'Of all th' enamell'd race, whose silvery wing Waves to the tepid zephyrs of the spring, Or swims along the fluid atmosphere, Once brightest shined this child of heat and air. I saw, and started, from its vernal bower, The rising game, and chased from flower to flower; It fled, I follow'd; now in hope, now pain; It stopp'd, I stopp'd; it moved, I moved again. At last it fix'd; 'twas on what plant it pleased, And where it fix'd, the beauteous bird I seized: 430 Rose or carnation was below my care; I meddle, goddess! only in my sphere. I tell the naked fact without disguise, And, to excuse it, need but show the prize; Whose spoils this paper offers to your eye, Fair ev'n in death! this peerless butterfly.'

'My sons! (she answer'd) both have done your parts: Live happy both, and long promote our arts. But hear a mother, when she recommends To your fraternal care our sleeping friends. 440 The common soul, of Heaven's more frugal make, Serves but to keep fools pert and knaves awake: A drowsy watchman, that just gives a knock, And breaks our rest, to tell us what's a clock. Yet by some object every brain is stirr'd; The dull may waken to a humming-bird; The most recluse, discreetly open'd, find Congenial matter in the cockle-kind; The mind in metaphysics at a loss, May wander in a wilderness of moss;[427] 450 The head that turns at super-lunar things, Poised with a tail, may steer on Wilkins' wings.[428]

'Oh! would the sons of men once think their eyes And reason given them but to study flies! See nature in some partial narrow shape, And let the Author of the whole escape: Learn but to trifle; or, who most observe, To wonder at their Maker, not to serve.'

'Be that my task' (replies a gloomy clerk, Sworn foe to mystery, yet divinely dark; 460 Whose pious hope aspires to see the day When moral evidence[429] shall quite decay, And damns implicit faith, and holy lies, Prompt to impose, and fond to dogmatise:) 'Let others creep by timid steps and slow, On plain experience lay foundations low, By common sense to common knowledge bred, And last, to Nature's cause through Nature led: All-seeing in thy mists, we want no guide, Mother of arrogance, and source of pride! 470 We nobly take the high priori road,[430] And reason downward, till we doubt of God: Make Nature still[431] encroach upon his plan; And shove him off as far as e'er we can: Thrust some mechanic cause into his place; Or bind in matter, or diffuse in space.[432] Or, at one bound o'erleaping all his laws, Make God man's image, man the final cause, Find virtue local, all relation scorn, See all in self, and but for self be born: 480 Of nought so certain as our reason still, Of nought so doubtful as of soul and will. O! hide the God still more! and make us see, Such as Lucretius drew, a God like thee: Wrapt up in self, a God without a thought, Regardless of our merit or default. Or that bright image[433] to our fancy draw, Which Theocles[434] in raptured vision saw, While through poetic scenes the genius roves, Or wanders wild in academic groves; 490 That Nature our society adores,[435] Where Tindal dictates, and Silenus[436] snores.'

Roused at his name, up rose the bousy sire, And shook from out his pipe the seeds of fire; Then snapt his box, and stroked his belly down: Rosy and reverend, though without a gown. Bland and familiar to the throne he came, Led up the youth, and call'd the goddess dame. Then thus: 'From priestcraft happily set free, Lo! every finish'd son returns to thee: 500 First, slave to words,[437] then vassal to a name, Then dupe to party; child and man the same; Bounded by nature, narrow'd still by art, A trifling head, and a contracted heart; Thus bred, thus taught, how many have I seen, Smiling on all, and smiled on by a queen?[438] Mark'd out for honours, honour'd for their birth, To thee the most rebellious things on earth: Now to thy gentle shadow all are shrunk, All melted down in pension or in punk! 510 So K——, so B—— sneak'd into the grave, A monarch's half, and half a harlot's slave. Poor W——,[439] nipp'd in folly's broadest bloom, Who praises now? his chaplain on his tomb. Then take them all, oh, take them to thy breast! Thy Magus, goddess! shall perform the rest.'

With that, a wizard old his cup extends, Which whoso tastes forgets his former friends, Sire, ancestors, himself. One casts his eyes Up to a star, and like Endymion dies: 520 A feather, shooting from another's head, Extracts his brain, and principle is fled; Lost is his God, his country, everything; And nothing left but homage to a king![440] The vulgar herd turn off to roll with hogs, To run with horses, or to hunt with dogs; But, sad example! never to escape Their infamy, still keep the human shape. But she, good goddess, sent to every child Firm Impudence, or Stupefaction mild; 530 And strait succeeded, leaving shame no room, Cibberian forehead, or Cimmerian gloom.

Kind Self-conceit to some her glass applies, Which no one looks in with another's eyes: But as the flatterer or dependant paint, Beholds himself a patriot, chief, or saint.

On others Interest her gay livery flings, Interest, that waves on party-colour'd wings: Turn'd to the sun, she casts a thousand dyes, And, as she turns, the colours fall or rise. 540

Others the Syren sisters warble round, And empty heads console with empty sound. No more, alas! the voice of fame they hear, The balm of Dulness[441] trickling in their ear. Great C——, H——, P——, R——, K——, 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 Attends; all flesh is nothing in his sight! 550 Beeves, at his touch, at once to jelly turn, And the huge boar is shrunk into an urn: The board with specious miracles he loads,[442] Turns hares to larks, and pigeons into toads. Another (for in all what one can shine?) Explains the seve and verdeur of the vine.[443] What cannot copious sacrifice atone? Thy truffles, Perigord! thy hams, Bayonne! With French libation, and Italian strain, Wash Bladen white, and expiate Hays's stain.[444] 560 Knight lifts the head; for what are crowds undone To three essential partridges in one? Gone every blush, and silent all reproach, Contending princes mount them in their coach.

Next bidding all draw near on bended knees, The queen confers her titles and degrees. Her children first of more distinguish'd sort, Who study Shakspeare at the Inns of Court, Impale a glow-worm, or vertu profess, Shine in the dignity of F.R.S. 570 Some, deep freemasons, join the silent race, Worthy to fill Pythagoras's place: Some botanists, or florists at the least, Or issue members of an annual feast. Nor pass'd the meanest unregarded; one Rose a Gregorian, one a Gormogon.[445] The last, not least in honour or applause, Isis and Cam made Doctors of her Laws.

Then, blessing all, 'Go, children of my care! To practice now from theory repair. 580 All my commands are easy, short, and full: My sons! be proud, be selfish, and be dull. Guard my prerogative, assert my throne: This nod confirms each privilege your own. The cap and switch be sacred to his grace; With staff and pumps the marquis lead the race; From stage to stage the licensed earl may run, Pair'd with his fellow-charioteer the sun; The learned baron butterflies design, Or draw to silk Arachne's subtile line;[446] 590 The judge to dance his brother sergeant call;[447] The senator at cricket urge the ball; The bishop stow (pontific luxury!) An hundred souls of turkeys in a pie; The sturdy squire to Gallic masters stoop, And drown his lands and manors in a soup. Others import yet nobler arts from France, Teach kings to fiddle, and make senates dance.[448] Perhaps more high some daring son may soar, Proud to my list to add one monarch more; 600 And nobly conscious, princes are but things Born for first ministers, as slaves for kings, Tyrant supreme! shall three estates command, And MAKE ONE MIGHTY DUNCIAD OF THE LAND!'

More she had spoke, but yawn'd—All Nature nods: What mortal can resist the yawn of gods? Churches and chapels instantly it reach'd; (St James's first, for leaden Gilbert[449] preach'd;) Then catch'd the schools; the Hall scarce kept awake; The Convocation gaped, but could not speak; 610 Lost was the nation's sense, nor could be found, While the long solemn unison went round: Wide, and more wide, it spread o'er all the realm; Even Palinurus nodded at the helm: The vapour mild o'er each committee crept; Unfinish'd treaties in each office slept; And chiefless armies dozed out the campaign; And navies yawn'd for orders on the main.[450]

O Muse! relate (for you can tell alone, Wits have short memories, and dunces none,) 620 Relate, who first, who last resign'd to rest; Whose heads she partly, whose completely bless'd; What charms could faction, what ambition, lull, The venal quiet, and entrance the dull; 'Till drown'd was sense, and shame, and right, and wrong— O sing, and hush the nations with thy song!

In vain, in vain,—the all-composing hour Resistless falls: the Muse obeys the power. She comes! she comes! the sable throne behold Of Night primeval, and of Chaos old! 630 Before her, Fancy's gilded clouds decay, And all its varying rainbows die away. Wit shoots in vain its momentary fires, The meteor drops, and in a flash expires. As one by one, at dread Medea's strain, The sick'ning stars fade off the ethereal plain; As Argus' eyes, by Hermes' wand oppress'd, Closed one by one to everlasting rest; Thus at her felt approach, and secret might, Art after art goes out, and all is night. 640 See skulking Truth to her old cavern fled,[451] Mountains of casuistry heap'd o'er her head! Philosophy, that lean'd on heaven before, Shrinks to her second cause, and is no more. Physic of Metaphysic begs defence, And Metaphysic calls for aid on Sense! See Mystery to Mathematics fly! In vain! they gaze, turn giddy, rave, and die. Religion, blushing, veils her sacred fires, And unawares Morality expires. 650 Nor public flame, nor private, dares to shine; Nor human spark is left, nor glimpse divine! Lo! thy dread empire, Chaos! is restored; Light dies before thy uncreating word: Thy hand, great Anarch! lets the curtain fall; And universal darkness buries all.

VARIATIONS.

VER. 114—

'What! no respect, he cried, for Shakspeare's page?'

VER. 441. The common soul, &c. In the first edition, thus—

Of souls the greater part, Heaven's common make, Serve but to keep fools pert, and knaves awake; And most but find that sentinel of God, A drowsy watchman in the land of Nod.

VER. 643. In the former edition, it stood thus—

Philosophy, that reach'd the heavens before, Shrinks to her hidden cause, and is no more.

BY THE AUTHOR.

A DECLARATION.

Whereas certain haberdashers of points and particles, being instigated by the spirit of pride, and assuming to themselves the name of critics and restorers, have taken upon them to adulterate the common and current sense of our glorious ancestors, poets of this realm, by clipping, coining, defacing the images, mixing their own base alloy, or otherwise falsifying the same; which they publish, utter, and vend as genuine: The said haberdashers having no right thereto, as neither heirs, executors, administrators, assigns, or in any sort related to such poets, to all or any of them: Now we, having carefully revised this our Dunciad,[452] beginning with the words 'The Mighty Mother,' and ending with the words 'buries all,' containing the entire sum of one thousand seven hundred and fifty-four verses, declare every word, figure, point, and comma of this impression to be authentic: And do therefore strictly enjoin and forbid any person or persons whatsoever, to erase, reverse, put between hooks, or by any other means, directly or indirectly, change or mangle any of them. And we do hereby earnestly exhort all our brethren to follow this our example, which we heartily wish our great predecessors had heretofore set, as a remedy and prevention of all such abuses. Provided always, that nothing in this Declaration shall be construed to limit the lawful and undoubted right of every subject of this realm, to judge, censure, or condemn, in the whole or in part, any poem or poet whatsoever.

Given under our hand at London, this third day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred thirty and two.

Declarat' cor' me, JOHN BARBER, Mayor.



APPENDIX TO THE DUNCIAD.

