100

Breval, Bond, Besaleel, the varlets caught.
Curll stretches after Gay, but Gay is gone,
He grasps an empty Joseph for a John:
So Proteus, hunted in a nobler shape,
Became, when seiz'd, a puppy, or an ape.

130

Forth from the heap she pick'd her votary's prayer, | Mears, Warner, Wilkins, run: delusive thought!
And plac'd it next him, a distinction rare!
Oft had the goddess heard her servant's call,
From her black grottos near the Temple-wall,
Listening delighted to the jest unclean
Of link-boys vile, and watermen obscene;
Where as he fish'd her nether realms for wit,
She oft had favour'd him, and favours yet.
Renew'd by ordure's sympathetic force,
As oil'd with magic juices for the course,
Vigorous he rises; from the effluvia strong,
Imbibes new life, and scours and stinks along;
Re-passes Lintot, vindicates the race,
Nor heeds the brown dishonours of his face.

*nd now the victor stretch'd his eager hand [110
Where the tall nothing stood, or seein❜d to stand;
A shapeless shade, it melted from his sight,
Like forms in clouds, or visions of the night.
To seize his papers, Curll, was next thy care;
His papers, light, fly diverse, tost in air;
Songs, sonnets, epigrams, the winds uplift,
And whisk them back to Evans, Young and Swift.
Th' embroider'd suit at least he deemed his prey,
That suit an unpay'd taylor snatch'd away.
No rag, no scrap, of all the beau, or wit,
That once so flutter'd, and that once so writ. 120
Heaven rings with laughter: of the laughter
Dulness, good queen, repeats the jest again. [vain, |
Three wicked imps, of her own Grub-street choir,
She deck'd like Congreve, Addison, and Prior;

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 99.-104. In former edit. thus:

(Oft as he fish'd her nether realms for wit, The goddess favour'd him, and favours yet)

RRMARKS.

|

To him the goddess: "Son! thy grief lay down
And turn this whole illusion on the town:
As the sage dame, experienc'd in her trade,
By names of toasts retails each batter'd jade;
(When hapless Monsieur much complains at Paris
Of wrongs from dutchesses and lady Maries;)
Be thine, my stationer! this magic gift;
Cook shall be Prior; and Concanen, Swift:
So shall each hostile name become our own,
And we too boast our Garth and Addison."

sons.

REMARKS.

140

Ver. 126. Breval, Bond, Besaleel,] I foresee it will be objected from this line, that we were in an errour in our assertion on ver. 50 of this book, that More was a fictitious name, since those persons are equally represented by the poet as phantoms. So at first sight it may be seen; but be not deceived, reader; these also are not real per'Tis true, Curll declares Breval, a captain, author of a piece called the Confederates, but Curl first said it was written by Joseph Gay: Is his second assertion to be credited any more than his first? He likewise affirms Bond to be one who writ a satire on our poet: but where is such a satire to be found? where was such a writer ever heard of? As for Besaleel, it carries forgery in the very name; nor is it, as the others are, a surname. Thou may'st depend upon it, no such authors ever lived; all phantoms.-Scribl.

Ver 128. Joseph Gay, a fictitious name put by

Ver. 101. Where, as he fish'd, &c.] See the Curll before several pamphlets, which made them preface to Swift's and Pope's Miscellanies.

Ver. 116. Evans, Young, and Swift.] Some of those persons, whose writings, epigrams, or jests he had owned. See note on ver. 50.

pass with many for Mr. Gay's-The ambiguity of the word Joseph, which likewise signifies a loose upper-coat, gives much pleasantry to the idea.

Ver. 132. And turn this whole illusion on the town:] It was a common practice of this bookseller to publish vile pieces of obscure hands under the names of eminent authors.

Ver. 138. Cook shall be Prior,] The man here specified writ a thing called The Battle of the Poets, in which Philips and Welsted were the

Ver. 118. an unpay'd taylor] This line has been loudly complained of in Mist, June 8, Dedic. to Sawney, and others, as a most inhuman satire on the poverty of poets: but it is thought our author will be acquitted by a jury of taylors. To me this instance seems unluckily chosen; if it be a satire on any body, it must be on a bad pay-heroes, and Swift and Pope utterly routed. He master, since the person to whom they have here applied it, was a man of fortune. Not but poets may well be jealous of so great a prerogative as non-payment; which Mr. Dennis so far asserts, as boldly to pronounce, that "if Homer himself was not in debt, it was because nobody would trust him."-Pref. to Rem. on the Rape of the Lock, p. 15.

