With pert flat eyes fhe window'd well its head; And empty words fhe gave, and founding ftrain, 45 So like, that critics faid, and courtiers fwore, A Wit it was, and call'd the phantom More. NOTES. 50 VER. 44. A brain of feathers, and a heart of lead;] i.e. A trifling head, and a contracted heart, as the poet, book iv. defcribes the accomplished Sons of Dulnefs; of whom this is only an Image, or Scarecrow, and so stuffed out with these corresponding materials. SCRIBL. VER. 47. Never was dafh'd out, at one lucky hit,] Our author here feems willing to give fome account of the poffibility of Dulness making a Wit (which could be done no other way than by chance.) The fiction is the more reconciled to probability, by the known ftory of Apelles, who being at a lofs to exprefs the foam of Alexander's horfe, dashed his pencil in defpair at the picture, and hap pened to do it by that fortunate stroke. VER. 50. and call'd the phantom More.] CURL, in his key to the Dunciad, affirmed this to be James More Smith efq. and it is probable (confidering what is faid of him in the Teftimonies) that fome might fancy our author obliged to reprefent this gentleman as a plagiary, or to pafs for one himself. His cafe indeed was like that of a man f have heard of, who, as he was fitting in company, perceived his next neighbour had ftolen his handkerchief. "Sir, (faid the thief, finding himself detected) do not expose me, I did it for mere want; be fo good but to take it privately out of my pocket again, and fay no All gaze with ardour: Some a poet's name, Others a fword-knot and lac'd fuit inflame. 66 NOTES. "thing." "The honeft man did fo, but the other cry'd out, See, gentlemen, what a thief we have among us! "look, he is ftealing my handkerchief!" Some time before, he had borrowed of Dr. Arbuthnot a paper call'd an Hiftorico-phyfical account of the SouthSea; and of Mr. Pope the Memoirs of a Parifh Clark,which for two years he kept, and read to the Rev. Dr. Young, F. Billers, Efq. and many others, as his own. Being applied to for them, he pretended they wereloft; but there happening to be another copy of the latter, it came out in Swift and Pope's Mifcellanies. Upon this, it feems he was fo far mistaken as to confefs his proceeding by an endeavour to hide it: unguardedly printing (in the Daily Journal of Ap. 3.1728.)" That the contempt "which he and others had for thofe pieces (which only himself had shown, and handed about as his own) "oc"cafioned their being loft, and for that caufe only not " return'd "A fact, of which as none but he could be confcious, none but he could be the publisher of it. The ̧· plagiarisms of this perfon gave occafion to the following Epigram: This More always fmiles whenever he recites; He fmiles (you think) approving what he writes. A modest man may like what's not his own. young Gentleman's whole misfortune was too inordinate a paffion to be thought a Wit. Here is a very ftrong inftance attefted by Mr. Savage fon of the late Earl Rivers; who having fhown fome verfes of his in manufcript to Mr. Moore, wherein Mr. Pope was call'd first of the tuneful train, Mr. Moore the next morning fent to Mr. Savage to defire him to give thofe verfes another turn, to wit, "That Pope might now be the firft, because Moore, "had left him unrival'd in turning his ftyle to Comedy." But lofty Lintot in the circle rofe: "This prize is mine; who tempt it are my foes; NOTES. This was during the rehearsal of the Rival Modes, his first and only work; the Town condemn'd it in the action, but he printed it in 1726-7, with this modeft Motto, Hic cafus, artemque repono. The smaller pieces which we have heard attributed to this author, are, An Epigram on the Bridge at Blenheim, by Dr. Evans: Cofmelia, by Mr Pit, Mr. Jones, &c. The Mock-marriage of a mad Divine, with a Cl- for a Parfon, by Dr. W. The Saw-pit, a Simile, by a Friend. Certain Physical works on Sir James Baker; and fome unown'd Letters, Advertisements, and Epigrams against our author in the Daily Journal. 