This labour past, by Bridewell all descend As morning-prayers and flagellation end), To where Fleet-ditch with disemboguing streams Rolls the large tribute of dead dogs to Thames, The king of dykes! than whom no sluice of mud With deeper sable blots the silver flood.

Here strip, my children, here at once leap in, Here prove who best can dash through thick and thin; And who the most in love of dirt excel,

Or dark dexterity of groping well.

Who flings most filth, and wide pollutes around

The streams, be his the Weekly Journals bound:

A rig of lead to him who dives the best;

A peek of coals apiece shall glad the rest.
In naked majesty Oldmixon stands,

And, Milo-like, surveys his arms and hands;
Then sighing thus: And am I now threescore?
Ah, why, ye gods, should two and two make four?'

REMARKS.

Let rhyming persons who have been brought up pro testants be otherwise what they will, let them be rakes, let them be scoundrels, let them be atheists, yet educacation has made an invincible impression on them in behalf of the sacred writings. But a popish rhymester has been brought up with a contempt for those sacred writings; now shew me another popish rhymester but he.' This manner of argumentation is usual with Mr. Dennis; he has employed the same against sir Richard himself, in a like charge of impiety and irreligion. All Mr. Blackmore's celestial machines, as they cannot be defended so much as by common received opinion, so are they directly contrary to the doctrine of the church of England; for the visible descent of an angel must be a miracle. Now it is the doctrine of the church of England that miracles had ceased a long time before prince Arthur came into the world. Now if the doctrine of the church of England be true, as we are obliged to believe, then are all the celestial machines in Prince Arthur unsufferable, as wanting not only human, but divine prohability. But if the machines are sufferable, that is, if they have so much as divine probability, then it follows of necessity that the doctrine of the church is false. So I leave it to every impartial clergyman to consider,' &c. Preface to the Remarks on Prince Arthur.

Ver. 270. (As morning prayers and flagellation end)] It is between eleven and twelve in the morning, after church service, that the criminals are whipped in Bridewell. This is to mark punctually the time of the day: Homer does it by the circumstance of the judges rising from court, or of the labourers' dinner: our author by one very proper both to the persons and the scene of his poem, which we may remember commenced in the evening of the lord-mayor's day. The first book passed in that night; the next morning the games begin in the Strand, thence along Fleet-street (places inhabited by booksellers), then they proceed by Bridewell toward Fleet-ditch, and lastly through Ludgate to the city, and the temple of the goddess.

Ver. 280. the Weekly Journals] Papers of news and scandal intermixed, on different sides and parties, and frequently shifting from one side to the other, called the London Journal, British Journal, Daily Journal, &c. the concealed writers of which for some time were Oldmixon, Roome, Arnall, Concanen, and others; persons never seen by our author.

Ver. 283. In naked majesty Oldmixon stands,] Mr. John Oldmixon, next to Mr. Dennis, the most ancient critic of our nation; an unjust censurer of Mr. Addison in his prose Essay on Criticism, whom also in his imitation of Bouhours (called the Arts of Logic and Rhetoric) he misrepresents in plain matter of fact; for in p. 45, he cites the Spectator as abusing Dr. Swift by name, where there is not the least hint of it; and in p. 304, is so injurious as to suggest that Mr. Addison himself writ that Tatler, No. 43, which says of his own simile, that, "Tis as great as ever entered into the mind of man.' In poetry he was not so happy as laborious, and therefore characterized by the Tatler, No. 62, by the name of Omicron the Unborn Poet.' Curll, Key, p. 13. He writ dramatic works, and a volume of poetry, consisting of heroic epistles, &c. some whereof are very well done, said the great judge, Mr. Jacob, in his Lives of Poets, vol. ii. p. 303.

In his essay on Criticism, and the arts of Logic and Rhetoric, he frequently reflects on our author. But the top of his character was a perverter of history, in that scandalous one of the Stuarts, in folio, and his Critical History of England, two volumes octavo. Being em

No noise, no stir, no motion canst thou make,
The unconscious stream sleeps o'er thee like a lake.
Next plunged a feeble but a desperate pack,
With each a sickly brother at his back:
Sons of a day! just buoyant on the flood,
Then number'd with the puppies in the mud.
Ask ye their names? I could as soon disclose
The names of these blind puppies as of those.
Fast by, like Niobe (her children gone)
Sits mother Osborne, stupified to stone!