I.—PREFACE

PREFIXED TO THE FIVE FIRST IMPERFECT EDITIONS OF THE DUNCIAD, IN THREE BOOKS, PRINTED AT DUBLIN AND LONDON, IN OCTAVO AND DUODECIMO, 1727.

THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER.

It will be found a true observation, though somewhat surprising, that when any scandal is vented against a man of the highest distinction and character, either in the state or in literature, the public in general afford it a most quiet reception; and the larger part accept it as favourably as if it were some kindness done to themselves: whereas, if a known scoundrel or blockhead but chance to be touched upon, a whole legion is up in arms, and it becomes the common cause of all scribblers, booksellers, and printers whatsoever.

Not to search too deeply into the reason hereof, I will only observe as a fact, that every week for these two months past, the town has been persecuted with pamphlets, advertisements, letters, and weekly essays, not only against the wit and writings, but against the character and person of Mr Pope. And that of all those men who have received pleasure from his works, which by modest computation may be about a hundred thousand in these kingdoms of England and Ireland (not to mention Jersey, Guernsey, the Orcades, those in the new world, and foreigners who have translated him into their languages), of all this number not a man hath stood up to say one word in his defence.

The only exception is the author of the following poem, who, doubtless, had either a better insight into the grounds of this clamour, or a better opinion of Mr Pope's integrity, joined with a greater personal love for him, than any other of his numerous friends and admirers.

Further, that he was in his peculiar intimacy, appears from the knowledge he manifests of the most private authors of all the anonymous pieces against him, and from his having in this poem attacked no man living, who had not before printed or published some scandal against this gentleman.

How I came possessed of it is no concern to the reader; but it would have been a wrong to him had I detained the publication, since those names which are its chief ornaments die off daily so fast, as must render it too soon unintelligible. If it provoke the author to give us a more perfect edition, I have my end.

Who he is I cannot say, and (which is a great pity) there is certainly nothing in his style and manner of writing which can distinguish or discover him: for if it bears any resemblance to that of Mr Pope, 'tis not improbable but it might be done on purpose, with a view to have it pass for his. But by the frequency of his allusions to Virgil, and a laboured (not to say affected) shortness in imitation of him, I should think him more an admirer of the Roman poet than of the Grecian, and in that not of the same taste with his friend.

I have been well informed, that this work was the labour of full six years of his life, and that he wholly retired himself from all the avocations and pleasures of the world, to attend diligently to its correction and perfection; and six years more he intended to bestow upon it, as it should seem by this verse of Statius, which was cited at the head of his manuscript—

'Oh mihi bissenos multum vigilata per annos, Duncia!'

Hence, also, we learn the true title of the poem; which, with the same certainty as we call that of Homer the Iliad, of Virgil the Aeneid, of Camoens the Lusiad, we may pronounce, could have been, and can be no other than

THE DUNCIAD.

It is styled heroic, as being doubly so: not only with respect to its nature, which, according to the best rules of the ancients, and strictest ideas of the moderns, is critically such; but also with regard to the heroical disposition and high courage of the writer, who dared to stir up such a formidable, irritable, and implacable race of mortals.

There may arise some obscurity in chronology from the names in the poem, by the inevitable removal of some authors, and insertion of others in their niches. For whoever will consider the unity of the whole design, will be sensible that the poem was not made for these authors, but these authors for the poem. I should judge that they were clapped in as they rose, fresh and fresh, and changed from day to day; in like manner as when the old boughs wither, we thrust new ones into a chimney.

I would not have the reader too much troubled or anxious, if he cannot decipher them; since when he shall have found them out, he will probably know no more of the persons than before.

Yet we judged it better to preserve them as they are, than to change them for fictitious names; by which the satire would only be multiplied, and applied to many instead of one. Had the hero, for instance, been called Codrus, how many would have affirmed him to have been Mr T., Mr E., Sir R. B., &c.; but now all that unjust scandal is saved by calling him by a name, which by good luck happens to be that of a real person.

II.—A LIST OF BOOKS, PAPERS, AND VERSES,

IN WHICH OUR AUTHOR WAS ABUSED, BEFORE THE PUBLICATION OF THE DUNCIAD; WITH THE TRUE NAMES OF THE AUTHORS.

Reflections Critical and Satirical on a late Rhapsody, called an Essay on Criticism. By Mr Dennis. Printed by B. Lintot, price 6d.

A New Rehearsal, or Bayes the Younger; containing an Examen of Mr Rowe's plays, and a word or two on Mr Pope's Rape of the Lock. Anon. [By Charles Gildon]. Printed for J. Roberts, 1714, price 1s.

Homerides, or a Letter to Mr Pope, occasioned by his intended translation of Homer. By Sir Iliad Doggrel. [Tho. Burnet and G. Ducket, Esquires]. Printed for W. Wilkins, 1715, price 9d.

Aesop at the Bear Garden; a Vision, in imitation of the Temple of Fame. By Mr Preston. Sold by John Morphew, 1715, price 6d.

The Catholic Poet, or Protestant Barnaby's Sorrowful Lamentations; a Ballad about Homer's Iliad. By Mrs Centlivre and others, 1715, price 1d.

An Epilogue to a Puppet Show at Bath, concerning the said Iliad. By George Ducket, Esq. Printed by E. Curll.

A Complete Key to the What-d'ye-call-it? Anon. [By Griffin, a player, supervised by Mr Th—-]. Printed by J. Roberts, 1715.

A True Character of Mr P. and his Writings, in a Letter to a Friend. Anon. [Dennis]. Printed for S. Popping, 1716, price 3d.

The Confederates, a Farce. By Joseph Gay. [J. D. Breval]. Printed for R. Burleigh, 1717, price 1s.

Remarks upon Mr Pope's Translation of Homer; with Two Letters concerning the Windsor Forest, and the Temple of Fame. By Mr Dennis. Printed for E. Curll, 1717, price 1s. 6d.

Satires on the Translators of Homer, Mr P. and Mr T. Anon. [Bez. Morris]. 1717, price 6d.

The Triumvirate; or, a Letter from Palaemon to Celia at Bath. Anon. [Leonard Welsted]. 1711, folio, price 1s.

The Battle of Poets, an Heroic Poem. By Thomas Cooke. Printed for J. Roberts. Folio, 1725.

Memoirs of Lilliput. Anon. [Eliza Haywood]. Octavo, printed in 1727.

An Essay on Criticism, in Prose. By the Author of the Critical History of England [J. Oldmixon]. Octavo, printed 1728.

Gulliveriana and Alexandriana; with an ample Preface and Critique on Swift and Pope's Miscellanies. By Jonathan Smedley. Printed by J. Roberts. Octavo, 1728.

Characters of the Times; or, an Account of the Writings, Characters, &c., of several Gentlemen libelled by S—— and P—-, in a late Miscellany. Octavo, 1728.

Remarks on Mr Pope's Rape of the Lock, in Letters to a Friend. By Mr Dennis. Written in 1724, though not printed till 1728. Octavo.

VERSES, LETTERS, ESSAYS, OR ADVERTISEMENTS, IN THE PUBLIC PRINTS.

British Journal, Nov. 25, 1727. A Letter on Swift and Pope's Miscellanies. [Writ by M. Concanen].

Daily Journal, March 18, 1728. A Letter by Philo-mauri. James Moore Smith.

Ibid. March 29. A Letter about Thersites; accusing the author of disaffection to the Government. By James Moore Smith.

Mist's Weekly Journal, March 30. An Essay on the Arts of a Poet's Sinking in Reputation; or, a Supplement to the Art of Sinking in Poetry. [Supposed by Mr Theobald].

Daily Journal, April 3. A Letter under the name of Philo-ditto. By James Moore Smith.

Flying Post, April 4. A Letter against Gulliver and Mr P. [By Mr Oldmixon.]

Daily Journal, April 5. An Auction of Goods at Twickenham. By James Moore Smith.

The Flying Post, April 6. A Fragment of a Treatise upon Swift and Pope. By Mr Oldmixon.

The Senator, April 9. On the same. By Edward Roome.

Daily Journal, April 8. Advertisement by James Moore Smith.

Flying Post, April 13. Verses against Dr Swift, and against Mr P—-'s Homer. By J. Oldmixon.

Daily Journal, April 23. Letter about the Translation of the Character of Thersites in Homer. By Thomas Cooke, &c.

Mist's Weekly Journal, April 27. A Letter of Lewis Theobald.

Daily Journal, May 11. A Letter against Mr P. at large. Anon. [John Dennis].

All these were afterwards reprinted in a pamphlet, entitled, A Collection of all the Verses, Essays, Letters, and Advertisements, occasioned by Mr Pope and Swift's Miscellanies, prefaced by Concanen, Anonymous, octavo, and printed for A. Moore, 1728, price 1s. Others of an elder date, having lain as waste paper many years, were, upon the publication of the Dunciad, brought out, and their authors betrayed by the mercenary booksellers (in hope of some possibility of vending a few), by advertising them in this manner:—"The Confederates, a Farce. By Captain Breval (for which he was put into the Dunciad). An Epilogue to Powell's Puppet Show. By Colonel Ducket (for which he is put into the Dunciad). Essays, &c. By Sir Richard Blackmore. (N.B.—It was for a passage of this book that Sir Richard was put into the Dunciad)." And so of others.

AFTER THE DUNCIAD, 1728.

An Essay on the Dunciad, octavo. Printed for J. Roberts. [In this book, p. 9, it was formally declared, 'That the complaint of the aforesaid libels and advertisements was forged and untrue; that all mouths had been silent, except in Mr Pope's praise; and nothing against him published, but by Mr Theobald.']

Sawney, in Blank Verse, occasioned by the Dunciad; with a Critique on that Poem. By J. Ralph [a person never mentioned in it at first, but inserted after]. Printed for J. Roberts, octavo.

A Complete Key to the Dunciad. By E. Curll. 12mo, price 6d.

A Second and Third Edition of the same, with Additions, 12mo.

The Popiad. By E. Curll. Extracted from J. Dennis, Sir Richard Blackmore, &c. 12mo, price 6d.

The Curliad. By the same E. Curll.

The Female Dunciad. Collected by the same Mr Curll. 12mo, price 6d. With the Metamorphosis of P. into a Stinging Nettle. By Mr Foxton. 12mo.

The Metamorphosis of Scriblerus into Snarlerus. By J. Smedley. Printed for A. Moore, folio, price 6d.

The Dunciad Dissected. By Curll and Mrs Thomas. 12mo.

An Essay on the Tastes and Writings of the Present Times. Said to be writ by a Gentleman of C. C. C. Oxon. Printed for J. Roberts, octavo.

The Arts of Logic and Rhetoric, partly taken from Bouhours, with New Reflections, &c. By John Oldmixon. Octavo.

Remarks on the Dunciad. By Mr Dennis. Dedicated to Theobald. Octavo.

A Supplement to the Profund. Anon. By Matthew Coucanen. Octavo.

Mist's Weekly Journal, June 8. A long Letter, signed W. A. Writ by some or other of the Club of Theobald, Dennis, Moore, Concanen, Cooke, who for some time held constant weekly meetings for these kind of performances.

Daily Journal, June 11. A Letter signed Philoscriblerus, on the name of Pope. Letter to Mr Theobald, inverse, signed B. M. (Bezaleel Morris) against Mr P—-. Many other little Epigrams about this time in the same papers, by James Moore, and others.

Mist's Journal, June 22. A Letter by Lewis Theobald.

