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Boyer the state, and Law the stage gave o'er,
Morgan and Mandevil could prate no more;
Norton, from Daniel and Ostrœa sprung,
Bless'd with his father's front, and mother's tongue,
Hung silent down his never-blushing head;
And all was hush'd, as folly's self lay dead.

Thus the soft gifts of sleep conclude the day,
And stretch'd on bulks, as usual, poets lay.
Why should I sing, what bards the nightly muse
Did slumbering visit, and convey to stews?
Who prouder march'd with magistrates in state,
To some famed round-house, ever-open gate?
How Henley lay inspired beside a sink,
And to mere mortals seem'd a priest in drink :
While others, timely, to the neighbouring Fleet
'Haunt of the muses) made their safe retreat?

BOOK THE THIRD.

ARGUMENT.

420

known 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 nation shall be overrun with farces, operas, and shows; 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 enclosed,
On Dulness' lap the anointed head reposed.
Him close she curtains round with vapours blue,
And soft besprinkles with Cimmerian dew,
Then raptures high the seat of sense o'erflow,
Which only heads refined from reason know.
Hence from the straw where Bedlam's prophet nods,

After the other persons are disposed in their proper He hears loud oracles, and talks with gods:
places of rest the goddess transports the king to her Hence the fool's paradise, the statesman's scheme,
temple, and there lays him to slumber, with his head The air-built castle, and the golden dream,
on her lap; a position of marvellous virtue, which The maid's romantic wish, the chemist's flame,
causeth all the visions of wild enthusiasts, projectors, And poet's vision of eternal fame.
politicians, inamoratos, castle-builders, chemists, and
poets. He is immediately carried on the wings of
And now, on fancy's easy wing convey'd,
fancy, and led by a mad poetical Sibyl to the Elysian
The king descending, views the Elysian shade.
shade; where, on the banks of Lethe, the souls of the A slip-shod Sibyl led his steps along,
dull are dipped by Bavius, before their entrance into In lofty madness meditating song;
this world. There he is met by the ghost of Settle, and
by him made acquainted 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 un

REMARKS.

10

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.)

REMARKS.

19

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, doubtwith great geniuses in divinity, politics, and whatever arts less more learned, more enlightened, and more abounding 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) denoteth 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.

Ver. 413. Boyer the state, and Law the stage gave o'er,] just, no conformation of the mind so much subjecting it to Ver. 15. A slip-shod Sibyl.] This allegory is extremely A. Boyer, a voluminous compiler of annals, political collec-real madness, as that which produces real dulness. Hence tions, &c.-William Law, A. M. wrote with great zeal we find the religious (as well as the poetical) enthusiasts of against the stage; Mr. Dennis answered with as great; their all ages were ever, in their natural state, most heavy and ls were printed in 1725. The same Mr. Law is author lumpish; but on the least application of heat, they ran like of a book entitled, An Appeal to all that doubt of or disbe-lead, which of all metals falls quickest into fusion. Where eve the truth of the Gospel; in which he has detailed a as fire in a genius is truly Promethean; it hurts not its consystem of the rankest Spinosism, for the most exalted the-stituent parts, but only fits it (as it does well-tempered ogy; and amongst other things as rare, has informed us of steel) for the necessary impressions of art. But the common hs, tant sir Isaac Newton stole the principles of his phi-people have been taught (I do not know on what founde losophy from one Jacob Behmen, a German cobbler. Ver. 414. Morgan) A writer against religion, distin- tion) to regard lunacy as a mark of wit, just as the Turks guished no otherwise from the rabble of his tribe, than by of madness assigned by a great philosopher be true, it will and our modern Methodists do of holiness. But if the cause the pompousness of his title; for having stolen his morality unavoidably fall upon the dunces. He supposes it to be the froin Tindal, and his philosophy from Spinosa, he calls him- dwelling over-long on one object or idea. Now as this at self, by the courtesy of England, a moral philosopher. Ibid. Mandevil This writer who prided himself in the by dulness: which hath not quickness enough to compre tention is occasioned either by grief or study, it will be fixed reputation of an immoral philosopher, was author of a fa-hend what it seeks, nor force and vigour enough to divert mous book called the Fable of the Bees; written to prove the imagination from the object it laments. that moral virtue is the invention of knaves, and Christian

