The Dunciad/Book 1

by Alexander Pope

ARGUMENT

TO

Book the First.

THE Proposition, the Invocation, and the Inscription. Then the Original of the great Empire of Dulness, and cause of the continuance thereof. The College of the Goddess in the city, with her private Academy for Poets in particular; the Governors of it, and the four Cardinal Virtues. 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 Bays, to be the Instrument of that great Event which is the Subject of the Poem. He is described pensive among his Books, giving up the Cause, and apprehending the Period of her Empire: After debating whether to betake himself to the Church, or to Gaming, or to Party-writing, he raises an Altar of proper books, and (making first his solemn prayer and declaration) purposes thereon to sacrifice all his unsuccessful writings. As the pile is kindled, the Goddess, beholding the flame from her seat, flies and puts it out, by casting upon it the poem of Thulé. She forthwith reveals herself to him, transports him to her Temple, unfolds her Arts, and initiates him into her Mysteries; then announcing the death of Eusden, the Poet Laureate, anoints him, carries him to Court, and proclaims him Successor.

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THE

DUNCIAD^{[R. 1]}:

TO

Dr. JONATHAN SWIFT.

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Book the First.

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THE Mighty Mother, and her Son who brings^{[R. 2]}
The Smithfield Muses^{[R. 3]} to the ear of Kings,
I sing. Say you, her instruments the Great!
Call'd to this work by Dulness, Jove, and Fate^{[R. 4]};
5 You by whose care, in vain decry'd and curst,
Still Dunce the second reigns like Dunce the first;
Say how the Goddess bade Britannia sleep,
And pour'd her Spirit o'er the land and deep.
 In eldest time, e'er mortals writ or read,
10 E'er Pallas issu'd from the Thund'rer's head,
Dulness o'er all possess'd her ancient right,
Daughter of Chaos and eternal Night^{[R. 5]}:
Fate in their dotage this fair Ideot gave,
Gross as her fire, and as her mother grave,
15 Laborious, heavy, busy, bold, and blind^{[R. 6]},
She rul'd, in native Anarchy, the mind.^{[R. 7]}
 Still her old Empire to restore^{[R. 8]} she tries,
For, born a Goddess, Dulness never dies.
 O Thou! whatever title please thine ear,
20 Dean, Drapier, Bickerstaff, or Gulliver!
Whether thou chuse Cervantes' serious air,
Or laugh and shake in Rablais' easy chair,
Or praise the Court, or magnify Mankind^{[R. 9]},
Or thy griev'd Country's copper chains unbind;
25 From thy Bœotia tho' her Pow'r retires,
Mourn not, my Swift, at ought our Realm acquires,
Here pleas'd behold her mighty wings out-spread
To hatch a new Saturnian age of Lead^{[R. 10]}.
 Close to those walls where Folly holds her throne,
30 And laughs to think Monroe would take her down,
Where o'er the gates, by his fam'd father's hand^{[R. 11]}
Great Cibber's brazen, brainless brothers stand;
One Cell there is^{[R. 12]}, conceal'd from vulgar eye,
The Cave of Poverty and Poetry^{[R. 13]}.
35 Keen, hollow winds howl thro' the bleak recess,
Emblem of Music caus'd by Emptiness.
Hence Bards, like Proteus^{[R. 14]} long in vain ty'd down,
Escape in Monsters, and amaze the town.
Hence Miscellanies spring, the weekly boast
40 Of Curl's chaste press, and Lintot's rubric post^{[R. 15]}:
Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiac lines^{[R. 16][I. 1]}
Hence Journals, Medleys, Merc'ries, Magazines:^{[R. 17]}
Sepulchral Lyes^{[R. 18]}, our holy walls to grace,
And New-year Odes^{[R. 19]}, and all the Grub-street race.
45 In clouded Majesty^{[I. 2]} here Dulness shone^{[R. 20]};
Four guardian Virtues, round, support her throne:
Fierce champion Fortitude, that knows no fears
Of hisses, blows, or want, or loss of ears:^{[I. 3]}
Calm Temperance, whose blessings those partake
50 Who hunger, and who thirst^{[R. 21]} for scribling sake:
Prudence, whose glass presents th' approaching jayl:
Poetic Justice, with her lifted scale,
Where, in nice balance, truth with gold she weighs,
And solid pudding against empty praise.
55 Here she beholds the Chaos dark and deep,
Where nameless Somethings^{[I. 4]} in their causes sleep,
'Till genial Jacob, or a warm Third day,
Call forth each mass, a Poem, or a Play:
How hints, like spawn, scarce quick in embryo lie,
60 How new-born nonsense first is taught to cry,
Maggots half-form'd in rhyme exactly meet,
And learn to crawl upon poetic feet.
Here one poor word an hundred clenches makes,^{[R. 22]}
And ductile dulness^{[I. 5]} new meanders takes;
65 There motley Images her fancy strike,
Figures ill pair'd, and Similies unlike.
She sees a Mob of Metaphors advance,
Pleas'd with the madness of the mazy dance:
How Tragedy and Comedy embrace;
70 How Farce and Epic get a jumbled race;^{[R. 23]}
How Time himself stands still at her command,
Realms shift their place, and Ocean turns to land.
Here gay Description Ægypt glads with show'rs,^{[R. 24]}
Or gives to Zembla fruits, to Barca flow'rs;
75 Glitt'ring with ice here hoary hills are seen,
There painted vallies of eternal green,
In cold December fragrant chaplets blow,
And heavy harvests nod beneath the snow.
All these, and more, the cloud-compelling Queen^{[I. 6]}
80 Beholds thro' fogs, that magnify the scene.
She, tinsel'd o'er in robes of varying hues,
With self-applause her wild creation views;
Sees momentary monsters rise and fall,
And with her own fools-colours gilds them all.
85 'Twas on the day, when ** rich and grave,
Like Cimon, triumph'd^{[R. 25]} both on land and wave:
(Pomps without guilt, of bloodless swords and maces,
Glad chains,^{[R. 26]} warm furs, broad banners, and broad faces)
Now Night descending, the proud scene was o'er,
90 But liv'd, in Settle's numbers, one day more.^{[R. 27] [R. 28]}
Now May'rs and Shrieves all hush'd and satiate lay,
Yet eat, in dreams, the custard of the day;
While pensive Poets painful vigils keep,
Sleepless themselves, to give their readers sleep.
95 Much to the mindful Queen the feast recalls
What City Swans once sung within the walls;
Much she revolves their arts, their ancient praise,
And sure succession down from Heywood's^{[R. 29]} days.
She saw, with joy, the line immortal run,
100 Each fire imprest and glaring in his son:
So watchful Bruin forms, with plastic care,
Each growing lump, and brings it to a Bear.
She saw old Pryn in restless Daniel^{[R. 30]} shine,
And Eusden eke out^{[R. 31]} Blackmore's endless line;
105 She saw slow Philips creep like Tate's poor page,
And all the mighty Mad^{[R. 32]} in Dennis rage.^{[R. 33]}

In each she marks her Image full exprest,
But chief in Bays's monster-breeding breast;