Ver. 124. like Congreve, Addison, and Prior;] These authors being such whose names will reach posterity, we shall not give any account of them, but proceed to those of whom it is necessary.— Besaleel Morris was author of some satires on the translators of Homer, with many other things printed in news-papers." Bond writ a satire against Mr. P. Capt. Breval was author of The Confederates, an ingenious dramatic performance to expose Mr. P., Mr. Gay, Dr. Arb. and some ladies of quality," says Curll, Key, p. 11.

Ver. 125. Mears, Warner, Wilkins] Booksellers and printers of much anonymous stuff.

also published some malevolent things in the British, London, and Daily Journals; and at the same time wrote letters to Mr. Pope, protesting his innocence. His chief work was a translation of Hesiod, to which Theobald writ notes and half notes, which he carefully owned.

Ver. 138. and Concanen, Swift:] In the first edition of this poem there were only asterisks in this place, but the names were since inserted, merely to fill up the verse, and give ease to the ear of the reader.

Ver. 140. And we too boast our Garth and Addison.] Nothing is more remarkable than our author's love of praising good writers. He has in this very poem celebrated Mr. Locke, sir Isaac Newton, Dr. Barrow, Dr. Atterbury, Mr. Dryden, Mr Congreve, Dr. Garth, Mr. Addison,; in a word, almost every man of his time that deserved it; even Cibber himself (presuming him to be the author of the Careless Husband). It was very difficult to have that pleasure in a poem

With that she gave him (piteous of his case, Yet smiling at his rueful length of face)

REMARKS.

A shaggy tapestry, worthy to be spread,
On Codrus' old, or Dunton's modern bed;
Instructive work! whose wry-mouth'd portraiture
Display'd the fates her confessors endure.
Earless on high, stood unabash'd De Foe,
And Tutchin flagrant from the scourge below.

REMARKS.

on this subject, yet he has found means to insert their panegyric, and has made even Dulness out of her own mouth pronounce it. It must have been particularly agreeable to him to celebrate Dr. Garth; both as his constant friend, and as Admirably it is observed by Mr. Dennis against he was his predecessor in this kind of satire. The Mr. Law, p. 33. "That the language of BillingsDispensary attacked the whole body of apothe-gate can never be the language of charity, nor caries, a much more useful one undoubtedly than consequently of Christianity." I should else be that of the bad poets; if in truth this can be a tempted to use the language of a critic; for what body, of which no two members ever agreed. It is more provoking to a commentator than to be also did, what Mr. Theobald says is unpardon-hold his author thus pourtrayed? Yet I consider able, draw in parts of private character, and introduced persons independent of his subject. Much more would Boileau have incurred his censure, who left all subjects whatever, on all occasions, to fall upon the bad poets (which, it is to be feared, would have been more immediately his concern.) But certainly next to commending good writers, the greatest service to learning is to expose the bad, who can only that way be made of any use to it. This truth is very well set forth in these lines addressed to our author. The craven rook, and pert jackdaw,

(Though neither birds of moral kind)
Yet serve, if hang'd, or stuff'd with straw,
To show us which way blows the wind.
Thus dirty knaves, or chattering fools,
Strung up by dozens in thy lay,
Teach more by half than Dennis' rules,
And point instruction every way.
With Egypt's art thy pen may strive:
One potent drop let this but shed,
And every rogue that stunk alive,

Becomes a precious mummy dead.

