff'ring brotherhood retire, And 'scape the martyrdom of jakes and fire; Line 125

A Gothic Vatican! of Greece and RomeLine 125 Well purg'd, and worthy Withers, Quarles, and Blome.

But high above, more solid Learning shone, The Classics of an Age that heard of none; There Caxton slept, with Wynkin at his side, One clasp'd in wood, and one in strong cow-hide,Line 130

There, sav'd by spice, like mummies, many a year, Old Bodies of Philosophy appear: De Lyra there a dreadful front extends, And here, the groaning shelves Philemon bends.

Of these, twelve volumes, twelve of amplest size,Line 135 Redeem'd from tapers and defrauded pyes, Inspir'd he seizes: These an altar raise: An hecatomb of pure, unsully'd lays That altar crowns: A folio Common-place Founds the whole pyle, of all his works the base;Line 140 Quarto's, octavo's, shape the less'ning pyre; And last, a little Ajax tips the spire.

Then he. Great Tamer of all human art! First in my care, and nearest at my heart: Dulness! whose good old cause I yet defend,Line 145 With whom my Muse began, with whom shall end!

O thou, of business the directing soul, To human heads like byass to the bowl, Which as more pond▪rous makes their aim more true, Obliquely wadling to the mark in view.Line 150 O ever gracious to perplex'd mankind! Who spread a healing mist before the mind, And, lest we err by Wit's wild, dancing light, Secure us kindly in our native night. Ah! still o'er Britain stretch that peaceful wand,Line 155 Which lulls th' Helvetian and Batavian land; Where rebel to thy throne if Science rise, She does but shew her coward face and dies: There, thy good Scholiasts with unweary'd pains Make Horace flat, and humble Maro's strains;Line 160 Here studious I unlucky moderns save, Nor sleeps one error in its father's grave,

Old puns restore, lost blunders nicely seek, And crucify poor Shakespear once a week. For thee I dim these eyes, and stuff this head,Line 165 With all such reading as was never read▪

For thee supplying, in the worst of days, Notes to dull books, and prologues to dull plays; For thee explain a thing till all men doubt it, And write about it, Goddess, and about it;Line 170 So spins the silk-worm small its slender store, And labours, 'till it clouds itself all o'er. Not that my quill to Critiques was confin'd, My Verse gave ampler lessons to mankind; So gravest precepts may successless prove,Line 175 But sad examples never fail to move. As forc'd from wind-guns, lead itself can fly, And pond'rous slugs cut swiftly thro' the sky; As clocks to weight their nimble motion owe, The wheels above urg'd by the load below;Line 180

Me, emptiness and dulness could inspire, And were my elasticity and fire. Had Heav'n decreed such works a longer date, Heav'n had decreed to spare the Grubstreet-state. But see great Settle to the dust descend,Line 185 And all thy cause and empire at an end! Cou'd Troy be sav'd by any single hand, His gray-goose weapon must have made her stand. But what can I? my Flaccus cast aside, Take up th' Attorney's (once my better) guide?Line 190 Or rob the Roman geese of all their glories, And save the state by cackling to the Tories? Yes, to my Country I my pen consign, Yes, from this moment, mighty Mist! am thine, Line 195

And rival, Curtius! of thy fame and zeal,Line 195 O'er head and ears plunge for the publick weal. Adieu my children! better thus expire Unstall'd, unsold, thus glorious mount in fire

Fair without spot; than greas'd by grocer's hands, Or shipp'd with Ward to ape and monkey lands,Line 200 Or wafting ginger, round the streets to go, And visit alehouse where ye first did grow.

With that, he lifted thrice the sparkling brand, And thrice he dropt it from his quiv'ring hand: Then lights the structure, with averted eyes;Line 205 The rowling smokes involve the sacrifice.

The opening clouds disclose each work by turns, Now flames old Memnon, now Rodrigo burns,

In one quick flash see Proserpine expire, And last, his own cold Aeschylus took fire.Line 210 Then gush'd the tears, as from the Trojan's eyes When the last blaze sent Ilion to the skies.

Rowz'd by the light, old Dulness heav'd the head; Then snatch'd a sheet of Thulè from her bed, Sudden she flies, and whelms it o'er the pyre:Line 215 Down sink the flames, and with a hiss expire.

Her ample presence fills up all the place; A veil of fogs dilates her awful face:

Great in her charms! as when on Shrieves and May'rs She looks, and breathes her self into their airs.Line 220 She bids her wait him to the sacred Dome; Well-pleas'd he enter'd, and confess'd his home: So Spirits ending their terrestrial race, Ascend, and recognize their native place. Raptur'd, he gazes round the dear retreat,Line 225 And in sweet numbers celebrates the seat,

Here to her Chosen all her works she shews; Prose swell'd to verse, Verse loitring into prose; How random thoughts now meaning chance to find, Now leave all memory of sense behind:Line 230 How prologues into prefaces decay, And these to notes are fritter'd quite away. How index-learning turns no student pale, Yet holds the eel of science by the tail. How, with less reading than makes felons 'scape,Line 235 Less human genius than God gives an ape, Small thanks to France, and none to Rome or Greece, A past, vamp'd, future, old, reviv'd, new piece, 'Twixt Plautus, Fletcher, Congreve, and Corneille, Can make a Cibber, Johnson, or Ozell.Line 240

The Goddess then, o'er his anointed head, With mystic words, the sacred Opium shed;

And lo! her bird (a monster of a fowl! Something betwixt a Heideggre and owl, Perch'd on his crown. All hail! and hail again,Line 245 My son! the promis'd land expects thy reign. Know, Settle cloy'd with custard, and with praise, Is gather'd to the dull of antient days,

Safe, where no Critics damn, no duns molest, Where wretched Withers, Banks, and Gildon rest,Line 250 And high-born Howard, more majestic sire, Impatient waits, till ** grace the quire. I see a chief, who leads my chosen sons, All arm'd with points, antitheses and puns! I see a Monarch, proud my race to own!Line 255 A Nursing-mother, born to rock the throne!

Schools, courts, and senates shall my laws obey, Till Albion, as Hibernia, bless my sway. She ceas'd: her owls responsive clap the wing, And Grubstreet garrets roar, God save the king.Line 260

So when Jove's block descended from on high, (As sings thy great fore-father, Ogilby,)

Loud thunder to its bottom shook the bog, And the hoarse nation croak'd, God save King Log!

REMARKS on BOOK the FIRST.

This Poem was writ in 1726. In the next year an imperfect Edition was published at Dublin, and re∣printed at London in 120. another at Dublin, and another at London in 8vo, and three others in 120. the same year. But there was no perfect Edition before that of London in 4to 1728-9, which was attended with the following Notes. We are will∣ing to acquaint Posterity that this Poem (as it here stands) was presented to King George the Second and his Queen, by the hands of Sir Robert Walpole, on the 12th of March, 1728-9.

