Here brisker vapours o'er the Temple creep, No crab more active in the dirty dance, He brings up half the bottom on his head, The plunging prelate, and his ponderous grace, 330 [maids, First he relates, how sinking to the chin, [in: Smit with his mien, the mud-nymphs suck'd him How young Lutetia, softer than the down, Nigrina black, and Merdamante brown, Vy'd for his love in jetty bowers below, As Hylas fair was ravish'd long ago. Then sung, how, shown him by the nut-brown A branch of Styx here rises from the shades; That, tinctur'd as it runs with Lethe's streams, And wafting vapours from the land of dreams 340 (As under seas Alpheus' secret sluice Bears Pisa's offering to his Arethuse), Pours into Thaines: and hence the mingled wave Intoxicates the pert, and lulls the grave: VARIATIONS. Ver. 323-326. In first edit. thus: Sudden a burst of thunder shook the flood, Pours into Thames: each city bowl is ful REMAKKS. But frequently, through his fury or folly, he exceeded all the bounds of his commission, and obliged his honourable patron to disavow his scurrilities. Ver. 323. The plunging prelate, &c.] It having been invidiously insinuated that by this title was meant a truly great prelate, as respectable for his defence of the present balance of power in the civil constitution, as for his opposition to the scheme of no power at all, in the religious; I owe so much to the memory of iny deceased friend as to declare, that when, a little before his death, I informed him of this insinuation, he called it vile and malicious, as any candid man, he said, might understand, by his having paid a willing compliment to this very prelate in another part of the poem. Ver. 349. And Milbourne] Luke Milbourne, a clergyman, the fairest of crities; who, when he wrote against Mr. Dryden's Virgil, did him justice in printing at the same time his own translations of him, which were intolerable. His manner of writing has a great resemblance with that of the gentlemen of the Dunciad against our author, as will be seen in the parallel of Mr. Dryden and him. Append. Thence to the banks where reverend bards repose, They led him soft; each reverend bard arose ; And Milbourne chief, deputed by the rest, 350 Gave him the cassock, sureingle, and vest. "Receive' (he said) “ these robes which once were Dulness is sacred in a sound divine." [mine, He ceas'd, and spread the r be; the crowd conThe reverend fiamen in his lengthen'd dress. [fess Around him wide a sable army stand, A low-born, cell-bred, selfish, servile band, Prompt or to guard or stab, to saint or damn, Heaven's Swiss, who fight for any god, or inan. Thro' Lud's fam'd gates, along the well-known Fleet, 361 Rolls the black troop, and overshades the street, "Ye critics! in whose heads, as equal scales, 371 If there be man, who o'er such works can wake, Sleep's all-subduing charms who dares defy, And boasts Ulysses' ear with Argus' eye; To him we grant our amplest powers, to sit Judge of all present, past, and future wit; To cavil, censure, dictate, right or wrong, Full and eternal privilege of tongue." [came, Three college sophs and three pert templars The same their talents, and their tastes the same; 380 VARIATIONS. Ver. 355-362. Not in first edit. where, instead of ver. 365-367, were originally these lines: Slow moves the goddess, from the sable flood, (Her priest preceeding) through the gates of Lud. Her Critics there she summons, and proclaims A gentler exercise to close the games. Here you, in whose grave heads, &c. Ver 379. In first edit. Three Cambridge sophs. REMARKS. Ver: 355. Around him wide, &c.] It is to be hoped that the satire in these lines will be under stood in the contined sense in which the author meant it, of such only of the clergy, who, though themselves for venal and corrupt ends to that of solemnly engaged in the service of religion, dedicate ministers or factions; and though educated under in the government of it, and consequently to disan entire ignorance of the world, aspire to interfere turb and disorder it; in which they fall short of their predecessors only by being invested with much less of that power and authority, which they employed indifferently (as is hinted at in the lines above) either in supporting arbitrary power, or in exciting rebellion in canonizing the vices of tyrants, or in blackening the virtues of patriots; in corrupting religion by superstition, or betraying it by libertinism, as either was thought best to serve the ends of policy, or flatter the follies of the great. Each prompt to query, answer, and debate, VARIATIONS. Ver. 399. in the first edit, it was, Collins and Tindal, prompt at priests to jeer. Ver. 412, In first edit. Old James himself, REMARKS. 