virtue the imposition of fools; and that vice is necessary, man, who owns he learned not so much as the accidence: a Ver. 19. Taylor.] John Taylor, the water poet, an honest and alone sufficient to render society flourishing and happy. rare example of modesty in a poet!

Ver. 415. Norton,] Norton De Foe, offspring of the faHous Daniel, fortes creantur fortibus. One of the authors of the Flying Post, in which well-bred work Mr. P. had sometime the honour to be abused with his betters; and of Inany hired scurrilities and daily papers, to which he never

set his name.

Ver. 427. Fleet] A prison for insolvent debtors on the bank of the ditch

'I must confess I do want eloquence, And never scarce did learn my accidence: For having got from possum to posset, I there was gravell'd, could no farther get.' Charles I. and afterwards (like Edward Ward) kept an aleHe wrote fourscore books in the reign of James 1. and house in Long-acre. He died in 1654.

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Benlowes, propitious still to blockheads, bows;
And Shadwell nods the poppy on his brows.
Here, in a dusky vale where Lethe rolls,
Old Bavius sits, to dip poetic souls,
And blunt the sense, and fit it for a skull
Of solid proof, impenetrably dull:

Instant, when dipp'd, away they wing their flight,
Where Brown and Meers unbar the gates of light,
Demand new bodies, and in calf's array,
Rush to the world, impatient for the day.
Millions and millions on these banks he views,
Thick as the stars of night, or morning dews,
As thick as bees o'er vernal blossoms fly,
As thick as eggs at Ward in pillory.
Wondering he gazed; when, lo! a sage appears,
By his broad shoulders known, and length of ears,

REMARKS.

Known by the band and suit which Settle wore
(His only suit) for twice three years before:
All as the vest, appear'd the wearer's frame,
Old in new state, another, yet the same.
Bland and familiar as in life, begun
Thus the great father to the greater son:
Oh born to see what none can see awake.
Behold the wonders of the oblivious lake!
Thou, yet unborn, hast touch'd this sacred shore;
30 The hand of Bavius drench'd thee o'er and o'er.
But blind to former, as to future fate,
What mortal knows his pre-existent state?
Who knows how long thy transmigrating soul
Might from Baotian to Baotian roll?
How many Dutchmen she vouchsafed to thrid ?
How many stages through old monks she rid?
And all who since, in wild benighted days,
Mix'd the owl's ivy with the poet's bays.
As man's meanders to the vital spring
Roll all their tides, then back their circles bring;
Or whirligigs, twirl'd round by skilful swain,
Suck the thread in, then yield it out again:
All nonsense thus, of old or modern date,
Shall, in thee centre, from thee circulate.
For this, our queen unfolds to vision true
Thy mental eye, for thou hast much to view:
Old scenes of glory, times long cast behind,

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 Benlows into Benevolus: to verify which, he spent his whole estate upon them.

Ver. 22. 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 causes as Bays by our author, though not in so Christian-like a manner: for heathenishly it is declared by Virgil of Bavius, that he ought to be Shall, first recall'd, rush forward to thy mind: hated and detested for his evil works; qui Bavium non Then stretch thy sight o'er all her rising reign, odit: whereas we have often had occasion to observe our And let the past and future fire thy brain. poet's great good nature and mercifulness through the whole course of this poem. Scribl. Ascend this hill, whose cloudy point commands Ver. 28. Brown and Meers] Booksellers, printers for Her boundless empire over seas and lands: any body. The allegory of the souls of the dull coming forth in the form of books, dressed in calf's leather, and See, round the poles, where keener spangles shine, being let abroad in vast numbers by booksellers, is sulli- Where spices smoke, beneath the burning line, ciently intelligible. (Earth's wide extremes,) her sable flag display'd, And all the nations cover'd in her shade!