The Dunciad, Sic M. S. It may be well disputed whether this be a right reading? Ought it not ra∣ther to be spelled Dunceiad, as the Etymology evi∣dently demands? Dunce with an e. therefore Dun∣ceiad with an e. That accurate and punctual Man of Letters, the Restorer of Shakespeare, constantly ob∣serves the preservation of this very letter e, in spel∣ling the name of his beloved Author, and not like his common careless Editors, with the omission of one, nay sometimes of two ee's [as Shak'spear] which is utterly unpardonable. Nor is the neglect of a Sin∣gle Letter so trivial as to some it may appear; the al∣teration whereof in a learned language is an Atchieve∣ment that brings honour to the Critic who advances it; and Dr. B. will be remembered to posterity for his performances of this sort, as long as the world shall have any esteem for the Remains of Menander and Philemon. THEOBALD.

I have a just value for the letter E, and the same affection for the name of this poem, as the forecited Critic for that of his author; yet cannot it induce me to agree with those who would add yet another e to it, and call it the Dunceiade; which being a French

and foreign termination, is no way proper to a word entirely English, and vernacular. One e therefore in this case is right, and two e's wrong. Yet upon the whole I shall follow the Manuscript, and print it with∣out any e at all; mov'd thereto by Authority, at all times, with Critics, equal if not superior to Reason. In which method of proceeding, I can never enough praise my very good friend, the exact Mr. Tho. Hearne; who, if any word occur which to him and all mankind is evidently wrong, yet keeps he it in the Text with due reverence, and only remarks in the Margin, sic M. S. In like manner we shall not amend this error in the Ti∣tle itself, but only note it obiter, to evince to the learned that it was not our fault, nor any effect of our igno∣rance or inattention. SCRIBLERUS.

V. 1.

Books and the Man I sing, the first who brings The Smithfield Muses to the Ear of Kings.]

Wonderful is the stupidity of all the former Critics and Commentators on this work! it breaks forth at the very first line. The author of the Critique prefix'd to Sawney, a Poem, p. 5. hath been so dull as to ex∣plain The Man who brings, &c. not of the Hero of the piece, but of our Poet himself, as if he vaunted that Kings were to be his readers (an honour which tho'

this Poem hath had, yet knoweth he how to receive it with more modesty.)

We remit this Ignorant to the first lines of the Aeneid; assuring him, that Virgil there speaketh not of himself, but of Aeneas.

Arma virumque cano, Trojae qui primus ab oris, Italiam fato profugus, Lavinaque venit Litora: multum ille & terris jactatus & alto, &c.

I cite the whole three verses, that I may by the way offer a Conjectural Emendation, purely my own, upon each: First, oris should be read aris, it being as we see Aen. 2. 513. from the altar of Jupiter Hercaeus that Aeneas fled as soon as he saw Priam slain. In the second line I would read flatu for fato, since it is most clear it was by Winds that he arrived at the shore of Italy. jactatus in the third, is surely as improperly apply'd to terris, as proper to alto: to say a man is tost on land, is much at one with saying he walks at sea. Risum teneatis amici? Correct it, as I doubt not it ought to be, vexatus. SCRIBLERUS.

V. 2.

The Smithfield Muses.]

Smithfield is the place where Bartholomew Fair was kept, whose shews, ma∣chines, and dramatical entertainments, formerly agree∣able only to the taste of the Rabble, were, by the Hero of this poem and others of equal genius, brought to the Theatres of Covent-Garden, Lincolns-Inn-Fields, and the Hay-Market, to be the reigning plea∣sures of the Court and Town. This happened in the

year 1725, and continued many years. See Book 3. Verse 227, &c.

V. 10.

Daughter of Chaos, &c.]

The beauty of this whole Allegory being purely of the poetical kind, we think it not our proper business as a Scholiast to meddle with it, but to leave it (as we shall in gene∣ral all such) to the reader: remarking only, that Chaos (according to Hesiod's 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉) was the Progenitor of all the Gods. SCRIBL.

V. 21.

Or praise the Court, or magnify Mankind.]

Ironicè, alluding to Gulliver's representations of both—The next line relates to the papers of the Drapier against the currency of Wood's Copper Coin in Ireland,

which upon the great discontent of the people, his Majesty was graciously pleased to recal.

V. 23.

From thy Baeotia.]

Baeotia of old lay un∣der the raillery of the neighbouring Wits, as Ireland does now; tho' each of those nations produced one of the greatest Wits, and greatest Generals, of their age.

V. 24.

Grieve not, my Swift! at ought our realm acquires.]

Ironicè iterum. The Politicks of England and Ireland were at this time thought to be oppo∣site, or interfering with each other▪ Dr. Swift of course was in the interest of the latter, our Author of the former.

V. 26.

A new Saturnian Age of Lead.]

The an∣cient golden Age is by Poets stiled Saturnian; but in the chymical language, Saturn is Lead.

V. 27.

Where wave the tatter'd Ensigns of Rag-fair.]

Rag-fair is a place near the Tower of London, where old cloaths and frippery are sold.

V. 28, 31.

A yawning ruin hangs and nods in air.— Here in one Bed two shiv'ring Sisters lie, The Ca••e of Poverty and Poetry.]

Hear upon this place the forecited Critic on the Dun∣ciad.

"These lines (saith he) have no construction,

or are nonsense. The two shivering sisters must be the sister-caves of Poverty and Poetry, or the bed and cave of Poverty and Poetry must be the same, (questionless, if they lie in one bed) and the two sisters the lord knows who?"

O the con∣struction of grammatical heads! Virgil writeth thus: Aen. 1.

Fronte sub adversa scopulis pendentibus antrum: Intus aquae dulces, vivoque sedilia saxo; Nympharum domus.—

May we not say in like manner,

"The nymphs must be the waters and the stones, or the waters and the stones must be the houses of the nymphs?"

In∣sulse! The second line, Intus aquae, &c. is in a pa∣renthesis (as are the two lines of our Author, Keen hollow Winds, &c.) and it is the Antrum, and the yawning ruin, in the line before that parenthesis, which are the Domus and the Cave.

Let me again, I beseech thee, Reader, present thee with another Conjectural Emendation on Virgil's sco∣pulis pendentibus: He is here describing a place, whi∣ther the weary Mariners of Aeneas repaired to dress their dinner.—Fessi—fruges{que} receptas Et torrere parant flammis: What has scopulis pendentibus here to do? in∣deed the aquae dulces and sedilia are something; sweet waters to drink, and seats to rest on: the other is

surely an error of the Copyists. Restore it, without the least scruple, Populis prandentibus.

