A Poet the first day he dips his quill; And what the last? a very Poet still. Pity! the charm works only in our wall, Loft, loft too foon in yonder House or Hall. There truant WYNDHAM ev'ry Mufe gave o'er, 165 170 Oh (cry'd the Goddess) for fome pedant Reign! Some gentle JAMES, to bless the land again; REMARKS. 176 To VER. 166. in yonder House or Hall.] Weftminster-hall and the House of Commons. * VER. 174. that Mafler-piece of Man.] Viz. an Epigram. The famous Dr. South used to declare that a perfect Epigram was as difficult a performance as an Epic Poem. And the Critics fay, "an Epic Poem is the greatest work human nature is capable of." POPE. VER. 175. Ob (cry'd the Goddefs), &c.] The matter under debate, is how to confine men to words, for life. The inftructors of youth fhew how well they do their parts; but complain that when men come into the world they are apt to forget their learning, and turn themselves to useful knowledge. This was an evil that wanted to be redreffed. And this the Goddess affures them will need a more extenfive Tyranny than that of Grammar-schools. She therefore points out to them the remedy, in her wishes for arbitrary Power; whose interest it being to keep men from the study of things, will encourage the propagation of words and founds; and, to make all fure, fhe wishes for another Pedant Monarch. The fooner to obtain fo great a bleffing, fhe is willing even for once To stick the Doctor's Chair into the Throne, Give law to Words, or war with Words alone, REMARK S. Senates once to violate the fundamental principle of her politics, in having her fons taught at least one thing; but that which comprises all, the Doctrine of Divine Right. Nothing can be jufter than the obfervation here infinuated, that no branch of Learning thrives well under arbitrary Government but the verbal. The reafons are evident. It is unfafe under fuch Governments to cultivate the ftudy of things, efpecially things of importance. Befides, when men have loft their public virtue, they naturally delight in trifles, if their private morals fecure them from vice. Hence so great a cloud of Scholiafts and Grammarians fo foon overspread Greece and Italy, when once those famous lights of the World had loft their Liberties. Another reason is the encouragement which arbitrary Governments give to the study of words, in order to busy and amuse active Geniuses, who might otherwife prove troublesome and inquifitive. Thus when Cardinal Richelieu had deftroyed the poor remains of Gallic liberty, and made the supreme Court of Parliament merely miniflerial, he inftituted the French Academy, for the perfecting their language. What was faid upon that occafion, by a brave Magiftrate, when the letters patent of its erection came to be verified in the Parliament of Paris, deferves to be remembered: He told the affembly, that it put him in mind how an Emperor of Rome once treated his Senate; who, when he had deprived them of the direction of Public matters, fent a message to them in form, for their opinion about the beft Sauce for a Turbot. * VER. 176. Some gentle JAMES, &c.] Wilfon tells us that this King, James the Firft, took upon himfelf to teach the Latin tongue to Car, Earl of Somerset; and that Gondomar the Spanish Ambaffador would fpeak falfe Latin to him, on purpose to give him the pleasure of correcting it, whereby he wrought himself into his good graces. This great prince was the first who affumed the title of Sacred Majefty, which his loyal Clergy transfer'd from God to Him. "The principles of Paffive Obedience and Non-refiftance (fays the Author of the Differtation on Parties, Letter 8.), which before his time had skulk'd perhaps in fome old Homily, were talked Senates and Courts with Greek and Latin rule, For fure, if Dulness fees a grateful Day, O! if my fons may learn one earthly thing, Teach but that one, fufficient for a King; REMARKS. 