Flying Post, August 8. Letter on Pope and Swift.

Daily Journal, August 8. Letter charging the Author of the Dunciad with Treason.

Durgen: A Plain Satire on a Pompous Satirist. By Edward Ward, with a little of James Moore.

Apollo's Maggot in his Cups. By E. Ward.

Gulliveriana Secunda. Being a Collection of many of the Libels in the Newspapers, like the former Volume, under the same title, by Smedley. Advertised in the Craftsman, Nov. 9, 1728, with this remarkable promise, that 'any thing which any body should send as Mr Pope's or Dr Swift's should be inserted and published as theirs.'

Pope Alexander's Supremacy and Infallibility Examined, &c. By George Ducket and John Dennis. Quarto.

Dean Jonathan's Paraphrase on the Fourth Chapter of Genesis. Writ by E. Roome. Folio. 1729.

Labeo. A Paper of Verses by Leonard Welsted, which after came into One Epistle, and was published by James Moore, quarto, 1730. Another part of it came out in Welsted's own name, under the just title of Dulness and Scandal, folio, 1731.

There have been since published—

Verses on the Imitator of Horace. By a Lady (or between a Lady, a Lord, and a Court-squire). Printed for J. Roberts. Folio.

An Epistle from a Nobleman to a Doctor of Divinity, from Hampton Court (Lord H—-y). Printed for J. Roberts. Folio.

A Letter from Mr Cibber to Mr Pope. Printed for W. Lewis in Covent Garden. Octavo.

III.—ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIRST EDITION—WITH NOTES,

IN QUARTO, 1729.

It will be sufficient to say of this edition, that the reader has here a much more correct and complete copy of the Dunciad than has hitherto appeared. I cannot answer but some mistakes may have slipped into it, but a vast number of others will be prevented by the names being now not only set at length, but justified by the authorities and reasons given. I make no doubt the author's own motive to use real rather than feigned names, was his care to preserve the innocent from any false application; whereas, in the former editions, which had no more than the initial letters, he was made, by Keys printed here, to hurt the inoffensive, and (what was worse) to abuse his friends, by an impression at Dublin.

The commentary which attends this poem was sent me from several hands, and consequently must be unequally written; yet will have one advantage over most commentaries, that it is not made upon conjectures, or at a remote distance of time: and the reader cannot but derive one pleasure from the very obscurity of the persons it treats of, that it partakes of the nature of a secret, which most people love to be let into, though the men or the things be ever so inconsiderable or trivial.

Of the persons it was judged proper to give some account; for since it is only in this monument that they must expect to survive (and here survive they will, as long as the English tongue shall remain such as it was in the reigns of Queen Anne and King George), it seemed but humanity to bestow a word or two upon each, just to tell what he was, what he writ, when he lived, and when he died.

If a word or two more are added upon the chief offenders, it is only as a paper pinned upon the breast, to mark the enormities for which they suffered; lest the correction only should be remembered, and the crime forgotten. In some articles it was thought sufficient barely to transcribe from Jacob, Curll, and other writers of their own rank, who were much better acquainted with them than any of the authors of this comment can pretend to be. Most of them had drawn each other's characters on certain occasions; but the few here inserted are all that could be saved from the general destruction of such works.

Of the part of Scriblerus, I need say nothing; his manner is well enough known, and approved by all but those who are too much concerned to be judges.

The Imitations of the Ancients are added, to gratify those who either never read, or may have forgotten them; together with some of the parodies and allusions to the most excellent of the Moderns. If, from the frequency of the former, any man think the poem too much a Cento, our poet will but appear to have done the same thing in jest which Boileau did in earnest; and upon which Vida, Fracastorius, and many of the most eminent Latin poets, professedly valued themselves.

IV.—ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIRST EDITION OF THE FOURTH BOOK OF THE DUNCIAD,

WHEN PRINTED SEPARATELY IN THE YEAR 1742.

We apprehend it can be deemed no injury to the author of the three first books of the Dunciad that we publish this fourth. It was found merely by accident in taking a survey of the library of a late eminent nobleman; but in so blotted a condition, and in so many detached pieces, as plainly showed it to be not only incorrect, but unfinished. That the author of the three first books had a design to extend and complete his poem in this manner appears from the dissertation prefixed to it, where it is said that the design is more extensive, and that we may expect other episodes to complete it; and from the declaration in the argument to the third book, that the accomplishment of the prophecies therein would be the theme hereafter of a greater Dunciad. But whether or no he be the author of this, we declare ourselves ignorant. If he be, we are no more to be blamed for the publication of it than Tucca and Varius for that of the last six books of the Aeneid, though perhaps inferior to the former.

If any person be possessed of a more perfect copy of this work, or of any other fragments of it, and will communicate them to the publisher, we shall make the next edition more complete: in which we also promise to insert any criticisms that shall be published (if at all to the purpose) with the names of the authors; or any letters sent us (though not to the purpose) shall yet be printed under the title of Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum; which, together with some others of the same kind formerly laid by for that end, may make no unpleasant addition to the future impressions of this poem.

V.—ADVERTISEMENT TO THE COMPLETE EDITION of 1743.

I have long had a design of giving some sort of Notes on the works of this poet. Before I had the happiness of his acquaintance, I had written a commentary on his Essay on Man, and have since finished another on the Essay on Criticism. There was one already on the Dunciad, which had met with general approbation; but I still thought some additions were wanting (of a more serious kind) to the humorous notes of Scriblerus, and even to those written by Mr Cleland, Dr Arbuthnot, and others. I had lately the pleasure to pass some months with the author in the country, where I prevailed upon him to do what I had long desired, and favour me with his explanation of several passages in his works. It happened that just at that juncture was published a ridiculous book against him, full of personal reflections, which furnished him with a lucky opportunity of improving this poem, by giving it the only thing it wanted—a more considerable hero. He was always sensible of its defect in that particular, and owned he had let it pass with the hero it had purely for want of a better; not entertaining the least expectation that such an one was reserved for this post as has since obtained the Laurel: but since that had happened, he could no longer deny this justice either to him or the Dunciad.

And yet I will venture to say, there was another motive which had still more weight with our author. This person was one who from every folly (not to say vice) of which another would be ashamed has constantly derived a vanity; and therefore was the man in the world who would least be hurt by it.

W. W.

VI.—ADVERTISEMENT PRINTED IN THE JOURNALS, 1730.

Whereas, upon occasion of certain pieces relating to the gentlemen of the Dunciad, some have been willing to suggest, as if they looked upon them as an abuse: we can do no less than own it is our opinion, that to call these gentlemen bad authors is no sort of abuse, but a great truth. We cannot alter this opinion without some reason; but we promise to do it in respect to every person who thinks it an injury to be represented as no wit, or poet, provided he procures a certificate of his being really such, from any three of his companions in the Dunciad, or from Mr Dennis singly, who is esteemed equal to any three of the number.

VII.—A PARALLEL OF THE CHARACTERS OF MR DRYDEN AND MR POPE,

AS DRAWN BY CERTAIN OF THEIR CONTEMPORARIES.

MR DRYDEN—HIS POLITICS, RELIGION, MORALS.

MR DRYDEN is a mere renegado from monarchy, poetry, and good sense[453]—a true republican son of monarchical Church[454]—a republican atheist.[455] Dryden was from the beginning an [Greek: alloprosallos], and I doubt not will continue so to the last.[456]

In the poem called Absalom and Achitophel are notoriously traduced, the King, the Queen, the Lords and Gentlemen, not only their honourable persons exposed, but the whole nation and its representatives notoriously libelled. It is scandalum magnatum, yea of majesty itself.[457]

He looks upon God's gospel as a foolish fable, like the Pope, to whom he is a pitiful purveyor.[458] His very Christianity may be questioned.[459] He ought to expect more severity than other men, as he is most unmerciful in his own reflections on others.[460] With as good a right as his holiness, he sets up for poetical infallibility.[461]

MR DRYDEN ONLY A VERSIFIER.

His whole libel is all bad matter, beautified (which is all that can be said of it) with good metre.[462] Mr Dryden's genius did not appear in any thing more than his versification, and whether he is to be ennobled for that only is a question.[463]

MR DRYDEN'S VIRGIL.

Tonson calls it Dryden's Virgil, to show that this is not that Virgil so admired in the Augustaean age; but a Virgil of another stamp, a silly, impertinent, nonsensical writer.[464] None but a Bavius, a Maevius, or a Bathyllus carped at Virgil; and none but such unthinking vermin admire his translator.[465] It is true, soft and easy lines might become Ovid's Epistles or Art of Love; but Virgil, who is all great and majestic, &c., requires strength of lines, weight of words, and closeness of expressions—not an ambling muse running on carpet-ground, and shod as lightly as a Newmarket racer. He has numberless faults in his author's meaning, and in propriety of expression.[466]

MR DRYDEN UNDERSTOOD NO GREEK NOR LATIN.

Mr Dryden was once, I have heard, at Westminster school. Dr Bushby would have whipped him for so childish a paraphrase.[467] The meanest pedant in England would whip a lubber of twelve for construing so absurdly.[468] The translator is mad, every line betrays his stupidity.[469] The faults are innumerable, and convince me that Mr Dryden did not, or would not understand his author.[470] This shows how fit Mr D. may be to translate Homer! A mistake in a single letter might fall on the printer well enough, but [Greek: eichor] for [Greek: ichor] must be the error of the author. Nor had he art enough to correct it at the press.[471] Mr Dryden writes for the court ladies. He writes for the ladies, and not for use.[472]

The translator puts in a little burlesque now and then into Virgil, for a ragout to his cheated subscribers.[473]

MR DRYDEN TRICKED HIS SUBSCRIBERS.

I wonder that any man, who could not but be conscious of his own unfitness for it, should go to amuse the learned world with such an undertaking! A man ought to value his reputation more than money; and not to hope that those who can read for themselves will be imposed upon, merely by a partially and unseasonably celebrated name.[474] Poetis quidlibei audendi shall be Mr Dryden's motto, though it should extend to picking of pockets.[475]

NAMES BESTOWED ON MR DRYDEN.

An Ape.—A crafty ape dressed up in a gaudy gown—whips put into an ape's paw, to play pranks with—none but apish and papish brats will heed him.[476]

An Ass.—A camel will take upon him no more burden than is sufficient for his strength, but there is another beast that crouches under all.[477]

A Frog.—Poet Squab endued with Poet Maro's spirit! an ugly croaking kind of vermin, which would swell to the bulk of an ox.[478]

A Coward.—A Clinias or a Damaetas, or a man of Mr Dryden's own courage.[479]

A Knave.—Mr Dryden has heard of Paul, the knave of Jesus Christ; and, if I mistake not, I've read somewhere of John Dryden, servant to his Majesty.[480]

A Fool.—Had he not been such a self-conceited fool.[481]—Some great poets are positive blockheads.[482]

A Thing.—So little a thing as Mr Dryden.[483]

MR POPE—HIS POLITICS, RELIGION, MORALS.

MR POPE is an open and mortal enemy to his country, and the commonwealth of learning.[484] Some call him a Popish Whig, which is directly inconsistent.[485] Pope, as a papist, must be a Tory and High-flyer.[486] He is both a Whig and Tory.[487]

He hath made it his custom to cackle to more than one party in their own sentiments.[488]

In his miscellanies, the persons abused are—the King, the Queen, his late Majesty, both Houses of Parliament, the Privy Council, the Bench of Bishops, the Established Church, the present Ministry, &c. To make sense of some passages, they must be construed into royal scandal.[489]

He is a popish rhymester, bred up with a contempt of the Sacred Writings.[490] His religion allows him to destroy heretics, not only with his pen, but with fire and sword; and such were all those unhappy wits whom he sacrificed to his accursed popish principles.[491] It deserved vengeance to suggest that Mr Pope had less infallibility than his namesake at Rome.[492]

MR POPE ONLY A VERSIFIER.