REMARKS.

40

50

60

70

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 Far eastward cast thine eye, from whence the sun the 17th of February, 1727. Mr. Curll (having likewise And orient science their bright course begun : stood there) looks upon the mention of such a gentleman in One godlike monarch all that pride confounds, a satire, as a great act of barbarity, Key to Dunc. 3d edit. p. 16. And another author reasons thus upon it: Durgen. 8vo. He, whose long wall the wandering Tartar bounds p. 11, 12. How unworthy is it of Christian charity to ani Heavens! what a pile! whole ages perish there, mate the rabble to abuse a worthy man in such a situation! What could move the poet thus to mention a brave sufferer, And one bright blaze turns learning into air. a gallant prisoner, exposed to the view of all mankind? It was laying aside his senses, it was committing a crime for which the law is deficient not to punish him! nay, a crime which man can scarce forgive, or time efface! nothing surely Ver. 37. Settle.] Elkanah Settle was once a writer in could have induced him to it but being bribed by a great vogue as well as Cibber, both for dramatic poetry and pot lady,' &c. (to whom this brave, honest, worthy gentlemantics. Mr. Dennis tells us, that he was a formidable rival to was guilty of no offence but forgery, proved in open court.) Mr. Dryden, and that in the university of Cambridge there But it is evident this verse could not be meant of him; it were those who gave him the preference.' Mr. Wolsted goes being notorious that no eggs were thrown at that gentleman. yet farther in his behalf! Poor Settle was formerly the Perhaps, therefore, it might be intended of Mr. Edward mighty rival of Dryden; nay, for many years, bore his repeWard, the poet, when he stood there. tation above him.' Pref. to his Poems, 8vo. p. 31. And Mr. Ver. 36. And length of ears,] This is a sophisticated Milbourne cried out, How little was Dryden able, even reading. I think I may venture to affirm all the copyists when his blood run high, to defend himself against Mr. Setare mistaken here: I believe I may say the same of the tle! Notes on Dryd. Virg. p. 175. These are comfortable critics; Dennis, Oldmixon, Welsted, have passed it in silence. opinions; and no wonder some authors indulge them. I have also stumbled at it, and wondered how an error so ma- He was author or publisher of many noted pamphlets, in nifest could escape such accurate persons. I dare assert, it the time of king Charles II. He answered all Dryden's po proceeded originally from the inadvertency of some trans-litical poems; and being cried up on one side, succeeded not criber, whose head ran on the pillory, mentioned two lines a little in his tragedy of the Empress of Morocco, the first before; it is therefore amazing that Mr. Curll himself should that was ever printed with cuts. Upon this he grew inse overlook it! Yet that scholiast takes not the least notice lent, the wits writ against his play, he replied, and the tow hereof. That the learned Mist also read it thus, is plain judged he had the better. In short, Settle was then thought from his ranging this passage among those in which our au- a very formidable rival to Mr. Dryden; and not only the thor was blamed for personal satire on a man's face (where- town, but the university of Cambridge was divided which to of doubtless he might take the ear to be a part;) so likewise prefer; and in both places the younger sort inclined to ElConcanen, Ralph, the Flying Post, and all the herd of com-kanah.' Dennis, Pref. to Rem. on Hom. mentators-Tota armenta sequuntur.

Ver. 50. Might from Baotian, &c.] Bootia lay under A very little sagacity (which all these gentlemen, there- the ridicule of the wits formerly, as Ireland does now. fore wanted) will restore to us the true sense of the poet thus: though it produced one of the greatest poets and one of the By his broad shoulders known, and length of years.' greatest generals of Greece: See how easy a change of one single letter! That Mr. Settle was old, is most certa; but he was (happily) a stranger to the pillory. This note is partly Mr. Theobald's, partly

Scribl.