SCRIBLERUS.

V. 33.

The Great Mother.]

Magna mater, here ap∣ply'd to Dulness. The Quidnunc's, a name given to the ancient members of certain political clubs, who were constantly enquiring, quid nunc? what news?

V. 38. Curl's chaste press, and Lintot's rubric post.] Two Booksellers, of whom see Book 2. The former was fined by the Court of King's-Bench for publish∣ing obscene books; the latter usually adorn'd his shop with titles in red letters.

V. 39.

Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiac lay.]

It is an ancient English custom for the Malefactors to sing a Psalm at their execution at Tyburn; and no less cu∣stomary to print Elegies on their deaths, at the same time, or before.

V. 40. and 42. allude to the annual songs com∣posed to music on St. Cecilia's Feast, and those made by the Poet-Laureat for the time being, to be sung at Court on every New-years-day, the words of which are happily drown'd in the voices and instruments.

V. 41. Is a just satire on the Flatteries and False∣hoods admitted to be inscribed on the walls of Churches in Epitaphs.

I must not here omit a Reflection, which will occur perpetually through this poem; and cannot but greatly endear the Author to every attentive observer of it: I mean that Candour and Humanity which every where appears in him to those unhappy objects of the ridicule of all mankind, the bad poets. He here imputes all scandalous rhimes, scurrilous weekly pa∣pers, lying news, base flatteries, wretched elegies, songs and verses (even from those sung at Court, to ballads in the streets) not so much to malice or ser∣vility, as to dulness; and not so much to dulness, as to necessity; And thus at the very commencement of his satire, makes an apology for all that are to be satirized.

V. 48. Who hunger, and who thirst.]

"This is an allusion to a Text in scripture, which shews, in Mr. Pope, a delight in prophaneness (said Curl upon this place."

) But 'tis very familiar with Shakespeare to allude to passages of scripture: Out of a great number I'll select a few, in which he not only al∣ludes

to, but quotes the very Texts from holy Writ. In All's well that ends well, I am no great Nebuchad∣nezzar, I have not much skill in grass. Ibid. They are for the flowry way that leads to the broad gate and the great fire, Mat. 7. 13. In Much ado about no∣thing: All, all, and moreover God saw him when he was hid in the garden, Gen. 3. 8. (in a very jocose scene.) In Love's labour lost, he talks of Sampson's car∣rying the gates on his back; in the Merry Wives of Windsor, of Goliah and the Weaver's beam; and in

Henry 4. Falstaff's Soldiers are compared to Lazarus and the Prodigal Son. The first part of this Note is Mr. CURL'S, The rest is Mr. THEOBALD's Ap∣pendix to Shakespeare restor'd. p. 144.

V. 61. Here one poor Word a hundred clenches makes.] It may not be amiss to give an instance or two of these operations of Dulness out of the works of her Sons celebrated in the poem. A great Critic formerly held these clenches in such abhorrence, that he de∣clared, "he that would pun, would pick a pocket." Yet Mr. Dennis's works afford us notable examples in this kind.

"Alexander Pope hath sent abroad in∣to the world as many Bulls as his namesake Pope Alexander..—Let us take the initial and final letters of his Name, viz. A. P—E, and they

give you the idea of an Ape.—Pope comes from the Latin word Popa, which signifies a little Wart; or from poppysma, because he was conti∣nually popping out squibs of wit, or rather Popysma∣ta, or Po-pisms."

DENNIS on Hom. and Daily Journal June 11. 1728.

V. 68.

How Farce and Epic—How Time him∣self, &c.]

allude to the transgressions of the Unities, in the Plays of such poets. For the miracles wrought upon Time and Place, and the mixture of Tragedy, Comedy, Farce and Epic, see Pluto and Proserpine, Penelope, &c. if yet extant.

V. 71.

Aegypt glads with show'rs.]

In the lower Aegypt Rain is of no use, the overflowing of the Nile being sufficient to impregnate the soil.—These six verses represent the inconsistencies in the description of poets, who heap together all glittering and gawdy images, tho' incompatible in one season, or in one

scene.—See the Guardian, No. 40. parag. 6. See also Eusden's whole works if to be found. It would not have been unpleasant, to have given Examples of all these species of bad writing from these Authors, but that it is already done in our treatise of the Bathos. SCRIBL.

V. 83.

'Twas on the day, when Thorold, rich and grave.]

Sir George Thorold Lord Mayor of London, in the year 1720. The procession of a Lord Mayor is made partly by land and partly by water.—Ci∣mon the famous Athenian General obtained a victory

by sea, and another by land on the same day, over the Persians and Barbarians.

V. 86.

Glad Chains.]

The ignorance of these Mo∣derns! This was alter'd in one edition to Gold chains, shewing more regard to the metal of which the chains of Aldermen are made, than to the beauty of the La∣tinism and Grecism, nay of figurative speech itself.—laetas segetes, glad, for making glad, &c. SCRIBLERUS.

V. 88. But liv'd, in Settle's numbers, one day more.] A beautiful manner of speaking, usual with poets in praise of poetry, in which kind nothing is finer than those lines of Mr. Addison.

Sometimes misguided by the tuneful throng, I look for streams immortaliz'd in song, That lost in silence and oblivion lye, Dumb are their fountains, and their channels dry, Yet run for ever by the Muses skill, And in the smooth description murmur still.

V. 88.

But liv'd in Settle's numbers one day more.]

Settle was alive at this time, and poet to the City of London. His office was to compose yearly panegyricks upon the Lord Mayors, and verses to be spoken in the Pageants: but that part of the shows being frugally at length abolished, the employment of City-Poet

ceas'd; so that upon Settle's demise, there was no suc∣cessor to that place. This important point of time our Poet has chosen as the Crisis of the Kingdom of Dulness, who thereupon decrees to remove her Impe∣rial Seat: To which great enterprize, all things being now ripe, she calls the Hero of this poem.

Mr. Settle was once a writer in some vogue, particu∣larly with his party; for he was the Author or pub∣lisher of many noted pamphlets in the time of King Charles the second. He answer'd all Dryden's politi∣cal poems; and being cried up on one side, succeed∣ed not a little in his Tragedy of the Empress of Mo∣rocco (the first that was ever printed with cuts.)

"Upon this he grew insolent, the Wits writ against his Play, he replied, and the Town judged he had the better. In short Settle was then thought a for∣midable rival to Mr. Dryden; and not only the Town, but the University of Cambridge was di∣vided which to prefer; and in both places the younger sort inclined to Elkanab."

DENNIS, Pref. to Rem. on Hom.

For the latter part of his history, see the Note on the third Book, verse 279.

V. 96.

John Heywood.]

