Up to a Star, and like Endymion dies1: Kind Self-conceit to some her glass applies, On others' Int'rest her gay liv'ry flings, Others the Syren Sisters warble round, 520 525 530 535 540 545 Why all your Toils? your Sons have learn'd to sing. How quick Ambition hastes to ridicule! The Sire is made a Peer, the Son a Fool. On some, a Priest succinct in amice white 1 [i. e. is immersed in perpetual slumber.] 2 Lost is his God, his Country-And nothing left but Homage to a King.] So strange as this must seem to a mere English reader, the famous Mons. de la Bruyère declares it to be the character of every good Subject in a Monarchy: Where (says he) there is no such thing as Love of our Country, the Interest, the Glory, and Service of the Prince supply its place." De la République, chap. x. P. ་ 3 The balm of Dulness] The true Balm of Dulness, called by the Greek Physicians KodaKela, is a Sovereign remedy against Inanity, and has its poetic name from the Goddess herself. Its ancient Dispensators were her Poets; and for that reason our Author, Book II. ver. 207, calls it, the Poet's healing balm: but now it is got into as many hands as Goddard's Drops or 550 555 Daffy's Elixir. It is prepared by the Clergy, as appears from several places of this poem: And by ver. 534, 535, it seems as if the Nobility had it made up in their own houses. This, which Opera is here said to administer, is but a spurious sort. See my Dissertation on the Silphium of the Antients. 'BENTL.' Warburton. 4 [amice (amictus), a coat, is a word used by Spenser and Milton.] 5 This good Scholiast (Scriblerus), not being acquainted with modern Luxury, was ignorant that these were only the miracles of French Cookery. and that particularly Pigeons en crapeau were a common dish. P. and Warburton. 6 Sève and Verdeur] French Terms relating to Wines, which signify their flavour and poignancy. P. Wash Bladen white, and expiate Hays's stain 1. 560 KNIGHT lifts the head, for what are crowds undone, 66 Or issue Members of an Annual feast. Bladen-Hays] Names of Gamesters. Bladen is a black man. ROBERT KNIGHT, Cashier of the South-sea Company, who fled from England in 1720 (afterwards pardoned in 1742)— These lived with the utmost magnificence at Paris, and kept open Tables frequented by persons of the first Quality of England, and even by Princes of the Blood of France. P. and War burton. Colonel Martin Bladen was a man of some literature and translated Cæsar's Comment aries. I never could learn that he had offended Pope. He was uncle to Wm. Collins, the poet, whom he left an estate. Warton. 2 Her Children first of more distinguish'd sort, Who study Shakespeare at the Inns of Court.] Mr THOMAS EDWARDS, a Gentleman, as he is pleased to call himself, of Lincoln's Inn; but, in reality, a Gentleman only of the Dunciad; or, to speak him better, in the plain language of our honest Ancestors to such Mushrooms, A Gentleman of the last Edition: who, nobly eluding the solicitude of his careful Father, very early retained himself in the cause of Dulness against Shakespear, and with the wit and learning of his Ancestor Tom Thimble in the Rehearsal, and with the air of good nature and politeness of Caliban in the Tempest, hath now happily finished the Dunce's progress in personal abuse. SCRIBL. [Part om.] P. This attack 570 575 580 on Mr Edwards is not of weight sufficient to weaken the effects of his excellent Canons of Criticism. Warton. 3 A line taken from Bramston's Men of Taste. Warton. 4a Gregorian, one a Gormogon.] A sort of Lay-brothers, Slips from the Root of the FreeMasons. P. and Warburton. [Gregorians' are mentioned as 'a convivial sect,' and 'a kind of Masons, but without their sign,' in Crabbe's Borough, Letter x.] 5 Pope refused this degree when offered to him on a visit undertaken to Oxford with Warburton, because the University would not confer the degree of D.D. upon Warburton, to whom some of its members had proposed it. Roscoe. 6 each Privilege your own, &c.] This speech of Dulness to her Sons at parting may possibly fall short of the Reader's expectation; who may imagine the Goddess might give them a charge of more consequence, and, from such a Theory as is before delivered, incite them to the practice of something more extraordinary, than to personate Running-Footmen, Jockeys, Stage Coachmen, &c. But if it be well considered, that whatever inclination they might have to do mischief, her sons are generally rendered harmless by their Inability; and that it is the common effect of Dulness (even in her greatest efforts) to defeat The Cap and Switch be sacred to his Grace; 585 Or draw to silk Arachne's subtile line1; 590 The Judge to dance his brother Sergeant call2; An hundred Souls of Turkeys in a pie; 595 Teach Kings to fiddle3, and make Senates dance. 600 And MAKE ONE MIGHTY DUNCIAD OF THE LAND!" 605 preach'd) 5 Lost was the Nation's Sense, nor could be found, Then catch'd the Schools; the Hall scarce kept awake; The Convocation gap'd, but could not speak: 610 Wide, and more wide, it spread o'er all the realm; 615 The Vapour mild o'er each Committee crept; her own design; the Poet, I am persuaded, will be justified, and it will be allowed that these worthy persons, in their several ranks, do as much as can be expected from them. P. and Warburton. Arachne's subtile line;] This is one of the most ingenious employments assigned, and therefore recommended only to Peers of Learning. Of weaving Stockings of the Webs of Spiders, see the Philosophical Transactions. P. and Warburton. 