'Beotum crasso jurares aëre natum.'--Hor. Ver. 75. Chi Ho-am-ti, emperor of China, the same who built the great wall between China and Tartary, destroyed all the books and learned men of that empire.

Thence to the south extend thy gladden'd eyes;
There rival flames with equal glory rise,
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
Embodied dark, what clouds of Vandals rise!
Lo! where Motis 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)
His conquering tribes the Arabian prophet draws,
And saving ignorance enthrones by laws:
See Christians, Jews, one heavy sabbath keep,
And all the western world believe and sleep.

Behold yon isle, by palmers, pilgrims trod,

80 Men bearded, bald, cowl'd, uncowl'd, shod, unshod,
Peel'd, patch'd, and piebald, linsey-wolsey brothers,
Grave mummers! sleeveless some, and shirtless others
That once was Britain-Happy! had she seen
No fiercer sons, had Easter never been.
In peace, great goddess, ever be adored;

How keen the war, if Dulness draw the sword! 120
Thus visit not thy own! on this bless'd age
O spread thy influence, but restrain thy rage.
And see, my son! the hour is on its way,
90 That lifts our goddess to imperial sway;

100

Lo! Rome herself, proud mistress now no more
Of arts, but thundering against heathen lore:
Her gray-hair'd synods damning books unread,
And Bacon trembling for his brazen head.
Padua, with sighs, beholds her Livy burn,
And e'en the Antipodes Virgilius mourn.
See, the Cirque falls, the unpillar'd temple nods,
Streets paved with heroes, Tyber choked with gods:
Till Peter's keys some christen'd Jove adorn,
And Pan to Moses lends his Pagan horn;
See graceful Venus to a virgin turn'd,
Or Phidias broken, and Appelles burn'd.

REMARKS.

130

This favourite isle, long sever'd from her reign,
Dove-like she gathers to her wings again.
Now look through fate! behold the scene she draws!
What aids, what armies, to assert her cause!
See all her progeny, illustrious sight!
Behold and count them, as they rise to light.
As Berecynthia, while her offspring vie
In homage to the mother of the sky,
Surveys around her, in the bless'd abode
A hundred sons, and every son a god:
Not with less glory mighty Dulness crown'd
Shall take through Grub-street her triumphant round;
And, her Parnassus glancing o'er at once,
Behold a hundred sons, and each a dunce.

110

Mark first that youth who takes the foremost place,
And thrusts his person full into your face.
With all thy father's virtues bless'd, be born!
And a new Cibber shall the stage adorn.

A second see, by meeker manners known,
110 And modest as the maid that sips alone;
From the strong fate of drams if thou get free,
Another D'Urfey, Ward! shall sing in thee:
Thee shall each alehouse, thee each gillhouse mourn,
And answering gin-shops sourer sighs return.

Ver. 81, 82. The caliph, Omar I. having conquered Jacob, the scourge of grammar, mark with awe;
Egypt, caused his general to burn the Ptolemaan library, on Nor less revere him, blunderbuss of law.
the gates of which was this inscription,

The physic of the soul.

REMARKS.

150

Ver. 117, 118. Happy! had Easter never been.] Wars in England anciently, about the right time of celebrating Easter.

Ver. 126. Dove-like, she gathers.] This is fulfilled in the fourth book.