Whose Interludes were printed in the time of Henry the eighth.

V. 101. Old Pryn in restless Daniel.] The first edi∣tion had it, She saw in Norton all his father shine; a great mistake! for Daniel de Foe had parts, but Norton de Foe was a wretched writer, and never attempted Poetry. Much more justly is Daniel himself made successor to W. Pryn, both of whom wrote Verses as well as Politicks; as appears by the poem De jure di∣vino, &c. of De Foe, and by these lines in Cowley's Miscellanies of the other.

—One lately did not fear (Without the Muses leave) to plant verse here. But it produc'd such base, rough, crabbed, hedge- Rhymes, as e'en set the hearers ears on edge: Written by William Prynn Esqui-re, the Year of our Lord, six hundred thirty-three. Brave Jersey Muse! and he's for his high stile Call'd to this day the Homer of the Isle.

And both these authors had a resemblance in their fates as well as writings, having been alike sentenc'd to the Pillory.

V. 102. And Eusden eke out, &c.] Laurence Eusden, Poet Laureate: Mr. Jacob gives a catalogue of some few only of his works, which were very numerous. Mr. Cook in his Battle of Poets saith of him,

Eusden, a laurel'd Bard, by fortune rais'd, By very few was read, by fewer prais'd.

Mr. Oldmixon in his Arts of Logic and Rhetoric▪ p. 413, 414. affirms,

"That of all the Galimatia's he ever met with, none comes up to some verses of this Poet, which have as much of the Ridiculum and the Fustian in 'em as can well be jumbled to∣gether, and are of that sort of nonsense which so per∣fectly confounds all Idea's, that there is no distinct one left in the mind. Further he says of him, that he hath prophecy'd his own poetry shall be sweeter than Catullus, Ovid, and Tibullus, but we have little hope of the accomplishment of it from what he hath lately publish'd."

Upon which Mr. Oldmixon has not spar'd a reflection,

"That the putting the Laurel on the head of one who writ such verses, will give futurity a very lively idea of the Judg∣ment and justice of those who bestow'd it."

Ibid. p. 417. But the well-known learning of that Noble Person who was then Lord Chamberlain, might have screen'd him from this unmannerly reflection. Mr. Eusden was made Laureate for the same reason that

Mr. Tibbald was made Hero of This Poem, because there was no better to be had. Nor ought Mr. Old∣mixon to complain, so long after, that the Laurel would better have become his own brows, or any other's: It were more decent to acquiesce in the opinion of the Duke of Buckingham upon this matter.

—In rush'd Eusden, and cry'd, Who shall have it, But I the true Laureate to whom the King gave it? Apollo begg'd pardon, and granted his claim, But vow'd, that till then he ne'er heard of his name. Session of Poets.

Of Blackmore, see book 2. verse 256. Of Philips, book 3. verse 322.

Nahum Tate was Poet-Laureate, a cold writer, of no invention, but sometimes translated tolerably when befriended by Mr. Dryden. In his second part of Ab∣salom and Achitophel are above two hundred admirable lines together of that great hand, which strongly shine through the insipidity of the rest▪ Something parallel may be observed of another Author here mention'd.

V. 104.

And all the Mighty Mad.]

This is by no means to be understood literally, as if Mr. Dennis were really mad, according to the Narrative of Dr. Norris in Swift and Pope's Miscellanies, vol▪ 3▪ No—I is spoken of that Excellent and Divine Madness, so of∣ten mention'd by Plato, that poetical rage an enthu∣siasm, with which Mr. D. hath, in his time, been high∣ly

possessed; and of those extraordinary hints and, mo∣tions whereof he himself so feelingly treats in his pre∣face to the Rem. on Pr. Arth. [See notes on book 2. verse 256.] SCRIBL.

V. 104.

And all the Mighty Mad in Dennis rage.]

Mr. Theobald in the Censor, vol. 2. No. 33. calls Mr. Dennis by the name of Furius.

"The modern Furius is to be look'd on as more the object of pity, than of that which he daily provokes, laugh∣ter and contempt. Did we really know how much this poor man (I wish that reflection on poverty had been spared) suffers by being contradicted, or which is the same thing in effect, by hearing another praised; we should in compassion sometimes at∣tend to him with a silent nod, and let him go away with the triumphs of his ill nature.—Poor Fu∣rius (again) when any of his cotemporaries are spoken well of, quitting the ground of the present dispute, steps back a thousand years to call in the succour of the Ancients. His very panegyrick is spiteful, and he uses it for the same reason as some Ladies do their commendations of a dead beauty, who never would have had their good word, but that a living one happened to be mentiond in their company. His applause is not the tribute of his Heart, but the sacrifice of his Revenge,"

&c. In∣deed his pieces against our Poet are somewhat of an angry character, and as they are now scarce extant, a

taste of his stile may be satisfactory to the curious.

"A young squab, short gentleman, whose outward form though it should be that of downright mon∣key, would not differ so much from human shape, as his unthinking immaterial part does from human understanding.—He is as stupid and as venomous as a hunchbacked toad—A book through which folly and ignorance, those brethren so lame and im∣potent, do ridiculously look very big, and very dull, and strut, and hobble cheek by jowl, with their arms on kimbo, being led and supported, and bully-backed by that blind Hector, Impudence."

Reflect. on the Essay on Crit. pag. 26, 29, 30.

It would be unjust not to add his reasons for this Fury, they are so strong and so coercive.

"I regard him (saith he) as an ▪Enemy, not so much to me, as to my King, to my Country, to my Religion, and to that Liberty which has been the sole felicity of my life. A vagary of fortune, who is sometimes pleased to be frolicksome, and the epidemick Mad∣ness of the times, have given him Reputation, and Reputation (as Hobbs says) is Power, and that has made him dangerous. Therefore I look on it as my duty to King George, whose faithful subject I am; to my Country, of which I have appeared a con∣stant lover; to the Laws, under whose protection I have so long lived; and to the Liberty of my Country, more dear than life to me, of which I

have now for forty years been a constant asserter, &c. I look upon it as my duty, I say, to do—you shall see what—to pull the lion's skin from this little Ass, which popular error has thrown round him; and to shew, that this Author who has been lately so much in vogue, has neither sense in his thoughts, nor english in his expressions."

DENNIS. Rem. on Hom. Pref. p. 2. and p. 91, &c.

Besides these publick-spirited reasons, Mr. D. had a private one; which by his manner of expressing it in page 92, appears to have been equally strong. He was even in bodily fear of his life, from the machina∣tions of the said Mr. P.

"The story (says he) is too long to be told, but who would be acquainted with it, may hear it from Mr. Curl my Bookseller.—However, what my reason has suggested to me, that I have with a just confidence said, in defiance of his two clandestine weapons, his Slander and his Poyson."