Bays, form'd by nature Stage and Town to bless,^{[R. 34]}
110 And act, and be, a Coxcomb with success.
Dulness with transport eyes the lively Dunce,
Remembring she herself was Pertness once.
Now (shame to Fortune!)^{[R. 35]} an ill Run at Play
Blank'd his bold visage, and a thin Third day:
115 Swearing and supperless the Hero sate,^{[R. 36]}
Blasphem'd his Gods, the Dice, and damn'd his Fate.
Then gnaw'd his pen, then dash'd it on the ground,
Sinking from thought to thought, a vast profound!
Plung'd for his sense, but found no bottom there,
120 Yet wrote and flounder'd on, in mere despair.
Round him much Embryo, much Abortion lay,
Much future Ode, and abdicated Play;
Nonsense precipitate, like running Lead,
That slip'd thro' Cracks and Zig-zags of the Head;
125 All that on Folly Frenzy could beget,
Fruits of dull Heat, and Sooterkins of Wit.
Next, o'er his Books his eyes began to roll,
In pleasing memory of all he stole,
How here he sipp'd, how there he plunder'd snug
130 And suck'd all o'er, like an industrious Bug.
Here lay poor Fletcher's half-eat scenes,^{[R. 37]} and here.
The Frippery^{[R. 38]} of crucify'd Moliere;
There hapless Shakespear, yet of Tibbald sore,^{[R. 39]}
Wish'd he had blotted^{[R. 40]} for himself before.
135 The rest on Out-side merit but presume,^{[R. 41]}
Or serve (like other Fools) to fill a room;
Such with their shelves as due proportion hold,
Or their fond Parents drest in red and gold;
Or where the pictures for the page attone,
140 And Quarles is sav'd by Beauties not his own.
Here swells the shelf with Ogilby the great;^{[R. 42]}
There, stamp'd with arms, Newcastle shines complete:^{[R. 43]}
Here all his suff'ring brotherhood retire,
And 'scape the martyrdom of jakes and fire:
145 A Gothic Library! of Greece and Rome
Well purg'd, and worthy Settle, Banks, and Broome.^{[R. 44]}
But, high above, more solid Learning^{[R. 45]} shone,
The Classics of an Age that heard of none;
There Caxton^{[R. 46]} slept, with Wynkyn at his side,
150 One clasp'd in wood, and one in strong cow-hide;
There, sav'd by spice, like Mummies, many a year,
Dry Bodies of Divinity appear:
De Lyra^{[R. 47]} there a dreadful front extends,
And here the groaning shelves Philemon^{[R. 48]} bends.
155 Of these twelve volumes, twelve of amplest size,
Redeem'd from tapers and defrauded pies,
Inspir'd he seizes: These an altar raise:
An hecatomb of pure, unsully'd lays
That altar crowns: A folio Common-place
160 Founds the whole pile, of all his works the base:
Quartos, octavos, shape the less'ning pyre;
A twisted Birth-day Ode completes the spire.
Then he: Great Tamer of all human art!
First in my care, and ever at my heart;
165 Dulness! whose good old cause I yet defend,
With whom my Muse began, with whom shall end;^{[I. 7]}
E'er since Sir Fopling's Periwig^{[R. 49]} was Praise,
To the last honours of the Butt and Bays:
O thou! of Bus'ness the directing soul!
170 To this our head like byass to the bowl,
Which, as more pond'rous, made its aim more true,
Obliquely wadling to the mark in view:
O! ever gracious to perplex'd mankind,
Still spread a healing mist before the mind;
175 And lest we err by Wit's wild dancing light,
Secure us kindly in our native night.
Or, if to Wit a coxcomb make pretence,
Guard the sure barrier between that and Sense;
Or quite unravel all the reas'ning thread,^{[R. 50]}
180 And hang some curious cobweb in its stead!
As, forc'd from wind-guns, lead itself can fly,
And pond'rous shugs cut swiftly thro the sky;
As clocks to weight their nimble motion owe,
The wheels above urg'd by the load below:
185 Me Emptiness, and Dulness could inspire,
And were my Elasticity, and Fire.
Some Dæmon stole my pen (forgive th'offence)
And once betray'd me into common sense:
Else all my Prose and Verse were much the same;
190 This, prose on stilts; that, poetry fall'n lame.
Did on the stage my Fops appear confin'd?
My Life gave ampler lessons to mankind.
Did the dead Letter unsuccessful prove?
The brisk Example never fail'd to move.
195 Yet sure had Heav'n decreed to save the State,^{[I. 8]}
Heav'n had decreed these works a longer date.
Could Troy be sav'd by any single hand,^{[I. 9]}
This grey-goose weapon must have made her stand.
What can I now my Fletcher^{[R. 51]} cast aside,
200 Take up the Bible, once my better guide?^{[R. 52]}
Or tread the path by vent'rous Heroes trod,
This Box my Thunder, this right hand my God?^{[I. 10]}
Or chair'd at White's amidst the Doctors sit,^{[R. 53]}
Teach Oaths to Gamesters, and to Nobles Wit?
205 Or bidst thou rather Party to embrace?
(A friend to Party thou, and all her race;
'Tis the same rope at different ends they twist;
To Dulness Ridpath is as dear as Mist.)^{[R. 54]}
Shall I, like Curtius, desp'rate in my zeal,
210 O'er head and ears plunge for the Commonweal?
Or rob Rome's ancient geese of all their glories,^{[R. 55]}
And cackling save the Monarchy of Tories?^{[R. 56]}
Hold–to the Minister I more incline;
To serve his cause, O Queen! is serving thine.
215 And see! thy very Gazetteers^{[R. 57]} give o'er,
Ev'n Ralph repents, and Henly writes no more.
What then remains Ourself. Still, still remain
Cibberian forehead,^{[R. 58]} and Cibberian brain.
This brazen Brightness, to the 'Squire so dear;
220 This polish'd Hardness, that reflects the Peer;
This arch Absurd, that wit and fool delights;
This Mess, toss'd up of Hockley-hole and White's;
Where Dukes and Butchers join to wreathe my crown,
At once the Bear and Fiddle of the town.
225 O born in sin, and forth in folly brought!^{[R. 59]}
Works damn'd, or to be damn'd! (your father's fault)
Go, purify'd by flames ascend the sky,
My better and more christian progeny!^{[R. 60]}
Unstain'd, untouch'd, and yet in maiden sheets;^{[I. 11]}
230 While all your smutty sisters walk the streets.
Ye shall not beg, like gratis-given Bland,^{[R. 61]}
Sent with a Pass, and vagrant thro' the land;
Not sail, with Ward, to Ape-and-monkey climes,^{[R. 62]}
Where vile Mundungus trucks for viler rhymes;
235 Not sulphur-tipt, emblaze an Ale-house fire;
Not wrap up Oranges, to pelt your fire!
O! pass more innocent, in infant state,
To the mild Limbo of our Father Tate:^{[R. 63]}
Or peaceably forgot, at once be blest
240 In Shadwell's bosom with eternal Rest!
Soon to that mass of Nonsense to return,
Where things destroy'd are swept to things unborn.
With that, a Tear (portentous sign of Grace!)^{[R. 64]}
Stole from the Master of the sev'nfold Face:
245 And thrice he lifted high the Birth-day brand,^{[I. 12]}
And thrice he dropt it from his quiv'ring hand;
Then lights the structure, with averted eyes:
The rowling smokes involve the sacrifice.
The op'ning clouds disclose each work by turns,
250 Now flames the Cid, and now Perolla burns;^{[R. 65][I. 13]}
Great Cæsar roars, and hisses in the fires;
King John in silence modestly expires:
No merit now the dear Nonjuror claims,
Moliere's old stubble in a moment flames.^{[R. 66]}
255 Tears gush'd again, as from pale Priam's eyes
When the last blaze sent Ilion to the skies.^{[R. 67]}
Rowz'd by the light, old Dulness heav'd the head;
Then snatch'd a sheet of Thulè^{[R. 68]} from her bed,
Sudden she flies, and whelms it o'er the pyre;
260 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 herself into their airs.^{[I. 14]}
265 She bids him wait her to her sacred Dome:^{[R. 69]}
Well pleas'd he enter'd, and confess'd his home.
So Spirits ending their terrestrial race,
Ascend, and recognize their Native Place.
This the Great Mother^{[R. 70]} dearer held than all^{[I. 15]}
270 The clubs of Quidnuncs, or her own Guild-hall:
Here stood her Opium, here she nurs'd her Owls,
And here she plann'd th' Imperial seat of Fools.
Here to her Chosen all her works she shews;
Prose swell'd to verse, verse loit'ring into prose:
275 How random thoughts now meaning chance to find,
Now leave all memory of sense behind:
How Prologues into Prefaces decay,
And these to Notes are fritter'd quite away:
How Index-learning turns no student pale,
280 Yet holds the eel of science by the tail:
How, with less reading than makes felons scape,
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,
285 'Twixt Plautus, Fletcher, Shakespear, and Corneille,
Can make a Cibber, Tibbald,^{[R. 71]} or Ozell.^{[R. 72]}
The Goddess then, o'er his anointed head,
With mystic words, the sacred Opium shed.
And lo! her bird, (a monster of a fowl,
290 Something betwixt a Heideggre^{[R. 73]} and owl,)
Perch'd on his crown. "All hail! and hail again,
My son! the promis'd land expects thy reign.
Know, Eusden thirsts no more for sack or praise;
He sleeps among the dull of ancient days;
295 Safe, where no Critics damn, no duns molest,
Where wretched Withers,^{[R. 74]} Ward, and Gildon^{[R. 75]} rest,
And high-born Howard,^{[R. 76]} more majestic fire,
With Fool of Quality compleats the quire.
Thou Cibber! thou, his Laurel shalt support,
300 Folly, my son, has still a Friend at Court.
Lift up your Gates, ye Princes, see him come!
Sound, sound ye Viols, be the Cat-call dumb!
Bring, bring the madding Bay, the drunken Vine;
The creeping, dirty, courtly Ivy join.
305 And thou! his Aid de camp, lead on my sons,
Light-arm'd with Points, Antitheses, and Puns.
Let Bawdry, Bilingsgate, my daughters dear,
Support his front, and Oaths bring up the rear:
And under his, and under Archer's wing,
310 Gaming^{[R. 77]} and Grub-street skulk behind the King.
O! when shall rise a Monarch all our own,^{[R. 78]}
And I, a Nursing-mother, rock the throne,
'Twixt Prince and People close the Curtain draw,
Shade him from Light, and cover him from Law;
315 Fatten the Courtier, starve the learned band,
And suckle Armies, and dry-nurse the land:
'Till Senates nod to Lullabies divine,
And all be sleep, as at an Ode of thine.