Ver. 96. (The soil that arts and infant letters bore.)] Phenicia, Syria, &c. where letters are 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 sanc-i. e. Of poets, antiquaries, critics, divines, freethinkers. But Ver. 128. What aids, what armies, to assert her cause!] tissimus ille Gregorius, qui melleo prædicationis imbre totam ngavit et inebriavit ecclesiam; non modo mathesin jussit ab as this revolution is only here set on foot by the first of these , sed, ut traditur a majoribus, incendio dedit probata classes, the poets, they only are here particularly celebrated, lectionis scripta, Palatinus quæcunque tenebat Apollo ? and they only properly fall under the care and review of And in another place: Fertur beatus Gregorius bibliothe-this colleague of Dulness, the laureate. The others, who cam combussisse gentilem; quo divine paginæ gratior esset finish the great work, are reserved for the fourth book, where locus, et major auctoritas, et diligentia studiosior. De- the goddess herself appears in full glory. Ver. 140. Jacob, the scourge of grammar, mark with him for teaching grammar and literature, and explaining awe;] This gentleman is son of a considerable master of poets; because (says this pope) In uno se ore cum Jovis Romsey in Southamptonshire, and bred to the law under a audibus Christi laudes non capiunt: Et quam grave nefan- very eminent attorney, who, between his more laborious dumque sit episcopis canere quod nec laico religioso conve- studies, has diverted himself with poetry. He is a great ndpiat, ipse considera. He is said among the rest to have mirer of poets and their works, which has occasioned him He has writ in Prose the Lives burned Livy; Quin in superstitionibus et sacris Romano-to try his genius that way.

siderius, archbishop of Vienna, was sharply reproved by

the

ru perpetuo versatur.' The same pope is accused by Vos-of the poets, Essays, and a great many law books, The Ac Bids, and others, of having caused the noble monuments of complished Conveyancer, Modern Justice, &c.' Giles Jacob the old Roman magnificence to be destroyed, lest those who of himself, Lives of Poets, vol. i. He very grossly and uncame to Rome should give more attention to triumphal provoked, abused in that book the author's friend, Mr. Gay. arches, &c. than to holy things. Bayle, Dict.

Ver. 149, 150.

Jacob, the scourge of grammar, mark with awe;
Nor less revere him, blunderbuss of law.]

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 There may seem some error in these verses, Mr. Jacob temples and statues, so that the Goths scarce destroyed having proved our author to have a respect for him, by this more monuments of antiquity out of rage, than these out of undeniable argument: 'He had once à regard for my judg devotion. At length they spared some of the temples, by ment; otherwise he never would have subscribed two gui Converting them into images of saints. In much later times, neas to me, for one small book in octavo.' Jacob's Letter to it was thought necessary to change the statues of Apollo Dennis, printed in Dennis's Remarks on the Dunciad, p. 49. and Pallas, on the tomb of Sannazarius, into David and Ju-Therefore I should think the appellation of blunderbuss to dith; the lyre easily became a harp, and the Gorgon's head Mr. Jacob, like that of thunderbolt to Scipio, was meant in

vurned to that of Holofernes.

his honour.

Lo, P-p-le's brow, tremendous to the town,
Horneck's fierce eye, and Roome's funereal frown.
Lo sneering Goode, half malice and half whim,
A fiend in glee, ridiculously grim.

Each cygnet sweet, of Bath and Tunbridge race,
Whose tuneful whistling makes the waters pass:
Each songster, riddler, every nameless name,
All crowd, who foremost shall be damn'd to fame.
Some strain in rhyme; the muses, on their racks,
Scream like the winding of ten thousand jacks; 160
Some, free from rhyme or reason, rule or check,
Break Priscian's head, and Pegasus's neck;
Down, down the larum, with impetuous whirl,
The Pindars and the Miltons of a Curll.

Silence, ye wolves! while Ralph to Cynthia howls,
And make night hideous-Answer him, ye owls!
Sense, speech, and measure, living tongues and dead
Let all give way,-and Morris may be read.
Flow, Welsted, flow! like thine inspirer, beer,
Though stale, not ripe; though thin, yet never clear;

REMARKS.