Which last words of his book plainly dis∣cover, Mr. D. his suspicion was that of being poysoned, in like manner as Mr. Curl had been before him. Of which fact, see A full and true account of a horrid and barbarous revenge by poyson on the body of Edmund Curl; printed in 1716, the year antecedent to that wherein these Remarks of Mr. Dennis were published. But what puts it beyond all question, is a passage in a very warm treatise in which Mr. D. was also concerned, price two-pence, called, A true character of Mr. Pope

and his writings, printed for S. Popping, 1716. in the tenth page whereof he is said,

"to have insulted peo∣ple on those calamities and diseases, which he him∣self gave them by administring Poyson to them;"

and is called (p. 4.)

"a lurking way-laying coward, and a stabber in the dark."

Which (with many other things most lively set forth in that piece) must have render'd him a terror, not to Mr. Dennis only, but to all christian people.

For the rest, Mr. John Dennis was the son of a Sadler in London, born in 1657. He paid court to Mr. Dryden; and having obtained some correspon∣dence with Mr. Wycherly and Mr. Congreve, he imme∣diately obliged the publick with their Letters. He made himself known to the Government by many admirable schemes and projects; which the Ministry, for reasons best known to themselves, constantly kept private. For his character as a writer, it is given us as follows.

"Mr. Dennis is excellent at pindarick writ∣ings, perfectly regular in all his performances, and a person of sound Learning. That he is master of a great deal of Penetration and Judgment, his criti∣cisms (particularly on Prince Arthur) do sufficiently demonstrate."

From the same account it also ap∣pears, that he writ Plays

"more to get Reputation than Money."

DENNIS of himself. See Giles Ja∣cob's Lives of Dram. Poets, gage 68, 69. compared with page 286.

V. 106. But chief in Tibbald.]

Lewis Tibbald (as pronounced) or Theobald (as written) was bred an At∣torney, and son to an Attorney (says Mr. Jacob) of Sittenburn in Kent. He was Author of many forgotten Plays, Poems, and other pieces, and of several ano∣nymous Letters in praise of them in Mist's Journal. He was concern'd in a Paper call'd the Censor, and a translation of Ovid, as we find from DENNIS'S re∣marks on Pope's Homer, p. 9, 10..

"There is a no∣torious Idiot, one hight Whachum, who from an under-spur-leather to the Law, is become an under∣strapper to the Play house, who has lately burlesqu'd the Metamorphoses of Ovid by a vile translation, &c. This fellow is concern'd in an impertinent Paper called the Censor."

But notwithstanding this severe character, another Critic says of him,

"That he has given us some pieces which met with approbation: and that the Cave of Poverty is an excellent Poem."

JACOB Lives of the Poets, vol. 2. p. 211. He had

once a mind to translate the Odyssey, the first book whereof was printed in 1717 by B. Lintot, and pro∣bably may yet be seen at his shop. What is still in memory is a piece printed in 4to, 1726; it had the title of Shakespear Restored: Of this he was so proud himself, as to say in one of Mist's Journals, June 8. "That to expose any errors in it was impracticable." And in another, April 27.

"That whatever care might for the future be taken either by Mr. P. or any other assistants, he would still give above 500 emendations that shall escape them all."

Du∣ring two whole years while Mr. Pope was preparing his edition, he publish'd Advertisements, requesting as∣sistance, and promising satisfaction to any who could contribute to its greater perfection. But this Restorer, who was at that time solliciting favours of him by letters, did wholly conceal that he had any such de∣sign, till after its publication: (which he was since not asham'd to own, in a Daily Journal of Nov. 26. 1728.) And then an outcry was made in the Prints,

that our Author had joined with the Bookseller to raise an extravagant subscription; in which he had no share, of which he had no knowledge, and against which he had publickly advertised in his own Proposals for Homer. Probably that proceeding elevated Tibbald to the dignity he holds in this Poem, which he seems to deserve no other way better than his brethren; unless we impute it to the share he had in the Journals, cited among the Testimonies of Authors prefix'd to this work.

V. 106.

—monster-breeding breast.]

This alludes to the extravagancy of the Farces of that author; in which he alone could properly be represented as suc∣cessor to Settle, who had written Pope Joan, St. George for England, and other pieces for Bartlemew-Fair. See book 3. p. 279.

V. 109.

—supperless he sate.]

It is amazing how the sense of this has been mistaken by all the former Commentators, who most idly suppose it to imply that the Hero of the Poem wanted a supper. In truth a great absurdity! Not that we are ignorant that the Hero of Homer's Odyssey is frequently in that circum∣stance, and therefore it can no way derogate from the grandeur of Epic Poem to represent such Hero under a calamity, to which the greatest not only of Critics and Poets, but of Kings and Warriors, have been subject. But much more refin'd, I will venture to say, is the meaning of our author: It was to give us obliquely a curious precept, or what Bossu calls a disguised sentence,

that "Temperance is the life of Study." The lan∣guage of Poesy brings all into action; and to represent a Critic encompass'd with books, but without a supper, is a picture which lively expresseth how much the true Critic prefers the diet of the mind to that of the body, one of which he always castigates and often totally neglects, for the greater improvement of the other. SCRIBLERUS.

V. 117. Volumes, whose size, &c.] This library is divided into two parts; the one (his polite learning) consists of those books which seem to be the models of his poetry, and are prefer'd for one of these three reasons (usual with collectors of Libraries) that they fitted the shelves, or were gilded for shew, or adorned with pictures: The other class our author calls solid learning; old bodies of Philosophy, old Commenta∣tors, old english Printers, or old english Translations; all very voluminous, and fit to erect Altars to Dulness.

V. 121.

—Ogilby the great.]

"John Ogilby was one, who from a late initiation into literature, made such a progress as might well stile him the Prodigy of his time! sending into the world so many large Vo∣lumes! His translations of Homer and Virgil, done to the life, and with such excellent sculptures! and (what added great grace to his works) he printed them all on special good paper, and in a very good letter."

WINSTANLY, Lives of Poets.

V. 122. There, stamp'd with arms, Newcastle shines compleat.]

"The Dutchess of Newcastle was one who busied her self in the ravishing delights of Poetry; leaving to posterity in print three ample Volumes of her studious endeavours."

WINSTANLY, ibid. Langbaine reckons up eight Folio's of her Grace's; which were usually adorned with gilded covers, and had her coat of arms upon them.

V. 126.

—worthy Withers, Quarles, and Blome.]

"George Withers was a great pretender to poetical zeal against the vices of the times, and abused the greatest personages in power, which brought upon him frequent Correction. The Marshalsea and New∣gate were no strangers to him."

WINSTANLY. Quarles was as dull a writer, but an honester man. Blome's books are remarkable for their cuts.