The smooth numbers of the Dunciad are all that recommend it, nor has it any other merit.[493] It must be owned that he hath got a notable knack of rhyming and writing smooth verse.[494]

MR POPE'S HOMER.

The Homer which Lintot prints does not talk like Homer, but like Pope; and he who translated him, one would swear, had a hill in Tipperary for his Parnassus, and a puddle in some bog for his Hippocrene.[495] He has no admirers among those that can distinguish, discern, and judge.[496] He hath a knack at smooth verse, but without either genius or good sense, or any tolerable knowledge of English. The qualities which distinguish Homer are the beauties of his diction and the harmony of his versification. But this little author, who is so much in vogue, has neither sense in his thoughts nor English in his expressions.[497]

MR POPE UNDERSTOOD NO GREEK.

He hath undertaken to translate Homer from the Greek, of which he knows not one word, into English, of which he understands as little.[498] I wonder how this gentleman would look, should it be discovered that he has not translated ten verses together in any book of Homer with justice to the poet, and yet he dares reproach his fellow-writers with not understanding Greek.[499] He has stuck so little to his original as to have his knowledge in Greek called in question.[500] I should be glad to know which it is of all Homer's excellencies which has so delighted the ladies, and the gentlemen who judge like ladies.[501]

But he has a notable talent at burlesque; his genius slides so naturally into it, that he hath burlesqued Homer without designing it.[502]

MR POPE TRICKED HIS SUBSCRIBERS.

'Tis indeed somewhat bold, and almost prodigious, for a single man to undertake such a work; but 'tis too late to dissuade by demonstrating the madness of the project. The subscribers' expectations have been raised in proportion to what their pockets have been drained of.[503] Pope has been concerned in jobs, and hired out his name to booksellers.[504]

NAMES BESTOWED ON MR POPE.

An Ape.—Let us take the initial letter of his Christian name, and the initial and final letters of his surname, viz., A P E, and they give you the same idea of an ape as his face,[505] &c.

An Ass.—It is my duty to pull off the lion's skin from this little ass.[506]

A Frog.—A squab short gentleman—a little creature that, like the frog in the fable, swells, and is angry that it is not allowed to be as big as an ox.[507]

A Coward.—A lurking, way-laying coward.[508]

A Knave.—He is one whom God and nature have marked for want of common honesty.[509]

A Fool.—Great fools will be christened by the names of great poets, and Pope will be called Homer.[510]

A Thing.—A little abject thing.[511]



INDEX

OF

PERSONS CELEBRATED IN THIS POEM.

THE FIRST NUMBER SHOWS THE BOOK; THE SECOND, THE VERSE.

Ambrose Philips, i. 105; iii. 326. Attila, iii. 92. Alaric, iii. 91. Alma Mater, iii. 388. Annius, an antiquary, iv. 347. Arnall, William, ii. 315. Addison, ii. 124, 140. Atterbury, iv. 246.

Blackmore, Sir Richard, i. 104; ii. 268. Bezaleel Morris, ii. 126; iii. 168. Banks, i. 146. Broome, ibid. Bond, ii. 126. Brown, iii. 28. Bladen, iv. 560. Budgel, Esq., ii. 337. Bentley, Richard, iv. 201. Bentley, Thomas, ii. 205. Boyer, Abel, ii. 413. Bland, a gazetteer, i. 231. Breval, J. Durant, ii. 126, 238. Benlowes, iii. 21. Bavius, ibid. Burmannus, iv. 237. Benson, William, Esq., iii. 325; iv. 110. Burgersdyck, iv. 198. Boeotians, iii. 50. Bruin and Bears, i, 101. Bear and Fiddle, i. 224. Burnet, Thomas, iii. 179. Bacon, iii. 215. Barrow, Dr, iv. 245.

Cibber, Colley, Hero of the Poem, passim. Cibber, sen., i. 31. Cibber, jun., iii. 139, 326. Caxton, William, i. 149. Curll, Edm., i. 40; ii. 3, 58, 167, &c. Cooke, Thomas, ii. 138. Concanen, Matthew, ii. 299, Centlivre, Susannah, ii. 411. Caesar in Aegypt, i. 251. Chi Ho-am-ti, Emperor of China, iii. 75. Crousaz, iv. 198. Codrus, ii. 144. Congreve, ii. 124. Chesterfield, iv. 43.

Defoe, Daniel, i. 103; ii. 147. Defoe, Norton, ii. 415. De Lyra, or Harpsfield, i. 153. Dennis, John, i. 106; ii. 239; iii. 173. Dunton, John, ii. 144. D'Urfey, iii. 146. Dutchmen, ii. 405; iii. 51. Doctors, at White's, i. 203. Douglas, iv. 394. Ducket, iii. 179.

Eusden, Laurence, Poet Laureate, i. 104. Evans, Dr, ii. 116

Flecknoe, Richard, ii. 2. Faustus, Dr, iii. 233. Fleetwood, iv. 326. Freemasons, iv. 576. French Cooks, iv. 553.

Gay, ii. 127; iii. 330. Gildon, Charles, i. 296. Goode, Barn., iii. 153. Goths, iii. 90. Gazetteers, i. 215; ii. 314. Gregorians and Gormogons, iv. 575. Garth, ii. 140. Genseric, iii. 92. Gordon, Thomas, iv. 492.

Holland, Philemon, i. 154. Hearne, Thomas, iii. 185. Horneck, Philip, iii. 152. Haywood, Eliza, ii. 157, &c. Howard, Edward, i. 297. Henley, John, the Orator, ii. 2, 425; iii. 199, &c. Huns, iii. 90. Heywood, John, i. 98. Harpsfield, i. 153. Hays, iv. 560. Heidegger, i. 290.

John, King, i. 252. James I., iv. 176. Jacob, Giles, iii. 149. Janssen, a gamester, iv. 326. Jones, Inigo, iii. 328. Johnston, iv. 112.

Knight, Robert, iv. 561. Kuster, iv. 237. Kirkall, ii. 160.

Lintot, Bernard, i. 40; ii. 53. Laws, William, ii. 413. Log, King, i. lin. ult. Locke, iii. 215.

More, James, ii. 50, &c. Morris, Bezaleel, ii. 126; iii. 168. Mist, Nathaniel, i. 208. Milbourn, Luke, ii. 349. Mahomet, iii. 97. Mears, William, ii. 125; iii. 28. Motteux, Peter, ii. 412. Monks, iii. 52. Mandevil, ii. 414. Morgan, ibid. Montalto, iv. 105. Mummius, an antiquary, iv. 371. Milton, iii. 216. Murray, iv. 169.

Newcastle, Duchess of, i. 141. Nonjuror, i. 253. Newton, iii. 216.

Ogilby, John, i. 141, 328. Oldmixon, John, ii. 283. Ozell, John, i. 285. Ostrogoths, iii. 93. Omar, the Caliph, iii. 81. Owls, i. 271, 290; iii. 54. Owls, Athenian, iv. 362. Osborne, bookseller, ii. 167. Osborne, mother, ii. 312.

Prynne, William, i. 103. Philips, Ambrose, i. 105; iii. 326. Paridel, iv. 341. Prior, ii. 124-138. Popple, iii. 151. Pope, iii. 332. Pulteney, iv. 170.

Quarles, Francis, i. 140. Querno, Camillo, ii. 15.

Ralph, James, i. 216; iii. 165. Roome, Edward, iii. 152. Ripley, Thomas, iii. 327. Ridpath, George, i. 208; ii. 149. Roper, Abel, ii. 149. Rich, iii. 261.

Settle, Elkanah, i. 90, 146; iii. 37. Smedley, Jonathan, ii. 291, &c. Shadwell, Thomas, i. 240; iii. 22. Scholiasts, iv. 231. Silenus, iv. 492. Sooterkins, i. 126. Swift, i. 19; ii. 116, 138; iii. 331. Shaftesbury, iv. 488.

Tate, i. 105, 238. Theobald, or Tibbald, i. 133, 286. Tutchin, John, ii. 148. Toland, John, ii. 399; iii. 212. Tindal, Dr, ii. 399; iii. 212; iv. 492. Taylor, John, the Water-Poet, iii. 19. Thomas, Mrs, ii. 70. Tonson, Jacob, i. 57; ii. 68. Thorold, Sir George, i. 85. Talbot, iv. 168.

Vandals, iii. 86. Visigoths, iii. 94.

Walpole, late Sir Robert, praised by our author, ii. 314 Withers, George, i. 296. Wynkyn de Worde, i. 149 (or 140), Ward, Edw. i. 233; ii. 34. Webster, ii. 258. Whitfield, ibid. Warner, Thomas, ii. 125. Wilkins, ibid. Welsted, Leonard, ii. 207; iii. 170. Woolston, Thomas, iii. 212. Wormius, iii. 188. Wasse, iv. 237. Walker, Hat-bearer to Bentley. iv. 206, 273. Wren, Sir C., iii. 329. Wyndham, iv. 167.

Young, Ed., ii. 116.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] 'Patricio:' Lord Godolphin.

[2] 'Charron:' an imitator of Montaigne.

[3] 'Perjured prince:' Louis XI. of France. See 'Quentin Durward'.

[4] 'Godless regent:' Philip Duke of Orleans, Regent of France in the minority of Louis XV., a believer in judicial astrology, though an unbeliever in all religion.

[5] 'Charles:' Charles V.

[6] 'Philip:' Philip II. in the battle of Quintin.

[7] 'Punk:' Cleopatra.

[8] 'Wilmot:' Earl of Rochester.

[9] 'Noble dame a whore:' the sister of Cato, and mother of Brutus.

[10] 'Lanesborough:' an ancient nobleman, who continued this practice long after his legs were disabled by the gout. Upon the death of Prince George of Denmark, he demanded an audience of the Queen, to advise her to preserve her health and dispel her grief by dancing.—P.

[11] 'Narcissa:' Mrs Oldfield, the actress.

[12] 'Sappho:' Lady M. W. Montague.

[13] 'Narcissa:' Duchess of Hamilton.

[14] 'Philomede:' Henrietta, younger Duchess of Marlborough, to whom Congreve left the greater part of his fortune.

[15] 'Her Grace:' Duchess of Montague.

[16] 'Atossa:' Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough.

[17] 'Chloe:' Mrs Howard, afterwards Countess of Suffolk.

[18] 'Mahomet:' servant to the late king, said to be the son of a Turkish pasha, whom he took at the siege of Buda, and constantly kept about his person—P.

[19] 'Parson Hale;' Dr Stephen Hale, not more estimable for his useful discoveries as a natural philosopher, than for his exemplary life and pastoral charity as a parish priest.—P.