REMARKS.

290

300

310

ployed by bishop Kennet, in publishing the historians in his collection, he falsified Daniel's Chronicle in num. berless places. Yet this very man, in the preface to the first of these books, advanced a particular fact to charge three eminent persons of falsifying the lord Clarendon's History; which fact has been disproved by Dr. Atterbury, late bishop of Rochester, then the only survivor of them; and the particular part he pretended to be falsified, produced since, after almost ninety years, in that noble author's original manuscript. He was all his life a virulent party-writer for hire, and received his reward in a small place, which he enjoyed to his death.

Ver. 291 Next Smedley dived;] In the surreptitious editions, this whole episode was applied to an initial letter E-, by whom, if they meant the laureate, nothing was more absurd, no part agreeing with his character. The allegory evidently demands a person dipped in scandal, and deeply immersed in dirty work; whereas Mr. Eusden's writings rarely offended but by their length and multitude, and accordingly are taxed of nothing else in book i. ver 102. But the person here mentioned, an Irishman, was author and publisher of many scurrilous pieces, a weekly Whitehall Journal, in the year 1722, in the name of Sir James Baker; and particularly whole volumes of Billingsgate against Dr, Swift and Mr. Pope, called Gulliveriana and Alexandriana, printed in octavo, 1728.

Ver. 295. Then essay'd;] A gentleman of genius and spirit, who was secretly dipped in some papers of this kind, on whom our poet bestows a panegyric instead of a satire, as deserving to be better employed than in party-quarrels and personal invectives.

Ver. 299. Concanen] Mathew Concanen, an Irishman, bred to the law. Smedley (one of his brethren in enmity to Swift) in his Metamorphosis of Scriblerus, p. 7, accuses him of having boasted of what he had not written, but others had revised and done for him.' He was author of several dull and dead scurrilities in the British and London Journals, and in a paper called the Speculatist. In a pamphlet, called a Supplement to the Profound, he dealt very unfairly with our poet, not only frequently imputing to him Mr. Broome's verses (for which he might indeed seem in some degree accountable, having corrected what that gentleman did) but those o. the Duke of Buckingham and others: to this rare piece somebody humorously caused him to take for his motto, De profundis clamavi. He was since a scribbler in the Daily Courant, where he poured forth much Billingsgate against the lord Bolingbroke, and others: after which this man was surprisingly promoted to administer justice and law in Jamaica.

Ver. 306, 307. With each a sickly brother at his back: Sons of a day, &c.] These were daily papers, a number of which, to lessen the expence, were printed one on the back of another.

Ver. 312. Osborne] A name assumed by the eldest and gravest of these writers, who, at last, being ashamed of his pupils, gave his paper over and in his age remained

silent.

And monumental brass this record bears,

These are,-ah no! these were the Gazetteers!' Not so bold Arnall; with a weight of skull, Furious he dives, precipitately dull. Whirlpools and storms his circling arm invest, With all the might of gravitation bless'd. No crab more active in the dirty dance, Downward to climb, and backward to advance, He brings up half the bottom on his head, And loudly claims the journals and the lead.

The plunging prelate, and his ponderous grace, With holy envy gave one layman place.

REMARKS.

Ver. 314. Gazetteers] We ought not to suppose that a modern critic here taxeth the poet with an anachronism, affirming these gazetteers not to have lived within the time of his poem, and challenging us to produce any such paper of that date. But we may with equal assurance assert these gazetteers not to have lived since, and challenge all the learned world to produce one such paper at this day. Surely therefore, where the point is so obscure, our author ought not to be censured too rashly. Scribl. Notwithstanding this affected ignorance of the good Scriblerus, the Daily Gazetteer was a title given very properly to certain papers, each of which lasted but a day. Into this, as a common sink, was received all the trash which had been before dispersed in several journals, and circulated at the public expense of the nation. The authors were the same obscure men; though sometimes relieved by occasional essays from statesmen, courtiers, bishops, deans, and doctors. The meaner sort were rewarded with money; others with places or benefices, from a hundred to a thousand a year. It appears from the Report of the Secret Committee for inquiring into the Conduct of R. earl of O-, That no less than fifty thousand seventy-seven pounds eighteen shillings were paid to authors and printers of newspapers, such as Free Britons, Daily Courants, Corn Cutter's Journals, Gazetteers, and other political papers, between Feb. 10, 1731, and Feb. 10, 1741. Which shews the benevolence of one minister to have expended, for the current dulness of ten years in Britain, double the sum which gained Louis XIV. so much honour, in annual pensions to learned men all over Europe. In which, and in a much longer time, not a pension at court, nor preferment in the church or universities, of any consideration, was bestowed on any man distinguished for his learning separately from party-merit, or pamphlet writing.