1 Notwithstanding what is here collected of the Perfon imagin'd by Curl to be meant in this place, we cannot be of that opinion; fince our Poet had certainly no need of vindicating half a dozen verfes to himself, which every reader had done for him; fince the name itself is not fpell'd Moore, but More; and laftly, fince the learned Scriblerus has fo well prov'd the contrary. VER. 50. the phantom More.] It appears from hence, that this is not the name of a real perfon, but fictitious. More from up, ftultus, μwgía, ftultitia, to reprefent the folly of a plagiary. Thus Erafmus, Admonuit me Mori cognomen tibi, quod tam ad Moriæ vocabulum accedit quam es ipfe a re alienus. Dedication of Moria Encomium to Sir Tho. More; the farewell of which may be our author's to his plagiary, Vale, More! & moriam tuam gnaviter defende. Adieu, More! and be fure ftrongly to defend thy own folly. SCRIBL. VER. 53. But lofty Lintot] We enter here upon the episode of the Bookfellers: Perfons, whofe names being more known and famous in the learned world than those of the Authors in this poem, do therefore need less ex E 55 "With me began this genius, and fhall end." planation. The action of Mr. Lintot here imitates that of Dares in Virgil, rifing juft in this manner to lay hold on a Bull. This eminent Bookfeller printed the Rival Modes before-mentioned. VER. 58. Stood dáuntless Curl ;] We come now to a character of much respect, that of Mr. Edmund Curl. As a plain repetition of great actions is the best praise of them, we fhall only fay of this eminent man, that he carried the Trade many lengths beyond what it ever before had arrived at ; and that he was the envy and admiration of all his profeffion. He poffeffed himself of a command over all authors whatever; he caused them to write what be pleased; they could not call their very Names their own. He was not only famous among thefe; he was taken notice of by the State, the Church, and the Law, and received particular marks of distinction from each. It will be owned that he is here introduced with all poffible dignity: He fpeaks like the intrepid Diomed; he runs like the fwift-footed Achilles; if he falls, 'tis like the beloved Nifus; and (what Homer makes to be the chief of all praifes) he is favoured of the Gods; he fays but three words, and his prayer is heard; a Goddess conveys it to the feat of Jupiter: Though he lofes the prize, he gains the victory the great Mother herself comforts him, fhe infpires him with expedients, fhe honours him with an immortal prefent (such as Achilles receives from Thetis, and Æneas from Venus) at once inAtructive and prophetical: After this he is unrivalled and triumphant. The tribute our author here pays him is a grateful return for feveral unmerited obligations: Many weighty animadverfions on the publick affairs, and many excellent "The race by vigour, not by vaunts is won ; He left huge Lintot, and out-ftrip'd the wind. IMITATIONS. VER. 60. So take the hindmoft, Hell.] Occupet extremum fcabies; mihi turpe relinqui eft. Hor. de Art. VER. 61, &c. Something like this is in Homer, Il. x. 220. of Diomed. Two different manners of the fame author in his fimiles are alfo imitated in the two following; the firft, of the Bailiff, is fhort, unadorned, and (as the Critics well know) from familiar life; the second of the Water-fowl, more extended, picturefque, and from rural life. The 59th verfe is likewise a literal tranflation of one in Homer, NOTES. and diverting pieces on private perfons, has he given to his name. If ever he owed two verfes to any other, he owed Mr. Curl fome thoufands. He was every Day extending his fame, and enlarging his Writings: Witness innumerable inftances; but it fhall fuffice only to mention the Court Poems, which he meant to publish as the work of the true writer, a Lady of quality; but being first threatened, and afterwards punished for it by Mr. Pope, he generously transferred it from her to him, and ever fince printed it in his name. The fingle time that ever he spoke to C. was on that affair, and to that happy incident he owed all the favours fince received from him: So true is the faying of Dr. Sydenham, "that any one "fhall be, at fome time or other, the better or the worse, " for having but feen or spoken to a good or bad man.” |