V. 129, Caxton.] A Printer in the time of Edw. 4. Rich. 3. and Hen. 7. Wynkin de Word, his successor, in that of Hen. 7. and 8. The former translated into prose Virgil's Aeneis as a history; of which he speaks in his Proeme in a very singular manner, as of a book hardly known. "Happened that to my hande cam a lytyl book in frenshe. whiche late was translated out of

latyn by some noble clerke of fraunce, whiche booke is named Eneydos (made in latyn by that noble poete & grete clerk Vyrgyle) whiche booke I sawe over and redde therein. How after the generall destruccyon of the grete Troy, Eneas departed berynge his olde fader anchises upon his sholdres, his lytyl son yolas on his hande. his wyfe with moche other people followynge, and how he shipped and departed wyth alle thystorye of his aduentures that he had er he cam to the atchieve∣ment of his conquest of ytalye, as all alonge shall be shewed in this present boke. In whiche booke I had grete playsyr, by cause of the fayr and honest termes & wordes in frenshe, Whiche I neuer sawe to sore lyke. ne none so playsaunt ne so well ordred whiche booke as me semed sholde be moche requysyte to no∣ble men to see, as wel for the eloquence as the histo∣ryes. How wel that many hondred yerys passed was the sayd booke of Eneydos wyth other workes made and lerned dayly in scolis specyally in ytalye and other places, which historye the said Vyrgyle made in metre."

Tibbald quotes a rare passage from him in Mist's Jour∣nal of March 16, 1728, concerning a straunge and mer∣vayllouse beaste called Sagittarye, which he would have Shakespear to mean rather than Teucer, the archer cele∣brated by Homer.

V. 133. Nich. de Lyra, or Harpsfeld, a very volumi∣nous commentator, whose works in five vast folio's were printed in 1472.

V. 134.

""Philemon Holland, Doctor in Physick. He translated so many books, that a man would think he had done nothing else, insomuch that he might be cal∣led Translator-general of his age. The books alone of his turning into English, are sufficient to make a Country Gentleman a compleat Library."

WINSTANL.

V. 142. A little Ajax.] In duodecimo, translated from Sophocles by Tibbald.

V. 162. Ner sleeps one error—Old puns restore, lost blunders, &c.] As where he laboured to prove Shakespear guilty of terrible Anachronisms, or low Co∣nundrums, which Time had cover'd; and conversant in such authors as Caxton and Wynkin, rather than in Ho∣mer or Chaucer. Nay, so far had he lost his reverence to this incomparable author, as to say in print, He de∣serv'd to be whipt. An insolence which nothing sure can parallel! but that of Dennis, who can be proved to have declared before company, that Shakespear was a Rascal. O tempora! O mores.SCRIBLERUS.

V. 164. And crucify poor Shakespear once a week.] For some time, once a week or fortnight, he printed in Mist's Journal a single remark or poor conjecture on some word or pointing of Shakespear, either in his own name, or in letters to himself as from others with∣out name. He since published an edition of Shakespear, with alterations of the Text, upon bare conjectures ei∣ther of his own, or any others who sent them to him, to which Mr. M. alludes in these Verses of his excellent Poem on Verbal Criticism,

He with low industry goes gleaning on, From good, from bad, from mean, neglecting none: His brother Bookworm so, on shelf or stall, Will feed alike on Woolston and on Paul— Such the grave bird in northern seas is found, (Whose name a Dutchman only knows to sound) Where're the king of fish moves on before, This humble friend attends from shore to shore; With eye still earnest, and with bill declin'd, He picks up what his patron drops behind; With such choice cates his palate to regale, And is the careful Tibbald of a whale.

V. 166.

With all such reading as was never read.]

Such as Caxton above-mention'd, the three destructions of Troy by Wynkin, and other like classicks.

V. 168.

Notes to dull books, and prologues to dull plays.]

As to Cook's Hesiod, where sometimes a note, and sometimes even half a note, are carefully owned by him: And to Moore's Comedy of the Rival Modes, and other authors of the same rank: These were peo∣ple who writ about the year 1726.

V. 177.

As forc'd from wind guns.]

The Thought of these four verses is found in a poem of our author's of a very early date (namely writ at fourteen years old, and soon after printed, To the author of a poem call'd Successio,) where they stand thus,

The heaviest Muse the swiftest course has gone, As clocks run fastest when most lead is on. —So forc'd from engines lead itself can fly, And pond'rous slugs move nimbly thro' the sky.

V. 189.

My Flaccus.]

A familiar manner of speak∣ing used by modern critics of a favourite author. Mr. T. might as justly speak thus of Horace, as a French wit did of Tully, seeing his works in a library. Ah! moncher Ciceron! Je le connois bien: c'est le meme que Marc Tulle.

V. 190.

Take up th' Attorney's Guide.]

In allusion to his first profession of an attorney.

V. 191.

Or rob the Roman geese, &c.]

Relates to the well-known story of the geese that saved the Capitol, of which Virgil, Aen. 8.

Atque hic auratis volitans argenteus anser Porticibus, Gallos in limine adesse canebat.

a passage I have always suspected. Who sees not the antithesis of auratis and argenteus to be unworthy the Virgilian majesty? and what absurdity to say a goose sings? canebat. Virgil gives a contrary character of the voice of this silly bird in Ec. 9.

—argutos interstrepere anser olores.

Read it therefore adesse strepebat. And why auratis porticibus? does not the very verse preceding this in∣form us,

Romuleoque recens horrebat regia culmo.

Is this thatch in one line, and gold in another, con∣sistent? I scruple not (repugnantibus omnibus manu∣scriptis) to correct it, auritis. Horace uses the same epithet in the same sense,

—Auritas fidibus canoris Ducere quercus.

And to say that walls have ears is common even to a proverb. SCRIBL.

V. 194.

Mighty Mist!]

Nathaniel Mist was publisher of a famous Tory paper (see notes on l. 3.) in which this author was sometimes permitted to have a part.

V. 197.

Adieu my children!]

This is a tender and passionate apostrophe to his own works which he is going to sacrifice, agreeable to the nature of man in great affliction, and reflecting like a parent on the ma∣ny miserable fates to which they would otherwise be subject.

V. 200.

Or shipp'd with Ward to ape and monkey land.]

"Edward Ward, a very voluminous poet in hu∣dibrastick verse, but best known by the London Spy,

in prose. He has of late years kept a publick house in the City (but in a genteel way) and with his wit, humour, and good liquor (Ale) afforded his guests a pleasurable entertainment, especially those of the high-church party."

JACOB Lives of Poets, vol. 2. p. 225. Great numbers of his works were yearly sold into the plantations. Ward in a book call'd Apollo's Maggot, declar'd this account to be a great falsity, pro∣testing that▪ his publick house was not in the City, but in Moorfields.