[20] 'Epistle III.:' this epistle was written after a violent outcry against our author, on a supposition that he had ridiculed a worthy nobleman merely for his wrong taste. He justified himself upon that article in a letter to the Earl of Burlington; at the end of which are these words: 'I have learnt that there are some who would rather be wicked than ridiculous; and therefore it may be safer to attack vices than follies. I will therefore leave my betters in the quiet possession of their idols, their groves, and their high places; and change my subject from their pride to their meanness, from their vanities to their miseries; and as the only certain way to avoid misconstructions, to lessen offence, and not to multiply ill-natured applications, I may probably, in my next, make use of real names instead of fictitious ones.'—P.

[21] 'Ward:' John Ward of Hackney, Esq., member of Parliament, being prosecuted by the Duchess of Buckingham, and convicted of forgery, was first expelled the House, and then stood in the pillory on the 17th of March 1727.—P.

[22] 'Chartres:' see a former note.

[23] 'The patriot's cloak:' this is a true story, which happened in the reign of William III. to an unsuspected old patriot, who coming out at the back-door from having been closeted by the king, where he had received a large bag of guineas, the bursting of the bag discovered his business there.—P.

[24] 'Ship off senates:' alludes to several ministers, counsellors, and patriots banished in our times to Siberia, and to that more glorious fate of the Parliament of Paris, banished to Pontoise in the year 1720.—P.

[25] 'Coals:' some misers of great wealth, proprietors of the coal-mines, had entered at this time into an association to keep up coals to an extravagant price, whereby the poor were reduced almost to starve, till one of them, taking the advantage of underselling the rest, defeated the design. One of these misers was worth ten thousand, another seven thousand a-year.—P.

[26] 'Colepepper:' Sir William Colepepper, Bart., a person of an ancient family and ample fortune, without one other quality of a gentleman, who, after ruining himself at the gaming table, passed the rest of his days in sitting there to see the ruin of others; preferring to subsist upon borrowing and begging, rather than to enter into any reputable method of life, and refusing a post in the army which was offered him.—P.

[27] 'Turner:' a miser of the day.

[28] 'Hopkins:' a citizen whose rapacity obtained him the name of Vulture Hopkins.—P.

[29] 'Japhet:' Japhet Crook, alias Sir Peter Stranger, was punished with the loss of those parts, for having forged a conveyance of an estate to himself.—P.

[30] 'Endow a college or a cat:' a famous Duchess of Richmond, in her last will, left considerable legacies and annuities to her cats.—P.

[31] 'Bond:' the director of a charitable corporation.

[32] 'To live on venison:' in the extravagance and luxury of the South-sea year, the price of a haunch of venison was from three to five pounds.—P.

[33] 'General excise:' many people, about the year 1733, had a conceit that such a thing was intended, of which it is not improbable this lady might have some intimation.—P.

[34] 'Wise Peter:' an attorney who made a large fortune.

[35] 'Rome's great Didius:' a Roman lawyer, so rich as to purchase the Empire when it was set to sale upon the death of Pertinax.—P.

[36] 'Blunt:' one of the first projectors of the South-sea scheme.

[37] 'Oxford's better part:' Edward Harley, Earl of Oxford—P.

[38] 'The Man of Ross:' the person here celebrated, who, with a small estate, actually performed all these good works, and whose true name was almost lost (partly by the title of the Man of Ross, given him by way of eminence, and partly by being buried without so much as an inscription) was called Mr John Kyrle. He effected many good works, partly by raising contributions from other benevolent persons. He died in the year 1724, aged 90, and lies interred in the chancel of the church of Ross, in Herefordshire.—P.

[39] 'Go search it there:' the parish register.

[40] 'Eternal buckle takes in Parian stone:' the poet ridicules the wretched taste of carving large periwigs on bustos, of which there are several vile examples in the tombs at Westminster and elsewhere.—P.

[41] 'Great Villiers lies:' this lord, yet more famous for his vices than his misfortunes, after having been possessed of about L.50,000 a-year, and passed through many of the highest posts in the kingdom, died in the year 1687, in a remote inn in Yorkshire, reduced to the utmost misery.—P.

[42] 'Shrewsbury:' the Countess of Shrewsbury, a woman abandoned to gallantries. The earl, her husband, was killed by the Duke of Buckingham in a duel; and it has been said, that during the combat she held the duke's horse in the habit of a page.—P.

[43] 'Cutler:' a notorious miser.

[44] 'Where London's column:' the monument, built in memory of the fire of London, with an inscription, importing that city to have been burnt by the Papists.

[45] 'Topham:' a gentleman famous for a judicious collection of drawings.—P.

[46] 'Hearne:' the antiquarian.

[47] 'Ripley:' this man was a carpenter, employed by a first minister, who raised him to an architect, without any genius in the art; and after some wretched proofs of his insufficiency in public buildings, made him comptroller of the Board of Works.—P.

[48] 'Bubo:' Bubb Doddington, who had just finished a mansion at Eastbury.

[49] 'Dr Clarke:' Dr S. Clarke's busto placed by the Queen in the Hermitage, while the doctor duly frequented the court.—P.

[50] 'Timon's villa:' Cannons, the estate of Lord Chandos. See Life.

[51] 'Verrio or Laguerre:' Verrio (Antonio) painted many ceilings, &c., at Windsor, Hampton Court, &c; and Laguerre at Blenheim Castle, and other places.—P.

[52] 'Who never mentions hell:' this is a fact; a reverend Dean, preaching at court, threatened the sinner with punishment in 'a place which he thought it not decent to name in so polite an assembly.'—P.

[53] 'Sancho's dread doctor:' see 'Don Quixote,' chap, xlvii.—P.

[54] This was originally written in the year 1715, when Mr Addison intended to publish his book of medals; it was sometime before he was Secretary of State; but not published till Mr Tickell's edition of his works; at which time the verses on Mr Craggs, which conclude the poem, were added, viz., in 1720.—P.

[55] 'Vadius:' see his history, and that of his shield, in the 'Memoirs of Scriblerus,' ch. ii.

[56] Alemena, mother of Hercules, is after his death here recounting her misfortunes to Iole, who replies by narrating the transformations of her sister Dryope.

[57] Such sons: Eteocles and Polynices.

[58] The Marchantes Tale. Written at sixteen or seventeen years of age.

[59] The first part of this prologue was written by Pope, the conclusion by Mallet.

[60] Shows a cap with ears.

[61] Flings down the cap, and exit.

[62] 'Basset-Table:' only this of all the Town Eclogues was Mr Pope's, and is here printed from a copy corrected by his own hand. The humour of it consists in this, that the one is in love with the game, and the other with the sharper—W.

[63] 'The Lady Frances Shirley:' a lady whose great merit Mr Pope took a real pleasure in celebrating.

[64] 'Bertrand's:' a famous toy-shop at Bath.

[65] 'Fool or ass:' 'The Dunciad.'—P.

[66] 'Flattery or fib:' the 'Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot.'—P.

[67] 'Arms:' such toys being the usual presents from lovers to their mistresses.—P.

[68] 'Print:' when she delivers Aeneas a suit of heavenly armour.—P.

[69] 'Truth nor lies:' if you have neither the courage to write satire, nor the application to attempt an epic poem. He was then meditating on such a work.—P.

[70] 'Algerian grot:' alluding to Numa's projecting his system of politics in this grot, assisted, as he gave out, by the goddess Aegeria.—P.

[71] 'What-d'ye-call-it:' a comedy by Gay.

[72] 'Turk:' Ulrick, the Turk.

[73] 'Pope:' the author.

[74] 'Bellenden, Lepell, and Griffin:' ladies of the Court of the Princess Caroline.

[75] 'Blunderland:' Ireland.

[76] 'Meadows:' see verses to Mrs Howe.

[77] 'God send the king safe landing:' this ballad was written anno 1717.

[78] 'Philips:' Ambrose Philips.

[79] 'Budgell:' Eustace Budgell.

[80] 'Carey:' Henry Carey.

[81] 'Mrs Pulteney:' the daughter of John Gumley of Isleworth, who acquired his fortune by a glass manufactory.

[82] 'Sandys:' George Sandy's, the old, and as yet unequalled, translator of Ovid's Metamorphoses.

[83] 'Jacob's:' old Jacob Tonson, the publisher of the Metamorphoses.

[84] 'P——:' perhaps Pembroke.

[85] 'Umbra:' intended, it is said, for Ambrose Philips.

[86] 'Only Johnson:' Charles Johnson, a second-rate dramatist.

[87] 'The Man Mountain:' this Ode, and the three following pieces, were produced by Pope on reading 'Gulliver's Travels.'

[88] 'Biddel:' name of a sea captain mentioned in Gulliver's Travels.

[89] 'Pannel:' name of a sea captain mentioned in Gulliver's Travels.

[90] 'B——:' Britain.

[91] 'C——:' Cobham.

[92] 'P——'s: Pulteney's.

[93] 'S——:' Sandys.

[94] 'S——:' Shippen.

[95] 'C——:' Perhaps the Earl of Carlisle.

[96] 'Ch—-s W——:' Sir Charles Hanbury Williams.

[97] 'Sir Har-y or Sir P——:' Sir Henry Oxenden or Sir Paul Methuen.

[98] 'G—-r, C—-m, B—-t:' Lords Gower, Cobham, and Bathurst.

[99] 'C—-d:' Chesterfield.

[100] 'C—-t:' Lord Carteret.

[101] 'P——:' William Pulteney, created in 1742 Earl of Bath.

[102] 'W——:' Walpole.

[103] 'H——:' either Sir Robert's brother Horace, who had just quitted his embassy at the Hague, or his son Horace, who was then on his travels.

[104] 'W——:' W. Winnington.

[105] 'Young:' Sir William Young.

[106] 'Bub:' Dodington.

[107] 'H——:' probably Hare, Bishop of Chicester.

[108] 'F——, H—-y:' Fox and Henley.

[109] 'H—-n:' Hinton.

[110] 'Ebor:' Blackburn, Archbishop of York, and Hoadley, Bishop of Winchester.

[111] 'O—-w:' Onslow, Speaker of the House of Commons, and the Earl of Delawar, Chairman of the Committees of the House of Lords.

[112] 'N——:' Newcastle.

[113] 'D——'s sager:' Dorset; perhaps the last word should be sneer.

[114] 'M——'s:' Duke of Marlborough.

[115] 'J——'s:' Jekyll.

[116] 'H—-k's:' Hardwick.

[117] 'C——:' probably Sir John Cummins, Lord Chief-Justice of the Common Pleas.

[118] 'B——:' Britain.

[119] 'S—-w:' Earl of Scarborough.

[120] 'M-m-t's:' Marchmont.

[121] 'P—-th:' Polwarth, son to Lord Marchmont.

[122] 'W—-m:' Wyndham.

[123] 'Sl—-s:' slaves.

[124] 'Se—-s:' senates.

[125] 'Ad....:' administration.

[126] King's.

[127] 'Religion:' an allusion perhaps to Frederick Prince of Wales.

[128] 'First Book of Horace:' attributed to Pope.

[129] The person here meant was Dr Robert Friend, head master of Westminster School.

[130] The Misses Lisle.

[131] There occurred here originally the following lax stanza:—

Can sins of moment claim the rod Of everlasting fires?

[132] And that offend great nature's God, Which nature's self inspires.—See Boswell's 'Johnson.'

[133] This gentleman was of Scotland, and bred at the university of Utrecht, with the Earl of Mar. He served in Spain under Earl Rivers. After the peace, he was made one of the Commissioners of the Customs in Scotland, and then of Taxes in England, in which having shewn himself for twenty years diligent, punctual, and incorruptible, though without any other assistance of fortune, he was suddenly displaced by the minister in the sixty-eighth year of his age, and died two months after, in 1741.—P.

