THE BOOK I. HE mighty Mother, and her Son, who brings VARIATION S. VER. 1. The mighty mother, etc.] In the firft Edit. it was thus: IMITATION S. Say, great Patricians! fince yourselves infpire -Dii cœptis (nam vos mutaftis & illas.) Ovid. Met. i. REMARKS. THE DUNCIAD.] It is an inconvenience, to which Writers of reputation are fubject, that the Justice of their refentment is not always rightly understood. For the calumnies of dull Authors being foon forgotten, and those whom they aimed to injure not caring to recal to memory the particulars of false and fcandalous abuse, their neceffary correction is suspected of severity unprovoked. But, in this cafe, it would be but candid to estimate the chaftifement on the general Character of the offender, compared with that of the Perfon injured. Let this ferve with the candid Reader, in juftification of the Poet; and, on occafion, of the Editor. The DUNCIAD; fic MS. It may well be difputed, whether this be a right reading: Ought it not rather to be spelled Dunceiad, as the Etymology evidently demands? Dunce with an e; therefore Dunceiad with an e. That accurate and punctual Man of Letters, the Reftorer of Shakespeare, conftantly obferves the prefervation of this very Letter e, in fpelling the name of his beloved Author, and not, like his common careless Editors, with the omiffion of one, nay fometimes of two ce's (as Shakspear), which is utterly unpardonable. "Nor is the neglect of a Single Letter fo trivial as to fome "it may appear; the alteration whereof in a learned language is an Atchievement that brings honour to the Critic who advances "it; and Dr. Bentley will be remembered to pofterity for his per Say, how the Goddefs bade Britannia fleep, And pour'd her Spirit o'er the land and deep. REMARKS. VER. 1. The mighty Mother, and her Son, etc.] The Reader caght here to be cautioned, that the Mother, and not the Son, is the principal Agent of this Poem: The latter of them is only chofen as her Colleague (as was anciently the custom in Rome before some great expedition); the main action of the Poem being by no means the Coronation of the Laureate, which is performed in the very first bock, but the Restoration of the Empire of Dulnefs in Britain, which is not accomplished till the last. Ibid.ber Son, who brings, etc.] Wonderful is the ftupidity of all the former Critics and Commentators on this work! It breaks forth at the very first line. The Author of the Critique prefixed to Sarney, a Poem, p. 5. hath been fo dull as to explain the Man who brings, etc. not of the Hero of the picce, but of our Poet himself, as if he vaunted that Kings were to be his readers; an honour, which though this Poem hath had, yet knoweth he how to receive it with more modesty. We remit this Ignorant to the first lines of the Eneid, assuring him, that Virgil there fpeaketh, not of himself, but of Æneas: "Arma virumque cano, Trojæ qui primus ab oris "Italiam, fato profugus, Lavinaque venit "Littora: multum ille et terris jactatus et alto," &c. I cite the whole three verfes, that I may by the way offer a Conjectural Emendation, purely my own, upon each: Firft, oris fhould be read aris; it being, as we fee, En. ii. 513. from the altar of Jupiter Hercæus that Eneas fled as foon as he faw Priam flain. In the fecond line I would read flatu for fato, fince it is most clear it was by Winds that he arrived at the bore of Italy. Jactatus, in the third, is furely as improperly applied to terris, as proper to alta; to fay a man is toft on land, is much at one with faying he walks at fea: Rifum teneatis amici ? Corre&t it, as I doubt not it ought to be, vexatus. SCRIBL. VER. 2. The Smithfield Mufes] Smithfield is the place where Bartholomew fair was kept, whofe shows, machines, and dramatical entertainments formerly agreeable only to the tafte of the Rabble, were, by the Hero of this poem, and others of equal genius, brought to the Theatres of Covent-garden, Lincoln's-inn-fields, and the Hay-market, to be the reigning pleafures of the Court and Town. This happened in the reigns of K. George I. and II. See Book iii. VER. 4. By Dulness, Jove, and Fate:] i. e. by their Judgments, their Interefts, and their Inclinations. In eldest time, ere mortals writ or read, 10 15 REMARKS. VER. 7. Say, how the Goddess, etc.] The Poet ventureth to fing the Action of the Goddess; but the Paffion the impreffeth on her iiluftrious Votaries, he thinketh can only be told by themselves. SCRIBL. VER. 12. Daughter of Chaos, etc.] The beauty of the whole Allegory being purely of the poetical kind, we think it not our proper bufinefs, as a Scholiaft, to meddie with it: but leave it (as we fhall in general all fuch) to the reader; remarking only, that Chaos (according to Hefied's Oroyovia) was the Progenitor of all the Gods. SCRIBL. VER. 15. Laborious, heavy, bufy, bold, etc.] I wonder the learned Scriblerus has omitted to advertise the Reader, at the opening of this Poem, that Dulness here is not to be taken contractedly for mere Stupidity, but, in the enlarged fenfe of the word, for all Slowness of