And while on Fame's triumphal Car they ride,
Some Slave of mine be pinion'd to their fide.
Now crowds on crowds around the Goddess prefs,
Each eager to present the first Address.

136

Dunce fcorning Dunce beholds the next advance,
But Fop fhews Fop fuperior complaisance.
When lo! a Spectre rofe, whofe index-hand
Held forth the Virtue of the dreadful wand;
His beaver'd brow a birchen garland wears,
Dropping with Infants' blood; and Mothers' tears.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 142. Dropping with infant's blood, &c.]
First Moloch, horrid King, befmear'd with blood
Of human Sacrifice, and parents tears.

NOTES.

What? on Compulfion? and againft my Will,
A Lord's acquaintance? Let him file his Bill.

VER. 137, 138.

Dunce fcorning Dunce bebolds the next advance,
But Fop fhews Fop fuperior complaifance.]

140

Mikt.

This is not to be afcribed fo much to the different manners of a Court and College, as to the different effects which a pretence to Learning, and a pretence to Wit, have on Blockheads. For as Judgment confifts in finding out the differences in things, and Wit in finding out their likenesses, fo the Dunce is all difcord and diffenfion, and conftantly bufied in reproving, examining, confuting, &c. while the Fop flourishes in peace, with Songs and Hymns of Praise, Addreffes, Characters, Epithalamiums, &c.

VER. 140. the dreadful wand;] A Cane ufually borne by Schoolmafters, which drives the poor fouls about like the wand of Mercury, SCRIBL.

O'er ev'ry vein a fhudd'ring horror runs ;

145

Eton and Winton fhake thro' all their Sons.
All Flesh is humbled, Westminster's bold race
Shrink, and confefs the Genius of the place:
The pale Boy-Senator yet tingling stands,
And holds his breeches clofe with both his hands.
Then thus. Since Man from beaft by Words is

known,

149

Words are Man's province, Words we teach alone.
When Reason doubtful, like the Samian letter,
Points him two ways, the narrower is the better..
Plac'd at the door of Learning, youth to guide,
We never fuffer it to ftand too wide.

NOTES.

VER. 148. And holds his breeches] An effect of Fear fomewhat like this, is defcribed in the viith Æneid.

Contremuit nemus

Et trepida matres preffere ad pectora natos.

nothing being fo natural in any apprehenfion, as to lay clofe hold on whatever is fuppos'd to be most in danger. But let it not be imagined the author would infinuate these youthful fenators (tho' fo lately come from school) to be under the undue influence of any Mafter. SCRIBL.

VER. 151. like the Samian letter,] The letter Y, used by Pythagoras as an emblem of the different roads of Virtue and Vice.

Et tibi quæ Samios diduxit litera ramos.

Perf.

VER. 153. Plac'd at the door, &c.] This circumstance of the Genius Loci (with that of the Index hand before) feems to be an allufion to the Table of Cebes, where the Genius of human Nature points out the road to be pursued

To ask, to guess, to know, as they commence, 155
As Fancy opens the quick fprings of Senfe,
We ply the Memory, we load the brain,
Bind rebel Wit, and double chain on chain,
Confine the thought, to exercise the breath;
And keep them in the pale of Words till death. 160
Whate'er the talents, or howe'er defign'd,

165

We hang one jingling padlock on the mind:
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 Houfe or Hall.
There truant WYNDHAM ev'ry Muse gave o'er,
There TALBOT funk, and was a Wit no more!
How fweet an Ovid, MURRAY was our boaft!
How many Martials were in PULT'NEY loft! 170

NOTES.

by thole entering into life. Ὁ ἢ γέρων ὁ ἄνω ἔςηκώς, ἔχων χάρην τινὰ ἐν τῇ χειρὶ, καὶ τῇ ἑτέρα ὥσπερ δεικνύων τι, το Δαίμων καλεῖται, &c.

VER. 154.

to ftand too wide.] A pleasant allufion to the description of the door of Wisdom in the Table of Cebes, Θύραν τινά μικρά.

VER. 159. to exercife the breath ;] By obliging them to get the claffic poets by heart, which furnishes them with endless matter for Conversation and Verbal amufement for their whole lives.

VER. 162. We hang one jingling padlock, &c.] for youth being used like Pack-horfes, and beat on under a heavy load of Words, left they should tire, their inftructors contrive to make the Words jingle in rhyme or metre.

VER. 165. in yonder Houfe or Hall.] Weftminster-hall and the House of Commons.

Elfe fure fome Bard, to our eternal praise,
In twice ten thousand rhyming nights and days,
Had reach'd the Work, the All that mortal can;
And South beheld that Mafter-piece of Man.

176

Oh (cry'd the Goddefs) for fome pedant Reign!
Some gentle JAMES, to blefs the land again;
To stick the Doctor's Chair into the Throne,
Give law to Words, or war with Words alone,
Senates and Courts with Greek and Latin rule,
And turn the Council to a Grammar School!
For fure, if Dulness fees a grateful Day,
'Tis in the fhade of Arbitrary Sway.

189

VER. 174. that Mafter-piece of Man.] Viz. an Epigram. The famous Dr. South declared a perfect Epigram to be as difficult a performance as an Epic Poem. And the Critics fay, an Epic Poem is the greatest work human nature is capable of."

"

66

VER. 176. Some gentle JAMES, &c.] Wilfon tells us that this King, James the first, took upon himself to teach the Latin tongue to Car, Earl of Somerfet ; and that Gondomar the Spanish Ambassador would speak false 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 Sacrid Majefty, which his loyal Clergy transferr'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'ḍ perhaps in fome old Homily, were talk'd, written, and preach'd into vogue in that inglorious reign."

་་

VER. 181, 182. if Dulness fees a grateful Day, 'Tis in the shade of Arbitrary Sway.] And grateful it is in Dulnefs

O! if my fons may learn one earthly thing,

Teach but that one, fufficient for a King;

That which my Priefts, and mine alone, maintain,
Which as it dies, or lives, we fall, or reign:

186

May you, may Cam, and Ifis preach it long!

"The RIGHT DIVINE of Kings to govern wrong."

NOTES.

to make this confeffion. I will not fay she alludes to that celebrated verfe of Claudian,

nunquam Libertas gratior exstat 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 Dulness herself: And therefore the might allude to it. SCRIBL.

I judge quite otherwife of this paffage: The genuine reading is Libertas, and Rege: So Claudian gave it. But the error lies in the firft verfe: It should be exit, not exfat, and then the meaning will be, that Liberty was never loft, or went away with fo good a grace, as under a good King it being without doubt a tenfold fhame to lofe it under a bad one.

This farther leads me to animadvert upon a moft grieyous 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 above-mentioned by Scriblerus, of the two words Liberty and Monarchy. Effay on Crit.

Nature, like Monarchy, is but reftrain'd
By the fame Laws herself at firft ordain'd.