[134] Giles Jacob's Lives of Poets, vol. ii. in his Life.

[135] Dennis's Reflections on the Essay on Criticism.

[136] Dunciad Dissected, p. 4.

[137] Guardian, No. 40.

[138] Jacob's Lives, &c. vol. ii.

[139] Dunciad Dissected, p. 4.

[140] Farmer P—- and his Son.

[141] Dunciad Dissected.

[142] Characters of the Times, p. 45.

[143] Female Dunciad, p. ult.

[144] Dunciad Dissected.

[145] Roome, Paraphrase on the 4th of Genesis, printed 1729.

[146] Character of Mr Pope and his Writings, in a Letter to a Friend, printed for S. Popping, 1716, p. 10. Curll, in his Key to the Dunciad (first edition, said to be printed for A. Dodd), in the 10th page, declared Gildon to be author of that libel; though in the subsequent editions of his Key he left out this assertion, and affirmed (in the Curlliad, p. 4 and 8) that it was written by Dennis only.

[147] Reflections, Critical and Satirical, on a Rhapsody called An Essay on Criticism. Printed for Bernard Lintot, 8vo.

[148] Essay on Criticism in prose, 8vo, 1728, by the author of the Critical History of England.

[149] Preface to his Poems, p.18, 53.

[150] Spectator, No. 253.

[151] Letter to B. B. at the end of the Remarks on Pope's Homer, 1717.

[152] Printed 1728, p. 12.

[153] Alma, canto 2.

[154] In his Essays, vol. i., printed for E. Curll.

[155] Censor, vol. ii. n. 33.

[156] Vide preface to Mr Tickel's translation of the first book of the Iliad, 4to. Also vide Life.

[157] Daily Journal, March 18, 1728.

[158] Ibid, April 3, 1728.

[159] Verses to Mr Pope on his translation of Homer.

[160] Poem prefixed to his works.

[161] In his poems, printed for B. Lintot.

[162] Universal Passion, Satire i.

[163] In his Poems, and at the end of the Odyssey.

[164] The names of two weekly papers.

[165] Theobald, Letter in Mist's Journal, June 22, 1728.

[166] Smedley, Preface to Gulliveriana, p. 14, 16.

[167] Gulliveriana, p. 332.

[168] Anno 1723.

[169] Anno 1729.

[170] Preface to Remarks on the Rape of the Lock, p. 12, and in the last page of that treatise.

[171] Pages 6, 7 of the Preface, by Concanen, to a book entitled, A Collection of all the Letters, Essays, Verses, and Advertisements occasioned by Pope and Swift's Miscellanies. Printed for A. Moore, 8vo, 1712.

[172] Key to the Dunciad, third edition, p. 18.

[173] A list of persons, &c., at the end of the forementioned Collection of all the Letters, Essays, &c.

[174] Introduction to his Shakspeare Restored, in 4to, p. 3.

[175] Commentary on the Duke of Buckingham's Essay, 8vo, 1721, p. 97, 98.

[176] In his prose Essay on Criticism.

[177] Printed by J. Roberts, 1742, p. 11.

[178] Battle of Poets, folio, p. 15.

[179] Printed under the title of the Progress of Dulness, duodecimo, 1728.

[180] Cibber's Letter to Mr Pope, p. 9, 12.

[181] In a letter under his hand, dated March 12, 1733.

[182] Dennis's Preface to his Reflections on the Essay on Criticism.

[183] Preface to his Remarks on Homer.

[184] Remarks on Homer, p. 8, 9.

[185] Ibid, p. 8.

[186] Character of Mr Pope, p. 7.

[187] Ibid, p. G.

[188] Gulliver, p. 886.

[189] Cibber's Letter to Mr. Pope, p. 19.

[190] Burnet Homerides, p. 1 of his Translation of the Iliad.

[191] The London and Mist's Journals, on his undertaking of the Odyssey.

[192] Vide Bossu, Du Poeme Epique, ch. viii.

[193] Bossu, chap. vii.

[194] Book i. ver. 32, &c.

[195] Ver. 45 to 54.

[196] Ver. 57 to 77.

[197] Ver. 80.

[198] Ibid, chap, vii., viii.

[199] Bossu, chap. viii. Vide Aristot. Poetic, chap. ix.

[200] Cibber's Letter to Mr Pope, pp. 9, 12, 41.

[201] See his Essays.

[202] Si nil Heros Poetique doit etre un honnete homme. Bossu, du Poeme Epique, lib. v. ch. 5.

[203] Dedication to the Life of C. C.

[204] Life, p. 2, 8vo edition.

[205] Life, ibid.

[206] Life, p. 23, 8vo.

[207] Alluding to these lines in the Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot:

'And has not Colley still his lord and whore, His butchers, Henley, his freemasons, Moore?'

[208] Letter to Mr Pope, p. 46.

[209] P. 31.

[210] Life, p. 23, 24.

[211] Letter, p. 8.

[212] Letter, p. 53.

[213] Letter, p. 1.

[214] Don Quixote, Part ii. book ii. ch. 22.

[215] See Life, p. 148.

[216] Life, p. 149.

[217] p. 424.

[218] p. 366.

[219] p. 457.

[220] p. 18.

[221] p. 425.

[222] pp. 436, 437.

[223] p. 52.

[224] p. 47.

[225] p. 57.

[226] pp. 58, 59.

[227] A statuary.

[228] Life, p. 6.

[229] p. 424.

[230] p. 19.

[231] Life, p. 17.

[232] Ibid. p. 243, 8vo edition.

[233] Ovid, of the serpent biting at Orpheus's head.

[234] 'The Dunciad:' sic MS. It may well be disputed whether this be a right reading. Ought it not rather to be spelled Dunceiad, as the etymology evidently demands? Dunce with an e, therefore Dunceiad with an e? That accurate and punctual man of letters, the restorer of Shakespeare, constantly observes the preservation of this very letter e, in spelling the name of his beloved author, and not like his common careless editors, with the omission of one, nay, sometimes of two e's (as Shakspear), which is utterly unpardonable. 'Nor is the neglect of a single letter so trivial as to some it may appear; the alteration whereof in a learned language is an achievement that brings honour to the critic who advances it; and Dr Bentley will be remembered to posterity for his performances of this sort, as long as the world shall have any esteem for the remains of Menander and Philemon.'—Theobald.

This is surely a slip in the learned author of the foregoing note, there having been since 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 those most critical curators of his monument in Westminster Abbey erased the former wrong reading, and restored the true spelling on a new piece of old Egyptian granite. Nor for this only do they deserve our thanks, but for exhibiting on the same 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 verse are changed, and it is to be hoped will there stand, and outlast whatever hath been hitherto done in paper; as for the future, our learned sister University (the other eye of England) is taking care to perpetuate a total new Shakspeare, at the Clarendon press.—Bentl.

It is to be noted, that this great critic also has omitted one circumstance: which is, that the inscription with the name of Shakspeare was intended to be placed on the marble scroll to which he points with his hand; instead 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.

Though I have as just a value for the letter e as any grammarian living, and the same affection for the name of this poem as any critic for that of his author, yet cannot it induce me 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 case is right, and two e's wrong. Yet, upon the whole, I shall follow the manuscript, and print it without any e at all; moved thereto by authority (at all times, with critics, equal, if not superior to reason). In which method of proceeding, I can never enough praise my good friend, the exact Mr Thomas 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 margin sic 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 same year. But there was no perfect edition before that of London in quarto; which was attended with notes. We are willing to acquaint posterity, that this poem was presented to King George the Second and his queen by the hands of Sir Robert Walpole, on the 12th of March 1728-9.—Schol. Vet.

It was expressly confessed 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 finding blanks only instead of proper names, these blunderers filled them up at their pleasure.

The very hero of the poem hath been mistaken to this hour; so that we are obliged to open our notes with a discovery who he really was. We learn from the former editor, that this piece was presented 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 Smithfield muses 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 verse, that Tibbald could not be the person, who was never an author in fashion, or caressed by the great; whereas this single characteristic is sufficient to point out the true hero, who, above all other poets of his time, was the peculiar delight and chosen companion of the nobility of England, and wrote, as he himself tells us, certain of his works at the earnest desire of persons of quality.

Lastly, the sixth verse affords full proof; this poet being the only one who was universally known to have had a son so exactly like him, in his poetical, theatrical, political, and moral capacities, that it could justly be said of him,

'Still Dunce the second reign'd like Dunce the first.'—Bentl.

[235] 'Her son who brings,' &c. Wonderful is the stupidity of all the former critics and commentators on this work! It breaks forth at the very first line. The author of the critique prefixed to Sawney, a poem, p. 5, hath been so 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 modesty.

We remit this ignorant to the first lines of the Aeneid, assuring him that Virgil there speaketh not of himself but of Aeneas:

'Arma virumque cano, Trojae qui primus ab oris Italiam, fato profugus, Lavinaque venit Littora: multum ille et terris jactatus et alto,' &c.

I cite the whole three verses, that I may by the way offer a conjectural emendation, purely my own, upon each: First, oris should be read aris, it being, as we see, Aen. ii. 513, from the altar of Jupiter Hercaeus that Aeneas fled as soon as he saw Priam slain. In the second line I would flatu for fato, since it is most clear it was by winds that he arrived at the shore of Italy. Jactatus, in the third, is surely as improperly applied to terris, as proper to alto. To say a man is tossed on land, is much at one with saying, he walks at sea. Risum teneatis, amici? Correct it, as I doubt not it ought to be, vexatus.—Scriblerus.

[236] 'The Smithfield Muses.' Smithfield was the place where Bartholomew Fair was kept, whose shows, 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, Lincolns-Inn-Fields, and the Haymarket, to be the reigning pleasures of the court and town. This happened in the reigns of King George I. and II. See Book iii.

[237] 'By Dulness, Jove, and Fate:' i.e., by their judgments, their interests, and their inclinations.—W.

[238] 'Say how the goddess,' &c. The poet ventureth to sing the action of the goddess; but the passion she impresseth on her illustrious votaries, he thinketh can be only told by themselves.—Scribl. W.

[239] 'Daughter of Chaos,' &c. The beauty of this whole allegory being purely of the poetical kind, we think it not our proper business, as a scholiast, to meddle with it, but leave it (as we shall in general all such) to the reader, remarking only that Chaos (according to Hesiod's [Greek: Theogonia]), was the progenitor of all the gods.—Scriblerus.

[240] 'Laborious, heavy, busy, bold,' &c. I wonder the learned Scriblerus has omitted to advertise the reader, at the opening of this poem, that Dulness here is not to be taken contractedly for mere stupidity, but in the enlarged sense of the word, for all slowness of apprehension, shortness of sight, or imperfect sense of things. It includes (as we see by the poet's own words) labour, industry, and some degree of activity and boldness—a ruling principle not inert, but turning topsy-turvy the understanding, and inducing an anarchy or confused state of mind. This remark ought to be carried along with the reader throughout the work; and without this caution he will be apt to mistake the importance of many of the characters, as well as of the design of the poet. Hence it is, that some have complained he chooses too mean a subject, and imagined he employs himself like Domitian, in killing flies; whereas those who have the true key will find he sports with nobler quarry, and embraces a larger compass; or (as one saith, on a like occasion)—

'Will see his work, like Jacob's ladder, rise, Its foot in dirt, its head amid the skies.'—Bentl.