She ceas'd. Then swells the Chapel-royal^{[R. 79]} throat:
320 God save king Cibber! mounts in ev'ry note.
Familiar White's, God save king Colley! cries;
God save king Colley! Drury-lane replies:
To Needham's quick the voice triumphal rode,
But pious Needham^{[R. 80]} dropt the name of God;
325 Back to the Devil^{[R. 81]} the last echoes roll,
And Coll! each Butcher roars at Hockley-hole.
So when Jove's block descended from on high
(As sings thy great forefather Ogilby^{[R. 82]})
Loud thunder to its bottom shook the bog,
330 And the hoarse nation croak'd, God save King Log!

 

The End of the First Book.

Remarks

1. The Dunciad, sic MS. It may well be disputed whether this be a right reading: Ought it not rather to be spelled Dunceiad, as the Etymology evidently demands? Dunce with an e, therefore Dunceiad with an e. That accurate and punctual Man of Letters, the Restorer of Shakespeare, constantly observes the preservation of this very Letter e, in spelling 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 Shakspear] which is utterly unpardonable. "Nor is the neglect of a Single Letter so trivial as to some it may appear; the alteration whereof in a learned language is an Atchievement that brings honour to the Critic who advances it; and Dr. Bentley 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.
   This is surely a slip in the learned author of the foregoing note; there having been since produced by an accurate Antiquary, an Autograph of Shakspeare himself, whereby it appears that he spelled his own name without the first e. And upon this authority it was, that those most Critical Curators of his Monument in Westminster Abby erased the former wrong reading, and restored the true spelling on a new piece of old Ægyptian Granite. Nor for this only do they deserve our thanks, but for exhibiting on the same Monument the first Specimen of an Edition of an author in Marble; where (as may be seen on comparing the Tomb with the Book) in the space of five lines, two Words and a whole Verse are changed, and it is to be hoped will there stand, and outlast whatever hath been hitherto done in Paper; as for the future, our Learned Sister University (the other Eye of England) is taking care to perpetuate a Total new Shakespear, at the Clarendon press. Bentl.
   It is to be noted, that this great Critic also has omitted one circumstance; which is, that the Inscription with the Name of Shakspeare was intended to be placed on the Marble Scroll to which he points with his hand; instead of which it is now placed behind his back, and that Specimen of an Edition is put on the Scroll, which indeed Shakspeare hath great reason to point at. Anon.
   Though I have as just a value for the letter E, as any Grammarian living, and the same affection for the Name of this Poem as any 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 without any e at all; moved 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 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 MS. In like manner we shall not amend this error in the Title itself, but only note it obiter, to evince to the learned that it was not our fault, nor any effect of our ignorance or inattention. Scriblerus.
   This Poem was written in the year 1726. In the next year an imperfect Edition was published at Dublin, and reprinted at London in twelves; another at Dublin, and another at London in octavo; and three others in twelves the same year. But there was no perfect Edition before that of London in quarto; which was attended with Notes. Schol. Vet.
   It was expresly confessed in the Preface to the first edition, that this Poem was not published by the Author himself. It was printed originally in a foreign Country. And what foreign Country? Why, one notorious for blunders; where finding blanks only instead of proper names, these blunderers filled them up at their pleasure. The very Hero of the Poem hath been mistaken to this hour; so that we are obliged to open our Notes with a discovery who he really was. We learn from the former Editor, that this Piece was presented by the Hands of Sir Robert Walpole to King George II. Now the author directly tells us, his Hero is the Man
   ————who brings
   The Smithfield Muses to the ear of Kings.
   And it is notorious who was the person on whom this Prince conferred the honour of the Laurel.
   It appears as plainly from the Apostrophe to the Great in the third verse, that Tibbald could not be the person, who was never an Author in fashion, or caressed by the Great; whereas this single characteristic is sufficient to point out the true Hero; who, above all other Poets of his time, was the Peculiar Delight and Chosen Companion of the Nobility of England; and wrote, as he himself tells us, certain of his Works at the earnest Desire of Persons of Quality.
   Lastly, The sixth verse affords full proof; this Poet being the only one who was universally known to have had a Son so exactly like him, in his poetical, theatrical, political, and moral Capacities, that it could justly be said of him
   Still Dunce the second reign'd like Dunce the first. Bentl.
2. The Mighty Mother, and her Son, &c.] The Reader ought here to be cautioned, that the Mother, and not the Son, is the principal Agent of this Poem: The latter of them is only chosen as her Collegue (as was anciently the custom in Rome before some great Expedition) the main action of the Poem being by no means the Coronation of the Laureate, which is performed in the very first book, but the Restoration of the Empire of Dulness in Britain, which is not accomplished 'till the last.
   Ibid.—her Son who brings, &c.] 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 prefixed to Sawney, a Poem, p. 5. hath been so dull as to explain 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 this Poem hath had, yet knoweth he how to receive it with more modesty.
   We remit this Ignorant to the first lines of the Æneid, assuring him that Virgil there speaketh not of himself, but of Æneas:
   Arma virumque cano, Trojæ qui primus ab oris
   Italiam, fato profugus, Lavinaque venit
   Littora: multum ille & terris jacatus & 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 Æn. ii. 513. from the altar of Jupiter Hereæus that Æneas 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 applied 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.
3. The Smithfield Muses] Smithfield is the place where Bartholomew Fair was kept, whose shews, machines, and dramatical entertainments, formerly agreeable 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 pleasures of the Court and Town. This happened in the Reigns of King George I, and II. See Book 3.
4. By Dulness, Jove, and Fate:] i.e. By their Judgments, their Interests, and their Inclinations.
5. 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 leave it (as we shall in general all such) to the reader; remarking only, that Chaos (according to Hesiod's Θιογονία) was the Progenitor of all the Gods. Scriblerus.
6. Laborious, heavy, busy, bold, &c.] I wonder the learned Scriblerus has omitted to advertise the Reader, at the opening of this Poem, that Dulness here is not to be taken contractedly for mere Stupidity, but in the enlarged sense of the word, for all Slowness of Apprehension, Shortness of Sight, or imperfect Sense of things. It includes (as we see by the Poet's own words) Labour, Industry, and some degree of Activity and Boldness: a ruling principle not inert, but turning topsy-turvy the Understanding, and inducing an Anarchy or confused State of Mind. This remark ought to be carried along with the reader throughout the work; and without this caution he will be apt to mistake the Importance of many of the Characters, as well as of the Design of the Poet. Hence it is that some have complained he chuses too mean a subject, and imagined he employs himself, like Domitian, in killing flies; whereas those who have the true key will find he sports with nobler quarry, and embraces a larger compass; or (as one saith, on a like occasion) Will see his Work, like Jacob's ladder, rise,
   Its foot in dirt, its head amid the skies.Bentl.
7. She rul'd, in native Anarchy, the mind.] The native Anarchy of the mind is that state which precedes the time of Reason's assuming the rule of the Passions. But in that state, the uncontrolled violence of the Passions would soon bring things to confusion, were it not for the intervention of Dulness in this absence of Reason; who, though she cannot regulate them like Reason, yet blunts and deadens their Vigour, and, indeed, produces some of the good effects of it: Hence it is that Dulness has often the appearance of Reason. This is the only good she ever did; and the Poet takes particular care to tell it in the very introduction of his Poem. It is to be observed indeed, that this is spoken of the universal rule of Dulness in ancient days, but we may form an idea of it from her partial Government in later times.
8. Still her old Empire to restore.] This Restoration makes the Completion of the Poem. Vide Book 4.
9. 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.
10. To hatch a new Saturnian age of Lead.] The ancient Golden Age is by Poets styled Saturnian; but in the Chemical language Saturn is Lead. She is said here only to be spreading her wings to hatch this age; which is not produced completely till the fourth book.
11. By his fam'd father's hand] Mr. Caius-Gabriel Cibber, father of the Poet Laureate. The two Statues of the Lunatics over the gates of Bedlam-hospital were done by him, and (as the son justly says of them) are no ill monuments of his fame as an Artist
12. One Cell there is,] The cell of poor Poetry is here very properly represented as a little unendowed Hall in the neighbourhood of the Magnific College of Bedlam; and as the surest Seminary to supply those learned walls with Professors. For there cannot be a plainer indication of madness than in mens persisting to starve themselves and offend the public by scribling,
    Escape in Monsters, and amaze the town.
    when they might have benefited themselves and others in profitable and honest employments. The Qualities and Productions of the students of this private Academy are afterwards described in this first book; as are also their Actions throughout the second; by which it appears, how near allied Dulness is to Madness. This naturally prepares us for the subject of the third book, where we find them in union, and acting in conjunction to produce the Catastrophe of the fourth; a mad poetical Sibyl leading our Hero through the Regions of Vision, to animate him in the present undertaking, by a view of the past triumphs of Barbarism over Science.
13. Poverty and Poetry] I can not here omit a remark that will greatly endear our Author to every one, who shall attentively observe that Humanity and Candor, which every where appears in him towards those unhappy objects of the ridicule of all mankind, the bad Poets. He here imputes all scandalous rhymes, scurrilous weekly papers, base flatteries, wretched elegies, songs, and verses (even from those sung at Court to ballads in the streets) not so much to malice or servility as to Dulness; and not so much to Dulness as to Necessity. And thus, at the very commencement of his Satyr, makes an apology for all that are to be satyrized.
14. Hence Bards, like Proteus]
    Sunt quibus in plures jus est transire figuras:
    Ut tibi, complexi terram maris incola, Proteu;
    Nunc violentus aper, nunc quem tetigisse timerent,
    Anguis eras, medo te faciebant cornua Taurum,
    Sæpe Lapis poteras.Ovid. Met. viii.
    Neither Palæphatus, Phurnutus, nor Heraclides give us any steddy light into the mythology of this mysterious fable. If I be not deceived in a part of learning which has so long exercised my pen, by Proteus must certainly be meant a hacknied Town scribler; and by his Transformations, the various disguises such a one assumes, to elude the pursuit of his irreconcilable enemy, the Bailiff. Proteus is represented as one bred of the mud and slime of Ægypt, the original soil of Arts and Letters: And what is a Town-scribler, but a creature made up of the excrements of luxurious Science? By the change then into a Boar is meant his character of a furious and dirty Party-writer; the Snake signifies a Libellor; and the Horns of the Bull, the Dilemmas of a Polemical Answerer. These are the three great parts he acts under; and when he has completed his circle, he sinks back again, as the last change into a Stone denotes, into his natural state of immoveable Stupidity. If I may expect thanks of the learned world for this discovery, I would by no means deprive that excellent Critic of his share, who discovered before me, that in the character of Proteus was designed Sophistam, Magum, Politicum, præsertim rebus omnibus sese accommodantem. Which in English is, A Political writer, a Libeller, and a Disputer, writing indifferently for or against every party in the State, every seat in Religion, and every character in private life. See my Fables of Ovid explained. Abbe Banier.
15. 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 publishing obscene books; the latter usually adorned his shop with titles in red letters.
16. Hence hymning Tyburn's elgiac lines,] It is an ancient English custom for the Malefactors to sing a Psalm at their execution at Tyburn; and no less customary to print Elegies on their deaths, at the same time, or before.
17. Ver. 42. Magazines,] Miscellanies in prose and verse, in which at some times

    new-born nonsense first is taught to cry;

