While Milbourn there, deputed by the reft,
Gave him the caflock, furcingle, and veft;

325

And "Take (he faid) thefe robes which once were mine, "Dulness is facred in a found Divine.

He ceas'd, and fhow'd the robe; the crowd confefs
The rev'rend Flamen in his lengthen'd drefs.
Slow moves the Goddess from the fable flood,
(Her Priest preceding) thro' the gates of Lud.

REMARK S,

learn'd not fo much as his Accideneet a rare example of modefty in a Poet!

I must confefs I do want eloquence,

And never fearce did learn my Accidence,
For having got from Poffum to Poffet,

I there was gravell'd, could no farther get.

He wrote fourfcore books in the reign of James I. and Charles I. and afterwards (like Edw. Ward) kept an Alehouse in Long Acre. He died in 1654. V. 324. And Shadwell nods the poppy. Shadwell took Opium for many years, and died of too large a dofe of it, in the year 1692.

V. 325. While Milbourn.] Luke Milbourn a Clergyman, the fairest of Criticks; who when he wrote against Mr. Dryden's Virgil, did him justice, in print ing at the fame time his own tranflations of him, which were intolerable. His manner of writing has a great refemblance with that of the Gentlemen of the Duns ciad against our author, as will be feen in the Parallel of Mr. Dryden and him. Append. N. 6.

V. 332. Gates of Lud.] King Lud repairing the "City, call'd it after his own name, Lud's Town; the ftrong gate which he built in the weft part, he likewife for his own honour named Ludgate. In "the year 1260, this gate was beautified with images "of Lud and other Kings. Thofe images in the reign " of Edward VI. had their heads fmitten off, and

Her Criticks there fhe fummons, and proclaims

A gentler éxercife to close the games.

Hear you! in whofe grave heads, as equal fcales, 335 I weigh what author's heavinefs prevails,

Which moft conduce to footh the foul in flumbers, My Henley's periods, or my Blackmore's numbers? Attend the trial we propose to make:

If there be man who o'er fuch works can wake, 340
Sleep's all-fubduing charms who dares defy,

And boafts Ulyffes' car with Argus' eye;
To him we grant our ampleft pow'rs to fit
Judge of all present, past, and future wit,
To cavil, cenfure, dictate, right or wrong,
Full, and eternal privilege of tongue.

345

Three Cambridge Sophs and three pert Templars

came,

The fame their talents, and their tastes the fame,
Each prompt to query, anfwer, and debate,
And fmit with love of Poefy and Prate.
REMARK S.

350

were otherwise defaced by unadvised folks. Queen Mary did fet new heads on their old bodies again. The 28th of Queen Elizabeth the fame gate was clean taken down, and newly and beautifully builded "with images of Lud and others as afore." Srow's Survey of London.

V. 342. See Hom. Ody. 12. Ovid, Met. 1.

ΙΜΙΤΑΤΙΟ Ν 3.

V. 348. The fame their talents-Each prompt, &c.] Virg. Ecl. 7.

Ambo florentes atatibus, Arcades ambo,
Et certare pares, & refpondere parati.
V: 350] Smit with the love of facred fong

Milton.

The pond'rous books two gentle readers bring.
The heroes fit; the vulgar form a ring.

355

The clam'rous crowd is hufh'd with mugs of Mum,
Till all tun'd equal, fend a gen'ral hum:・・
Then mount the clerks, and in oné lazy tone,
Thro' the long, heavy, painful page, drawl on;
Soft, creeping, words on words, the sense compose,
At ev'ry line, they Aretch, they yawn, they doze.
As to foft gales top heavy pines bow low
Their heads, and lift them as they cease to blow 360
Thus oft, they rear, and oft, the head decline,
As breathe, or pause, by fits, the airs divine :
And now to this fide, now to that, they nod,"

As verfe, or profe, infufe the drowzy God.

"

Thrice Budgel aim'd to speak, but thrice fuppreft 365 By potent Arthur, knock'd his chin and breaft.