It is worth a reflection, that of all the panegyrics bestowed by these writers on this great minister, not one is at this day extant or remembered, not even so much credit done to his personal character by all they have written, as by one short occasional compliment of our author:

'Seen him I have; but in his happier hour Of social pleasure, ill exchanged for power! Seen him, uncumber'd by the venal tribe, Smile without art, and win without a bribe.' Ver. 315. Arnall] William Arnall, bred an attorney, was a perfect genius in this sort of work. He began under twenty with furious party papers; then succeeded Concanen in the British Journal. At the first publication of the Dunciad, he prevailed on the author not to give him his due place in it, by a letter professing his detestation of such practices as his predecessor's. But since, by the most unexampled insolence, and personal abuse of several great men, the poet's particular friends, he most amply deserved a niche in the temple of infamy; witness a paper called the Free Briton, a dedication entitled, To the Genuine Blunderer, 1732, and many others. He writ for hire, and valued himself upon it; not indeed without cause, it appearing, by the aforesaid Report, that he received for Free Britons and other writings, in the space of four years, no less than ten thousand nine hundred and ninety-seven pounds six shillings and eight pence, out of the Treasury. But frequently, through his fury or folly, he exceeded all the bounds of his commission, and obliged his honourable patron to disavow his scurrilities.

Ver. 323. The plunging prelate, &c.] It having been invidiously insinuated that by this title was meant a truly great prelate, as respectable for his defence of the present balance of power in the civil constitution, as for his opposition to the scheme of no power at all, in the religious; I owe so much to the memory of my deceased friend as to declare, that when, a little before his death, I informed him of this insinuation, he called it

330

340

Then sung, how, shewn him by the nut-brown maids,
A branch of Styx here rises from the shades;
That, tinctured as it runs with Lethe's streams,
And wafting vapours from the land of dreams
(As under seas Alpheus' secret sluice
Bears Pisa's offering to his Arethuse);
Pours into Thames and hence the mingled wave
Intoxicates the pert, and lulls the grave:
Here brisker vapours o'er the Temple creep,
There, all from Paul's to Aldgate drink and sleep.
Thence to the banks where reverend bards repose,
They led him soft; each reverend bard arose ;
And Milbourne chief, deputed by the rest,
Gave him the cassock, surcingle, and vest.
Receive,' he said, these robes which once were mine,
Dulness is sacred in a sound divine.'

350

He ceased, and spread the robe; the crowd confess The reverend flamen in his lengthen'd dress. Around him wide a sable army stand, A low-born, cell-bred, selfish, servile band, Prompt or to guard or stab, to saint or damn, Heaven's Swiss, who fight for any god, or man. Through Lud's famed gates, along the well-known Fleet, Rolls the black troop, and overshades the street, Till showers of sermons, characters, essays, In circling fleeces whiten all the ways: So clouds, replenish'd from some bog below, Mount in dark volumes, and descend in snow. Here stopt the goddess; and in pomp proclaims A gentler exercise to close the games:

Ye critics! in whose heads, as equal scales,
I weigh what author's heaviness prevails;
Which most conduce to soothe the soul in slumbers,
My Henley's periods, or my Blackmore's numbers; 370
Attend the trial we propose to make:
If there be man, who o'er such works can wake,
Sleep's all-subduing charms who dares defy,
And boasts Ulysses' ear with Argus' eye;
To him we grant our amplest powers, to sit
Judge of all-present, past, and future wit;
To cavil, censure, dictate, right or wrong,
Full and eternal privilege of tongue.'

Three college sophs and three pert templars came,
The same their talents, and their tastes the same:
Each prompt to query, answer, and debate,
And smit with love of poesy and prate.

vile and malicious, as any candid man, he said, might understand, by his having paid a willing compliment to this very prelate in another part of the poem.

Ver. 349. And Milbourne] Luke Milbourne, a clergyman, the fairest of critics; who, when he wrote against Mr. Dryden's Virgil, did him justice in printing at the same time his own translations of him, which were intolerable. His manner of writing has a great resemblance with that of the gentlemen of the Dunciad against our author, as will be seen in the parallel of Mr. Dryden and him.