    
    at others, dead-born Dulness appears in a thousand shapes. These were thrown out weekly and monthly by every miserable scribler; or picked up piece-meal and stolen from any body, under the title of Papers, Essays, Queries, Verses, Epigrams, Riddles, &c. equally the disgrace of human Wit, Morality, and Decency.
18. Ver. 43. Sepulchral Lyes,] Is a just satyr on the Flatteries and Falshoods admitted to be inscribed on the walls of Churches, in Epitaphs.
19. Ver. 44. New-year Odes,] Made by the Poet Laureate for the time being, to be sung at Court on every New-year's day, the words of which are happily drowned in the voices and instruments. The New-year Odes of the Hero of this work were of a cast distinguished from all that preceded him, and made a conspicuous part of his character as a writer, which doubtless induced our Author to mention them here so particularly.
20. Ver. 45. In clouded Majesty here Dulness shone;] See this Cloud removed, or rolled back, or gathered up to her head, book iv. ver. 17, 18. It is worth while to compare this description of the Majesty of Dulness in a state of peace and tranquillity, with that more busy scene where she mounts the throne in triumph, and is not so much supported by her own Virtues, as by the princely consciousness of having destroyed all other. Scribl.
21. V.50. Who hunger, and who thirst, &c.] "This is an allusion to a text in Scripture, which shews, in Mr. Pope, a delight in prophaneness," said Curl upon this place. But it is very familiar with Shakespear to allude to passages of Scripture: Out of a great number I will select a few, in which he not only alludes to, but quotes the very Texts from holy Writ. In All's well that ends well, I am no great Nebuchadnezzar, I have not much skill in grass. Ibid. They are for the flowery way that leads to the bread gate and the great fire. Mat. vii. 13. In Much ado about nothing. All, all, and moreover God saw him when he was hid in the garden. Gen. iii. 8. (in a very jocose scene.) In Love's labour lost, he talks of Sampson's carrying the gates on his back; in the Merry wives of Windsor, of Goliah and the weaver's beam; and in Henry IV, 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, Appendix to Shakespeare Restored, p. 144
22. Ver. 63. Here one poor word an 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 declared "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 into 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 continually popping out squibs of wit, or rather Popysmata, or Popisms." Dennis on Hom. and Daily Journal, June 11, 1728.
23. Ver. 70, &c. How Farce and Epic—How Time himself, &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 and Comedy, Farce and Epic, see Pluto and Proserpine, Penelope, &c. if yet extant.
24. Ver. 73. Ægypt glads with show'rs,] In the lower Ægypt Rain is of no use, the overflowing of the Nile being sufficient to impregnate the soil.—These six verses represent the Inconsistencies in the descriptions of poets, who heap together all glittering and gawdy images, though in compatible 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.
25. Ver. 85, 86. 'Twas on the Day, when ** rich and grave, Like Cimon, triumph'd] Viz. a Lord Mayor's Day; his name the author had left in blanks, but most certainly could never be that which the Editor foisted in formerly, and which no way agrees with the chronology of the poem.

    Bentl.

