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THE

DUNC I

A D.

BOOK the SECOND.

ARGUMEN T.

THE King being proclaimed, the folemnity is graced with public games and fports of various kinds; not inftituted by the Hero, as by Æneas in Virgil, but for greater honour by the Goddess in person (in like manner as the games Pythia, Ifthmia, &c. were anciently faid to be ordained by the Gods, and as Thetis herself appearing, according to Homer, Odyff. xxiv. proposed the prizes in honour of her fon Achilles.) Hither flock the Poets and Critics, attended, as is but juft, with their Patrons and Bookfellers. The Goddess is first pleased, for her difport, to propofe games to the Bookfellers, and fetteth up the phantom of a Poet, which they contend to overtake. The races described, with their divers accidents. Next, the game for a Poetefs. Then follow the exercises for the Poets, of tickling, vcciferating, diving: The firft holds forth the arts and practices of Dedicators, the fecond of Difputants and fuftian Poets, the third of profound, dark, and dirty Party-writers. Laftly, for the Critics, the Goddess propofes (with great propriety) an exercise, not of their parts, but their patience, in hearVOL. II. D d

ing

ing the works of two voluminous Authors, one in verfe, and the other in profe, deliberately read, without fleeping: The various effects of which, with the several degrees and manners of their operation, are here fet forth; till the whole number, not of Critics only, but of fpectators, actors, and all prefent, fall fast asleep; which naturally and neceffarily ends the games.

BOOK

воок K

II.

HIGH on a gorgeous feat, that far out-fhone
Henley's gilt tub*, or Fleckno's Irish throne †,

REMARK S.

Two things there are, upon the supposition of which the very basis of all verbal criticism is founded and supported: The first, that an author could never fail to use the best word on every occasion; the second, that a Critic cannot chufe but know which that is. This being granted, whenever any word doth not fully content us, we take upon us to conclude, firft, that the author could never have used it; and, secondly, that he must have used that very one, which we conjecture, in its stead.

We cannot, therefore, enough admire the learned Scriblerus for his alteration of the text in the two last verses of the preceding book, which in all the former editions ftood thus:

Hoarfe thunder to its bottom shook the bog:

And the loud nation croak'd, God fave king Log.

He has, with great judgment, transposed these two epithets; putting boarfe to the nation, and loud to the thunder; and this being evidently the trus reading, he vouchfafed not fo much as to mention the former; for which affertion of the just right of a Critic, he merits the acknowledgment of all found Commentators.

*The pulpit of a Diffenter is ufually called a tub; but that of Mr. Ora. tor Henley was covered with velvet, and adorned with gold. He had alfo a fair altar, and over it this extraordinary inscription, The Primitive Eucharist. See the hiftory of this perfon, book iii.

+ Richard Fleckno was an Irish priest, but had laid afide (as himself expreffed it) the mechanic part of priesthood. He printed fome plays, poems, letters, and travels. I doubt not, our author took occafion to mention him in refpect to the poem of Mr. Dryden, to which this bears fome refemblance, though of a character more different from it than that of the Æneid from the Iliad, or the Lutrin of, Boileau from the Defait de Bouts rimées of Sarazin. It may be just worth mentioning, that the eminence from whence the ancient Sophifts entertained their auditors, was called by the pompous name of a throne ; ἐπὶ θρόνῳ τινὸς ὑψηλῶ μαλα σοφισικώς και σοβαρώς. Themiftius, Orat. i.

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Or that where on her * Curls the public pours,
All bounteous, fragrant grains and golden fhow'rs,
Great Cibber fate: The proud Parnaffian fneer,
The conscious fimper, and the jealous leer,
Mix on his look: all eyes direct their rays

On him, and crowds turn coxcombs as they gaze.
His peers thine round him with reflected grace,
New edge their dulness, and new bronze their face. 10
So from the fun's broad beam, in fhallow urns
Heav'n's twinkling fparks draw light, and point their

horns.

Not with more glee, by hands pontific crown'd,
With scarlet hats wide-waving circled round,
Rome in her Capitol faw Querno fit †,

Thron'd on feven hills, the Antichrift of wit.

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15

And

• Edmund Curl ftood in the pillory at Charing-crofs, in March 1727-8, "This (faith Edmund Curl) is a false affertion-I had indeed the corporal "punishment of what the gentlemen of the long robe are pleafed jocofely to "call mounting the Roftrum for one hour; but that scene of action was not in "the month of March, but in February." [Curliad, 12mo, p. 19.] And of the Hiftory of bit being toft in a Blanket, he faith, "Here, Scriblerus! thou *leefeth in what thou affertest concerning the blanket: it was not a blanket, "but a rug," p. 25. Much in the fame manner Mr. Cibber remonstrated, that bis brothers, at Bedlam, mentioned Book i. were not Brazen, but Blocks; yet our author let it pass unaltered, as a trifle that no way altered the rela tionship.

We fhould think (gentle Reader) that we but ill performed our part, if we corrected not as well our own errors now, as formerly those of the Printer. Since what moved us to this Work, was folely the love of Truth, not in the leaft any Vain-glory, or defire to contend with Great Authors. And further, our mistakes, we conceive, will the rather be pardoned, as scarce poffible to be avoided in writing of such Persons and Works as do ever shun the Light. However, that we may not any way foften or extenuate the fame, we givę them thee in the very words of our Antagonists: not defending but retracting them from our heart, and craving excufe of the parties offended: for furely in this Work, it hath been above all things our defire, to provoke no

Man.

+ Camillo Querno was of Apulia, who hearing the great encouragement which Leo X. gave to poets, travelled to Rome with a harp in his hand, and fung to it twenty thousand verses of a poem called Alexias. He was introduced as a Buffoon to Leo, and promoted to the honour of the laurel; a

jeft

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