180 That talked, written, and preached into vogue in that inglorious reign." POPE. King James prevailed on Camden to alter fome paffages in the first part of his hiftory, for which Thuanus reproached him. WARTON. VER. 181, 182. if Dulness fees a grateful Day,-'Tis in the fhade of Arbitrary Sway.] And grateful it is in Dulnefs to make this confeffion. I will not fay fhe alludes to that celebrated verse of Claudian, 66 nunquam Libertas gratior exftat Quam fub Rege pio ;" But this I will fay, that the words Liberty and Monarchy have been frequently confounded and mistaken one for the other, by the graveft authors. I fhould therefore conjecture, that the genuine reading of the forecited verse was thus, "nunquam Libertas gratior exftat Quam fub Lege pia," and that Rege was the reading only of Dulnefs herself: And therefore she might allude to it. SCRIBLERUS. The genuine reading is But the error lies in and then the meaning I judge quite otherwife of this paffage: Libertas and Rege: So Claudian gave it. the verb: It should be exit, not exflat, will be, that Liberty was never loft, or went away with so good a grace, as under a good King: it being without doubt a tenfold fhame to lofe it under a bad one. This further leads me to animadvert upon a moft grievous piece of nonfenfe to be found in all the Editions of the Author of the Dunciad himself. A moft capital one it is, and owing to the confufion mentioned above by Scriblerus, of the two words Liberty and Monarchy. Effay on Crit. "Nature That which my Priests, and mine alone, maintain, 186 May you, my Cam, and Ifis, preach it long! Nor wert thou, Ifis! wanting to the day, [Tho' Chrift-church long kept prudishly away.] 192 Each REMARKS. "Nature, like Monarchy, is but restrain’d By the fame Laws herself at first ordain'd." Who fees not, it should be, Nature, like Liberty? Correct it therefore repugnantibus omnibus (even though the Author himself fhould oppugn) in all the impreffions which have been, or shall be, made of his works. BENTLEY. Pore. VER. 183. 0! if my fons may learn] The doctrines of true Whiggifm, as it is called, were never placed in a stronger light, or fet off with more forcible language, than in this and the five following lines. What will the difciples of Hobbes or Filmer, fay to this paffage? WARTON. VER. 189. Prompt at the call,-Ariftotle's friends.] The Author, with great propriety, hath made thefe, who were so prompt, at the call of Dulnefs, to become preachers of the Divine Right of Kings, to be the friends of Ariftotle; for this philofopher, in his Politics, hath laid it down as a principle, that fome men were by nature made to ferve, and others to command. WARBURTON. * VER. 192. of Ariftotle's friends.] Let those who wantonly and ignorantly condemn the Philofophy of Ariftotle, carefully read the truly learned treatife of the late James Harris efq. entitled, Philofophical Arrangements; where they may fee in what manner the preceptor of Alexander the Great arranged his pupil's ideas, fo that they might not caufe confufion for want of accurate difpofition. WARTON. Each staunch Polemic, stubborn as a rock, 195 REMARKS. Came VER. 194. [Tho' Chrift-church] This line is doubtless fpurious and foifted in by the impertinence of the Editor; and accordingly we have put it between Hooks. For I affirm this College came as early as any other, by its proper Deputies; nor did any College pay Homage to Dulnefs in its whole Body. BENTLEY. POPE. * VER. 196. fill expelling Locke,] In the year 1703 there was a meeting of the heads of the University of Oxford to cenfure Mr. Locke's Effay on Human Understanding, and to forbid the reading it. See his Letters in the last Edit. of his works. Such was the fate of this new Philosophy at Oxford. The new Theology of Erafmus met with pretty much the fame treatment, a Century or two before, in the University of Cambridge. See Dr. Knight's Life of Erafmus, p. 137.-But our obnoxious Essayift had given fcandal to the Scholiaftic fpirit of Anthony Wood, the famed Oxford Hiftorian, long before; who, in the Journal of his own life, has furnished us with this curious anecdote. "April 23d, 1663, I began a Course of Chymiftry, [in Oxford,] under the noted Chemist and Roficrufian, Peter Sthael of Strasburg in Royal Pruffia. The club confifted of ten at leaft, whereof was JOHN Lock, of Christ Church, afterwards a noted Writer. This John Lock was a man of a turbulent spirit, clamorous, and never contented. The club wrote, and took notes from the mouth of their Mafter but the faid John Lock fcorned to do it: so that while every man befides were writing, he would be prating and troublefome." Whatever might have been the cafe in the year 1703, certain I am, that Locke's Effay has been univerfally read and recommended at Oxford, for above fifty years laft paft. WARTON. VER. 196. Locke,] I could never learn that Locke was expelled the Univerfity. He was deprived of his ftudentship of Chrift-church for being privy to the defigns of Lord Shaftesbury against the Government; and if we confider the nature of the offence, we shall have reason to admire the mildness of the punishBANNISTER. ment. They |