    The Procession of a Lord Mayor is made partly by land, and partly by water.—Cimon, the famous Athenian General, obtained a victory by sea, and another by land, on the same day, over the Persians and Barbarians.
26. Ver. 88. Glad chains,] The Ignorance of these Moderns! This was altered in one edition to Gold chains, more regard to the metal of which the chains of Aldermen are made, than to the beauty of the Latinism and Græcism, nay of figurative speech itself: Lætas segetes, glad, for making glad, &c. Scribl.
27. Ver. 90. 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 left in silence and oblivion lie,
    Dumb are their fountains, and their channels dry;
    Yet run for ever by the Muses skill,
    And in the smooth description murmur still.
28. Ibid. But liv'd, in Settle's numbers, one day more.] Settle was poet to the City of London. His office was to compose yearly panegyrics upon the Lord Mayors, and verses to be spoken in the Pageants: But that part of the shows being at length frugally abolished, the employment of City poet ceased; so that upon Settle's demise there was no successor to that Place.
29. Ver. 98. John Heywood, whose Interludes were printed in the time of Henry VIII.
30. Ver. 103. Old Pryn in restless Daniel] The first edition 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 Politics; as appears by the Poem De jure divine, &c. of De Foe, and by these lines in Cowley's Miscellanies, on the other:
    ——One lately did not fear
    (Without the Muses leave) to plant verse here
    But it produced such base, rough, crabbed, hedge-
    Rhymes, as e'en set the bearers 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 style
    Called 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 sentenced to the Pillory.
31. Ver. 104. 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 them as can well be jumbled together, and are of that sort of nonsense, which so perfectly confounds all ideas, that there is no distinct one left in the mind." Farther he says of him, "That he hath prophecied 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 published." Upon which Mr. Oldmixon has not spared 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 judgment and justice of those who bestowed it." Ibid. p. 417. But the well known learning of that Noble Person, who was then Lord Chamberlain, might have screened him from this unmannerly reflection. Nor ought Mr. Oldmixon to complain, so long after, that the Laurel would have better become his own brows, or any others: 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 beg'd pardon, and granted his claim,
    But vow'd that 'till then he ne'er heard of his name.
    Session of Poets.
    The same plea might also serve for his successor, Mr. Cibber; and is further strengthened in the following Epigram, made on that occasion:
    In merry old England it once was a rule,
    The King had his Poet, and also his Fool:
    But now we're so frugal, I'd have you to know it,
    That Cibber can serve both for Fool and for Poet.
    Of Blackmore, see Book 2. Of Philips, Book 1. ver. 262. and Book 3. prope fin.
    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 Absalom 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 mentioned.
32. Ver. 106. 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—it is spoken of that Excellent and Divine Madness, so often mentioned by Plato; that poetical rage and enthusiasm, with which Mr. D. hath, in his time, been highly possessed; and of those extraordinary hints and motions whereof he himself so feelingly treats in his preface to the Rem. on Pr. Arth. [See notes on Book 2. ver. 268.]
33. Ver. 106. And all the mighty Mad in Dennis rage.] Mr. Theobald, in the Censor, vol. ii. N.33. calls Mr. Dennis by the name of Furius. "The modern Furius is to be looked upon as more an object of pity, than of that which he daily provokes, laughter 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 attend to him with a silent nod, and let him go away with the triumphs of his ill nature.—Poor Furius (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 panegyric is spiteful, and he uses it for the same reason as some Ladies do their commendations of a dead beauty, who would never have had their good word, but that a living one happened to be mentioned in their company. His applause is not the tribute of his Heart, but the sacrifice of his Revenge," &c. Indeed his pieces against our poet are somewhat of an angry character, and as they are now scarce extant, a taste of his style may be satisfactory to the curious. "A young, squab, short gentleman, whose outward form, though it should be that of downright monkey, 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 hunch-back'd toad.—A book through which folly and ignorance, those brethren so lame and impotent, 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-back'd by that blind Hector, Impudence." Reflect. on the Essay on Criticism, p. 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 epidemic Madness of the times have given him Reputation, and Reputation (as Hobbes 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 constant lover; to the Laws, under whose protection I have so long lived; and to the Liberty of my Country, more dear to me than life, of which I have now for forty years been a constant assertor. &c. I look upon it as my duty, I say, to do—you shall see what—to 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. 91, &c
    Besides these public-spirited reasons, Mr. D. had a private one; which, by his manner of expressing it in p. 92. appears to have been equally strong. He was even in bodily fear of his life from the machinations 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 Poison." Which last words of his book plainly discover Mr. D.'s suspicion was that of being poisoned, 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 poison, 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 people on those calamities and diseases which he himself gave them, by administring Poison 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 rendered 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 correspondence with Mr. Wycherly and Mr. Congreve, he immediately obliged the public 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 Pindaric writings, 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 criticisms, (particularly on Prince Arthur) do sufficiently demonstrate." From the same account it also appears that he writ Plays "more to get Reputation than Money." Dennis of himself. See Giles Jacob's Lives of Dram. Poets, p. 68, 69. compared with p. 286.
34. Ver.109. Bays, formd by Nature, &c.] It is hoped the poet here hath done justice to his Hero's Character, which it were a great mistake to imagine was wholly sunk in stupidity; he is allowed to have supported it with a wonderful mixture of Vivacity. This character is heightened according to his own desire, in a Letter he wrote to our author. "Pert and dull at least you might have allowed me. What I am I only to be dull, and dull still, and again, and for ever?" He then solemnly appealed to his own conscience, that "he could not think himself so, nor believe that our poet did; but that he spoke worse of him than he could possibly think; and concluded it must be merely to shew his Wit, or for some Profit or Lucre to himself." Life of C. C. chap. vii. and Letter to Mr. P. pag. 15.40. 53.
35. Ver. 113. shame to Fortune!] Because she usually shews favour to persons of this Character, who have a three-fold pretence to it.