409 Boyer the state, and Law the stage gave o'er, Thus the soft gifts of sleep conclude the day, VARIATIONS. Ver. 413. In the first edit. it was, Ts and T- the church and state gave o'er, Boyer the state, and Law the stage gave ò'er, REMARKS. Ver. 413. Boyer the state, and Law the stage gave o'er,] A. Boyer, a voluminous compiler of annals, political collections, &c.-William Law, A. M. wrote with great zeal against the stage; Mr. Dennis answered with as great: their books were printed in 1726. The same Mr. Law is au thor of a book entituled, An Appeal to all that doubt of or disbelieve the truth of the Gospel; in which he has detailed a system of the rankest Spinozism, for the most exalted theology; and amongst other things as rare, has informed us of this, that sir Isaac Newton stole the principles of his philosophy from one Jacob Behmen, a German cobler. Ver. 397. Thrice Budgel aim'd to speak,] Famous for his speeches on many occasions about the South Ver. 414. Morgan] A writer against religion, Sea scheme, &c. "He is a very ingenious gen-distinguished no otherwise from the rabble of his tleman, and hath written some excellent epilogues to plays, and one small piece on Love, which is very pretty." Jacob, Lives of Poets, vol. ii. p. 289. But this gentlemau since made himself much more eminent, and personally well known to be the greatest statesman of all parties, as well as to all the courts of law in this nation. tribe, than by the pompousness of his title; for having stolen his morality from Tindal, and his philosophy from Spinosa, he calls himself, by the courtesy of England, a moral philosopher. Ibid. Mandevil] This writer, who prided himself in the reputation of an immoral philosopher, was author of a famous book called the Fable of the Bees; written to prove, that moral virtue is the invention of knaves, and christian virtue the imposition of fools; and that vice is necessary, and alone sufficient, to render society flourishing and happy. Ver. 399. Toland and Tindal,] Two persons not so happy as to be obscure, who writ against the religion of their couutry. Toland, the author of the atheist's liturgy, called Pantheisticon, was a spy, in pay to lord Oxford. Tindal was author of the Rights of the Christian Church, and Chris- Ver. 415. Norton] Norton De Foe, offspring of He also wrote an One tianity as old as the Creation. the famous Daniel, fortes creantur fortibus. abusive pamphlet against carl S, which was of the authors of the Flying Post, in which wellsuppressed while yet in MS. by an eminent per-bred work Mr. P. had some time the honour to be son, then out of the ministry, to whom he showed abused with his betters; and of many hired scurit, expecting his approbation. This doctor after-rilities and daily papers, to which he never set wards published the same picce, mutatis mutandis, against that very person. Ver. 400. Christ's no kingdom,] This is said by Curl, Key to Dunc, to allude to a sermon of a reverend bishop. Ver. 411. Centlivre] Mrs. Susanna Centlivre, wife to Mr. Centlivre, yeoman of the mouth to his majesty. She writ many plays, and a song (says Mr. Jacob, vol. i. p. 32.) before she was She also writ a ballad against seven years old. Mr. Pope's Homer, before he began it. his name. Ver. 427. Fleet] A prison for insolvent debtors on the bank of the ditch. BOOK THE THIRD. ARGUMENT. AFTER the other persons are disposed in their proper places of rest, the goddess transports the king to her temple, and there lays him to slumber with his head on her lap; a position of ac marvellous virtue, which causeth all the visions of wild enthusiasts, projectors, politicians, inamoratos, castle-builders, chymists, and poets. He is immediately carried on the wings of fancy, and led by a mad poetical sibyl, to the Elysian shade; where, on the banks of Lethe, the souls of the dull are dipped by Bavius, before their entrance into this world. There he is met by the ghost of Settle, and by him made quainted with the wonders of the place, and with those which he himself is destined to perform. He takes him to a mount of vision, from whence he shows him the past triumphs of the empire of Dulness, then the present, and lastly the future: how