ing the works of two voluminous Authors, one in verse, and the other in prose, deliberately read, without sleeping: The various effects of which, with the several degrees and manners of their operation, are here set forth; till the whole number, not of Critics only, but of spectators, actors, and all present, fall fast asleep; which naturally and neceffarily ends the games.

BOOK

BOOK

II.

HIGH on a gorgeous seat, that far out-Thone

Henley's gilt tub*, or Fleckno's Irish thronet,

R E M A R K 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 chuse 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 bave used it; and, secondly, that he must have used that very oxe, which we conjecture, in its stead.

We cannot, therefore, cnough 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 stood thus :

Hoarse thunder to its bottom shook the bog :

And the loud nation croak'd, God save king Log. He has, with great judgment, transposed these two epichets ; putting boarse to the nation, and loud to ghe thunder; and this being evidently the true reading, he vouchsafed not so much as to mention the former; for which assertion of the just right of a Critic, he merits the acknowledgment of all found Commentators.

* The pulpit of a Dissenter is usually called a tub ; but that of Mr. Ora. tor Henley was covered with velvet, and adorned with gold. He had also a fair altar, and over it this extraordinary inscription, The Primilive Eucharist. See the history of this person, book iii.

† Richard Fleckno was an Irish priest, but had laid aside (as himself expressed it) the mechanic part of priesthood. He printed some plays, poems, letters, and travels. I doubt not, our author took occasion to mention him in respect to the poem of Mr. Dryden, to which this bears fome resemblance, though of a character more different from it than that of the Æneid from the Iliad, or the Lotrin of Boileau from the Defait de Bouts rimées of Sarazin.

It may be just worth mentioning, that the eminence from whence the ancient Sophists entertained their auditors, was called by the pompous name of a throne ; -imi gór8 Tivôs i fond je da opisinās xad sobazão Themiftius, Orat, i, Dd 2

Or

Or that where on her * Curls the public pours,
All bounteous, fragrant grains and golden show'rs,
Great Cibber sate : The proud Parnaffian sneer, 5
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. IO
So from the sun's broad beam, in shallow urns
Heav'n's twinkling sparks 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 saw Querno sitt,

15 Thron'd on seven hills, the Antichrist of wit.

And

Edmund Curl stood in the pillory at Charing-crofs, in March 1727-8, '" This (faith Edmund Curl) is a false affertion-1 had indeed the corporal • punishment of what the gentlemen of the long robe are pleased jocofely to “ call mounting the Roftrum for one hour; but that scene of action was not in * the month of Marcb, but in February.” [Curliad, 12mo, p. 19.) And of rbe History of bir being tost in a Blanket, he faith, “Here, Scriblerus! thou ** lecseth in what thou assertest concerning the blanket : it was not a blanker, " 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 tride that no way altered the relaa tionship.

25

And now the queen, to glad her sons, proclaims
By herald Hawkers, high heroic games.
They summon all her Race: an endless band
Pours forth, and leaves unpeopled half the land.
A motley mixture ! in long wigs, in bags,
In silks, in crapes, in garters, and in rags,
From drawing-rooms, from colleges, from garrets,
On horse, on foot, in hacks, and gilded chariots :
All who true Dunces in her cause appear'd,
And all who knew those Dunces to reward.

Amid that area wide they took their stand,
Where the tall May-pole once o'er-look'd the strand,
But now (fo ANNE and Piety ordain)
A church collects the saints of Drury-lane.

With Authors, Stationers obey'd the call,
(The field of glory is a field for all.)
Glory and gain, th' industrious tribe provoke ;
And gentle Dulness ever loves a joke *.
A poet's form she plac'd before their eyes,

35 And bade the nimblest racer seize the prize; No meagre, muse-rid

mope, aduft and thin,
In a dun night-gown of his own loose skin;
But such a bulk as no twelve bards could raise,
Twelve starv'ling bards of these degen'rate days.

40 All as a partridge plump, full-fed and fair, She form'd this image of well-body'd air;

flat
eyes

she window'd well its head; A brain of feathers, and a heart of lead t ;

And

30

With pert

jest which the court of Rome and the Pope himself entered into so far, as to cause him to ride on an elephant to the Capitol, and to hold a solemn feltival on his coronation ; on which it is recorded the Poet himself was so transported as to weep for joy'. He was ever after a constant frequenter of the Pope's table, drank abundantly, and poured forth verses without oumber, PAULUS JOVIus, Elog. Vir. doft. cap. lxxxiii. Some idea of his poetry is given by Fam. Strada, in his Prolusions.

* This species of mirth called a joke, arising from a mol-entendu, may be well supposed to be the delight of Dulness. † 1. e. A trilling hcad, and a contracted heart,

* Ses Life of C. C. chap. vi. p. 149.

45

And empty words she gave, and sounding strain,
But senseless, lifeless! idol void and vain !
Never was dash'd out, at one lucky hit *,
A fool, fo juft a copy of a wit;
So like, that critics said, and courtiers swore,
A Wit it was, and call’d the phantom More + I.

50 All

as the poet, book iv. describes the accomplished sons of Dulness; of whom this is only an Image, or Scarecrow, and fo stuffed out with these corresponding materials.

SCRIBL. * Our author here feemts willing to give some account of the poslability of Dulness making a Wit (which could be done no other way tlian by cbance.) The fi&tion is the more reconciled to probability by the known story of Apelles, who being at a loss to express the foam of Alexander's horse, dafh'd his pencil in despair at the piture, and happened to do it by that fortunate Itroke.

+ CURL, in his Key to to the Dunciad, affirmed this to be James-Moore Smith, Esq; and it is probable (considering what is faid of him in the Teftimonies) that some might fancy our author obliged to represent this gentleman as a plagiary, or to pass for one himfelf. His case indeed was like that of a man I have heard of, who, as he was fitting in company, perceived his next neighbour had stolen his handkerchief. “Sir,” (said the thief, finding himself detected) “ do not expose me, I did it for mere want ; be so good “ but to take it privately out of my pocket again, and say nothing." The honeft man did fo, but the other cry'd out, “ See gentleman what a thief “ we have among us! look, he is stealing my handkerchief!"