во ок IV. YET, yet a moment, one dim Ray of Light Indulge, dread Chaos, and eternal Night! Of darknefs visible so much be lent, REMARKS. 5 IO Sick The DUNCIAD, Book IV.] This book may properly be diftinguished from the former, by the Name of the GREATER DUNCIAD, not fo indeed in Size, but in fubject; and fo far contrary to the diftinction anciently made of the Greater and Leffer Iliad. But much are they mistaken who imagine this Work in any wife inferior to the former, or of any other hand than of our Poet; of which I am much more certain than that the Iliad itfelf was the Work of Solomon, or the Batrachomuomachia of Homer, as Barnes hath affirmed. BENT. Ver. 1, &c.] This is an Invocation of much Piety. The Poet willing to approve himself a genuine Son, beginneth by fhewing (what is ever agreeable to Dulness) his high refpect for Antiquity and a Great Family, how dead or dark foever: Next declareth his paffion for explaining Mysteries; and laftly his Impatience to be reunited to her. SCRIBL. Ver. 2. dread Chaos, and eternal Night!] Invoked, as the Restoration of their Empire is the Action of the Poem. Sick was the Sun, the Owl forfook his bower, And bring Saturnian days of Lead and Gold. 15 She mounts the Throne; her head a Cloud conceal'd, In broad Effulgence all below reveal'd, ('Tis thus afpiring Dulness ever fhines) Soft on her lap her Laureate fon reclines. 20 Be REMARKS. Ver. 14. To blot out Order, and extinguish Light] The two great Ends of her Miffion; the one in quality of Daughter of Chaos, the other as Daughter of Night. Order here is to be understood extenfively, both as Civil and Moral; the diftinctions between high and low in So ciety, and true and false in Individuals: Light as Intellectual only, Wit, Science, Arts. Ver. 15. Of dull and venal] The Allegory continued; dull referring to the extinction of Light or Science; venal to the deftruction of Order, and the Truth of Things. Ibid. a new World] In allufion to the Epicurean opinion, that from the Diffolution of the natural world into Night and Chaos, a new one fhould arife; this the Poet alluding to, in the Production of a new moral World, makes it partake of its original Principles. Ver. 16. Lead and Gold,] i. e. dull and venal. Ver. 20. her Laureate fon reclines.] With great judgment it is imagined by the Poet, that fuch a Colleague as Dulness had elected, fhould fleep on the Throne, and have very little share in the Action of the Poem. Accordingly he hath done little or nothing from the Beneath her foot-ftool, Science groans in Chains, There C REMARKS. the day of his Anointing; having paft through the fecond book without taking part in any thing that was transacted about him; and through the third in profound Sleep. Nor ought this, well confidered, to seem strange in our days, when so many King-conforts have done the like. SCRIBL. This verse our excellent Laureate took so to heart, that he appealed to all mankind, "if he was not as fel"dom afleep as any fool!" But it is hoped the Poet hath not injured him, but rather verified his Prophecy (p. 243. of his own Life, 8vo. ch. ix.) where he says, the reader will be as much pleafed to find me a "Dunce in my Old Age, as he was to prove me a brisk "blockhead in my Youth." Wherever there was any room for Brifknefs, or Alacrity of any fort, even in finking, he hath had it allowed; but here, where there is nothing for him to do but to take his natural rest, he muft permit his Hiftorian to be filent. It is from their actions only that Princes have their character, and Poets from their works: And if in those he be as much asleep as any fool, the Poet must leave him and them to fleep to all eternity. BENTL. Ibid. her Laureate] "When I find my Name in the "fatirical works of this Poet, I never look upon it 66 as any malice meant to me, but PROFIT to himself. "For he confiders that my Face is more known than "most in the nation; and therefore a Lick at the Lau"reate will be a fure bait ad captandum vulgus, to "catch little readers." Life of Colley Cibber, ch. ii. Now if it be certain, that the works of our Poet have owed their fuccefs to this ingenious expedient, we hence derive an unanswerable Argument, that this Fourth There foam'd rebellious Logic, gagg'd and bound; 25 Gafps, as they straiten at each end the cord, And dies, when Dulness gives her Page the word. 30 'Too mad for mere material chains to bind, Now REMARKS. Fourth DUNCIAD, as well as the former three, hath had the Author's last hand, and was by him intended for the Prefs: Or elfe to what purpofe hath he crowned it, as we fee, by this finishing froke, the profitable Lick at the Laureate ? BENTL. Ver. 21, 22. Beneath her foot-ftool, &c.] We are next prefented with the pictures of those whom the Goddefs leads in Captivity. Science is only depreffed and confined fo as to be rendered useless; but Wit or Genius, as a more dangerous and active enemy, punished, or driven away: Dulnefs being often reconciled in fome degree with Learning, but never upon any terms with Wit. And accordingly it will be seen that the admits fomething like each Science, as Cafuiftry, Sophiftry, &c. but nothing like Wit, Opera alone fupplying its place. Ver. 30. gives her Page the word.] There was a Judge of this name, always ready to hang any man that came before him, of which he was fuffered to give a hundred miferable examples, during a long life, even to his dotage.-Though the candid Scriblerus imagined Page here to mean no more than a Page or Mute, and to allude to the custom of strangling State Criminals in Turkey by Mutes or Pages. A practice more decent than that of our Page, who, before he hanged any one, loaded him with reproachful language. SCRIBL. Now to pure Space lifts her extatic stare, And promis'd vengeance on a barbarous age. 35 4.0 There REMARKS. Ver. 39. But fober Hiftory] Hiftory attends on Tra gedy, Satire on Comedy, as their fubftitutes in the difcharge of their distinct functions; the one in high life, recording the crimes and punishments of the great; the other in low, expofing the vices or follies of the common people. But it may be asked, How came Hiftory and Satire to be admitted with impunity to minifter comfort to the Muses, even in the prefence of the Goddefs, and in the midst of all her triumphs? A question, fays Scriblerus, which we thus refolve: Hiftory was brought up in her infancy by Dulness herfelf; but being afterwards efpoufed into a noble house, she forgot (as is ufual) the humility of her birth, and the cares of her early friends. This occafioned a long eftrangement between her and Dulnefs. At length, in process of time, they met together, in a Monk's Cell, were reconciled, and became better friends than ever. After this they had a fecond quarrel, but it held not long, and are now again on reasonable terms, and fo are likely to continue. This accounts for the connivance fhewn to Hiftory on this occafion. But the boldnefs of SATIRE fprings from a very different caufe; for the reader ought to know, that the alone of all the fifters is unconquerable, never to be filenced, when truly infpired and animated (as fhould feem) from above, for this very purpose, |