Ver. 355. Around him wide, &c.] It is to be hoped, that the satire in these lines will be understood in the confined sense in which the author meant it, of such only of the clergy, who, though solemnly engaged in the service of religion, dedicate themselves for venal and corrupt ends to that of ministers or factions; and though educated under an entire ignorance of the world, aspire to interfere in the government of it, and consequently, to disturb and disorder it; in which they fall short of their predecessors only by being invested with much less of that power and authority, which they employed indifferently (as is hinted at in the lines above) either in supporting arbitrary power, or in exciting rebellion; in canonizing the vices of tyrants, or in blackening the virtues of patriots; in corrupting religion by superstition, or betraying it by libertinism, as either was thought best to serve the ends of policy, or flatter the follies of the great

The ponderous books two gentle readers bring!
The heroes sit, the vulgar form a ring.
The clamorous crowd is hush'd with mugs of mum,
Till all, tuned equal, send a general hum.
Then mount the clerks, and in one lazy tone
Through the long, heavy, painful page drawl on;
Soft creeping, words on words, the sense compose,
At every line they stretch, they yawn, they doze.
As to soft gales top-heavy pines bow low
Their heads, and lift them as they cease to blow,
Thus oft they rear, and oft the head decline,
As breathe, or pause, by fits, the airs divine.
And now to this side, now to that they nod,
As verse, or prose, infuse the drowsy god.
Thrice Budgel aim'd to speak, but thrice suppress'd
By potent Arthur, knock'd his chin and breast.
Toland and Tindal, prompt at priests to jeer,
Yet silent bow'd to Christ's no kingdom here.
Who sat the nearest, by the words o'ercome,
Slept first, the distant nodded to the hum.

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400

Then down are roll'd the books; stretch'd o'er them lies
Each gentle clerk, and muttering seals his eyes.
As what a Dutchman plumps into the lakes,
One circle first, and then a second makes;
What Dulness dropp'd among her sons impress'd
Like motion from one circle to the rest:
So from the midmost the nutation spreads
Round and more round, o'er all the sea of heads.
At last Centlivre felt her voice to fail,
Motteux himself unfinish'd left his tale,
Boyer the state, and Law the stage gave o'er,
Morgan and Mandevil could prate no more;

410

Norton, from Daniel and Ostroa sprung,
Bless'd with his father's front, and mother's tongue
Hung silent down his never-blushing head;
And all was hush'd, as folly's self lay dead.

Thus the soft gifts of sleep conclude the day,
And stretch'd on bulks, as usual, poets lay.
Why should I sing, what bards the nightly muse
Did slumbering visit, and convey to stews?
Who prouder march'd with magistrates in state,
To some famed round-house, ever-open gate?
How Henley lay inspired beside a sink,
And to mere mortals seem'd a priest in drink :
While others, timely, to the neighbouring Fleet
(Haunt of the muses) made their safe retreat?

REMARKS.

420

Ver. 415. Norton] Norton De Foe, offspring of the famous Daniel, fortes creantur fortibus. One of the authors of the Flying Post, in which well-bred work Mr. P. had sometime the honour to be abused with his betters; and of many hired scurrilities and daily papers, to which he never set his name.

Ver. 427. Fleet] A prison for insolvent debtors on the bank of the ditch.

BOOK THE THIRD.

REMARKS.

Ver. 397. Thrice Budgel aim'd to speak.] Famous for his speeches on many occasions about the South Sea schemes, &c. "He is a very ingenious gentleman, and hath written some excellent epilogues to plays and one small piece on Love, which is very pretty.'-Jacob, Lives of Poets, vol. ii. p. 289. But this gentleman since made himself much more eminent, and personally well known to be the greatest statesman of all parties, as well as to all the courts of law in this nation.

Ver. 399. Toland and Tindal,] Two persons not so happy as to be obscure, who writ against the religion of their country. Toland, the author of the atheist's liturgy, called Pantheisticon, was a spy, in pay to lord Oxford. Tindal was author of the Rights of the Christian Church, and Christianity as old as the Creation, He also wrote an abusive pamphlet against earl S- which was suppressed while yet in MS. by an eminent person, then out of the ministry, to whom he showed it, expecting his approbation. This doctor afterwards published the same piece, mutatis mutandis, against that very person.