V. 208.

Now flames old Memnon, now Rodrigo burns,In one quick flash see Proserpine expire.]

Memnon, a hero in the Persian Princess, very apt to take fire, as appears by these lines with which he begins the play,

By heav'n it fires my frozen blood with rage, And makes it scald my aged trunk.—

Rodrigo, the chief personage of the Perfidious Brother (a play written between T. and a Watchmaker.) The Rape of Proserpine, one of the farces of this author, in which Ceres setting fire to a corn field, endanger∣ed the burning of the play-house.

V. 210.

And last, his own cold Aeschylus took fire.]

He had been (to use an expression of our poet) about Aeschylus for ten years, and had received subscriptions for the same, but then went about other books. The character of this tragic poet is fire and boldness in a high degree, but our author supposes it very much cooled by the translation: upon sight of a specimen of which was made this Epigram,

Alas! poor Aeschylus! unlucky dog! Whom once a lobster kill'd, and now a log.

But this is a grievous error, for Aeschylus was not slain by the fall of a lobster on his head, but of a tortoise. teste Val. Max. l. 9. cap. 12. SCRIBL.

V. 212.

When the last blaze sent Ilion to the skies.]

See Virgil Aen. 2. where I would advise the reader to peruse the story of Troy's destruction, rather than in Wynkin. But I caution him alike in both, to beware of a most grievous error, that of thinking it was brought about by I know not what Trojan Horse; there never having been any such thing. For first it was not Trojan, being made by the Greeks, and secondly it was

not a horse, but a mare. This is clear from many verses in Virgil,

Uterum armato milite complent— Inclusos utero Danaos— Can a horse be said Utero gerere? Again, Uteroque recusso Insonuere cavae— Atque utero sonitum quater arma dedere. Nay is it not expresly said, Scandit fatalis machina muros Foeta armis—

How is it possible the word foeta can agree with a horse? and indeed can it be conceived, that the chaste and virgin Goddess Pallas would employ her self in forming and fashioning the Male of that species? But this shall be prov'd to a demonstration in our Virgil Restored. SCRIBLER.

V. 214.

Thulè]

An unfinished poem of that name, of which one sheet was printed fifteen years ago; by Amb. Philips, a northern author. It is an usual me∣thod of putting out a fire, to cast wetsheets upon it: Some critics have been of opinion, that this sheet was of the nature of the Asbestos, which cannot be consumed by fire; but I rather think it only an allegorical allu∣sion to the coldness and heaviness of the writing.

V. 221.

—the sacred dome.]

The Cave of Po∣verty above-mention'd; where he no sooner enters, but he reconnoitres the place of his original; as Plato says the spirits shall do, at their entrance into the ce∣lestial regions. His dialogue of the Immortality of the soul was translated by T. in the familiar modern stile of Prithee Phaedo, and For God's sake Socrates: printed for B. Lintot, 1713.

V. 226. And in sweet numbers celebrates the seat.] He writ a poem call'd the Cave of Poverty, which concludes with a very extraordinary wish,

"That some great genius, or man of distinguish'd merit may be starved, in order to celebrate her power, and describe her cave."

It was printed in octavo, 1715.

V. 240.

Can make a Cibber.]

"Mr. Colly Cibber, an author and actor, of a good share of wit, and uncommon vivacity, which are much improved by the conversation he enjoys, which is of the best."

JACOB Lives of Dram. Poets, p. 38. Besides two volumes of plays in 4to, he has made up and tran∣slated several others. Mr. Jacob omitted to remark, that he is particularly admirable in Tragedy.

V. 240.—

Johnson.]

"Charles Johnson, famous for writing a play every season, and for being at Button's every day: he had probably thriven better in his vocation, had he been a small matter leaner: he may justly be called a martyr to obesity, and to have fallen a victim to the rotundity of his parts."

CHARACT. of the TIMES, p. 19. Some of his plays are, Love in a Forest (Shakespear's As you like it) Wife's Relief (Shirley's Gamester) The Victim (Racine's Iphigenia) The Sultaness (Racine's Bajazet, the prologue to which abused Dr. Arbuthnot, Mr. Pope, and Mr. Gay) The Cobler of Preston, his own.

V. 240.

—Or Ozell.]

"Mr. John Ozell, if we credit Mr. Jacob, did go to school in Leicestershire, where somebody left him something to live on, when he shall retire from business. He was designed to be sent to Cambridge in order for priestood; but he chose rather to be placed in an office of accounts in the City, being qualified for the same by his skill in arithmetick, and writing the necessary hands. He has oblig'd the world with many translations of French plays."

JACOB Lives of Dram. Poets, p. 198.

Mr. Jacob's character of Mr. Ozell, seems vastly short of his merits; and he ought to have further justice done him, having since fully confuted all Sar∣casms on his learning and genius, by an advertisement of Sept. 20. 1729. in a paper call'd the Weekly Medley, &c.

"As to my learning, this envious wretch knew, and every body knows, that the whole bench of Bishops, not long ago, were pleas'd to give me a purse of guineas, for discovering the erroneous translations of the common-prayer in Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, &c. As for my genius, let Mr. Cleland shew better verses in all Pope's works than Ozell's version of Boileau's Lutrin, which the late Lord

Halifax was so pleas'd with, that he complimented him with leave to dedicate it to him, &c. &c. Let him shew better and truer poetry in the Rape of the Lock, than in Ozell's Rape of the Bucket, (la Secchia rapita) which, because an ingenious author hap∣pen'd to mention in the same breath with Pope's, viz. Let Ozell sing the Bucket, Pope the Lock, the little Gentleman had like to run mad.—And Mr. To∣land and Mr. Gildon publickly declar'd, Ozell's translation of Homer to be, as it was prior, so like∣wise superior to Pope's.—Surely, surely, every man is free to deserve well of his country!"

JOHN OZELL.

We cannot but subscribe to such reverend testimo∣nies, as those of the bench of Bishops, Mr. Toland, and Mr. Gildon.

V 244.

A Heideggre.]

A strange bird from Swiz∣zerland, and not (as some have supposed) the name of an eminent person who was a man of parts, and as was said of Petronius, Arbiter Elegantiarum.

V. 250.

Banks.]

was author of the play of the Earl of Essex, Ann Boleyn, &c. He followed the law, as a sollicitor, like Tibbald.

V. 250.

Gildon.]

Charles Gildon, a writer of criti∣cisms and libels of the last age, bred at St. Omer's with the Jesuits, but renonuncing popery, he publish'd Blount's books against the divinity of Christ, the Oracles of reason, &c. He signaliz'd himself as a critic, ha∣ving written some very bad plays; abused Mr. P. very scandalously in an anonymous pamphlet of the Life of Mr. Wycherley printed by Curl, in another called the New Rehearsal printed in 1714, in a third entitled the Compleat Art of English Poetry in two volumes, and others.