small a part of the world was ever conquered by Science, how soon those conquests were stopped, and those very nations again reduced to her dominion. Then distinguishing the island of Great Britain, shows by what aids, by what persons, and by what degrees, it shall be brought to her empire. Some of the persons he causes to pass in review before his eyes, describing each by his proper figure, character, and qualifications. On a sudden the scene shifts, and a vast number of miracles and prodigies appear, utterly surprising and unknown to the king himself, till they are explained to be the wonders of his own reign now commencing. On this subject Settle breaks into a congratulation, yet not unmixed with concern, that his own times were but the types of these, He prophesies how first the pation shall be over-run with farces, operas, and shows; how the throne of Dulness shall be advanced over the theatres, and set up even at Court: then how her sons shall preside in the seats of arts and sciences; giving a glimpse, or Pisgah sight, of the future fulness of her glory, the accomplishment whereof is the subject of the fourth and last book. BOOK III. BUT in her temple's last recess enclos'd, REMARKS. Ver. 5, 6, &c.] Hereby is intimated that the following vision is no more than the chimera of the dreamer's brain, and not a real or intended satire on the present age, doubtless more learned, more enlightened, and more abounding with great geniuses in divinity, politica, and whatever arts and sciences, than all the preceding. For fear of any such mistake of our poet's honest meaning, he hath again, at the end of the vision, repeated this monition, saying that it all passed through the ivory gate, which (according to the ancients) dnoteth falsity.--Scribl. How much the good Scriblerus was mistaken, may be seen from the fourth book, which, it is plain from hence, he had never seen.-Bentl, The maid's romantic wish, the chymist's flame, And now on Fancy's easy wing convey'd, The king descending, views th' Elysian shade, A slip-shod Sibyl led his steps along, In lofty madness meditating song; Her tresses staring from poetic dreams, And never wash'd but in Castalia's streams, Taylor, their better Charon, lends an oar, (Once swan of Thames, though now he sings no more). 20 Benlowes, propitious still to blockheads, bows; VARIATION. Ver. 15-22. Not in the first edit, REMARKS. Ver. 15. A slip-shod sibyl] This allegory is extremely just, no confirmation of the mind so much subjecting it to real madness, as that which produces real dulness. Hence we find the religious (as well as the poetical) enthusiasts of all ages were ever, in their natural state, most heavy and lumpish; but on the least application of heat, they ran like lead, which of all metals fall quickest into fusion. Whereas fire in a genius is truly Promethean, it hurts not its constituent parts, but only fits it (as it does well-tempered steel) for the necessary impressions of art. But the common people have been taught (I do not know on what foundation) to regard lunacy as a mark of wit, just as the Turks and our modern methodists do of holiness. But if the cause of madness assigned by a great philosopher be true, it will unavoidably fall upon the dunces. supposes it to be the dwelling over long on one object or idea. Now as this attention is occasioned either by grief or study, it will be fixed by dulness; which hath not quickness enough to comprehend what it seeks, nor force and vigour enough to divert the imagination from the object it la ments. He Ver. 19. Taylor,] John Taylor, the water-poet, an honest man, who owns he learned not so much as the accidence: a rare example of modesty in a poet! I must confess I do want eloquence, I there was gravell'd, could no farther get. He wrote fourscore books in the reign of James I. and Charles I. and afterwards (like Edward Ward) kept an ale-house in Long-acre. He died in 1654. Ver. 21. Benlowes,] A country gentleman, famous for his own bad poetry, and for patronizing bad poets, as may be seen from many dedications of Quarles and others to him. Some of these anagramed his name Benlowes into Benevolus : to verify which, he spent his whole estate upon them. Ver. 29. And Shadwell nods the poppy, &c.] Shadwell took opium for many years; and died of too large a dose, in the year 1692. Ver. 24. Old Bavius sits,] Bavius was an ancient poet, celebrated by Virgil for the like cause as Bays by our author, theugh not in so Christian like a manner for heathenishly it is declared by Virgil of Bavius, that he ought to be hated and detested for his evil works; qui Bavium non odit; whereas we have often had occasion to observe our poet's great good-nature and mercifulness through the whole course of this poem Scribl. Ver. 28. Brown and Meers] Booksellers, printers for any body.