2 The Judge to dance his brother Sergeant call;] Alluding perhaps to that ancient and solemn Dance, intituled, A Call of Sergeants. P. and Warburton. 3 Teach Kings to fiddle] An ancient amusement of Sovereign Princes, (viz.) Achilles, Alexander, Nero; tho' despised by Themistocles, who was a Republican-Make Senates dance, either after their Prince, or to Pontoise, or Siberia. P. and Warburton. [The Parliament of Paris was in 1720 relegated en masse to Pontoise, for having resisted the last desperate financial measures of Law, the author of the Mississippi scheme, and then director of the Bank of France.] 4 What Mortal can resist the Yawn of Gods?] This verse is truly Homerical; as is the conclusion of the Action, where the great Mother composes all, in the same manner as Minerva at the period of the Odyssey. P. [Part om.] 5 Dr Gilbert Archbishop of York, who had attacked Dr King of Oxford whom Pope much respected. Warton. [Bowles was informed that this prelate was a most eloquent preacher.] 6 Young's Sat. vII. v. 215: 'What felt thy Walpole, pilot of the realm? Our Palinurus slept not at the helm.-' Wakefield. 7 These verses were written many years ago, and may be found in the State Poems of that time. P. and Warburton. V. 616 is from a poem by Halifax. Wakefield. O Muse! relate (for you can tell alone, 620 'Till drown'd was Sense, and Shame, and Right, and WrongO sing, and hush the Nations with thy Song! 625 She comes! she comes! the sable Throne behold 2 630 Of Night primæval and of Chaos old! 635 640 645 And Metaphysic calls for aid on Sense! 1 Wits have short Memories,] This seems to be the reason why the Poets, whenever they give us a Catalogue, constantly call for help on the Muses, who, as the Daughters of Memory, are obliged not to forget any thing. So Homer, Iliad II. vv. 788 ff. And Virgil, E. VII. [vv. 645-6.] SCRIBL. P. 2 She comes! she comes! &c.] Here the Muse, like Jove's Eagle, after a sudden stoop at ignoble game, soareth again to the skies. As Prophecy hath ever been one of the chief provinces of Poesy, our Poet here foretels from what we feel, what we are to fear; and, in the style of other prophets, hath used the future tense for the preterite since what he says shall be, is already 650 655 to be seen, in the writings of some even of our most adored authors, in Divinity, Philosophy, Physics, Metaphysics, &c. who are too good indeed to be named in such company. P. 3 [Cf. Ov. Met. VII. v. 209.] 4 Truth to her old Cavern fled,] Alluding to the saying of Democritus, That Truth lay at the bottom of a deep well, from whence he had drawn her: Though Butler says, He first put her in, before he drew her out. Warburton. 5 Ver 643, in the former Edd. stood thus, Philosophy, that reach'd the Heav'ns before, Shrinks to her hidden cause, and is no more. And this was intended as a censure of the Newtonian philosophy. Warburton. IMITATIONS. Book. I. Ver. 140. in the former Edd. The page ad Ver. 1. Say, great Patricians! since your mires new beauties not it's own.] selves inspire These wondrous works] 'Dii cœptis (nam vos mutastis et illas).' Ovid, Met. 1. [v. 2.] Ver. 6. Alluding o a verse of Mr Dryden, not in MacFleckno (as is said ignorantly in the Key to the Dunciad, p. 1), but in his verses to Mr Congreve, "And Tom the second reigns like Tom the first.' [Epistle XII. v. 48.] Ver. 41, 42. Hence hymning Tyburn'sHence, &c.] 'Genus unde Latinum, Albanique patres, atque altæ monia Romæ.' Virg. Æn. 1. [vv. 6, 7.] Ver. 45. In clouded Majesty] 'the Moon Rising in clouded Majesty' Milton [Par. Lost], Book 1v. [vv. 606, 7.] Ver. 48. that knows no fears Of hisses, blows, or want, or loss of ears:] 'Miraturque novas frondes et non sua poma.' Virg. Geor. II. [v. 82.] Ver. 166. With whom my Muse began, with whom shall end.] 'A te principium, tibi desinet.' Virg. Ecl. vIII. [v. 11.] 'Quem neque pauperies, neque mors, neque hand my God.] vincula terrent.' Hor. [Lib. 11. Sat. vII. v. 84.] Ver. 55. Here she beholds the Chaos dark and deep, Where nameless Somethings, &c.] That is to say, unformed things, which are either made into Poems or Plays, as the Booksellers or the Players bid most. These lines allude to the following in Garth's Dispensary, Cant. vi. 'Within the chambers of the globe they spy The beds where sleeping vegetables lie, 'Till the glad summons of a genial ray Unbinds the glebe, and calls them out to day.' Ver. 64. And ductile Dulness, &c.] A parody on a verse in Garth, Cant. I. 'How ductile matter new meanders takes.' Ver. 79. The cloud-compelling Queen] From Homer's Epithet of Jupiter, vedeλnyepéta Zeús. Var. He rolled his eyes that witness'd huge dismay. 'round he throws his [baleful] eyes, That witness'd huge affliction and dismay.' Milt. [Par. Lost], Bk. 1. [vv. 56, 7.] The progress of a bad poet in his thoughts, being (like the progress of the Devil in Milton) through a Chaos, might probably suggest this imitation. Virg. ibid. [vv. 291, 2.] This Box my Thunder, this right! 'Dextra mihi Deus, et telum quod missile libro.' Var. And visit Alehouse,] Waller [to the Ver. 245. And thrice he lifted high the Birthday brand,] Ovid, of Althea on a like occasion, burning her offspring: 'Tum conata quater flammis imponere torrem, Cœpta quater tenuit.' [Metam. VIII. VV. 462, 3.] Ver. 250. Now flames the Cid, &c.] 'Jam Deïphobi dedit ampla ruinam, Vulcano superante domus; jam proximus ardet Ucalegon.'En. 11. [vv. 310-2.] Ver. 263. Great in her charms! as when on Shrieves and May'rs She looks and breathes herself into their airs.] |