V. 251

—Howard.]

Hon. Edward Howard, au∣thor of the British Princes, and a great number of wonderful pieces, celebrated by the late Earls of Dorset and Rochester, Duke of Buckingham, Mr. Waller, &c.

V. 252.

Impatient waits, till ** grace the quire.]

The reader may supply this verse with H—y or V—y,

which he pleases, two Noble Men who listed themselves with the Gentlemen of the Dunciad, but whether no∣ble Writers, may be judged by their works; a paper call'd An Epistle to a Doctor of Divinity from Hampton-Court, and another intitled, Dunces out of State, both printed in 1733.

V. 256.

A Nursing-mother.]

Some understand this of Alma Mater, (who is said in lib. 3. to be dissolv'd in Port) others of Mother Osborne.

V. 258.

As sings thy great fore-father, Ogilby.]

See his Aesop. Fab. where this excellent hemystic is to be found. Our author manifests here, and elsewhere, a prodigious tenderness for the bad writers. We see he selects the only good passage perhaps in all that ever Ogilby writ; which shows how candid and patient a reader he must have been. What can be more kind and affectionate than these words in the preface to his Poems, 4to. 1717. where he labours to call up all our humanity and forgiveness toward these unlucky men, by the most moderate representation of their case that has ever been given by any author?

"Much may be said to extenuate the fault of bad poets: What we call a Genius is hard to be distinguish'd, by a man

himself, from a prevalent inclination: And if it be never so great, he can at first discover it no other way than by that strong propensity, which renders him the more liable to be mistaken. He has no other method but to make the experiment by wri∣ting▪ and so appealing to the judgment of others: And if he happens to write ill (which is certainly no sin in itself) he is immediately made the object of ridicule! I wish we had the humanity to reflect, that even the worst authors might endeavour to please us, and in that endeavour, deserve something at our hands. We have no cause to quarrel with them, but for their obstinacy in persisting, and even that may admit of alleviating circumstances: For their particular friends may be either ignorant, or unsincere; and the rest of the world too well-bred, to shock them with a truth which generally their booksellers are the first that inform them of."

But how much all indulgence is lost upon these peo∣ple, may appear from the just reflection made on their constant conduct, and constant fate, in the following Epigram.

Ye little wits, that gleam'd a-while, When P—pe vouchsaf'd a ray, Alas! depriv'd of his kind smile, How soon ye fade away!

To compass Phoebus car about, Thus empty vapours rise; Each lends his cloud, to put him out That rear'd him to the Skies. Alas! those Skies are not your sphere; There, He shall ever burn: Weep, weep and fall! for Earth ye were, And must to Earth return.

End of the FIRST BOOK.

IMITATIONS.

V. 3.

Say great Patricians! since your selves inspire These wond'rous Works—]

Ovid. Met. 1. —Dii caeptis (nam vos mutastis & illas.)

V. 6.] Alluding to a verse of Mr. Dryden,

And Tom the second reigns like Tom the first.

V. 33.

This the Great Mother, &c.]

Aen. 1. Urbs antiqua fuit— Quam Juno fertur terris magis omnibus unam Posthabita coluisse Samo; hic illius arma, Hic currus fuit: hic regnum Dea gentibus esse (Siqua fata sinant) jam tum tendit{que} fovet{que}

V. 39.

Hence hymning Tyburn—Hence, &c.]

—Genus unde Latinum Albani{que} patres, at{que} altae maenia Romae. Virg. ibid.

V. 43.

In clouded majesty she shone.]

Milton, Lib. 4. —The Moon Rising in clouded Majesty.—

V. 45.

That knows no fears Of hisses, blows, or want, or loss of ears.]

Horat. Quem ne{que} pauperies, ne{que} mors, ne{que} vincula 〈◊〉〈◊〉

V. 53.

Here she beholds the Chaos dark and deep, Where nameless Somethings, &c.]

That is to say, un∣formed things, which are either made into poems or plays, as the booksellers or the players bid most. These lines allude to the following in Garth's Dis∣pensary, Cant. 6.

Within the chambers of the globe they spy The beds where sleeping vegetables lie, 'Till the glad summons of a genial ray Unbinds the glebe, and calls them out to day.

V. 62.

And ductile dulness.]

A Parody on a verse in Garth, Cant. 1.

How ductile matter new meanders takes.

77.

The cloud-compelling Queen.]

From Homer's epithet of Jupiter, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

V. 115.

He roll'd his eyes that witness'd huge dis∣may.]

Milt. l. 1. —Round he throws his eyes That witness'd huge affliction and dismay.

The progress of a bad Poet in his thoughts, being (like the progress of the Devil in Milton) thro' a Chaos, might probably suggest this imitation.

V. 120.

—admires new beauties not its own.]

Virg. Geor. 2. Miraturque novas frondes & non sua poma.

V. 146.

With whom my Muse began, with whom shall end.]

Virg. Ecl. 8. A te principium, tibi desinet—from Theoc. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉

So Horace.

Prima dicte mibi, summa dicende camaena.

V. 183.

Had heav'n decreed such works a longer date, &c.]

Virg. Aen. 2. Me si coelicoloe voluissent ducere vitam, Has mihi servassent sedes.—

V. 187.

Could Troy be sav'd—His gray-goose weapon.]

Virg. ibid. —Si Pergama dextra Defendi possent, etiam hat defensa fuissent.

V. 197.

Adieu my children! &c.]

Virg. Aen. 3. —Felix Priameïa virgo! Jussa mori: quae sortitus non pertulit ullos, Nec victoris heri tetigit captiva cubile! Nos patriâ incensâ, diversa per aequor a vectae, &c.

V. 202.

And visit alehouse.]

Waller on the navy, Those towers of oak o'er fertile plains may go, And visit mountains where they once did grow.

Ver. 203.

—He lifted thrice the sparkling brand, And thrice he dropt it.—]

Ovid of Althaea on the like occasion, burning her off∣spring,

Tum conata quater flammis imponere torrem, Caepta quater tenuit.

V. 208.

Now flames old Memnon, &c.]

Virg. Aen. 2. —Jam. Deiphobi dedit ampla ruinam Vulcano superante, domus; jam proximus ardet Ucalegon.—

V. 219.

Great in her charms! as when on Shrieves and May'rs She looks, and breathes her self into their airs.]

Alma parens confessa Deam; qualisque videri Coelicolis, & quanta solet—Virg. Aen. 2.

Et laetos oculis afflarat honores.—Id. Aen. 1.