Where o'er the gates, by his fam'd father's hand, 31 VARIATIONS. to dress their dinner.-Feffi-frugelque receptas & torrere parant flammis: What has fcopulis pendentibus here to do? Indeed, the aquæ dulces and fedilia are fomething, feet waters to drink, and feats to reft on the other is furely an error of the Copyifts. Reftore it, without the leaft fcruple, Populis prandentibus. But for this and a thousand more, expect our Virgil Reftored. SCRIBL. REMARKS. VER. 31. 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 hofpital were done by him, and (as the fon justly fays of them) are no ill monuments of his fame as an Artist. VER. 33. One Cell there is,] The cell of poor Poetry is here very properly reprefented as a little unendowed Hall in the neighbourhood of the Magnific College of Bedlam, and as the surest seminary to fupply thofe learned Walls with Profeffors. For there cannot be a plainer Symptom of Madness than for men to chufe Poverty and Contempt; to ftarve themselves, and offend the public by scribbling, to "Efcape in Monsters, and amaze the Town," when they might have benefited themselves and others in profitable and honeft employments. The Qualities and Productions of the students of this private Academy are afterwards defcribed in this first book, as are alfo their Actions throughout the fecond; by which it appears how near allied Dulnefs is to Madnefs. This naturally prepares us for the fubject of the third book, where we find them in union, and acting in conjunction to produce the Catastrophe of the fourth; a mad poetical Sybil, leading our Hero through the Regions of Vifion, to animate him in the prefent undertaking, by a view of the past triumphs of Barbarifm over Science. VER. 34. Poverty and Poetry.] I cannot here omit a remark that will greatly endear our Author to every one, who shall atten tively observe, that Humanity and Candour, which every where appears in him towards thofe unhappy objects of the ridicule of all mankind, the bad Poets. He here imputes all fcandalous rhymes, fcurrilous weekly papers, base, flatteries, wretched elegies, fongs, and verfes (even from those fung at Court, to ballads in the streets), not fo much to malice or fervility as to Dulness, and not fo much to Dulness as to Neceffity. And thus, at the very commencement of his Satire, makes an apology for all that are to be fatirized." Keen, hollow winds howl thro' the bleak recefs, Hence Bards, like Proteus long in vain ty'd down, REMARKS. VER. 37. Hence Bards, like Proteus long in vain ty'd down, 35 Met. viii. Ovid has given us a very orderly account of these escapes : "Quum rapies in jus malis ridentem alienis, Proteus is reprefented as one bred of the mud and flime of Egypt, the original foil of Arts and Letters: And what is a Town-fcribbler, 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 fignifies a Libeller; and the Horns of the Bull, the Dilemmas of a Polemical Anfwerer. These are the three great parts he affumes; and when he has completed his circle, he finks back again, as the last change into a Stone denotes, into his natural state of immovable Stupidity. Hence it is, that the Poet, where speaking at large of all these various Metamorphofes in the fecond Book, describes Mother Ofborne, the great Antetype of our Proteus, in ver. 312, after all her changes, as at laft quite ftupified to Stone. If I may expect thanks of the learned world for this discovery, I would by no means deprive that excellent Critic of his fhare, who difcovered before me, that in the character of Proteus was defigned Sophiftam, Magum, Politicum, præfertim rebus omnibus fefe accommodantem. Which in English is, A political Writer, a Libeller, and a Difputer, writing indifferently for or against every Party in the State, every Sect in Religion, and every Character in private life. See my Fables of Ovid explained. ABBE BANIER. Hence Mifcellanies fpring, the weekly boast Of Curl's chafte prefs, and Lintot's rubric poft: 40 Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiac lines, Hence Journals, Medleys, Merc'ries, MAGAZINES: Sepulchral Lies, our holy walls to grace, And New-year Odes, and all the Grub-street race, VARIATION S. VER. 41, in the former edit. Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiac Lay, Hence the foft fing-fong on Cecilia's Day. VER. 42. Alludes to the annual Songs compofed to Mufic on St. -Cecilia's Feaft. REMARKS. VER. 40. Curl's chafte prefs, and Lintot's rubric poft :] Two Bookfellers, of whom fee Book ii. The former was fined by the Court of King's Bench for publishing obfcene Books; the latter ufually adorned his fhop with titles in red letters. VER. 41. Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiac lines,] It is an ancient English custom for the Malefactors to fing a Pfalm at their execution at Tyburn; and no less customary to print Elegies on their deaths, at the fame time, or before. VER. 42. MAGAZINES:] The common name of those upstart collections in profe and verfe; where Dulnefs affumes all the various fhapes of Folly to draw in and cajole the Rabble. The eruption of every miferable Scribbler; the dirty fcum of every ftagnant Newspaper; the rags of worn-out Nonfenfe and Scandal, picked up from every Dunghill; under the title of Essays, Reflections, Queries, Songs, Epigrams, Riddles, etc. equally the difgrace of human Wit, Morality, and Common Sense. VER. 43. Sepulchral Lies,] is a juft fatire on the Flatteries and Falfhoods admitted to be inscribed on the walls of Churches, in Epitaphs; which occafioned the following Epigram: "Friend! in your Epitaphs, I'm griev'd, "So very much is faid: "The other never read." VER. 44. New-year Odes,] Made by the Poet Laureate for the time being, to be fung at Court on every New-year's day, the IMITATION S. VER. 41, 42. Hence bymning Tyburn's-Hence, etc.] -Genus unde Latinum, "Albanique patres, atque altæ mania Romæ." Virg. Æn. i. In clouded Majefty here Dulness shone; Four guardian Virtues, round, fupport her throne: Fierce champion Fortitude, that knows no fears Of hiffes, blows, or want, or lofs of ears: Calm Temperance, whofe bleffings thofe partake Who hunger, and who thirst for fcribling fake: 45 50 REMARKS. words of which are happily drowned in the voices and inftruments. The new-year Odes of the Hero of this work were of a caft diftinguished from all that preceded him, and made a confpicuous part of his character as a writer, which doubtless induced our Author to mention them here fo particularly. VER. 45. In clouded Majefty bere Dulness fhone ;] 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 defcription of the Majefty of Dulness in a ftate of peace and tranquillity, with that more bufy scene where the mounts the throne in triumph, and is not fo much fupported by her own Virtues, as by the princely consciousnefs of having deftroyed all other. VER. 50. Who hunger, and who thift, etc.] "This is an allu"fion to a text in Scripture, which thews in Mr. Pope, a delight "in prophanenefs," faid Curl upon this place. But it is very familiar with Shakespear to allude to paffages of Scripture. Out of a great number I will felect a few, in which he not only alludes to, but quotes the very Text from Holy Writ. In All's well that ends well, I am no great Nebuchadnezzar, I have not much skill in grafs. Ibid. They are for the flowery way that leads to the broad gate and the great fire. Mat. vii. 13. In Much a lo about nothing, All, all, and moreover God faw him when he was hid in the Garden, Gen. iii. 8. (in a very jocofe fcene). In Love's labour loft, he talks of Samfon carrying the gates on his back: In the Merry Wives of Windfor, of Goliath and the weaver's beam; and in Henry IV. Falstaff's foldiers, are compared to Lazarus and the prodigal fon. The first part of this note is Mr. CURL's, the reft is Mr. THEOBALD'S, Appendix to Shakespeare Restored, p. 144. Of biffes, blows, or want, or lofs of ears:] Milton, Book iv. "Quem neque pauperies, neque mors, neque vincula terrent, Hor. Prudence, whofe glafs prefents th' approaching jail : Poetic Juftice, with her lifted fcale, Where, in nice balance, truth with gold fhe weighs, And folid pudding against empty praise. Here the beholds the Chaos dark and deep, Here one poor word an hundred clenches makes, 55 60 REMARKS. The famous race of Book VER. 57. genial Jacob] Tonfon. fellers of that name. A VER. 63. Here one poor word an hundred clenches makes,] It may not be amifs to give an inftance or two of thofe operations of Dulnefs, out of the Works of her Sons, celebrated in the poem. great Critic formerly held thefe clenches in fuch 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 fent abroad into the world as many Bulls "as his namefake 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, IMITATION S. VER. 55. Here he bebolds the Chaos dark and deep, That is to fay, unformed things, which are either made "Within the chambers of the globe they fpy into Poems Thefe lines "Unbinds the glebe, and calls them out to day." VER. 64. And ductile Dulness, etc.] A parody on a verfe in Garth, Cant.i. "How ductile matter new meanders takes." |