-The allegory of the souls of the dull coming forth in the form of books, dressed in calf's leather, and being let abroad in vast numbers by booksellers, is sufficiently intelligible. it thus, is plain from his ranging this passage among those in which our author was blamed for personal satire on a man's face (whereof doubtless he might take the ear to be a part); so likewise Concanen, Ralph, the Flying Post, and all the herd of commentators.-Tota armenta sequuntur. A very little sagacity (which all these gentlemen therefore wanted) will restore to us the true sense of the poet thus: By his broad shoulders known, and length of years. That Mr. Settle was old, is most certain; but he See how easy a change; of one single letter! was (happily) a stranger to the pillory. This note is partly Mr. Theobald's, partly Scribl. Ver. 37. Settle] Elkanah Settle was once a writer in vogue as well as Cibber, both for dra Ver. 34. Ward in pillory.] John Ward, of Hackney, esq. member of parliament, being convicted of forgery, was first expelled the house, and then sentenced to the pillory on the 17th of February, 1727. Mr. Curll (having likewise stood there) looks upon the mention of such a gentle-matic poetry and politics. Mr. Dennis tells us, man in a satire, as a great act of barbarity, Key to the Dunc. 3d edit. p. 16. that he was a formidable ival to Mr. Dryden, And another author reaand that in the university of Cambridge there sons thus upon it. Durgen, 8vo. p. 11, 12. "How unworthy is it of Christian charity to animate the were those who gave him the preference," Mr. rabble to abuse a worthy man in such a situaWelsted goes yet farther in his behalf! "Poor tion? What could move the poct thus to mention Settle was formerly the mighty rival of Dryden : a brave sufferer, a gallant prisoner, exposed to nay, for many years, bore his reputation above the view of all mankind! It was laying aside his him." Pref. to his Poems, 8vo. p. 31. Mr. Milbourne cried out, "How little was Dryden senses, it was committing a crime for which the law is deficient not to punish him! nay, a crine able, even when his blood run high, to defend Notes on Dryd. which man can scarce forgive, or time efface! himself against Mr. Settle!" nothing surely could have induced him to it but and no wonder some authors indulge them. Virg. p. 175. These are comfortable opinions; being bribed by a great lady," &c. (to whom this brave, honest, worthy gentleman was guilty of no offence but forgery, proved in open court). But it is evident, this verse could not be meant of him; it being notorious that no eggs were thrown at that gentleman. Perhaps therefore it might be intended of Mr. Edward Ward, the poet, when he stood there. And He was author or publisher of many noted pamphlets in the time of king Charles II. He answered all Dryden's political poems! and being cried up on one side, succeeded not a little in his tragedy of the Empress of Morocco [the first that insolent, the wits writ against his play, he rewas ever printed with cuts]. Upon this he grew 66 short, Settle was then thought a very formidable rival to Mr. Dryden; and not only the town, but prefer; and in both places the younger sort inthe university of Cambridge was divided which to clined to Elkanah." Dennis, Pref. to Rem. on Hom. Ver. 36. and length of ears,] This is a sophis-plied, and the town judged he had the better. In ticated reading. I think I may venture to affirm all the copyists are mistaken here: I believe I may say the same of the critics; Dennis, Oidmixon, Welsted, have passed it in silence. I have also stumbled at it, and wondered how an errour so manifest could escape such accurate persons. I dare assert, it proceeded originally from the inalvertency of some transcriber, whose head ran on the pillory, mentioned two lines before; it is therefore amazing that Mr. Corll himself should ov. rlook it! Yet that scholiast takes not the least notice hereof. That the learned Mist, also read Ver. 50. Might from Baotian, &c.] Boeotia lay under the ridicule of the wits formerly, as Ireland does now; though it