As clocks to weight their nimble motion owe,
The wheels above urg'd by the load below:
Me Emptiness, and Dulness could inspire,
And were my Elasticity, and Fire.

185

Some Demon stole my pen (forgive th' offence)
And once betray'd me into common sense :
Else all my Prose and Verse were much the same;
This, prose on stilts; that, poetry fall'n lame.

Did on the stage my Fops appear confin'd?
My Life gave ampler lessons to mankind.
Did the dead Letter unsuccessful prove;
The brisk Example never fail'd to move.

190

Yet sure, had Heav'n decreed to save the State, 195 Heav'n had decreed these works a longer date.

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 195. Yet sure, had Heav'n, &c.] In the former Ed.
Had Heav'n deereed such works a longer date,
Heav'n had decreed to spare the Grubstreet-state.
But see great Settle to the dust descend,
And all thy cause and empire at an end!
Could Troy be sav'd, &c.-

REMARKS.

W.

Ver. 181. As, forc'd from wind-guns, &c.] The thought of these four verses is found in a poem of our Author's of a very early date (namely written at fourteen years old, and soon after printed) to the Author of a poem called Successio. W.

Ver. 185. Me Emptiness,] This first speech of the Hero is full of an impropriety that one could hardly believe our author could fall into; it being contrary to all decorum, character, and probability, that Bays should address the Goddess Dulness, without

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 195. had Heav'n decreed, &c.]

"Me si cœlicolae voluissent ducere vitam,

Has mihi servassent sedes."

Virg. Æneid. ii.

Could Troy be sav'd by any single hand,
This gray-goose weapon must have made her stand.
What can I now ? my Fletcher cast aside,
Take up the Bible, once my better guide?
Or tread the path by vent'rous Heroes trod,
This Box my Thunder, this right-hand my God?

REMARKS.

200

disguising or mistaking her, as a despicable being; and should even call himself fool and blockhead. It is in truth outrageously unnatural and absurd. And so also is another and even more glaring breach of truth and decorum in book iv. v. 210, in making Aristarchus, that is, even the great and able Bentley, abuse himself, and laugh at his own labours. Bramstone has fallen into the same absurdity;

"A Footman I would be in outward show,

In sense and education truly so!" Man of Taste. Ver. 199. my Fletcher] A familiar manner of speaking, used by modern Critics, of a favourite author. Bays might as justly speak thus of Fletcher, as a French Wit did of Tully, seeing his works in a library, "Ah! mon cher Ciceron! je le connois bien; c'est le même que Marc Tulle." But he had a better title to call Fletcher his own, having made so free with him. W.

Ver. 200. Take up the Bible, once my better guide?] When, according to his Father's intention, he had been a Clergyman, or (as he thinks himself) a Bishop of the Church of England. Hear his own words: “At the time that the fate of K. James, the Prince of Orange, and myself, were on the anvil, Providence thought fit to postpone mine, 'till theirs were determined: but had my father carried me a month sooner to the University, who knows but that purer fountain might have washed my Imperfections into a capacity of writing, instead of Plays and annual Odes, Sermons, and Pastoral Letters? Apology for his Life,

chap. iii. W.

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 197, 198. Could Troy be sav'd--This gray-goose weapon]

2

"Si Pergama dextra

Defendi possent, etiam hac defensa fuissent."

Virg. ibid.

Ver. 202. This box my Thunder, this my right hand God?]

Dextra mihi Deus, et telum quod missile libro.”

Virgil of the Gods of Mezcatius.

205

Or chair'd at White's amidst the Doctors sit,
Teach Oaths to Gamesters, and to Nobles Wit?
Or bidst thou rather party to embrace?
(A friend to Party thou, and all her race;
'Tis the same rope at diff'rent ends they twist;
To Dulness Ridpath is as dear as Mist.)
Shall I, like Curtius, desp'rate in my zeal,
O'er head and ears plunge for the Common-weal?
Or rob Rome's ancient geese of all their glories,
And cackling save the Monarchy of Tories?

REMARKS.