169

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this he (civilly) became a member of both, and after having passed some time at the one, he removed to the other. From thence he returned to town, where he became the derling expectation of all the polite writers, whose encouragement will make no small part of the fame of his protectors. It he acknowledged in his occasional poems, in a manner that also appears from his works, that he was happy in the pa tronage of the most illustrious characters of the present published a book of poems, some in the Ovidian, some in age. Encouraged by such a combination in his favour, hethe Horatian manner; in both which the most exquisite judges pronounce he even rivalled his masters-His loveverses have rescued that way of writing from contempt.--In his author. His Ode-his Epistle--his Verses--his Love his translations, he has given us ne very soul and spirit of tale-ail, are the most perfect things in all poetry." WelIt should not be forgot for his honour, that he received at sted of himself, Char. of the Times, 8vo. 172, page 23, 24. one time the sum of five hundred pounds for secret service, among the other excellent authors hired to write anony mously for the ministry. See Report of the secret Con.mit

tee, &c. in 1742.

Mr. Dennis argues the same way: My writings having made great impression on the minds of all sensible men. Mr. P. repented, and to give proof of his repentance, subscribed to my two volumes of Select Works, and afterwards to my two volumes of Letters.' Ibid. p. 80. We should hence believe, the name of Mr. Dennis hath also crept into this poem by some mistake. But from hence, gentle reader! thou mayest beware, when thou givest thy money to such authors, not to flatter thyself that thy motives are good nature or charity. Ver. 173. Ah, Dennis! Gildon, ah.] These men became Ver. 152. Horneck and Roome.] These two were viru-the public scorn by a mere mistake of their talents. They lent party-writers, worthily coupled together, and one would would needs turn critics of their own country writers (just think prophetically, since, after the publishing of this piece, as Aristotle and Longinus did of theirs,) and discourse upon the former dying, the latter succeeded him in honour and the beauties and defects of composition: employment. The first was Philip Horneck, author of a Billingsgate paper, called the High German Doctor. Edward Roome was son of an undertaker for funerals in Fleetstreet, and writ some of the papers called Pasquin, where, by malicious inuendos, he endeavoured to represent our author guilty of malevolent practices with a great man then under prosecution of parliament. Of this man was made the following epigram:

You ask why Roome diverts you with his jokes?
Yet if he writes, is dull as other folks!
You wonder at it-This, sir, is the case,
The jest is lost unless he prints his face.
P-le was the author of some vile plays and pamphlets.
He published abuses on our author in a paper called the
Prompter.

Ver. 153. Goode,] An ill-natured critic, who writ a satire on our author, called the Mock Esop, and many anonymous libels in newspapers for hire.

How parts relate to parts, and they to whole; The body's harmony, the beaming soul." Whereas had they followed the example of those miero scopes of wit, Kuster, Barman, and their followers, in verbal criticism on the learned languages, their acuteness and industry might have raised them a name equal to the most famous of the scholiasts. We cannot, therefore, but lament the late apostacy of the prebendary of Rochester, who be ginning in so good a train has now turned short to write comments on the Fire-side, and dreams upon Shakspeare: where we find the spirit of Oldmixon, Giidon, and Dents, all revived in his belaboured observations. Scribl.

Here Scriblerus, in this affair of the Fire-side, I want tay usual candour. It is true, Mr. Upton did write nctes upua it, but with all the honour and good faith in the world. He took it to be a panegyric on his patren. This it is to have to do with wits; a commerce unworthy a scholiast of so solid learning.

Aris.

Ver. 156. Whose tuneful whistling makes the waters Ver. 173. Ah, Dennis, &c.] The reader who has pren pass:] There were several successions of these sorts of through the course of these notes, what a constant attendminor poets at Tunbridge, Bath, &c. singing the praise of ance Mr. Dennis paid to our author and all his works, may the annuals flourishing for that season; whose names, in-perhaps wonder he should be mentioned but twice, and so deed, would be nameless, and therefore the poct slurs them over with others in general.

