From thy Boeotia tho' her Pow'r retires, 25 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. Close to those walls where Folly holds her throne, And laughs to think Monroe would take her down, VARIATIONS. VER. 29. Close to thofe walls, &c.] In the former Edd. thus, Where wave the tatter'd enfigns of Rag-fair, A yawning ruin hangs and nods in air; Keen hollow winds howl thro' the bleak recefs, Here in one bed two fhiv'ring Sisters lie, The Cave of Poverty and Poetry. Var. Where wave the tatter'd enfigns of Rag-fair,] Rag fair is a place near the Tower of London, where old cloaths and frippery are fold. 66 Var. Ayawning ruin hangs and nods in air ; Here in one Bed two fhiv'ring Sifters lie, Hear upon this place the forecited Critic on the Dunciad. "Thefe lines (faith he) have no conftruction, or are non"fenfe. The two fhivering Sifters must be the fiftercaves of Poverty and Poetry, or the bed and cave of Poverty and Poetry must be the fame, [queftionless, if they "lie in one bed] and the two Sifters the lord knows who." O the construction of grammatical heads! Virgil writeth thus: En. i. Fronte fub adverfa fcopulis pedentibus antrum ; Nympharum domus. May we not fay in like manner, "The Nymphs must be "the waters and the ftones, or the waters and the ftones Where o'er the gates, by his fam'd father's hand, 31 Great Cibber's brazen, brainless brothers ftand; VARIATIONS. "must be the houses of the Nymphs ?" Infulfe! The fecond line, Intus aquæ, &c. is in a parenthefis (as are two lines of our Author, Keen hollow Winds, &c.) and it is the Antrum, and the yasuning Ruin, in the line before that parenthesis, which are the Domus and the Cave. Let me again, I beseech thee, Reader, prefent thee with another Conjectural Emendation on Virgil's fcopulis pendentibus: He is here defcribing a place, whither the weary Mariners of Æneas repaired to dress their dinner.Fefi-frugefque receptas Et torrere parant flammis: What has fcopulis pendentibus here to do? Indeed the aque dulces and fedilia are fomething; fweet waters to drink, and feats to reft on: the other is furely an error of the Copyifts. Reftore it, without the least fcruple, Populis prandentibus. But for this and a thousand more, expect our Virgil Reftor'd, fome Specimen whereof fee in the Appendix. SCRIBLERUS. NOTES. VER. 26. Mourn not, my Swift! at ought our realm acquires.] Ironicè iterum. The Politics of England and Ireland were at this time by fome thought to be oppofite, or interfering with each other: Dr. Swift of courfe was in the intereft of the latter, our Author of the former. VER. 28. To batch a new Saturnian age of Lead.] The ancient Golden Age is by Poets ftyled Saturnian, as being under the reign of Saturn: but in the Chemical language Saturn is Lead. She is faid here only to be fpreading her wings to hatch this age; which is not produced completely till the fourth book. 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 juftly fays of them) are no ill monuments of his fame as an Artist. One Cell there is, conceal'd from vulgar eye, The Cave of Poverty and Poetry. Keen, hollow winds howl thro' the bleak recefs, 35 Hence Bards, like Proteus long in vain ty'd down, Hence Journals, Medleys, Merc'ries, MAGAZINES: VARIATIONS. VER. 41. in the former lines, Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiac Lay, VER. 42. Alludes to the annual Songs compofed to Mufic on St. Cecilia's Feaft. IMITATIONS. VER. 41, 42. Hence hymning Tyburn's-Hence, &c.] Genus unde Latinum, Albanique patres, atque altæ monia Romæ. NOTES. Virg. Æn. i. VER. 34. Poverty and Poetry] I cannot here omit a remark that will greatly endear our Author to every one, who fhall attentively obferve that Humanity and Candor, 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, bafe flatteries, wretched elegies, fongs, and verfes (even from thofe fung at Court to ballads in the streets) not fo much to malice or fervility as to Dulnefs; and not fo much to Dulnefs as to Neceffity. And thus, at the very commencement of his Satire,. makes an apology for all that are to be fatirized. Sepulchral Lies, our holy walls to grace, And New-year Odes, and all the Grub-street race. IMITATIONS. VER. 45. In clouded Majefty] the Moon 45 Rifing in clouded Majefty- Milton, Book iv. NOTES. 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 thofe upftart collections in profe and verse, where Dulness affumes all the various fhapes of folly to draw in and cajole the Rabble. The eruption of every itching fcribbler; the fcum of every ftagnant dirty news-paper; the rags of worn-out nonfense and scandal, picked up from every Dung-hill, under the title of Essays, Reflections, Queries, Songs, Epigrams, Riddles, &c. equally the disgrace of human wit, morality, and common sense. VER. 43. Sepulchral Lies,] Is a juft fatire on the Flatteries and Falfhoods admitted to be infcribed 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: One half will never be believ'd, 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 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 Fierce champion Fortitude, that knows no fears. Calm Temperance, whose bleffings those partake Where, in nice balance, truth with gold fhe weighs, And folid pudding against empty praise. Here the beholds the Chaos dark and deep, 55 VER. 48. IMITATIONS. that knows no fears Of hiffes, blows, or want, or lofs of ears:] Quem neque pauperies, neque mors, neque vincula terrent. Hor. VER. 55. Here the beholds the Chaos dark and deep, &c.] That is to fay, unformed things, which are either made into Poems or Plays, as the Bookfellers or the Players bid moft. Thefe lines allude to the following in Garth's Difpenfary, Cant. vi. Within the chambers of the globe they spy &c. NOTES. character as a writer, which doubtless induced our Author to mention them here fo particularly. VER. 50. Who hunger, and who thirst, &c.] "This "is an allufion to a text in Scripture, which fhews, in "Mr. Pope, a delight in prophaneness," said 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 fill in grafs. Ibid. They are for the flowery way |