36. Ver. 115. supperless; the Hero sate,) It is amazing how the sense of this hath 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 circumstance, 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 refined, 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 language of poesy brings all into action; and to represent a Critic encompassed 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. Scribl. But since the discovery of the true Hero of the poem, may we not add that nothing was so natural, after so great a loss of Money at Dice, or of Reputation by his Play, as that the Poet should have no great stomach to eat a supper?, Besides, how well has the Poet consulted his Heroic Character, in adding that he swore all the time Bentl.
37. Ver. 131. poor Fletcher's half-eat scenes,] A great number of them taken out to patch up his Plays.
38. Ver. 132. The Frippery] "When I fitted up an old play, it was as a good housewife will mend old linnen, when she has not better employment." Life, p. 217. octavo.
39. Ver. 133. hapless Shakespear, &c.] It is not to be doubted but Bays was a subscriber to Tibbald's Shakespear. He was frequently liberal this way; and, as he tells us, "subscribed to Mr. Pope's Homer, out of pure Generosity and Civility; but when Mr. Pope did so to his Nonjuror, he concluded it could be nothing but a joke." Letter to Mr. P. p. 24.
    This Tibbald, or Theobald, published an edition of Shakespear, of which 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 by any other Editor, he would still give above five hundred Emendations, that shall escape them all."
40. Ver. 134. Wish'd he had blotted] It was a ridiculous praise which the Players gave to Shakespear, "that he never blotted a line." Ben Johnson honestly wished he had blotted a thousand; and Shakespear would certainly have wished the same, if he had lived to see those alterations in his works, which, not the Actors only (and especially the daring Hero of this poem) have made on the Stage, but the presumptuous Critics of our days in their Editions.
41. Ver. 135. The rest on Out-side merit, &c.] This Library is divided into three parts; the first consists of those authors from whom he stole, and whose works he mangled; the second, of such as fitted the shelves, or were gilded for shew, or adorned with pictures; the third class our author calls solid learning, old bodies of Divinity, old Commentaries, old English Printers, or old English Translations; all very voluminous, and fit to erect altars to Dulness.
42. Ver. 141. Ogilby the great;] "John Ogilby was one, who, from a late initiation into literature, made such a progress as might well style him the prodigy of his time! sending into the world so many large Volumes! 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.
43. Ver. 142. There, stamp'd with arms, Newcastle shines complete:] "The Duchess of Newcastle was one who busied herself in the ravishing delights of Poetry; leaving to posterity in print three ample Volumes of her studious endeavours." Winstanly, ibid. Langbaine reckons up eight Folios of her Grace's; which were usually adorned with gilded covers, and had her coat of arms upon them.
44. Ver. 146. Worthy Settle, Banks, and Broome.] The Poet has mentioned these three authors in particular, as they are parallel to our Hero in his three capacities: 1. Settle was his Brother Laureate; only indeed upon half-pay, for the City instead of the Court; but equally famous for unintelligible flights in his poems on public occasions, such as Shows, Birth-days, &c. 2. Banks was his Rival in Tragedy (tho' more successful in one of his Tragedies, the Earl of Essex, which is yet alive: Anna Boleyn, the Queen of Scots, and Cyrus the Great, are dead and gone. These he drest in a sort of Beggars Velvet, or a happy mixture of the thick Fustian and thin Prosaic; exactly imitated in Perella and Isidora, Cæsar in Ægypt, and the Heroic Daughter. 3. Broome was a serving-man of Ben. Johnson, who once picked up a Comedy from his Betters, or from some cast scenes of his Master, not entirely contemptible.
45. Ver. 147. More solid Learning] Some have objected, that books of this sort suit not so well the library of our Bays, which they imagine consisted of Novels, Plays, and obscene books; but they are to consider, that he furnished his shelves only for ornament, and read these books no more than the Dry bodies of Divinity, which, no doubt, were purchased by his Father when he designed him for the Gown. See the note on v 200.
46. Ver. 149. Caxton] A Printer in the time of Ed. IV, Rich. III, and Hen. VII; Wynkyn de Word, his successor, in that of Hen. VII and VIII. The former translated into prose Virgil's Æneis, 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 frenche, whiche late was translated out of latyn by some noble clerke of fraunce, whiche booke is named Encydos (made in latyn by that noble poete & grete clerk Vyrgyle) whiche booke I sawe over and redde therein, How after the general destruccyon of the grete Troy, Æneas 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 thy storye of his adventures that he had er he came to the atchievement of his conquest of ytalye, as all alonge shall be shewed in this present booke. In whiche booke I had grete playsyr, by cause of the fayr and honest termes & wordes in frenche, whiche I never sawe to fore lyke, ne none so playsaunt ne so well ordred; whiche booke as me semed sholde be moche requysite to noble men to see, as wel for the eloquence as the hystoryes. How wel that many hondred yerys passed was the sayd booke of Eneydos wyth other workes made and lerned dayly in scolis, especyally in ytayle and other places, which historye the sayd Vyrgyle made in metre."
47. Ver. 153. Nich. de Lyra, or Harpsfield, a very voluminous commentator, whose works, in five vast folios, were printed in 1472.
48. Ver. 154. Philemon Holland Doctor in Physic. He translated so many books, that a man would think he had done nothing else; insomuch that he might be called Translator general of his age. The books alone of his turning into English are sufficient to make a Country Gentleman a complete Library. Winstanl.
49. Ver. 167. E'er since Sir Fopling's Periwig] The first visible cause of the passion of the Town for our Hero, was a fair flaxen full-bottom'd Periwig, which, he tells us, he wore in his first play of the Fool in fashion. It attracted, in a particular manner, the Friendship of Col. Brett, who wanted to purchase it. "Whatever contempt (says he) Philosophers may have for a fine Periwig, my friend, who was not to despise the world but to live in it, knew very well that so material an article of dress upon the head of a man of sense, if it became him, could never fail of drawing to him a more partial Regard and Benevolence, than could possibly be hoped for in an ill-made one. This perhaps, may soften the grave censure which so youthful a purchase might otherwise have laid upon him. In a word, he made his attack upon this Periwig, as your young fellows generally do upon a lady of pleasure, first by a few familiar praises of her person, and then a civil enquiry into the price of it; and we finished our bargain that night over a bottle." See Life, octavo p. 303. This remarkable Periwig usually made its entrance upon the stage in a sedan, brought in by two chairmen, with infinite approbation of the audience.
50. Ver. 178, 179. Guard the sure barrier—Or quite unravel, &c.] For Wit or Reasoning are never greatly hurtful to Dulness, but when the first is founded in Truth, and the other in Usefulness.