Ver. 165. Ralph.] James Ralph, a name inserted after the first editions, not known to our author till he writ a swearing piece, called Sawney, very abusive of Dr. Swift, Mr. Gay, and himself. These lines allude to a thing of his, entitled Night, a Poem. This low writer attended his own works with panegyrics in the Journals, and once in particular praised himself highly above Mr. Addison, in wretched remarks upon that author's account of English Poets, printed in a London Journal, Sept. 1728. He was wholly illiterate, and knew no language, not even French. Being advised to read the rules of dramatic poetry before he began a play, he smiled and replied, 'Shakspeare writ without rules. He ended at last in the common sink of all such writers, a political newspaper, to which he was recommended by his friend Arnall, and received a small pittance for pay.

Ver. 168. Morris] Besaleel. See Book ii.
Ver. 169. Flow, Welsted, &c.] Of this author see the
Remark on Book it. v. 209. But (to be impartial) add to it
the following different character of him:

slightly touched, in this poem. But in truth he looked upon him with some esteem, for having (more generously than al the rest) set his name to such writings. He was also a very old man at this time. By his own account of himself, in Mr. Jacob's lives, he must have been above threescore, and happily lived many years after. So that he was senior to Mr. D'Urfey, who hitherto, of all our poets, enjoyed the longest bodily life.

Ver. 179. Behold yon pair, &c.] One of these was an thor of a weekly paper called The Grumbler, as the othe was concerned in another called Pasquin, in which Mr. Pope was abused with the duke of Buckingham, and bishop of Rochester. They also joined in a piece against his first undertaking to translate the Iliad, entitled Homerides, by sir Iliad Doggrel, printed 1715.

Of the other works of these gentlemen the world bes heard no more, than it would of Mr. Pope's, had their united laudable endeavours discouraged him from pursuing his studies. How few good works had ever appeared (sinca men of true merit are always the least presuming) had there been always such champions to stifle them in their concep Mr. Welsted had, in his youth, raised so great expectation! And were it not better for the public, that a milioa tions of his future genius, that there was a kind of struggle of monsters should come into the world, which are sure to between the most eminent of the two universities, which die as soon as born, than that the serpents should strang'e should have the honour of his education. To compound one Hercules in his cradle?

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The union of these two authors gave occasion to this epigram:

'Burnet and Ducket, friends in spite,

Came hissing out in verse;

Both were so forward, each would write

So dull, each hung an a-.

Thus Amphisbona (I have read)

At either end assails;

None knows which leads or which is led,

For both heads are but tails.'

After many editions of this poem, the author thought fit to omit the names of these two persons, whose injury to him Wis of so old a date.

How fluent nonsense trickles from his tongue!
How sweet the periods, neither said nor sung!
Still break the benches, Henley! with thy strain,
While Sherlock, Hare, and Gibson, preach in vain.
Oh great restorer of the good old stage,
Preacher at once, and zany of thy age!
Oh worthy thou of Egypt's wise abodes,

A decent priest, where monkeys were the gods!
But fate with butchers placed thy priestly stall,
Meek modern faith to murder, hack, and maul; 210
And bade thee live, to Crown Britannia's praise,
In Toland's, Tindal's, and in Woolston's days.
Yet oh, my sons, a father's words attend:
(So may the fates preserve the ears your lend :)
'Tis yours, a Bacon or a Locke to blame,
A Newton's genius, or a Milton's flame :
But oh! with One, immortal One dispense,
The source of Newton's light, of Bacon's sense.
Content each emanation of his fires

That beams on earth, each virtue he inspires,
Each art he prompts, each charm he can create,
Whate'er he gives, are given for your hate.

REMARKS.

220

no mortal ever thought of; he had success against all opposition; challenged his adversaries to fair disputatious, and none would dispute with him; writ, read, and studied twelve hours a day; composed three dissertations a week on all subjects; undertook to teach in one year what schools and universities teach in five; was not terrified by menaces, insults, or satires, but still proceeded, matured his bold scheme, and put the church, and all that, in danger.'-Welsted, Narrative in Orat. Transact. No. 1.

