How, with less reading than makes felons 'scape, REMARKS. 286 Ver. 286. Tibbald,] Lewis Tibbald (as pronounced) or Theobald (as written) was bred an Attorney, and son to an Attorney (says Mr. Jacob) of Sittenburn in Kent. He was Author of some forgotten Plays, Translations, and other pieces. He was concerned in a paper called the Censor, and a Translation of Ovid. "There is a notorious Idiot, one hight Whachum, who from an under spur-leather to the law, is become an under-strapper to the Playhouse, who hath lately burlesqued the Metamorphoses of Ovid by a vile Translation, &c. This fellow is concerned in an impertinent paper called the Censor."-Dennis, Rem. on Pope's Hom. p. 9, 10. W. Ibid. Ozell.]" Mr. John Ozell (if we credit Mr. Jacob) did go to school in Leicestershire, where somebody left him something to live on, when he shall retire from business. He was designed to be sent to Cambridge, in order for priesthood; but he chose rather to be placed in an office of accounts, in the City, being qualified for the same by his skill in arithmetic, and writing the necessary hands. He has obliged the world with many translations of French Plays."-Jacob, Lives of Dram. Poets, p. 198. W. Mr. Jacob's character of Mr. Ozell seems vastly short of his merits, and he ought to have farther justice done him, having since fully confuted all Sarcasms on his learning and genius, by an advertisement of Sept. 20, 1729, in a paper called The Weekly Medley, &c. "As to my learning, this envious Wretch knew, and every body knows, that the whole Bench of Bishops, not long ago, were pleased to give me a purse of guineas, for discovering the erroneous translations of the Common-prayer in Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, &c. As for my genius, let Mr. Cleland shew better verses in all Pope's works, than Ozell's version of Boileau's Lutrin, which the late Lord Halifax was so pleased with, that he complimented him with leave to dedicate it to him, &c. Let him shew better and truer Poetry in The Goddess then, o'er his anointed head, With mystic words, the sacred Opium shed. And lo! her bird (a monster of a fowl, Something betwixt a Heideggre and owl) Perch'd on his crown. 290 "All hail! and hail again, My son! the promis'd land expects thy reign, Know, Eusden thirsts no more for sack or praise; He sleeps among the dull of ancient days; REMARKS. the Rape of the Lock, than in Ozell's Rape of the Bucket (la Secchia rapita). And Mr. Toland and Mr. Gildon publicly declared Ozell's translation of Homer to be, as it was prior, so likewise superior to Pope's. Surely, surely, every man is free to deserve well of his country!" John Ozell. We cannot but subscribe to such reverend testimonies, as those of the Bench of Bishops, Mr. Toland, and Mr. Gildon. W. Ibid. A Cibber, Tibbald, or Ozell.] A triumvirate surely not of authors on a level. The first far superior to the other two. What did they produce, in any respect, equal to the Careless Hushand, and the History of the Stage? Ver. 287. The Goddess then,] There was a poem published, 1712, entitled Bibliotheca, by Mr. Thomas Newcomb, a friend of Dr. Young, and reprinted in the fifth volume of Nicols's Collection, page 19, in which the Goddess Oblivion is introduced, speaking and acting, so very like the Goddess Dulness, and which throughout bears so close and striking a resemblance to the Dunciad, that it is impossible Pope should not have seen and copied it, though with exquisite improvements. The expression, o'er his anointed head, is from Mac Fleckno, "That for anointed Dulness he was made." As also in the preceding line, 262; "His brows thick fogs, instead of glories, grace." Ver. 290. a Heideggre] A strange bird from Switzerland, and not (as some have supposed) the name of an eminent person who was a man of parts, and, as was said of Petronius, Arbiter Elegantiarum. W. Safe, where no Critics damn, no duns molest, 295 300 VARIATIONS. Ver. 293. Know, Eusden, &c.] In the former Ed. Where Gildon, Banks, and high-born