Ver. 400. Christ's no kingdom,] This is said by Curll, Key to Dunc. to allude to a sermon of a reverend bishop.

Ver. 411. Centlivre] Mrs. Susanna Centlivre, wife to Mr. Centlivre, yeoman of the mouth to his majesty. She writ many plays, and a song (says Mr. Jacob, vol. I. p. 32), before she was seven years old She also writ a ballad against Mr. Pope's Homer, before he began it.

Ver. 413. Boyer the state, and Law the stage gave o'er,] A. Boyer, a voluminous compiler of annals, political collections, &c.-William Law, A. M. wrote with great zeal against the stage; Mr. Dennis answered with as great: their books were printed in 1726. The same Mr. Law is author of a book entitled, An Appeal to all that doubt of or disbelieve the truth of the Gospel ; in which he has detailed a system of the rankest Spinosism, for the most exalted theology; and amongst other things as rare, has informed us of this, that sir Isaac Newton stole the principles of his philosophy from one Jacob Behmen, a German cobbler.

Ver. 414. Morgan] A writer against religion, distinguished no otherwise from the rabble of his tribe, than by the pompousness of his title; for having stolen his morality from Tindal, and his philosophy from Spinosa, he calls himself, by the courtesy of England, a moral philosopher.

Ibid. Mandevil] This writer, who prided himself in the reputation of an immoral philosopher, was author of a famous book called the Fable of the Bees; written to prove, that moral virtue is the invention of knaves, and Christian virtue the imposition of fools; and that vice is necessary, and alone sufficient to render society flourishing and happy.

ARGUMENT.

After the other persons are disposed in their proper places of rest, the goddess transports the king to her temple, and there lays him to slumber, with his head on her lap; a position of marvellous virtue, which causeth all the visions of wild enthusiasts, projectors, politicians, inamoratos, castle-builders, chemists, and poets. He is immediately carried on the wings of fancy, and led by a mad poetical Sibyl to the Elysian shade; where, on the banks of Lethe, the souls of the dull are dipped by Bavius, before their entrance into this world. There he is met by the ghost of Settle, and by him made acquainted with the wonders of the place, and with those which he himself is destined to perform. He takes him to a mount of vision, from whence he shews him the past triumphs of the empire of Dulness, then the present, and lastly the future: how small a part of the world was ever conquered by science, how soon those conquests were stopped, and those very nations again reduced to her dominion. Then distinguishing the island of Great Britain, shews by what aids, by what persons, and by what degrees it shall be brought to her empire. Some of the persons he causes to pass in review before his eyes, describing each by his proper figure, character, and qualifications. On a sudden the scene shifts, and a vast number of miracles and prodigies appear, utterly surprising and unknown to the king himself, till they are explained to be the wonders of his own reign now commencing. On this subject Settle breaks into a congratulation, yet not unmixed with concern, that his own times were but the types of these. He prophesies how first the nation shall be overrun with farces, operas, and shows; the throne of Dulness shall be advanced over the theatres, and set up even at court: then how her sons shall preside in the seats of arts and sciences; giving a glimpse, or Pisgah sight, of the future fulness of her glory, the accomplishment whereof is the subject of the fourth and last book.

BOOK III.

BUT in her temple's last recess enclosed,
On Dulness' lap the anointed head reposed.
Him close she curtains round with vapours blue,
And soft besprinkles with Cimmerian dew,
Then raptures high the seat of sense o'erflow,
Which only heads refined from reason know.

REMARKS.

Ver. 5, 6, &c.] Hereby is intimated that the following vision is no more than the chimera of the dreamer's

Hence from the straw where Bedlam's prophet nods,
He hears loud oracles, and talks with gods:
Hence the fool's paradise, the statesman's scheme,
The air-built castle, and the golden dream,
The maid's romantic wish, the chemist's flame,"
And poet's vision of eternal fame.

And now, on fancy's easy wing convey'd,

The king descending, views the Elysian shade.
A slip-shod Sibyl led his steps along,

In lofty madness meditating song
Her tresses staring from poetic dreams,

And never wash'd, but in Castalia's streams.
Taylor, their better Charon, lends an oar,

(Once swan of Thames, though now he sings no more).
Benlowes, propitious still to blockheads, bows;
And Shadwell nods the poppy on his brows.
Here, in a dusky vale where Lethe rolls,
Old Bavius sits, to dip poetic souls,

REMARKS.

