No rag, no fcrap, of all the beau, or wit, That once fo flutter'd, and that once fo writ. 720 Heaven rings with laughter: Of the laughter vain, Dulnefs, good Queen, repeats the jeft again. Three wicked imps, of her own Grub-street choir, She deck'd like Congreve, Addifon, and Prior; Meers, Warner, Wilkins, run: delufive thought! 125 Breval, Bond, Befaleel, the varlets caught. REMARKS. Curll Ver. 118. an unpay'd taylor] This line has been loudly complained of in Mift, June 8, Dedic. to Saw ney, and others, as a moft inhuman fatire on the poverty of Poets: But it is thought our author will be acquitted by a jury of Taylors. To me this inftance feems unluckily chofen; if it be a fatire on any body, it must be on a bad paymafter, fince the perfon to whom they have here applied it, was a man of fortune. Not but Poets may well be jealous of fo great a prerogative as non-payment; which Mr. Dennis fo far afferts, as boldly to pronounce, that "if Homer himself was not "in debt, it was becaufe nobody would truft him." Pref. to Rem. on the Rape of the Lock, p. 15. Ver. 124. like Congreve, Addison, and Prior ;] Thefe authors being fuch whofe names will reach pofterity, we fhall not give any account of them, but proceed to thofe of whom it is neceffary.-Befaleel Morris was author of fome fatires on the tranflators of Homer, with many other things printed in news-papers." Bond writ a "fatire against Mr. P. Capt. Breval was author of "The Confederates, an ingenious dramatic performance "to expose Mr. P. Mr. Ğay, Dr. Arb. and some la"dies of quality," fays CURLL, Key, p. 11. Ver. 125. Mears, Warner, Wilkins] Bookfellers, and Printers of much anonymous stuff. K 4 Ver. Curll ftretches after Gay, but Gay is gone, To him the Goddefs; Son! thy grief lay down REMARKS. 130 (Whence Ver. 126. Breval, Bond, Befaleel,] I forefee it will be objected from this line, that we were in an error in our affertion on ver. 50. of this book, that More was a fictitious name, fince thofe perfons are equally repreprefented by the poet as phantoms. So at firft fight it may be feen; but be not deceived, reader; these alfo are not real perfons. 'Tis true, Curll declares Breval, a captain, author of a piece called the Confederates; but the fame Curll firft faid it was written by Jofeph Gay: Is his fecond affertion to be credited any more than his firft? He likewife affirms Bond to be one who writ a fatire on our poet: But where is fuch a fatire to be found? where was fuch a writer ever heard of? As for Befaleel, it carries forgery in the very name; nor is it, as the others are, a furname. Thou may'ft depend upon it, no fuch authors ever lived; all phantoms. SCRIBL. Ver. 128. Jofeph Gay, a fictitious name put by Curll before feveral pamphlets, which made them pafs with many for Mr. Gay's.-The ambiguity of the word Jofeph, which likewife fignifies a loofe upper-coat, gives much pleafantry to the idea. Ver. 132. And turn this whole illufion on the town:] It was a common practice of this bookseller to publish vile pieces of obfcure hands under the names of eininent Authors. (Whence hapless Monfieur much complains at Paris REMARKS. 140 With Ver. 138. Cook fhall be Prior,] The man here fpecified writ a thing called The Battle of the Poets, in which Philips and Welfted 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 fame time wrote letters to Mr. Pope, protesting his Innocence. His chief work was a tranflation of Hefiod, to which Theobald writ notes and half notes, which he carefully owned. Ver. 138. and Concanen, Swift:] In the first edition of this poem there were only afterifks in this place, but the names were fince inferted, merely to fill up the verse, and give eafe to the ear of the reader. Ver. 140. And we too boaft our Garth and Addifon.] Nothing is more remarkable than our author's love of prailing good writers. He has in this very poem celebrated Mr. Locke, Sir Ifaac Newton, Dr. Barrow, Dr. Atterbury, Mr. Dryden, Mr. Congreve, Dr. Garth, Mr. Addifon; in a word, almost every man of his time that deferved it; even Cibber himself (prefuming him to be the author of the Careless Hufband). It was very difficult to have that pleafure in a poem on this fubject, yet he has found means to infert their panegyric, and has made even Dulnefs out of her own mouth pronounce it. It must have been particularly agreeable to him to celebrate Dr. Garth; both as his conftant friend, and as he was his predeceffor in this kind of fatire. The Dispensary attacked the whole body of Apothecaries, a much With that she gave him (piteous of his cafe, Yet fimiling at his rueful length of face) REMARKS. A fhaggy much more useful one undoubtedly than that of the bad Poets; if in truth this can be a body, of which no two members ever agreed. It also did, what Mr. Theobald fays is unpardonable, draw in parts of private character, and introduced perfons independent of his fubject. Much more would Boileau have incurred his cenfure, who left all fubjects whatever, on all occafions, to fall upon the bad poets (which, it is to be feared, would have been more immediately his concern.) But certainly next to commending good writers, the greateft fervice to learning is to expofe the bad, who can only that way be made of any ufe to it. This truth is very well fet forth in thefe lines addreffed to our author. "The craven Rook, and pert Jackdaw, (Though neither birds of moral kind) "With Ægypt's art thy pen may strive: Ver. 142. rueful length of face] " The decrepid per"fon or figure or a man are no reflections upon his Ge"nius: An honeft mind will love and esteem a man of "worth, though he be deformed or poor. Yet the au"thor of the Dunciad hath libelled a perfon for his rue"ful length of face!" Mift's Journal, June 8. This A fhaggy Tapestry, worthy to be spread, REMARKS. In Genius and man of worth, whom an honeft mind should love, is Mr. Curll. True it is, he ftood on the pillory, an incident which will lengthen the face of any man, though it were ever fo 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 faith excellently; "Natural deformity comes not by our fault; "it is often occafioned by calamities and difeafes, which "a man can no more help than a monfter can his de"formity. There is no one misfortune, and no one disease, but what all the reft of mankind are fubject "to. But the deformity of this Author is vifible, pre“ sent, lasting, unalterable, and peculiar to himself. 'Tis "the mark of God and Nature upon him, to give us "warning that we fhould hold no fociety with him, as a "creature not of our original, nor of our fpecies: and "they who have refused to take this warning which "God and Nature has given them, and have, in spite "of it, by a fenfelefs prefumption, ventured to be fami"liar with him, have feverely fuffered, &c.' Tis certain "his original is not from Adam, but from the Devil," &c. DENNIS, Character of Mr. P. octavo, 1716. Admirably it is obferved by Mr. Dennis against Mr. Law, p. 33. "That the language of Billingfgate can "never be the language of charity, nor confequently of "Chriftianity." I fhould elfe be tempted to use the language of a Critic; for what is more provoking to a commentator, than to behold his author thus portrayed? Yet I confider it really hurts not him! whereas to call fome others dull, might do them prejudice with a world too apt to believe it: Therefore, though Mr. D. may call another a little afs or a young toad, far be it from us to call him a toothless lion or an old ferpent. Indeed, had I written these notes (as was once my intent) in the |