51. Ver. 199: my Fletcher] A familiar manner of speaking, used by modern Critics, of a favourite author. Bays might as justly speak thus of Fletcher, as a French Wit did of Tully, seeing his works in a library, "Ah! mon cher Ciceron! je le connois bien; c'est le même que Marc Tulle." But he had a better title to call Fletcher his own, having made so free with him.
52. Ver. 200. Take up the Bible, once my better guide?] When, according to his Father's intention, he had been a Clergyman, or (as he thinks himself) a Bishop of the Church of England. Hear his own words: "At the time that the fate of King James, the Prince of Orange and Myself, were on the anvil, Providence thought fit to postpone mine, 'till theirs were determined: But had my father carried me a month sooner to the University, who knows but that purer fountain might have washed my Imperfections into a capacity of writing, instead of Plays and annual Odes, Sermons, and Pastoral Letters?" Apology for his Life, chap. iii.
53. V. 203, at White's amidst the Doctors] "These Doctors had a modest and fair Appearance, and, like true Masters of Arts, were habited in black and white; they were justly styled subtiles and graves, but not always irrefragabiles, being sometimes examined, laid open, and split." Scribl.This learned Critic is to be understood allegorically: The Doctors in this place mean no more than false Dice, a Cant phrase used amongst Gamesters. So the meaning of these four sonorous Lines is only this, "Shall I play fair, or foul?"
54. Ver. 206. Ridpath—Mist.] George Ridpath, author of a Whig paper, called the Flying post; Nathanael Mist, of a famous Tory Journal.
55. Ver. 211. Or rob Rome's ancient geese of all their glories,] Relates to the well known story of the geese that saved the Capitol; of which Virgil, Æn. viii.
    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 Ecl. ix.
    ——— argutos interstrepere anser olares.
    Read it, therefore, adesse strepebat. And why auratis porticibus? does not the very verse preceding this inform us,
    Romuleoque recens horrebat regia culmo.
    Is this thatch in one line, and gold in another, consistent? I scruple not (repugnantibus omnibus manuscriptis) to correct it auritis. Horace uses the same epithet in the same sense,
    ———Auritas sidibus canoris
    Ducere quercus.
    And to say that walls have ears is common even to a proverb. Scribl.
56. Ver. 212. And cackling save the Monarchy of Tories?] Not out of any preference or affection to the Tories. For what Hobbes so ingenuously confesses of himself, is true of all Party-writers whatsoever: "That he defends the supreme powers, as the Geese by their cackling defended the Romans, who held the Capitol; for they favoured them no more than the Gauls their Enemies, but were as ready to have defended the Gauls if they had been possessed of the Capitol." Epist. Dedic. to the Leviathan.
57. Ver. 219. Gazetteers] A band of ministerial writers, hired at the price mentioned in the note on book ii. ver. 316. who on the very day their Patron quitted his post, laid down their paper, and declared they would never more meddle in Politics.
58. Ver. 218. Cibberian forehead] So indeed all the MSS. read; but I make no scruple to pronounce them all wrong, the Laureate being elsewhere celebrated by our Poet for his great Modesty—modest Cibber–Read, therefore, at my peril, Cerberian forehead. This is perfectly classical, and, what is more, Homerical; the Dog was the ancient, as the Bitch is the modern, symbol of Impudence: (Κυνὸς ὂμματ᾽ ἒχαν, says Achilles to Agamemnon) which, when in a superlative degree, may well be denominated from Cerberus, the Dog with three heads.–But as to the latter part of this verse, Cibberian brain, that is certainly the genuine reading. Bentl.
59. Ver. 225. O born in sin, &c.] 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 many miserable fates to which they would otherwise be subject.
60. Ver. 228. My better and more christian progeny!] "It may be observable, that my muse and my spouse were equally prolific; that the one was seldom the mother of a Child, but in the same year the other made me the father of a Play. I think we had a dozen of each sort between us; of both which kinds some died in their Infancy," &c. Life of C. C. p. 217. 8vo edit.
61. Ver. 231. gratis-given Bland–Sent with a Pass,) lt was a practice so to give the Daily Gazetteer and ministerial pamphlets (in which this B. was a writer) and to send them Post-free to all the Towns in the kingdom.
62. Ver. 233.—with Ward, to Ape-and-monkey climes,) "Edward Ward, a very voluminous Poet in Hudibrastic verse, but best known by the London Spy, in prose. He has of late years kept a public 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. ii. p. 225. Great numbers of his works were yearly sold into the Plantations.— Ward, in a book called Apollo's Maggot, declared this account to be a great falsity, protesting that his public house was not in the City, but in Moorfields.
63. Ver. 238 & 240. Tate—Shadwell Two of his predecessors in the Laurel.
64. Ver. 243. With that, a Tear (portentous sign of Grace!) &c.] It is to be observed that our Poet hath made his Hero, in imitation of Virgil's, obnoxious to the tender Passions. He was indeed so given to weeping, that he tells ut, when Goodman the player swore, if he did not make a good actor, he'd be damn'd; "the surprise of being commended by one who had been himself so eminent on the stage, and in so positive a manner, was more than he could support. In a word (says he) it almost took away my breath and (laugh if you please) fairly drew tears from my eyes." P. 149. of his Life, octavo.
65. Ver. 250. Now flames the Cid, &c.] In the first notes on the Dunciad it was said, that this Author was particularly excellent at Tragedy. "This (says he) is as unjust as to say I could not dance on a Rope." But certain it is that he had attempted to dance on this Rope, and fell most shamefully, having produced no less than four Tragedies (the names of which the Poet preserves in these few lines) the three first of them were fairly printed, acted, and damned; the fourth suppressed, in fear of the like treatment.
66. Ver. 254. the dear Nonjuror—Moliere's old stubble] A Comedy threshed out of Moliere's Tartuffe, and so much the Translator's favourite, that he assures us all our author's dislike to it could only arise from disaffection to the Government;
    Qui meprise Cotin, n'estime point son Roi,
    Et n'a, selon Cotin, ni Dieu, ni foi, ni loi.Boil.
    He assures us, that "when he had the honour to kiss his Majesty's hand upon presenting his dedication of it, he was graciously pleased, out of his Royal bounty, to order him two hundred pounds for it. And this he doubts not grieved Mr. P."
67. Ver. 256. When the last blaze sent Ilion to the skies.] See Virgil, Æn. ii. where I would advise the reader to peruse the story of Troy's destruction, rather than in Wynkyn. 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:
    ———Uterumque armate milite complent.——
    Inclusos utero Danaos——
    Can a horse be said Utero gerere? Again,
    ——Uteroque recusse,
    Insonuerc cavæ————
    ——Atque utero sonitum quater arma dedere,
    Nay, is it not expresly said
    Scandit fatalis machina muros
    Fœta armis———— How is it possible the word fœta can agree with a horse? And indeed can it be conceived that the chaste and virgin Goddess Pallas would employ herself in forming and fashioning the Male of that species? But this shall be proved to a demonstration in our Virgil restored.

