125

And you, my Critics! in the chequer'd shade,
Admire new light through holes yourselves have made.
Leave not a foot of verfe, a foot of stone,

A Page, a Grave, that they can call their own;
But fpread my fons, your glory thin or thick,
O paffive paper, or on folid brick.

So by each Bard, an Alderman shall fit,
A heavy Lord fhall hang at every Wit,

REMARKS.

130

And

Ver. 128. A Page, a Grave,] For what lefs than a Grave can be granted to a dead author? or what less than a Page can be allowed a living one!

Ver. 128. A Page,] Pagina, not Pediffequus. A Page of a Book, not a Servant, Follower, or Attendant: no Poet having had a Page fince the death of Mr. Thomas Durfey. SCRIBL.

Ver. 131. So by each Bard an Alderman, &c.] Vide the Tombs of the Poets, Editio Weftmonafterienfis.

Ibid.-an Alderman fhall fit,] Alluding to the Monument erected for Butler by Alderman Barber.

Ver. 132. A heavy Lord fhall hang at every Wit,] How unnatural an Image, and how ill fupported! faith Ariftarchus. Had it been,

A heavy Wit fhall hang at every Lord,

fomething might have been faid, in an Age fo diftinguifhed for well-judging Patrons. For LORD, then, read LOAD; that is, of Debts here, and of Commentaries hereafter. To this purpofe, confpicuous is the cafe of the poor Author of Hudibras, whofe body, long fince weighed down to the Grave by a load of Debts, has lately had a more unmerciful load of Commentaries laid upon his Spirit; wherein the Editor has atchieved more than Virgil himself, when he turned Critic, could boast of, which was only, that he had picked gold out VOL. III.

of

And while on Fame's triumphal Car they ride,
Some flave of mine be pinion'd to their fide.

Now crowds on crowds around the Goddess prefs,
Each eager to present the firft Addrefs.
Dunce fcorning Dunce beholds the next advance,
But Fop fhews Fop fuperior complaisance.
When lo! a spectre rofe, whofe index-hand
Held forth the Virtue of the dreadful wand;

REMARKS.

140

His

of another man's dung; whereas the Editor has picked it out of his own. SCRIBL. Ariftarchus thinks the common reading right: and that the author himself had been ftruggling, and but juft fhaken off his Load when he wrote the following Epigram:

My Lord complains, that Pope, ftark mad with "gardens,

"Has lopt three trees the value of three farthings: "But he's my neighbour, cries the peer polite, "And if he'll vifit me, I'll wave my right.

"What? on Compulfion? and against my Will, "A Lord's acquaintance? Let him file his Bill." Ver. 137, 138.

Dunce fcorning Dunce beholds the next advance,
But Fop fhews Fop fuperior complaifance.]

This is not to be afcribed fo much to the different manners of a Court and College, as to the different effects which a pretence to Learning, and a pretence to Wit, have on Blockheads. For as Judgment confists in finding out the differences in things, and Wit in finding out their likeneffes, fo the Dunce is all difcord and diffenfion, and conftantly bufied in reproving, examining, confuting, &c. while the Fop flourishes in peace, with Songs and Hymns of praife, Addreffes, Characters, Epithalamiums, &c.

His beaver'd brow a birchen garland wears,

145

Dropping with Infant's blood, and Mother's tears.
O'er every vein a shuddering horror runs ;
Eaton and Winton shake through all their Sons.
All Flesh is humbled, Westminster's bold race
Shrink, and confess the Genius of the place :
The pale Boy-Senator yet tingling stands,
And holds his breeches clofe with both his hands.
Then thus, Since Man from Beaft by Words is known,
Words are Man's province, Words we teach alone. 150
When Reason doubtful, like the Samian letter,
Points him two ways, the narrower is the better.
Plac'd at the door of Learning, youth to guide,
We never fuffer it to ftand too wide.