[241] 'Still her old empire to restore.' This restoration makes the completion of the poem. Vide Book iv.—P.

[242] 'Drapier, Bickerstaff, or Gulliver!' the several names and characters he assumed in his ludicrous, his splenetic, or his party-writings; which take in all his works.—P.

[243] 'Or praise the court, or magnify mankind:' ironice, alluding to Gulliver's representations of both. The next line relates to the papers of the Drapier against the currency of Wood's copper coin in Ireland, which, upon the great discontent of the people, his Majesty was graciously pleased to recall.

[244] 'By his famed father's hand:' Mr Caius-Gabriel Cibber, father of the poet laureate. The two statues of the lunatics over the gates of Bedlam Hospital were done by him, and (as the son justly says of them) are no ill monuments of his fame as an artist.

[245] 'Bag-fair' is a place near the Tower of London, where old clothes and frippery are sold—P.

[246] 'A yawning ruin hangs and nods in air:'—Here in one bed two shivering sisters lie, The cave of Poverty and Poetry.

[247] 'Curll's chaste press, and Lintot's rubric post:' two booksellers, of whom, see Book ii. The former was fined by the Court of King's Bench for publishing obscene books; the latter usually adorned his shop with titles in red letters.—P.

[248] 'Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiac lines:' it is an ancient English custom for the malefactors to sing a psalm at their execution at Tyburn, and no less customary to print elegies on their deaths, at the same time, or before.—P.

[249] 'Sepulchral lies:' is a just satire on the flatteries and falsehoods admitted to be inscribed on the walls of churches, in epitaphs, which occasioned the following epigram:—

'Friend! in your epitaphs, I'm grieved, So very much is said: One-half will never be believed, The other never read.'—W.

[250] 'New-year odes:' made by the poet laureate for the time being, to be sung at Court on every New-Year's Day, the words of which are happily drowned in the voices and instruments.—P.

[251] 'Jacob:' Tonson, the well-known bookseller.

[252] 'How farce and epic—how Time himself,' allude to the transgressions of the unities in the plays of such poets. For the miracles wrought upon time and place, and the mixture of tragedy and comedy, farce and epic, see Pluto and Proserpine, Penelope, &c., if yet extant.—P.

[253] ''Twas on the day, when Thorold rich and grave, like Cimon, triumph'd:' viz., a Lord Mayor's day; his name the author had left in blanks, but most certainly could never be that which the editor foisted in formerly, and which no way agrees with the chronology of the poem.—Bentl. The procession of a lord mayor is made partly by land, and partly by water. Cimon, the famous Athenian general, obtained a victory by sea, and another by land, on the same day, over the Persians and Barbarians.—P.

[254] 'Glad chains:' The ignorance of these moderns! This was altered in one edition to gold chains, showing more regard to the metal of which the chains of aldermen are made than to the beauty of the Latinism and Graecism—nay, of figurative speech itself: Loetas segetes, glad, for making glad, &c.—P.

[255] 'But lived, in Settle's numbers, one day more:' a beautiful manner of speaking, usual with poets in praise of poetry, in which kind nothing is finer than those lines of Mr Addison:—

'Sometimes, misguided by the tuneful throng, I look for streams immortalised in song, That lost in silence and oblivion lie, Dumb are their fountains, and their channels dry; Yet run for over by the Muses' skill, And in the smooth description murmur still.—P.

Settle was poet to the city of London. His office was to compose yearly panegyrics upon the lord mayors, and verses to be spoken in the pageants. But that part of the shows being at length frugally abolished, the employment of city-poet ceased, so that upon Settle's demise there was no successor to that place.—P.

[256] John Heywood, whose interludes were printed in the time of Henry VIII.—P.

[257] 'Daniel Defoe,' a man in worth and original genius incomparably superior to his defamer.

[258] 'And Eusden eke out,' &c.: Laurence Eusden, poet laureate. Mr Jacob gives a catalogue of some few only of his works, which were very numerous. Mr Cook, in his Battle of Poets, saith of him—

'Eusden, a laurell'd bard, by fortune raised, By very few was read, by fewer praised.'—P.

[259] Nahum Tate was poet laureate, a cold writer, of no invention; but sometimes translated tolerably when befriended by Mr Dryden. In his second part of Absalom and Achitophel are above two hundred admirable lines together of that great hand, which strongly shine through the insipidity of the rest. Something parallel may be observed of another author here mentioned.—P.

[260] 'Dennis rage:' Mr John Dennis was the son of a sadler in London, born in 1657. He paid court to Mr Dryden; and having obtained some correspondence with Mr Wycherly and Mr Congreve, he immediately obliged the public with their letters. He made himself known to the Government by many admirable schemes and projects, which the ministry, for reasons best known to themselves, constantly kept private.—P.

[261] 'Shame to Fortune:' because she usually shows favour to persons of this character, who have a threefold pretence to it.

[262] 'Poor Fletcher's half-eat scenes:' a great number of them taken out to patch up his plays.—P.

[263] 'Tibbald:' this Tibbald, or Theobald, published an edition of Shakspeare, of which he was so proud himself as to say, in one of Mist's journals, June 8, 'That to expose any errors in it was impracticable.' And in another, April 27, 'That whatever care might for the future be taken by any other editor, he would still give above five hundred emendations, that shall escape them all.'—P.

[264] 'Wish'd he had blotted:' it was a ridiculous praise which the players gave to Shakspeare, 'that he never blotted a line.' Ben Jonson honestly wished he had blotted a thousand; and Shakspeare would certainly have wished the same, if he had lived to see those alterations in his works, which, not the actors only (and especially the daring hero of this poem) have made on the stage, but the presumptuous critics of our days in their editions—P.

[265] 'Ogilby the great:' 'John Ogilby was one who, from a late initiation into literature, made such a progress as might well style him the prodigy of his time! sending into the world so many large volumes. His translations of Homer and Virgil done to the life, and with such excellent sculptures. And (what added great grace to his works) he printed them all on special good paper, and in a very good letter.'—Winstanly, Lives of Poets.—P.

[266] 'There, stamp'd with arms, Newcastle shines complete:' Langbaine reckons up eight folios of the Duchess of Newcastle's works, which were usually adorned with gilded covers, and had her coat of arms upon them.

[267] 'Worthy Settle, Banks, and Broome:' the poet has mentioned these three authors in particular, as they are parallel to our hero in his three capacities—1. Settle was his brother laureate—only, indeed, upon half-pay, for the city instead of the court; but equally famous for unintelligible flights in his poems on public occasions, such as shows, birth-days, &c.; 2. Banks was his rival in tragedy (though more successful) in one of his tragedies, the Earl of Essex, which is yet alive: Anna Boleyn, the Queen of Scots, and Cyrus the Great, are dead and gone. These he dressed in a sort of beggar's velvet, or a happy mixture of the thick fustian and thin prosaic; exactly imitated in Perolla and Isidora, Caesar in Egypt, and the Heroic Daughter; 3. Broome was a serving-man of Ben Jonson, who once picked up a comedy from his betters, or from some cast scenes of his master, not entirely contemptible.—P.

[268] 'Caxton:' a printer in the time of Edward IV., Richard III., and Henry VII.; Wynkyn de Worde, his successor, in that of Henry VII. and VIII.—P.

[269] 'Nich. de Lyra:' or Harpsfield, a very voluminous commentator, whose works, in five vast folios, were printed in 1472.—P.

[270] 'Philemon Holland:' doctor in physic. 'He translated so many books, that a man would think he had done nothing else; insomuch that he might be called translator general of his age. The books alone of his turning into English are sufficient to make a country gentleman a complete library.'—Winstanly.—P.

[271] 'E'er since Sir Fopling's periwig:' the first visible cause of the passion of the town for our hero, was a fair flaxen full-bottomed periwig, which, he tells us, he wore in his first play of the Fool in Fashion. It attracted, in a particular manner, the friendship of Col. Brett, who wanted to purchase it.—P.

[272] 'Ridpath—Mist:' George Ridpath, author of a Whig paper, called the Flying Post; Nathanael Mist, of a famous Tory journal.—P.

[273] 'Rome's ancient geese:' relates to the well-known story of the geese that saved the Capitol; of which Virgil, Aen. VIII.

'Atque hic auratis volitans argenteus anser Porticibus, Gallos in limine adesse canebat.'

A passage I have always suspected. Who sees not the antithesis of auratis and argenteus to be unworthy the Virgilian majesty? And what absurdity to say a goose sings? canebat. Virgil gives a contrary character of the voice of this silly bird, in Ecl. ix.

... 'argutos interstrepere anser olores.'

Read it, therefore, adesse strepebat. And why auratis porticibus? does not the very verse preceding this inform us,

'Romuleoque recens horrebat regia culmo.'

Is this thatch in one line, and gold in another, consistent? I scruple not (repugnantibas omnibus manuscriptis) to correct it auritis. Horace uses the same epithet in the same sense.—P.

[274] 'Bear and Fiddle:' see 'Butler's Hudibras.'

[275] 'Gratis-given Bland—Sent with a pass.' It was a practice so to give the Daily Gazetteer and ministerial pamphlets (in which this Bland, Provost of Eton, was a writer), and to send them post-free to all the towns in the kingdom.—P.

[276] 'With Ward, to ape-and-monkey climes.' Edward Ward, a very voluminous poet in Hudibrastic verse, but best known by the London Spy, in prose. He has of late years kept a public-house in the City (but in a genteel way), and with his wit, humour, and good liquor (ale) afforded his guests a pleasurable entertainment, especially those of the High-Church party. Jacob, Lives of Poets, vol. ii., p. 225. Great number of his works were yearly sold into the plantations. Ward, in a book called Apollo's Maggot, declared this account to be a great falsity, protesting that his public-house was not in the City, but in Moorfields.—P.

[277] 'Tate, Shadwell:' two of his predecessors in the Laurel.—P.

[278] 'The dear Nonjuror, Moliere's old stubble:' a comedy threshed out of Moliere's Tartuffe, and so much the translator's favourite, that he assures us all our author's dislike to it could only arise from disaffection to the government:

'Qui meprise Cotin, n'estime point son roi, Et n'a, selon Cotin, ni Dieu, ni foi, ni loi.'—Boil.

He assures us, that 'when he had the honour to kiss his Majesty's hand upon presenting his dedication of it, he was graciously pleased, out of his royal bounty, to order him two hundred pounds for it. And this he doubts not grieved Mr P.'—P.

[279] 'Thule:' An unfinished poem of that name, of which one sheet was printed many years ago, by Amb. Philips, a northern author. It is a usual method of putting out a fire to cast wet sheets upon it. Some critics have been of opinion that this sheet was of the nature of the asbestos, which cannot be consumed by fire: but I rather think it an allegorical allusion to the coldness and heaviness of the writing.—P.

[280] 'Tibbald:' Lewis Tibbald (as pronounced) or Theobald (as written) was bred an attorney, and son to an attorney (says Mr Jacob) of Sittenburn, in Kent. He was author of some forgotten plays, translations, and other pieces. He was concerned in a paper called the Censor, and a Translation of Ovid. 'There is a notorious idiot, one hight Whachum, who, from an under-spur-leather to the law, is become an under-strapper to the play-house, who hath lately burlesqued the Metamorphoses of Ovid by a vile translation, &c. This fellow is concerned in an impertinent paper called the Censor.' Dennis, Rem. on Pope's Hom. pp. 9, 10.—P.