10

19

he had never seen.

Bentl.

Ver. 15. A slip-shod Sibyl] This allegory is extremely just, no conformation of the mind so much subjecting it to real madness, as that which produces real dulness. Hence we find the religious (as well as the poetical) enthusiasts of all ages were ever, in their natural state, most heavy and lumpish; but on the least application of beat, they ran like lead, which of all metals falls quickest into fusion. Whereas fire in a genius is tryly Pro methean; it hurts not its constituent parts, but only fit it (as it does well-tempered steel) for the necessary impressions of art. But the common people have been taught (I do not know on what foundation) to regard lunacy as a mark of wit, just as the Turks and our modern Methodists do of holiness. But if the cause of madness assigned by a great philosopher be true, it will unavoidably fall upon the dunces. He supposes to be the dwelling over-long on one object or idea. Now as this attention is occasioned either by grief or study, it will be fixed by dulness: which hath not quickness enough to comprehend what it seeks, nor force and vigour enough to divert the imagination from the object

it laments.

it

Ver. 19. Taylor,] John Taylor, the water-poet, an honest man, who owns he learned not so much as the accidence: a rare example of modesty in a poet!

'I must confess I do want eloquence,
And never scarce did learn my accidence:
For having got from possum to posset,

I there was gravell'd, could not no farther get.'
He wrote fourscore books in the reign of James I. and
Charles I. and afterwards (like Edward Ward) kept an
ale-house in Long-acre. He died in 1654.

Ver. 21. Benlowes,] A country gentleman, famous for his own bad poetry, and for patronising bad poets, as may be seen from many dedications of Quarles and others to him. Some of these anagramed his name Benlows into Benevolus: to verify which, he spent his whole estate upon them.

Ver. 22. And Shadwell nods the poppy, &c.] Shadwell took opium for many years; and died of too large a dose, in the year 1692.

Ver. 24. Old Bavius sits,] Bavius was an ancient poet, celebrated by Virgil for the like causes as Bays by our author, though not in so Christian-like a manner: for heathenishly it is declared by Virgil of Bavius, that he ought to be hated and detested for his evil works; qui Bavium non odit: whereas we have often had occasion to observe our poet's great good nature and mercifulness through the whole course of this poem.

Scribl.

And blunt the sense, and fit it for a skull

Of solid proof, impenetrably dull:

Instant, when dipp'd, away they wing their flight,
Where Brown and Meers unbar the gates of light,
Demand new bodies, and in calf's array,

Rush to the world, impatient for the day.
Millions and millions on these banks he views,
Thick as the stars of night, or morning dews,
As thick as bees o'er vernal blossoms fly,

As thick as eggs at Ward in pillory.

Wondering he gazed: when, lo! a sage appears, By his broad shoulders known, and length of years, Known by the band and suit which Settle wore (His only suit) for twice three years before :

30

Ver. 34. Ward in pillory.] John Ward, of Hackney, esq. member of parliament, being convicted of forgery, was first expelled the house, and then sentenced to the pillory on the 17th of February, 1727. Mr. Curll (hav ing likewise stood there) looks upon the mention of such a gentleman in a satire, as a great act of barbarity, Key to the Dunc. 3d. edit. p. 16. And another author reasons thus upon it: Durgen. 8vo. p. 11, 12. How unworthy is it of Christian charity to animate the rabble to abuse a worthy man in such a situation! What could move the poet thus to mention a brave sufferer, a gallant prisoner, exposed to the view of all mankind? It was laying aside his senses, it was coinmitting a crime for which the law is deficient not to punish him! nay, a crime which man can scarce forgive, or time efface! nothing surely could have induced him to it but being bribed by a great lady,' &c. (to whom this brave, honest, worthy gentleman was guilty of no offence but forgery, proved in open court). But it is evident this verse could not be meant of him; it being notorious that no eggs were thrown at that gentleman. Perhaps, therefore, it might be intended of Mr. Edward Ward, the poet, when he stood there.

Ver. 36 And length of ears,] This is a sophisticated reading. I think I may venture to affirm all the copyists are mistaken here: I believe I may say the same of the critics; Dennis, Oldmixon, Welsted, have passed it in silence. I have also stumbled at it, and wondered how an error so manifest could escape such accurate persons. I dare assert, it proceeded originally from the inadvertency of some transcriber, whose head ran on the pillory, mentioned two lines before; it is therefore amazing that Mr. Curll himself should overlook it! Yet that scholiast takes not the least notice hereof. That the learned Mist also read it thus, is plain from his ranging this passage among those in which our author was blamed for personal satire on a man's face (whereof doubtless he might take the ear to be a part); so likewise Concanen, Ralph, the Flying Post, and all the herd of commentators-Tota armenta sequuntur.