V. 356. Thro' the long, heavy, painful page, &c.] All these lines very well imitate the flow drowziness with which they proceed. It is impoffible for any one who has a poetical ear to read them, without "perceiving the heaviness that lags in the verfe, to

imitate the action it defcribes. The Simile of the *Pines is very just and well adapted to the subject.” ESSAY on the Du N c. p. 21.

V. 365. Thrice Budgel aim'd to speak.] Famous for his fpeeches on many occafions about the South Sea Scheme, &c. "He is a very ingenious gentleman,

IMITATIONS.

V. 352. The heroes fit; the vulgar form a ring.) Ovid. M. 13.

Gonfedere duces, & vulgi ftante corona.

370

Toland and Tindal, prompt at Priests to jeer,
Yet filent bow'd to Chrift's No kingdom here.
Who fate the nearest, by the words o'ercome
Slept first, the distant nodded to the hum.
Then down are roll'd the books; ftretch'd o'er 'em lies
Each gentle clerk, and mutt'ring feals his eyes.
At what a Dutchman plumps into the lakes,
One circle first, and then a fecond makes,
What Dulnefs dropt among her fons imprest
Like motion, from one circle to the rest;

REMARK S.

37$

" and hath written fome excellent epilogues to plays, "and one fmall piece on love, which is very pretty." JACOB Lives of Poets, vol. 2. p. 289. But this Gentleman has fince made himself much more eminent, and perfonally well-known to the greatest Statesmen of all parties, in this nation.

V. 367. Toland and Tindal.] Two perfons not fo happy as to be obfcure, who writ against the Religion of their Country. The furreptitious editions placed here the name of a Gentleman, who, tho' no great friend to the Clergy, is a man of morals and ingenuity. Tindal was Author of the Rights of the Chriftian Church: He also wrote an abufive pamphlet against Earl Stankope, which was fupprefs'd while yet in manuscript by an eminent Perfon then out of the Ministry, to whom he fhow'd it expecting his approbation: This Doctor afterwards publifh'd the fame piece, mutatis mutandis, against that very Perfon.

V. 368. Christ's No kingdom, &c.] This is fcanda foufly faid by CURL, Key to Dunc. to allude to a Sermon of a reverend Bishop. But the context shows it to be meant of a famous publick Orator; not more remarkable for his long-winded periods, than his Difaffection to Ecclefiaftical Hierarchy, and to the doctrine that Chrift's Kingdom is of this world.

So from the mid-most the nutation spreads

Round, and more round, o'er all the fea of heads.
At laft Centlivre felt her voice to fail,

Old James himself unfinish'd left his tale,

Boyer the State, and Law the Stage gave o'er,
Nor Motteux talk'd, nor Nafo whisper'd more;

REMARK S..

389

V. 379. Centlivre.] Mrs. Sufanna Centlivre, wife to Mr. Centlivre, Yeoman of the Mouth to his Majesty. She writ many Plays, and a fong (fays Mr. Ja cob, vol. 1. p. 32.) before fhe was feven years old. She also writ a Ballad against Mr. Pope's Homer before he begun it.

V. 381. Boyer the State, and Law the Stage gave der.] A. Boyer, a voluminous compiler of Annals, Political Collections, &c. William Law, A. M. wrote with great zeal against the Stage, Mr. Dennis andwer'd with as great. Their books were printed in 1726. Mr. Law affirm'd that "the Playhouse is the "Temple of the Devil, the peculiar pleasure of the "Devil, where all they who go, yield to the Devil, "where all the Laughter is a laughter among Devils, "and that all who are there are hearing Mufick in "the very Porch of Hell." To which Mr. Dennis replied, that "there is every jot as much difference "between a true Play, and one made by a Poetafter,

as between Two religious books, the Bible and the "Alcoran." Then he demonftrates that "All thofe "who had written against the Stage were Jacobites "and Nonjurors, and did it always at a time when

IMITATIONS.

V. 378. O'er all the fea of beads.] Blackm. Job A waving fea of beads was round me spread,

And still fresh ftreams the gazing deluge fed.