    Scribl.

68. Ver. 258. Thulè] An unfinished poem of that name, of which one sheet was printed many years ago, by Amb. Philips, a northern author. It is an usual method of putting out a fire, to cast wet sheets 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 an allegorical allusion to the coldness and heaviness of the writing.
69. Ver. 265. sacred Dome:] Where he no sooner enters, but he reconnoitres the place of his original; as Plato says the spirits shall, at their entrance into the celestial regions.
70. Ver. 269. Great Mother] Magna mater, here applied to Dulness. The Quidnuncs, a name given to the ancient members of certain political clubs, who were constantly enquiring quid nunc? what news?
71. Ver. 286. Tibbald,) Lewis Tibbald (as pronounced) or Theobald (as written) was bred an Attorney, and son to an Attorney (says Mr. Jacob) of Sittenburn in Kent. He was Author of some forgotten Plays, Translations, and other pieces. He was concerned in a paper called the Censor, and a Translation of Ovid. "There is a notorious Idiot, one hight Whachum, who, from an under-spur-leather to the Law, is become an understrapper to the Play-house, who hath lately burlesqued the Metamorphoses of Ovid by a vile Translation, &c. This fellow is concerned in an impertinent paper called the Censor." Dennis Rem. on Pope's Hom. p. 9, 10.
72. Ibid. 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 priesthood; but he chose rather to be placed in an office of accounts, in the City, being qualified for the same by his skill in arithmetic, and writing the necessary hands. He has obliged 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 Sarcasms on his learning and genius, by an advertisement of Sept. 20, 1729. in a paper called the Weekly Medley, &c. "As to my learning, everybody knows that the whole bench of Bishops, not long ago, were pleased 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 pleased 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.) And Mr. Toland and Mr. Gildon publicly declared Ozell's translation of Homer to be, as it was prior, so likewise 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 testimonies, as those of the Bench of Bishops, Mr. Toland, and Mr. Gildon.
73. Ver. 290. A Heideggre] A strange bird from Switzerland, 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'.
74. Ver. 296. Withers,] "George Withers was a great Pretender to Poetical Zeal, and abused the greatest Personages in power, which brought upon him frequent correction. The Marshalsea and Newgate were no strangers to him." Winstanly, Lives of Poets.
75. Ibid. Gildon] Charles Gildon, a writer of criticisms and libels of the last age, bred at St. Omer's with the Jesuits; but renouncing popery, he published Blount's books against the divinity of Christ, the Oracles of Reason, &c. He signalized himself as a critic, having 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, entituled the Complete Art of English Poetry, in two volumes; and others.
76. Ver. 297. Howard,] Hon. Edward Howard, author 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.
77. Ver. 309, 310. Under Archer's wing,—Gaming, &c.] When the Statute against Gaming was drawn up, it was represented, that the King, by ancient custom, plays at Hazard one night in the year; and therefore a clause was inserted, with an exception as to that particular. Under this pretence, the Groom-porter had a Room appropriated to Gaming all the summer the Court was at Kensington, which his Majesty accidentally being acquainted of, with a just indignation prohibited. It is reported, the same practice is yet continued wherever the Court resides, and the Hazard Table there open to all the professed Gamesters in town.
    Greatest and justest Sov'reign! know you this?
    Alas! no more, than Thames' calm head can know
    Whose meads his arms drown, or whose corn o'erflow.
    Donne to Queen Eliz.
78. Ver. 311. O when shall rise a Monarch, &c.] Boileau, Lutrin, Chant. 2.
    Helas! qu'est devenu cet tems, cet heureux tems,
    Où les Rois s'honoroient du mem de Faincans:
    S'endormoient sur le trone, une servant sans hente,
    Laissoient leur sceptre au mains au d'un mair, ou d'un comte:
    Aucun soin n'approchoit de leur paisible cour,
    On reposoit la nuit, on dornait tout le jeur, &c.
79. Ver. 319. Chapel-royal] The Voices and Instruments used in the service of the Chapel-royal being also employed in the performance of the Birth-day and New-year Odes.
80. Ver. 324. But pious Needham] A Matron of great fame, and very religious in her way; whose constant prayer it was, that she might "get enough by her profession to leave it off in time, and make her peace with God." But her fate was not so happy; for being convicted, and set in the pillory, she was (to the lasting shame of all her great Friends and Votaries) so ill used by the populace, that it put an end to her days.
81. Ver. 325. Back to the Devil] The Devil Tavern in Fleet-street, where these Odes are usually rehearsed before they are performed at Court.
82. Ver. 328.—Ogilvy)—God save king Log!] See Ogilby's Æsop's Fables, where, in the story of the Frogs and their King, this excellent hemistic 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 shews 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, 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 distinguished, 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 writing, 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 people 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 Pope vouchsaf'd a ray,
    Alas! depriv'd of his kind smile,
    How soon ye fade away!
    
    To compass Phœbus' 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.

Imitations

1. Ver. 41, 42. Hence hymning Tyburn's——Hence, &c.]
   ———Genus unde Latinum,
   Albanique patres, atque altæ mœnia Romæ.Virg. Æn. i.
2. Ver. 45. In clouded Majesty]
   ———the Moon
   Rising in clouded Majesty———Milton, Book iv.
3. Ver. 48.———that knows no fears
   Of hisses, blows, or want, or loss of ears:]
   Quem nogue pauperies, neque mors, neque vincula terrent. Horat.
4. Ver. 55. Here's she beholds the Chaos dark and deep,
   Where nameless Somethings, &c.]
   That is to say, unformed 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 Dispensary, Cant. vi.
   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.
5. Ver. 64. And ductile Dulness, &c.] A parody on a verse in Garth, Cant. I.
   How ductile matter new meanders takes.
6. Ver. 79. The cloud-compelling Queen] From Homer's Epithet of Jupiter, νεφεληγερέτα Ζ??ς.
7. Ver. 166. With whom my Muse began, with whom shall end.]
   A te principium, tibi desinet.——Virg. Ecl. viii.
   Έχ Διὸς δρχώμεσθα, καὶ εἰς Δία λήγεἸε, Μουσαι. Theoc.
   Prima dicte mihi, summa dicende Camœna.Horat.
8. Ver. 195. Had Heav'n decreed, &c.
   Me si cœlicolæ voluissent ducere vitam,
   Has mihi servassent sedes.——Virg. Æn. ii.
9. Ver, 196, 197. Could Troy be sav'd—This grey-goose weapon]
   ———Si Pergama dextra
   Defendi possent, etiam hac defensa fuissent.Virg. ibid.
10. Ver. 202. This Box my Thunder, this Right hand my God]
    Dextra mihi Deus, & telum quod missile libro.
    Virgil of the Gods of Mezentius.
11. Ver. 229. Unstain'd, untouch'd, &c.
    ———Felix Priamëia virgo!
    Jussa mori: quæ sortitus non pertulit ullos,
    Nec victoris heri tetigit captiva cubile!
    Nos, patria incensa, diversa per æquora vectæ, &c. Virg. Æn. iii.
12. Ver. 241. And thrice he lifted high the Birth-day brand,] Ovid of Althæa on a like occasion, burning her offspring:
    Tum conata quater flammis imponere torrem,
    Cœpta quater tenuit.
13. Ver. 250. Now flames the Cid, &c.]
    ——Jam Deïphobi dedit ampla ruinam
    Vulcano superante demus; jam praximus ardet.
    Ucalegon.——
14. Ver. 263. Great in her charms! as when on Shrieves and May'rs
    She looks and breathes herself into their airs.]
    Alma parens confessa Deam; qualisque videri
    Cœlicolis, & quanta solet———Virg. AEn. ii.
    Et laetos oculis afflavit honores.Id. AEn. i.
15. Ver. 269. This the Great Mother, &c.]
    Urbs antiqua fuit———
    Quam Juno fertur terris magis omnibus unam
    Posthabita coluisse Samo: hic illius arma,
    Hic currus fuit: hic regnum Dea gentibus esse
    (Si qua fata finant) jam tum tenditque fovetque.Virg. Æn. i.

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