209

Ver. 203. at White's amidst the Doctors] These Doctors had a modest and upright appearance, no air of overbearing; but like true Masters of Arts, were only habited in black and white: they were justly styled subtiles and graves, but not always irrefragabiles, being sometimes examined, and, by a nice distinction, divided and laid open. Scribl.*

This learned Critic is to be understood allegorically: the DOCTORS in this place mean no more than false Dice, a cant phrase used amongst Gamesters. So the meaning of these four sonorous Lines is only this, "Shall I play fair, or foul?" P.

Ver. 208. Ridpath-Mist.] George Ridpath, author of a Whig Paper, called the Flying Post; Nathaniel Mist, of a famous Tory Journal. W.

Ver. 211. Or rob Rome's ancient geese of all their glories,] Relates to the well-known story of the geese that saved the Capitol ; of which Virgil, Æneid. viii.

"Atque hic auratis volitans argenteus anser

Porticibus, Gallos in limine adesse canebat.'

A passage I have always suspected. Who sees not the antithesis of auratis and argenteus to be unworthy the Virgilian majesty? And what absurdity to say a goose sings? canebat. Virgil gives a contrary character of the voice of this silly bird, in Ecl. ix. argutos inter strepere anser olores."

Read it, therefore, adesse strepebat. And why auratis porticibus? does not the very verse preceding this inform us,

"Romuleoque recens horrebat regia culmo."

Hold to the Minister I more incline;

To serve his cause, O Queen! is serving thine.
And see! thy very Gazetteers give o'er,
215
Even Ralph repents, and Henley writes no more.
What then remains? Ourself. Still, still remain
Cibberian forehead, and Cibberian brain.
This brazen Brightness, to the 'Squire so dear;
This polish'd Hardness, that reflects the Peer: 220
This arch Absurd, that wit and fool delights;
This Mess, toss'd up of Hockley-hole and White's;
Where Dukes and Butchers join to wreathe my

crown,

At once the Bear and Fiddle of the town.

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 213. Hold-to the Minister-] In the former Ed.
Yes, to my Country I my pen consign,

Yes, from this moment, mighty Mist! am thine.

REMARKS.

W.

Is this thatch in one line, and gold in another, consistent? I scruple not (repugnantibus omnibus manuscriptis) to correct it aurilis. Horace uses the same epithet in the same sense,

And to

"Auritas fidibus canoris
Ducere quercus."

say that walls have ears is common even to a proverb.

Scribl.

Ver. 215. Gazetteers] A band of ministerial writers, hired at the price mentioned in the note on book ii. ver. 316, who, on the very day their patron quitted his post, laid down their paper, and declared they would never more meddle in Politics. W.

Ver. 217, What then remains? Ourself.] A happy parody on the famous Moy of Corneille in his Medea; who unluckily weakened the force of this word by adding, et c'est assez. the original is, in Seneca's Tragedy of Medea,

"Medea superest."

But

O born in sin, and forth in folly brought!

225

Works damn'd, or to be damn'd! (your father's fault)

Go, purify'd by flames ascend the sky,

My better and more Christian progeny!

Unstain'd, untouch'd, and yet in maiden sheets; While all your smutty sisters walk the streets. 230

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 225. O born in sin, &c.] In the former Ed.

Adieu, my Children! better thus expire

Unstall'd, unsold; thus glorious mount in fire,
Fair without spot; than greas'd by grocer's hands,
Or shipp'd with Ward to Ape-and-monkey lands,
Or wafting ginger, round the streets to run,
And visit Alehouse, where ye first begun.
With that he lifted thrice the sparkling brand,
And thrice he dropp'd it, &c.-

W.

Var. And visit Alehouse,] Waller on the Navy,

"Those tow'rs of Oak o'er fertile plains may go,
And visit mountains where they once did grow."

REMARKS.

W.

Ver. 225. O born in sin, &c.] This is a tender passionate Apostrophe to his own works, which he is going to sacrifice agreeable to the nature of man in great affliction; and reflecting like a parent on the many miserable fates to which they would otherwise be subject. W.

Ver. 228. My better] Notwithstanding all our author's or his commentator's efforts, to reduce to contempt Cibber's Apology for his Life, they will never be able to convince sensible and

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 229. Unstain'd, untouch'd, &c.]

"Felix Priamëia virgo!

Jussa mori: quæ sortitus non pertulit ullos,

Nec victoris heri tetigit captiva cubile!

Nos, patria incensa, diversa per æquora vectæ," &c.

Virg. Æneid. iii,