produced one of the greatest poets and one of the greatest generals of Greece: Bootum crasso jurares aëre natum. Horat. And all who since, in wild benighted days, His conquering tribes th' Arabian prophet draws, 100 Lo! Rome herself, proud mistress now no more Of arts, but thundering against heathen lore; Her grey-hair'd synods damning books unread, 60 And Bacon trembling for his brazen head. Padua, with sighs, beholds her Livy burn, And even th' Antipodes Virgilius mourn. See, the cirque falls, th' unpillar'd temple nods, Streets pav'd with heroes, Tyber choak'd with gods: Till Peter's keys some christen'd Jove adorn, And Pan to Moses lends his pagan horn; See graceless Venus to a virgin turn'd, Or Phidias broken, and Apelles burn'd. Behold yon isle, by palmers, pilgrims trod, Men bearded, bald, cowl'd, uncowl'd, shod, unshod, Peel'd, patch'd, and pyebald, linsey-wolsey brothers, Ascend this hill, whose cloudy point commands Her boundless empire over seas and lands." See, round the poles where keener spangles shine, Where spices smoke beneath the burning line, 70 (Earth's wide extremes) her sable flag display'd, And all the nations cover'd in her shade! Far eastward cast thine eye, from whence the Sun And orient Science their bright course begun : One god-like monarch all that pride confounds, He, whose long wall the wandering Tartar bounds; Heavens! what a pile! whole ages perish there, And one bright blaze turns learning into air. Thence to the south extend thy gladden'd eyes; There rival flames with equal glory rise, 80 From shelves to shelves see greedy Vulcan roll, And lick up all their physic of the soul. How little, mark! that portion of the ball, Where, faint at best, the beams of science fall: Soon as they dawn, from Hyperborean skies Embody'd dark, what clouds of Vandals rise! Lo! where Merotis sleeps, and hardly flows The freezing Tanaïs through a waste of snows, The North by myriads pours her mighty sons, Great nurse of Goths, of Alans, and of Huns! See Alaric's stern port! the martial frame Of Genseric; and Attila's dread name! See, the bold Ostrogoths on Latium fall: See, the fierce Visigoths on Spain and Gaul! See, where the morning gilds the palmy shore (The soil that arts and infant letters bore) VARIATIONS. Ver. 73. in the former edit. 90 110 Grave mummers! sleeveless some, and shirtless others. REMARKS. said to have been invented. In these countries Mahomet began his conquests. Ver. 102. thundering against heathen lore;} A strong instance of this pious rage is placed to pope Gregory's account. John of Salisbury gives a very odd encomium of this pope, at the same time that he mentions one of the strangest effects of this excess of zeal in him: "Doctor sanctissimus ille Gregorius, qui melleo prædicationis imbre totam rigavit et inebriavit ecclesiam; non modo mathesin jussit ab aula, sed, ut traditur a majoribus, incendio dedit probatæ lectionis scripta, Palatinus quæcunque tenebat Apollo." And in another place: "Fertur beatus Gregorius bibliothecam combussisse gentilem; quo divinæ paginæ gratior esset locus, et major authoritas, et diligentia studiosior." Desiderius, archbishop of Vienna, was sharply reproved by him for teaching grammar and literature, and explaining the poets; because (says this pope) "In uno se ore cum Jovis laudibus Christi laudes non capiunt: Et quam grave nefandumque sit episcopis cancre quod nec laico religioso conveniat, ipse considera." He is said, among the rest, to have burned Livy; "Quia in superstitionibus et sacris Romanorum perpetuo versatur." The same pope is accused by Vossius, and others, of having caused the noble monuments of the old Roman magnificence to be destroyed, lest those who came to Rome should give more attention to triumphal arches, &c. than to holy things. Bayle, Dict. Ver. 109. Till Peter's keys some christen'd Jove adorn.] After the government of Rome devolved to the popes, their zeal was for some time exerted in demolishing the heathen temples and statues, so that the Goths scarce destroyed more monuments of antiquity out of rage, than these out of devotion. At length they spared some of the temples, by converting them to churches; and some of the statues, by modifying them into images of saints. In much later times, it was thought necessary to change the statues of Apollo David and Judith; the lyre easily became a harp, and Pallas, on the tomb of Sannazarius, into and the Gorgon's head turned to that of Holo fernes. |