Ver. 142. rueful length of face] "The decrepid person or figure of a man are no reflections upon his genius. An honest mind will love and esteem a man of worth, though he be deformed or poor. Yet the author of the Dunciad hath libelled a person for his rueful length of face !" Mist's Journal, June 8. This genius and man of worth, whom an honest mind should love, is Mr. Curll. True it is, he stood on the pillory, an incident which will lengthen the face of any man, though it were ever so comely, therefore is no reflection on the natural beauty of Mr. Curll. But as to reflections on any man's face or figure, Mr. Dennis saith excellently; "Natural deformity comes not by our fault; it is often occasioned by calamities and diseases, which a man can no more help than a monster can his deformity. There is no one misfortune, and no one disease, but what all the rest of mankind are subject to.-But the deformity of this author is visible, present, lasting, unalterable, and peculiar to himself. "Tis the mark of God and Nature upon him, to give us warning that we should hold no society with him, as a creature not of our original, nor of our species and they who have refused to take this warning which God and Nature has given them, and have, in spite of it, by a senseless presumption, ventured to be familiar with him, have severely suffered, &c. 'Tis certain his original is not from Adam, but from the Devil," &c.-Dennis, character of Mr. P. octavo, 1716.

it really hurts not him! whereas to call some others dull, might do them prejudice with a world too apt to believe it. Therefore, though Mr. D. may call another a little ass or a young toad, far be it from us to call him a toothless lion or an old serpent. Indeed, had I written these notes (as was once my intent) in the learned language, I might have given him the appellations of balatro, calceatum caput, scurra in triviis, being phrases in good esteem and frequent usage among the best learned: but in our mother-tongue, were I to tax any gentleman of the Dunciad, surely it should be in words not to the vulgar intelligible; whereby Christian charity, decency, and good accord among authors, might be preserved.-Scribl.

The good Scriblerus here, as on all occasions, eminently shows his humanity. But it was far otherwise with the gentlemen of the Dunciad, whose scurrilities were always personal, and of that nature which provoked every honest man but Mr. Pope; yet never to be lamented, since they occasioned the following amiable verses:

While malice, Pope, denies thy page

Its own celestial fire;

While critics, and while bards in rage,
Admiring, won't admire:

While wayward pens thy worth assail,

And envious tongues decry:
These times though many a friend bewail,
These times bewail not I.

But when the world's loud praise is thine,
And spleen no more shall blame,
When with thy Homer thou shalt shine
In one establish'd fame:

When none shall rail, and every lay

Devote a wreathe to thee;
That day (for come it will), that day

Shall I lament to see.

Ver. 143. shaggy tapestry,] A sorry kind of tapestry frequent in old inns, made of worsted, or some coarser stuff; like that which is spoken of by Donne-Faces as frightful as theirs who whipt Christ in old hangings. This imagery woven in it alludes to the mantle of Cloanthus, in Æn. v.

Ver. 144. John Dunton was a broken bookseller, and abusive scribbler; he writ Neck or Nothing, a violent satire on some ministers of state; a libel on the duke of Devonshire and the bishop of Peterborough, &c.

scourge] John Tutchin, author of some vile verses, Ver. 148. And Tutchin flagrant from the and of a weekly paper called the Observator. He

250

"Twas chattering, grinning, mouthing, jabbering all,
And noise and Norton, brangling and Breval,
Dennis and dissonance, and captious art,
And snip-snap short, and interruption smart. 240
And demonstration thin, and theses thick,
And major, minor, and conclusion quick.
"Hold," cry'd the queen, "A cat-call each shall
Equal your merits! equal is your din! [win;
But that this well-disputed game may end,
Sound forth, my brayers, and the welkin rend.”
As when the long-ear'd milky mothers wait
At some sick miser's triple-bolted gate,
For their defrauded, absent foals they make
A moan so loud, that all the Guild awake;
Sore sighs sir Gilbert, starting at the bray,
From dreams of millions, and three groats to pay :
So swells each wind-pipe: ass intones to ass,
Harmonic twang! of leather, horn, and brass;
Such as from labouring lungs th' enthusiast blows,
High sounds, attemper'd to the vocal nose;
Or such as bellow from the deep divine;
There, Webster! peal'd thy voice, and Whitfield!
But far o'er all sonorous Blackmore's strain;
Walls, steeples, skies, bray back to him again. 260
In Tottenham fields, the brethren, with amaze,
Prick all their cars up, and forget to graze!
Long Chancery-lane retentive rolls the sound,
And courts to courts return it round and round;
Thames wafts it thence to Rufus' roaring hall,
And Hungerford re-cchoes bawl for bawl.
All hail him victor in both gifts of song,
Who sings so loudly, and who sings so long.