Apprehenfion, Shortnefs of Sight, or imperfect Sense of things. It includes (as we fee by the Poet's own words) Labour, Induftry, and fome degrees of activity and boldness; a ruling principle, not inert, bút turning topsy-turvy the Understanding, and inducing an Anarchy or confufed State of Mind. This remark ought to be carried along with the reader throughout the work; and without this caution he will be apt to miftake the importance of many of the Characters, as well as of the defign of the Poet. Hence it is, that fome have complained he chufes too mean a fubject, and imagined he employs himself, like Domitian, in killing flies; whereas those who have the true key, will find he sports with nobler quarry, and embraces a larger compafs; or (as one faith on a like occafion), "Will fee his Work, like Jacob's ladder, rife, BENTL. VER. 16. She rul'd, in native Anarchy, the mind.] The native Anarchy of the mind is that state which precedes the time of Reafon's afluming the rule of the Paffions. But, in that ftate, the uncontrolled violence of the Paffions would foon bring things to confufion, were it not for the intervention of DULNESS, in this abfence of Reafon; who, though the cannot regulate them like Reafon, yet blunts Still her old Empire to restore fhe tries, For, born a Goddefs, Dulness never dies. Oh Thou! whatever title please thine ear, 20 25 Mourn not, my SWIFT, at ought our Realm acquires. VARIATION S. After VER. 22. in the MS. Or in the graver Gown instruct mankind, But this was to be understood, as the Poet fays, ironicè, like the 23d REMARKS. and deadens their vigour, and indeed produces fome of the good effects of it: Hence it is that Dulnefs has often the appearance of Reafon. This is the only good fhe ever did; and the candid Poet is careful to tell it in the very introduction of his Poem. It is to be obferved indeed, that this is spoken of the universal rule of Dulness in ancient days; but we may form an idea of it from her partial Government in latter times. VER. 17. Still her old Empire to restore] This restoration makes the Completion of the Poem. Vide Book iv. VER. 20.-Drapier, Bickerstaff, or Gulliver!] The several names and characters he affumed in his ludicrous, his fplenetic, or his party-writings; which take in all his works. VER. 22.-laugh and shake in Rab`lais' eafy chair,] The imagery is exquifite; and the equivoque in the last words, gives a peculiar eicgance to the whole expreffion. The eafy chair fuits his age: Rab'lais' eafy chair marks his character; and he fills and poffeffes it as the right heir and fucceffor of that original genius. VER. 23. Or praise the Court, or magnify Mankind,] Ironicè, alluding to Gulliver's reprefentations of both.-The next line relates to the papers of the Drapier against the currency of Wood's Copper coin in Ireland, which, upon the great difcontent of the people, his Majefty was graciously pleafed to recal. VER. 26. Mourn not, my Swift! at aught our Realm acquires.] Ironicè iterum. The Politics of England and Ireland were at this time by fome thought to be oppofite, or interfering with each other: Dr. Swift, of course, was in the intereft of the latter, our Author of the former. 6 Here pleas'd behold her mighty wings out-fpread Close to those walls where Folly holds her throne, And laughs to think Monroe would take her down, VARIATION S. VER. 29. Close to thofe walls, etc.] In the former Edit. thus: A yawning ruin hangs, and nods in air; The Cave of Poverty and Poetry. Var. Where wave the tatter'd enfigns of Rag-fair,] Rag-fair is a place near the Tower of London, where old cloaths and frippery are fold. Var. A yawning ruin bangs, and nods in air Here, in one Bed, two fhiv'ring Sifters lie, "Thefe The Hear upon this place the forecited Critic on the Dunciad. "lines (faith he) have no Conftruction, or are nonsense. "two fhiv'ring Sifters must be the fifter caves of Poverty and Poetry; or the bed and cave of Poverty and Poetry must be the same [queftionless, if they lie in one bed], and the two fifters, the Lord "knows who." O the construction of grammatical heads! Virgil 66 writeth thus: En. i. "Fronte fub adverfa fcopulis pendentibus antrum: May we not fay in like manner, "The Nymphs must be the waters "and the ftones, or the waters and the ftones must be the houses of "the Nymphs?" Infulfe! The fecond line, Intus aquæ, etc. is a parenthefis (as are two lines of our Author, Keen hollow winds, etc.), and it is the Antrum, and the yawning Ruin, in the line before that parenthefis, which are the Domus and the Cave. Let me again, I beseech thee, Reader, prefent thee with another Conjectural Emendation on Virgi's fcopulis pendentibus: He is here defcribing a place, whither the weary mariners of Eneas repaired REMARK S. VER. 28. To batch a new Saturnian age of Lead.] The ancient Golden Age is by Poets ftyled Saturnian, as being under the reign of Saturn but, in the Chemical language, Saturn is Lead. She is here faid only to be spreading her wings to hatch this Age; which is not produced completely till the fourth book. |