Howard, rest. To lands that flow with clenches and with puns: REMARKS. Ver. 296. Withers,] See on ver. 146. W. Ibid. Gildon] Charles Gildon, a writer of criticisms and libels of the last age, bred at St. Omer's with the Jesuits; but renouncing popery, he published Blount's books against the Divinity of Christ, the Oracles of Reason, &c. He signalized himself as a critic, having written some very bad Plays; abused Mr. P. very scandalously in an anonymous pamphlet of the life of Mr. Wycherley, printed by Curl; in another, called the New Rehearsal, printed in 1714; in a third, entitled the Complete Art of English Poetry, in two volumes; and others. W. Ibid. Withers, Ward,] It must be confessed, that in this quarrel with mean and contemptible writers, Pope was the aggressor; for it cannot be believed that the initial Letters in the Bathos, were placed at random and without design. Ver. 297. Howard,] Hon. Edward Howard, author of the British Princes, and a great number of wonderful pieces, celebrated by the late Earls of Dorset and Rochester, Duke of Buckingham, Mr. Waller, &c. Lift up your Gates, ye Princes, see him come! And thou! his Aid de camp, lead on my sons, 305 309 REMARKS. Ver. 301. Lift up your Gates,] I know not what can excuse this very profane allusion to a sublime passage in the Psalms; which was added to the last edition of the Dunciad in four books; and this too under the auspices and direction of Dr. Warburton. So again in Book iii. ver. 126. And also again Book iv. ver. 562. "Dove-like she gathers to her wings again." And in the Arguments, he talks of giving a Pisgah-sight of the future fulness of her Glory; and even of sending Priests and Comforters. Ver. 309, 310. under Archer's wing,- -Gaming, &c.] When the Statute against Gaming was drawn up, it was represented, that the King, by ancient custom, plays at Hazard one night in the year; and therefore a clause was inserted, with an exception as to that particular. Under this pretence, the Groom-porter had a room appropriated to Gaming all the summer the Court was at Kensington, which his Majesty accidentally being acquainted of, with a just indignation prohibited. It is reported the same practice is yet continued wherever the Court resides, and the Hazard Table there open to all the professed Gamesters in Town. "Greatest and justest Sov'REIGN; know you this? This practice has been laid aside for many years. O! when shall rise a Monarch all our own, And I, a Nursing-mother, rock the throne; 'Twixt Prince and People close the curtain draw, Shade him from Light, and cover him from Law ; Fatten the Courtier, starve the learned band, 315 And suckle armies, and dry-nurse the land: Till Senates nod to Lullabies divine, And all be sleep, as at an Ode of thine." She ceas'd. Then swells the Chapel-royal throat : God save king Cibber! mounts in ev'ry note. 320 Familiar White's, God save king Colley! cries; God save king Colley! Drury-lane replies: To Needham's quick the voice triumphal rode, But pious Needham dropt the name of God; Back to the Devil the last echoes roll, And Coll! each Butcher roars at Hockley-hole. REMARKS. 325 Ver. 319. Chapel-royal] The Voices and Instruments used in the service of the Chapel-royal being also employed in the performance of the Birth-day and New-year Odes. W. Ver. 324. But pious Needham] A Matron of great Fame, and very religious in her way; whose constant prayer it was, that she might "get enough by her profession to leave it off in time, and make her peace with God." But her fate was not so happy; for being convicted, and set in the pillory, she was (to the lasting shame of all her great Friends and Votaries) so ill used by the populace that it put an end to her days. W. IMITATIONS. Ver. 304. The creeping, dirty, courtly Ivy join.] "Quorum Imagines lambunt Hederæ sequaces." Pers. Ver. 311. O! when shall rise a Monarch, &c.] Boileau, Lutrin, Chant. II. "Helas! qu'est devenu cet tems, cet heureux tems, Où les Rois s'honoroient du nom de Faineans;" &c. W. |