T

"HE Mighty Mother, and her Son, who brings The Smithfield Muses to the ear of Kings,

VARIATIONS.

VER. 1. The Mighty Mother, &c. in the first Edd. it was thus,
Books and the Man I fing, the first who brings
The Smithfield Muses to the Ear of Kings.
Say, great Patricians! fince yourselves inspire
Thefe wond'rous works (fo Jove and Fate require)
Say, for what caufe, in vain decry'd and curft,
Still

IMITATIONS.

Say, great Patricians ! fince your felves infpire
Thefe wondrous works

Dii coeptis (nam vos mutaftis & illas.)

REMARK S.

Ovid. Met. i.

THE DUNCIAD.] It is an inconvenience, to which Writers of reputation are fubject, that the Juftice of their refentment is not always rightly understood. For the calumnies of dull Authors being foon forgotten, and thofe whom they aimed to injure, not caring to recal to memory the particulars of false and scandalous abuse, their neceflary 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 Danceiad with an e. That accurate and punctual Man of Letters, the Reftorer of Shakespear, conftantly obferves the prefervation of this very Letter e, in fpelling the VOL. V. E

I fing. Say you, her inftruments the Great!

Call'd to this work by Dulness, Jove, and Fate;

REMARK S.

Name of his beloved Author, and not like his common careless Editors, with the omiffion of one, nay fometimes of two ee'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 Atchieve"ment that brings honour to the Critic who advances it; and "Dr. Bentley will be remembred to pofterity for his performcc ances of this fort, as long as the world shall have any esteem "for the remains of Menander and Philemon." THEOBALD. This is furely a flip in the learned author of the foregoing note; there having been fince produced by an accurate Antiquary, an Autograph of Shakspeare himself, whereby it appears that he spelled his own name without the first e. And upon this authority it was, that thofe moft Critical Curators of his Monument in Weftminster Abby erafed the former wrong reading, and restored the true fpelling on a new piece of old Ægyptian Granite. Nor for this only do they deferve our thanks, but for exhibiting on the fame Monument the first Specimen of an Edition of an author in Marble; where (as may be seen on comparing the Tomb with the Book) in the space of five lines, two Words and a whole Verfe are changed, and it is to be hoped will there ftand, and outlaft whatever hath been hitherto done in Paper; as for the future, our learned Sifter Univerfity (the other Eye of England) is taking care to perpetuate a Total new Shakespear, at the Clarendon prefs. BENTL.

It is to be noted, that this great Critic alfo has omitted one circumftance; which is, that the Infcription with the Name of Shakspeare was intended to be placed on the Marble Scroll to which he points with his hand; inftead of which it is now placed behind his back, and that Specimen of an Edition is put on the Scroll, which indeed Shakspeare hath great reason to point at.

ANON.

Gram

Though I have as just a value for the letter E, as any marian living, and the fame affection for the Name of this Poem as any Critic for that of his Author; yet cannot it induce me

You by whofe care, in vain decry'd and curft, 5 Still Dunce the fecond reigns like Dunce the firft;

REMARK S.

to agree with those who would add yet another e to it, and call it the Dunceiade; which being a French and foreign termination, is no way proper to a word entirely English, and vernacular. One e therefore in this cafe is right, and two e's wrong. Yet upon the whole I fhall follow the Manufcript, and print it without any è at all; moved thereto by Authority (at all times, with Critics, equal, if not superior to Reafon.) In which method of proceeding, I can never enough praise my good friend, the exact Mr. Tho. Hearne; who, if any word occur, which to him and all mankind is evidently wrong, yet keeps he it in the Text with due reverence, and only remarks in the Marginfic MS. In like manner we shall not amend this error in the Title itself, but only note it obiter, to evince to the learned that it was not our fault, nor any effect of our ignorance or inattention. SCRIBLERUS.

This Poem was written in the year 1726. In the next year an imperfect Edition was published at Dublin, and reprinted at London in twelves; another at Dublin, and another at London in Octavo; and three others in twelves the fame year. But there was a perfect Edition before that of London in quarto; which was intended with Notes. We are willing to acquaint Pofterity, that this Poem was prefented to King George the fecond and his Queen by the hands of Sir Robert Walpole, on the 12th of March, 1728-9. SCHOL. VET.