A very little sagacity (which all these gentlemen, therefore, wanted) will restore to us the true sense of the poet thus:

By his broad shoulders known, and length of years.' See how easy a change of one single letter! That Mr. Settle was old, is most certain; but he was (happily) a stranger to the pillory. This note is partly Mr. Theobald's, partly Scribl.

Ver. 37. Settle] Elkanah Settle was once a writer in vogue as well as Cibber, both for dramatic poetry and politics. Mr. Dennis tells us, that he was a formidable rival to Mr. Dryden, and that in the university of Cambridge there were those who gave him the preference. Mr. Welsted goes yet farther in his behalf! 'Poor Settle was formerly the mighty rival of Dryden; nay, for many years, bore his reputation above him. Pref. to his Poems, 8 vo. p. 31. And Mr. Milbourne cried out, How little was Dryden able, even when his blood run high, to defend himself against Mr. Settle!' Notes on Dryd. Virg. p. 175. These are comfortable opinions; and no wonder some authors indulge them.' He was author or publisher of many noted pamphlets, in the time of king Charles II. He answered all Drv. den's political poems! and being cried up on one side, succeeded not a little in his tragedy of the Empress of Morocco the first that was ever printed with cuts. Upon this he grew insolent, the wits writ against his play, he replied, and the town judged he had the better. in short, Settle was then thought a very formidable rival to Mr. Dryden; and not only the town, but the university of Cambridge was divided which to prefer; and in both places the younger sort inclined to Elkanah. Dennis, Pref. to Rem. on Hom.

All as the vest, appear'd the wearer's frame,
Old in new state, another yet the same.
Bland and familiar as in life, begun
Thus the great father to the greater son:

Oh born to see what none can see awake!
Behold the wonders of the oblivibus lake!
Thou, yet unborn, hast touch'd this sacred shore;
The hand of Bavius drench'd thee o'er and o'er.
But blind to former, as to future fate,
What mortal knows his pre-existent state?
Who knows how long thy transmigrating soul
Might from Boeotian to Boeotian roll?
How many Dutchmen she vouchsafed to thrid ?
How many stages through old monks she rid?
And all who since, in wild benighted days.
Mix'd the owl's ivy with the poet's bays.
As man's meanders to the vital spring

Roll all their tides, then back their circles bring;
Or whirligigs, twirl'd round by skilful swain,
Suck the thread in, then yield it out again:
All nonsense thus, of old or modern date,
Shall, in thee centre, from thee circulate.
For this, our queen unfolds to vision true
Thy mental eye, for thou hast much to view:
Old scenes of glory, times long cast behind,
Shall, first recall'd, rush forward to thy mind:
Then stretch thy sight o'er all her rising reign,
And let the past and future fire thy brain.

Ascend this bill, whose cloudy point commands
Her boundless empire over seas and lands.
See, round the poles where keener spangles shine,
Where spices smoke, beneath the burning line
(Earth's wide extremes), her sable flag display'd,
And all the nations cover'd. in her shade!

Far eastward cast thine eye, from whence the sun And orient science their bright course begun : One godlike monarch all that pride confounds, He, whose long wall the wandering Tartar bounds; Heavens what a pile! whole ages perish there, And one bright blaze turns learning into air.

Thence to the south extend thy gladden'd eyes; There rival flames with equal glory rise, From shelves to shelves see greedy Vulcan roll, And lick up all their physic of the soul.

How little, mark! that portion of the ball, Where, faint at best, the beams of science fall: Soon as they dawn, from hyperborean skies Embodied dark, what clouds of Vandals rise! Lo! where 20tis sleeps, and hardly flows The freezing Tanaïs through a waste of snows, Tue North by myriads pours her mighty sons, Great nurse of Goths, of Alans, and of Huns! See Alaric's stern port! the martial frame Of Genseric; and Attila's dread name! See, the bold Ostrogoths on Datlum fall; See, the fierce Visigoths on Spain and Gaul! See, where the morning gilds the palmy shore (The soil that arts and infant letters bore) His conquering tribes the Arabian prophet draws, And saving ignorance enthrones by laws See Christians, Jews, one heavy sabbath keep. And all the western world believe and sleep.