VARIATIONS.

[thine.

Ver. 241, 242. added since the first edition.
Ver. 257, 258. This couplet is an addition.

REMARKS.

is certain, that being once at a tragedy of a new author, he fell into a great passion at hearing some, and cried, "'Sdeath! that is my thunder."

Ver. 238. Norton,] See ver. 417.-J. Durant Breval, author of a very extraordinary book of travels, and some poems. See before, note on

ver. 126.

Ver. 258. Webster-and Whitfield] [The one the writer of a news-paper called the Weekly Miscellany, the other a field-preacher. This thought the only means of advancing religion was by the new-birth of spiritual madness: that by the old death of fire and faggot: and therefore they agreed in this, though in no other earthly thing, to abuse all the sober clergy. From the small success of these two extraordinary persons, we may learn how little hurtful bigotry and enthusiasm are, while the civil magistrate prudently forbears to lend his power to the one, in order to the employing it against the other.]

twenty books: Eliza, ten; Alfred, twelve; the
Redeemer, six; besides Jch, in folio; the whole
Book of Psalms; the Creation, seven books; Na-
It
ture of Man, three books; and many more.
is in this sense he is styled afterwards the ever-
lasting Blackmore. Notwithstanding all which,
Mr. Gildon seems assured, "that this admirable
author did not think himself upon the same foot
with Homer."-Comp. Art. of Poetry, vol. 1.
p. 108.

But how different is the judgment of the author of Characters of the Times? p. 25, who says, "Sir Richard Blackmore is unfortunate in happening to mistake his proper talents; and that he has not for many years been so much as named, or even thought of among writers." Even Mr. Denis differs greatly from his friend Mr. Gildon:

Blackmore's action", saith he, "has neither unity, nor integrity, nor morality, nor universality; and consequently he can have no fable, and no heroic poem: his narration is neither probable, delightful, nor wonderful; his characters have none of the necessary qualifications; the things contained in his narration are neither in their own nature delightful, nor numerous enough, nor rightly disposed, nor surprising, nor pathetic." -Nay, he proceeds so far as to say, sir Richard has no genius; first laying down that " genius is caused by a furious joy and pride of soul, on the conception of an extraordinary hint. Many men (says he) have their hints, without those motions of fury and pride of soul, because they want fire enough to agitate their spirits; and these we call cold writers. Others who have a great deal of fire, but have not excellent organs, feel the fore-mentioned motions, without the extraordinary hints; and these we call fustian writers. But he declares that sir Richard had neither the hints nor the motions."-Remarks on Pr. Arth. octavo, 1696. Preface.

"It

This gentleman in his first works abused the character of Mr. Dryden; and in his last, of Mr. Pope, accusing him in very high and sober terms of profaneness and immorality (Fssay on Polite Writing, vol. ii. p. 270.) on a mere report from Edm. Curll, that he was author of a travestie on the first psalm. Mr. Dennis took up the same report, but with the addition of what sir Richard had neglected, an argument to prove it; which being very curious we shall here transcribe. is he who burlesqued the psalms of David. It is apparent to me that psalm was burlesqued by a popish rhymester. Let rhyming persons who have been brought up protestants be otherwise what they will, let them be rakes, let them be Ver. 263. Long Chancery-lane] The place scoundrels, let them be atheists, yet education where the offices of chancery are kept. The long has made an invincible impression on thèm in be detention of clients in that court, and the diffi-half of the sacred writings. But a popish rhymeculty of getting out, is humourously allegorized in these lines.

ster has been brought up with a contempt for those sacred writings; now show me another popish Ver. 268. Who sings so loudly, and who sings rhymester but he." This manner of argumentation so long] A just character of sir Richard Black-is usual with Mr. Dennis; he has employed the more, knight, who (as Mr. Dryden expresseth it)

Writ to the rumbling of his coach's wheels. and whose indefatigable Muse produced no less than six epic poems; Prince and King Arthur,

same against sir Richard himself, in a like charge of impiety and irreligion. "All Mr. Blackmore's celestial machines, as they cannot be defended so much as by common received opinion, so are they