[281] 'Ozell:' 'Mr John Ozell (if we credit Mr Jacob) did go to school in Leicestershire, where somebody left him something to live on, when he shall retire from business. He was designed to be sent to Cambridge, in order for priesthood; but he chose rather to be placed in an office of accounts in the city, being qualified for the same by his skill in arithmetic, and writing the necessary hands. He has obliged the world with many translations of French plays.' Jacob, Lives of Dram. Poets, p. 198.—P. Mr Jacob's character of Mr Ozell seems vastly short of his merits, and he ought to have further justice done him, having since fully confuted all sarcasms on his learning and genius, by an advertisement of September 20, 1729, in a paper called the Weekly Medley, &c. 'As to my learning, this envious wretch knew, and everybody knows, that the whole bench of bishops, not long ago, were pleased to give me a purse of guineas, for discovering the erroneous translations of the Common Prayer in Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, &c. As for my genius, let Mr Cleland show better verses in all Pope's works than Ozell's version of Boileau's Lutrin, which the late Lord Halifax was so pleased with, that he complimented him with leave to dedicate it to him, &c. Let him show better and truer poetry in the Rape of the Lock than in Ozell's Rape of the Bucket (La Secchia Rapita). And Mr Toland and Mr Gildon publicly declared Ozell's translation of Homer to be, as it was prior, so likewise superior to Pope's. Surely, surely, every man is free to deserve well of his country.'—John Ozell. We cannot but subscribe to such reverend testimonies as those of the bench of bishops, Mr Toland, and Mr Gildon.—P.

[282] 'A heidegger:' a strange bird from Switzerland, and not (as some have supposed) the name of an eminent person who was a man of parts, and, as was said of Petronius, arbiter elegantiarum.—P.

[283] 'Gildon:' Charles Gildon, a writer of criticisms and libels of the last age, bred at St Omer's with the Jesuits; but renouncing Popery, he published Blount's books against the divinity of Christ, the Oracles of Reason, &c. He signalised himself as a critic, having written some very bad plays, abused Mr Pope very scandalously in an anonymous pamphlet of the Life of Mr Wycherly, printed by Curll; in another, called the New Rehearsal, printed in 1714; in a third, entitled the Complete Art of English Poetry, in two volumes, and others.—P.

[284] 'Howard:' Hon. Edward Howard, author of the British Princes, and a great number of wonderful pieces, celebrated by the late Earls of Dorset and Rochester, Duke of Buckingham, Mr Waller, &c.—P.

[285] 'Under Archer's wing—Gaming:' when the statute against gaming was drawn up, it was represented that the king, by ancient custom, plays at hazard one night in the year; and therefore a clause was inserted, with an exception as to that particular. Under this pretence, the groom-porter had a room appropriated to gaming all the summer the court was at Kensington, which his Majesty, accidentally being acquainted of, with a just indignation prohibited. It is reported the same practice is yet continued wherever the court resides, and the hazard table there open to all the professed gamesters in town.

'Greatest and justest sovereign! know ye this? Alas! no more, than Thames' calm head can know Whose meads his arms drown, or whose corn o'erflow.'

DONNE to QUEEN ELIZ.—P.

[286] 'Chapel-royal:' the voices and instruments used in the service of the chapel-royal being also employed in the performance of the Birth-day and New-year Odes.—P.

[287] 'But pious Needham:' a matron of great and peculiar fame, and very religious in her way.—P.

[288] 'Back to the Devil:' the Devil Tavern in Fleet Street, where these odes are usually rehearsed before they are performed at court.—W.

[289] 'Ogilby—God save King Log:' See Ogilby's Aesop's Fables, where, in the story of the Frogs and their King, this excellent hemistich is to be found.—P.

[290] Sir George Thorald, Lord Mayor of London in the year 1720.

[291] 'A little Ajax:' in duodecimo, translated from Sophocles by Tibhald.

[292] 'Henley's gilt tub:' the pulpit of a dissenter is usually called a tub; but that of Mr Orator Henley was covered with velvet, and adorned with gold. He had also a fair altar, and over it is this extraordinary inscription, 'The Primitive Eucharist.' See the history of this person, book iii.

[293] 'Flecknoe's Irish throne:' Richard Flecknoe was an Irish priest, but had laid aside (as himself expressed it) the mechanic part of priesthood. He printed some plays, poems, letters, and travels.—P.

[294] 'Or that whereon her Curlls the public pours:' Edmund Curll stood in the pillory at Charing Cross, in March 1727-8. 'This,' saith Edmund Curll, 'is a false assertion. I had, indeed, the corporal punishment of what the gentlemen of the long robe are pleased jocosely to call mounting the rostrum for one hour; but that scene of action was not in the month of March, but in February' (Curliad, 12mo, p. 19). And of the history of his being tossed in a blanket, he saith—'Here, Scriblerus! thou leeseth in what thou assertest concerning the blanket—it was not a blanket, but a rug,' p. 25. Much in the same manner Mr Cibber remonstrated, that his brothers at Bedlam, mentioned book i., were not brazen, but blocks; yet our author let it pass unaltered, as a trifle that no way altered the relationship.—P.

[295] 'Rome in her Capitol saw Querno sit:' Camillo Querno was of Apulia, who, hearing the great encouragement which Leo X. gave to poets, travelled to Rome with a harp in his hand, and sung to it twenty thousand verses of a poem called Alexias. He was introduced as a buffoon to Leo, and promoted to the honour of the laurel—a jest which the court of Rome and the pope himself entered into so far as to cause him to ride on an elephant to the Capitol, and to hold a solemn festival on his coronation, at which it is recorded the poet himself was so transported as to weep for joy.[296] He was ever after a constant frequenter of the pope's table, drank abundantly, and poured forth verses without number. Paulus Jovius, Elog. Vir. doct. chap. lxxxii. Some idea of his poetry is given by Fam. Strada, in his Prolusions.—P.

[296] See Life of C.C. chap. vi. p. 149.

[297] 'Never was dash'd out, at one lucky hit:' our author here seems willing to give some account of the possibility of Dulness making a wit (which could be done no other way than by chance). The fiction is the more reconciled to probability, by the known story of Apelles, who being at a loss to express the foam of Alexander's horse, dashed his pencil in despair at the picture, and happened to do it by that fortunate stroke.—P.

[298] 'And call'd the phantom More:' Curll, in his Key to the Dunciad, affirmed this to be James Moore Smith, Esq., and it is probable (considering what is said of him in the Testimonies) that some might fancy our author obliged to represent this gentleman as a plagiary, or to pass for one himself. His case, indeed, was like that of a man I have heard of, who, as he was sitting in company, perceived his next neighbour had stolen his handkerchief. 'Sir,' said the thief, finding himself detected, 'do not expose me, I did it for mere want; be so good but to take it privately out of my pocket again, and say nothing.' The honest man did so, but the other cried out, 'See, gentlemen, what a thief we have among us! look, he is stealing my handkerchief!'—P.— Moore was a notorious plagiarist.—It appears from hence, that this is not the name of a real person, but fictitious. More, from [Greek: moros], stultus, [Greek: moria], stultitia, to represent the folly of a plagiary. Thus Erasmus, Admonuit me Mori cognomen tibi, quod tam ad Moriae vocabulum accedit quam es ipse a re alienus. Dedication of Moriae Encomium to Sir Tho. More; the farewell of which may be our author's to his plagiary, Vale, More! et moriam tuam gnaviter defende. Adieu, More! and be sure strongly to defend thy own folly! Scribl.—P.

[299] 'But lofty Lintot:' we enter here upon the episode of the booksellers, persons whose names being more known and famous in the learned world than those of the authors in this poem, do therefore need less explanation. The action of Mr Lintot here imitates that of Dares in Virgil, rising just in this manner to lay hold on a bull. This eminent bookseller printed the Rival Modes before-mentioned.—P.

[300] 'Stood dauntless Curll:' we come now to a character of much respect, that of Mr Edmund Curll. As a plain repetition of great actions is the best praise of them, we shall only say of this eminent man, that he carried the trade many lengths beyond what it ever before had arrived at; and that he was the envy and admiration of all his profession. He possessed himself of a command over all authors whatever; he caused them to write what he pleased; they could not call their very names their own. He was not only famous among these; he was taken notice of by the state, the church, and the law, and received particular marks of distinction from each. It will be owned that he is here introduced with all possible dignity: he speaks like the intrepid Diomede; he runs like the swift-footed Achilles; if he falls, 'tis like the beloved Nisus; and (what Homer makes to be the chief of all praises) he is favoured of the gods; he says but three words, and his prayer is heard; a goddess conveys it to the seat of Jupiter: though he loses the prize, he gains the victory; the great mother herself comforts him, she inspires him with expedients, she honours him with an immortal present (such as Achilles receives from Thetis, and Aeneas from Venus) at once instructive and prophetical: after this he is unrivalled and triumphant. The tribute our author here pays him is a grateful return for several unmerited obligations. Many weighty animadversions on the public affairs, and many excellent and diverting pieces on private persons, has he given to his name. If ever he owed two verses to any other, he owed Mr Curll some thousands. He was every day extending his fame, and enlarging his writings: witness innumerable instances; but it shall suffice only to mention the Court Poems, which he meant to publish as the work of the true writer, a lady of quality; but being first threatened, and afterwards punished for it by Mr Pope, he generously transferred it from her to him, and ever since printed it in his name. The single time that ever he spoke to C. was on that affair, and to that happy incident he owed all the favours since received from him: so true is the saying of Dr Sydenham, 'that any one shall be, at some time or other, the better or the worse for having but seen or spoken to a good or bad man.'—P.

[301] 'Left-legged Jacob:' Jacob Tonson.

[302] 'Curll's Corinna:' this name, it seems, was taken by one Mrs T——, who procured some private letters of Mr Pope, while almost a boy, to Mr Cromwell, and sold them without the consent of either of those gentleman to Curll, who printed them in 12mo, 1727. He discovered her to be the publisher, in his Key, p. 11. We only take this opportunity of mentioning the manner in which those letters got abroad, which the author was ashamed of as very trivial things, full not only of levities, but of wrong judgments of men and books, and only excusable from the youth and inexperience of the writer.—P.—See Life.

[303] 'Down with the Bible, up with the Pope's Arms:' the Bible, Curll's sign; the Cross-keys, Lintot's.

[304] 'Seas:' see Lucian's Icaro-Menippus, where this fiction is more extended.—P.

[305] 'Evans, Young, and Swift:' some of those persons whose writings, epigrams, or jests he had owned.—P.

[306] 'Bezaleel:' Bezaleel Morris was author of some satires on the translators of Homer, with many other things printed in newspapers. 'Bond wrote 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.—P.

[307] 'Joseph:' Joseph Gay, a fictitious name put by Curll before several pamphlets, which made them pass with many for Mr Gay's.—P.

[308] '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.—P.

[309] 'Cook shall be Prior:' the man here specified wrote a thing called the Battle of the Poets, in which Philips and Welsted were the heroes, and Swift and Pope utterly routed. He 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 wrote notes and half-notes, which he carefully owned.—P.

[310] 'Rueful length of face:' 'the decrepit 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 in the pillory, an incident which would 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; 'tis 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 have 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. Admirably it is observed by Mr Dennis against Mr Law, p. 33, 'That the language of Billingsgate can never be the language of charity, nor consequently of Christianity.'—P.