To afk, to guess, to know, as they commence,
As Fancy opens the quick fprings of Sense,
We ply the Memory, we load the brain,
Bind rebel Wit, and double chain on chain,
Confine the thought, to exercife the breath;
And keep them in the pale of Words till death.
Whate'er the talents, or howe'er defign'd,
We hang one jingling padlock on the mind:
A Poet the first day, he dips his quill;
And what the last? a very Poet still.

REMARKS.

155

160

Pity!

Ver. 140. the dreadful wand;] A cane ufually borne by Schoolmasters, which drives the poor Souls about like the wand of Mercury.

SCRIBL.

Ver. 151. like the Samian letter,] The letter Y used by Pythagoras as an emblem of the different roads of Virtue and Vice.

"Et tibi quæ Samios diduxit litera ramos."

Perf.

Pity the charm works only in our wall,
Loft, loft too soon in yonder House or Hall.
There truant WYNDHAM every Muse gave o'er,
There TALBOT funk, and was a Wit no more!
How sweet an Ovid, MURRAY was our boaft!
How many Martials were in PULTENEY loft!
Elfe fure fome Bard, to our eternal praise,
In twice ten thousand rhyming nights and days,
Had reach'd the Work, the All that mortal can;
And South beheld that Mafter-piece of Man.

1651

170

Oh (cry'd the Goddess) for fome pedant Reign! 175 Some gentle JAMES, to blefs the land again; To ftick the Doctor's Chair into the Throne, Give law to Words, or war with Words alone,

REMARKS.

Se

Ver. 174. that Mafter-piece of Man.] Viz. an Epigram. The famous Dr. South declared a perfect Epigram to be as difficult a performance as an Epic Poem. And the Critics fay, "An Epic poem is the greatest "work human nature is capable of."

Ver. 176. Some gentle JAMES, &c.] Wilson tells us that this King, James the Firft, took upon himself to teach the Latin tongue to Car, Earl of Somerfet; and that Gondomar the Spanish Ambaffador would fpeak falfe Latin to him, on purpofe to give him the pleafure of correcting it, whereby he wrought himself into his good graces.

This great Prince was the firft who affumed the title of Sacred Majefty, which his loyal Clergy transferred from God to him. "The Principles of Paffive Obe"dience and Non-resistance (says the Author of the "Differtation on Parties, Letter 8.) which before his "time had skulked perhaps in fome old Homily, were "talked, written, and preached into vogue in that in"glorious reign.”

Senates and Courts with Greek and Latin rule, "

And turn the Council to a Grammar School!

For fure, if Dulness fees a grateful Day, 'Tis in the fhade of Arbitrary Sway.

180

O! if my fons may learn one earthly thing,
Teach but that one, fufficient for a King;

That which my Priefts, and mine alone, maintain, 185
Which, as it dies, or lives, we fall, or reign:

May you, my Cam, and Ifis, preach it long,
"The RIGHT DIVINE of Kings to govern wrong."
Prompt at the call, around the Goddess roll
Broad hats, and hoods, and caps, a fable fhoal:
Thick and more thick the black blockade extends,
A hundred head of Ariftotle's friends.
Nor wert thou, Ifis! wanting to the day,

[Though Chrift-church long kept prudishly away.]
Each ftaunch Polemic, ftubborn as a rock,

Each fierce Logician, ftill expelling Locke,

190

195

Came whip and spur, and dash'd through thin and thick On German Crouzaz, and Dutch Burgerfdyck.

REMARKS.

As

Ver. 194. Though Chrift-church, &c.] This line is doubtlefs fpurious, and foifted in by the impertinence of the Editor; and accordingly we have put it in between Hooks. For I affirm this College came as early as any other, by its proper Deputies; nor did any College pay homage to Dulness in its whole body. BENTL.

Ver. 196. ftill expelling Locke,] In the year 1703 there was a meeting of the heads of the Univerfity of Oxford to cenfure Mr. Locke's Effay on Human Underftanding, and to forbid the reading of it. See his Letters in the laft Edit.