It was exprefly confeffed in the Preface to the first edition, that this Poem was not published by the Author himself. It was printed originally in a foreign Country. And what foreign Country? Why, one notorious for blunders; where

IMITATIONS.

VER. 6. Alluding to a verfe of Mr. Dryden, not in Mad Fleckno (as is faid ignorantly in the Key to the Dunciad, p. x.) but in his verses to Mr. Congreve,

And Tom the feçond reigns like Tom the first.

Say, how the Goddess bade Britannia fleep,

And pour'd her Spirit o'er the land and deep.

REMARKS.

finding blanks only inftead of proper names, these blunderers. filled them up at their pleasure.

The very Hero of the Poem hath been mistaken to this hour; fo that we are obliged to open our Notes with a discovery who he really was. We learn from the former Editor; that thisPiece was prefented by the Hands of Sir Robert Walpole to King George II. Now the author directly tells us, his Hero is the Man

---

who brings

The SmithSeld Mufes to the ear of Kings.

And it is notorious who was the person on whom this Prince conferred the honour of the Laurel.

It appears as plainly from the Apostrophe to the Great in the third verfe, that Tibbald could not be the perfon, who was never an Author in fafhion, or careffed by the Great; whereas this fingle characteristic is fufficient to point out the true Hero; who, above all other Poets of his time, was the Peculiar Delight and Chofen Companion of the Nobility of England; and wrote, as he himself tells us, certain of his Works at the earneft Defire of Perfons of Quality.

Laftly, The fixth verfe affords full proof; this Poet being the only one who was univerfally known to have had a Son fo exactly like him, in his poetical, theatrical, political, and morak Capacities, that it could justly be said of him

Still Dunce the fecond reigns like Dunce the firft. BENTL. VER. 1. The Mighty Mother, and her Son, &c.] The Reader ought here to be cautioned, that the Mother and not the Son, is the principal Agent of this Poem: The latter of them is on ly chofen as her Collegue (as was anciently the custom in Rome before fome great Expedition) the main action of the Poem being by no means the Coronation of the Laureate, which is performed in the very firft book, but the Reftoration of the Empire of Dulness in Britain, which is not accomplished till the laft. W.

Ibid.-her Son who brings, &c.] Wonderful is the stupidity of all the former Critics and Commentators on this work! It breaks

In eldest time, e'er mortals writ or read,

E'er Pallas iffu'd from the Thund'rer's head, 10

REMARKS.

forth at the very firft line. The author of the Critique prefixed to Sawney, a Poem, p. 5. hath been fo dull as to explain the Man who brings, &c. not of the hero of the piece, 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 modefty.

We remit this Ignorant to the first lines of the Eneid, affuring him that Virgil there fpeaketh not of himself, but of E

neas:

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: First, aris fhould be read aris, it being, as we fee En. ii. 513. from the altar of Jupiter Hercæus that Encas fled as foon as he faw Priam fain. In the fecond line I would read flatu for fato, fince it is moft clear it was by Winds that he arrived at the shore of Italy. Jactatus, in the third, is furely as improperly applied to terris, as proper to alto; to fay a man is toft on land, is much at one with faying he walks at fea: Rifum teneatis, amici ? Correct it, as I doubt not it ought to be, vexatus.

SCRIBLERUS.

VER. 2. The Smithfield Mufes] Smithfield is the place where Bartholomew Fair was kept, whofe fhews, machines, and dramatical entertainments, formerly agreeable only to the taste of the Rabble, were, by the Hero of this poem and others of equal genius, brought to the Theatres of Covent-garden, Lincolnsinn-fields, and the Hay-market, to be the reigning pleasures of the Court and Town. This happened in the Reigns of King George I, and II. See Book iii.

VER. 4. By Dulness, fove, and Fate:] i. e. By their Judgments, their Interefts, and their Inclinations.

VER. 7. Say how the Goddefs, &c.] The Poet ventureth to fing the Action of the Goddefs: but the Paffion fhe impreffeth on her illuftrious Votaries, he thinketh can be only told by themfelves, SCRIBL. W.