Lo! Rome herself, proud mistress now no more Of arts, but thundering against heathen lore:

REMARKS.

Her gray-hair'd synods damning books unread, 40 And Bacon trembling for his brazen head. Padua, with sighs, beholds her Livy burn, And e'en the Antipodes Virgilius mourn. See, the Cirque falls, the unpillar'd temple nods, Streets paved with heroes, Tyber choked with gods: Till Peter's keys some christen'd Jove adorn, And Pan to Moses lends his Pagan horn; See graceful Venus to a virgin turn'd, Or Phidias broken, and Appelles burn'd. Behold yon isle, by palmiers, pilgrims trod,

110

50 Men bearded, bald, cowl'd, uncowl'd, shod, unshod,
Peel'd, patch'd, and piebald, linsey-wolsey brothers,
Grave mummers! sleeveless some, and shirtless others.
That once was Britain-Happy! had she seen
No fiercer sons, had Easter never been.
In peace, great goddess, ever be adored;
How keen the war, if Dulness draw the sword!
Thus visit not thy own! on this bless'd age
O spread thy influence, but restrain thy rage.
And see, my son! the hour is on its way,

60 That lifts our goddess to imperial sway;
This favourite isle, long sever'd from her reign,
Dove-like she gathers to her wings again.
Now look through fate! behold the scene she draws!
What aids, what armies, to assert her cause'
See all her progeny, illustrious sight!
Behold and count them, as they rise to light.
As Berecynthia, while her offspring vie
In homage to the mother of the sky,
Surveys around her, in the bless'd abode
70 A hundred sons, and every son a god:

80

120

130

Not with less glory mighty Dulness crown'd
Shall take through Grub-street her triumphant round;
And, her Parnassus glancing o'er at once,
Behold a hundred sons, and each a dunce.

Mark first that youth who takes the foremost place, And thrust his person full into your face.

REMARKS.

140

Doctor sanctissimus ille Gregorius, qui melleo prædicationis imbre totam rigavit et inebriavit ecclesiam ; non modo mathesin jussit ab aulâ, sed, ut traditur a majoribus, incendio dedit probatæ lectionis scripta, Palatinus quæcunque tenebat Apollo?' And in another place: Fertur beatus Gregorius bibliothecam combussisse gentilem; quo divinæ paginæ gratior esset locus, et major auctoritas, et diligentia studiosior.' De siderius, archbishop of Vienna, was sharply reproved 90 by him for teaching grammar and literature, and explaining the poets; because (says this pope) In uno se ore cum Jovis laudibus Christi laudes non capiunt: Et quam grave nefandumque sit episcopis canere quod nec laico religioso conveniat, ipse considera.' He is said among the rest, to have burned Livy; ' Quia in superstitionibus et sacris Romanorum perpetuo versatur. The same pope is accused by Vossius, and others, of having caused the noble monuments of the old Roman magnificence to be destroyed, lest those who came to Rome should give more attention to triumphal arches, &c. than to holy things. Bayle, Dict.

100

Ver. 109. Till Peter's keys some christen'd Jove adorn,] After the government of Rome devolved to the Popes, their zeal was for some time exerted in demolishing the heathen temples and statues, so that the Goths scarce destroyed more monuments of antiquity out of rage, than these out of devotion. At length they spared some of the temples, by converting them into images of saints. In much later times, it was thought necessary to change the statues of Apollo and Pallas, on the tomb of Sanna. zarius, into David and Judith; the lyre easily became a harp, and the Gorgon's head turned to that of Holofernes.

Ver. 117, 118. Happy! had Easter never been.] Wars in England anciently, about the right time of celebrating Easter.

Ver. 126. Dove-like, she gathers,] This is fulfilled in the fourth book.

Ver. 128. What aids, what armies, to assert her cause] i. e. Of poets, antiquaries, critics, divines, freethinkers. Bat as this revolution is only here set on foot by the first of these classes, the poets, they only are here particularly celebrated, and they only properly fall under the care and review of this colleague of Dulness, the laureate. The others, who finish the great work, are reserved for the fourth book, where the goddess herself appears in full glory.

Ver. 140. Jacob, the scourge of grammar, mark with awe;] This gentleman is son of a considerable master