After having stood some prosecutions, he turned his rhetoric to builoonery upon all public and private occur Ver. 184. That shines a consul, this commissioner.]rences. All this passed in the same room, where sometimes Such places were given at this time to such sort of writers." he broke jests, and sometimes that bread which he called Ver. 187. Myster wight.] Uncouth mortal. the primitive eucharist. This wonderful person struck meVer. 188. Wormius hight.] Let not this name, purely dals, which he dispersed as tickets to his subscribers; the fictitious, be conceited to mean the learned Olaus Wormius; device a star rising to the meridian, with this motto, much less (as it was unwarrantably foisted into the surrepti- AD SVMMA: and below, INVENIAM VIAM AVT tious editions) our own antiquary, Mr. Thomas Hearne, who FACIAM. This man had a hundred pounds a year given had no way aggrieved our poet, but on the contrary publish-him for the secret service of a weekly paper of unintelligible ed many curious tracts which he hath to his great content-nonsense, called the Hyp-Doctor.

anent perused.

Ver. 204. Sherlock, Hare, Gibson,] Bishops of Salis

Ver. 192. Wits who, like owls, &c.] These few lines bury, Chichester, and London; whose sermons and pastoral exactly describe the right verbal critic: the darker his au-letters did honour to their country as well as stations. thor is, the better he is pleased; like the famous quack doc- Ver. 212. Of Toland, and Tindal, see Book ii. Tho. tor, who put up in his bills, he delighted in matters of diffi-Woolston was an impious madman, who wrote in a most caty. Somebody said well of these men, that their heads insolent style against the miracles of the Gospel, in the year were libraries out of order. 1726, &c.

Ver. 199. Lo! Henley stands, &c.] J. Henley the Ver. 213. Yet oh, my sons, &c.] The caution against stator; he preached on the Sundays upon theological matters, blasphemy here given by a departed son of Dulness to his yet and on the Wednesdays upon all other sciences. Each existing brethren, is, as the poet rightly intimates, not out auditor paid one shilling. He declaimed some years against of tenderness to the ears of others, but their own. And so the greatest persons, and occasionally did our author that we see that when that danger is removed, on the open estabhonour. Welsted, in Oratory Transactions, No. 1, publish-lishment of the goddess in the fourth book, she encourages ed by Henley himself, gives the following account of him: her sons, and they beg assistance to pollute the source of He was born at Melton Mowbray, in Leicestershire. From fight itself, with the same virulence they had before done his own parish school he went to St. John's College, in Cam- the purest emanations from it. bridge. He began there to be uneasy; for it shocked him to

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he was commanded to believe against his own judgment

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Ver. 215. "Tis yours, a Bacon or a Locke to blame,

A Newton's genius, or a Milton's flame :)

in points of religion, I hilosophy, &c. for his genius leading him freely to dispute all propositions, and call all points to Thankfully received, and freely used, is this gracious licence account, he was impatient under those fetters of the free-by the beloved disciple of that prince of cabalistic dunces, bur mind. Being admitted to priest's orders, he found the the tremendous Hutchinson. Hear with what honest plainexamination very short and superficial, and that it was not ness be treateth our great geometer. As to mathematical necessary to conform to the Christian religion, in order demonstrations,' saith he, founded upon the proportions of either to deaconship or priesthood. He came to town, and lines and circles to each other, and the ringing of changes after having for some years been a witer for booksellers, he upon figures, these have no more to do with the greatest part had an ambition to be so for ministers of state. The only of philosophy, than they have with the man in the moon. reason he did not rise in the church, we are told, was the Indeed, the zeal for this sort of gibberish (mathematical envy of others, and a disrelish entertained of him, because principles) is greatly abated of late: and though it is now be was not qualified to be a complete spaniel.' However upwards of twenty years that the Dagon of modern philoso he offered the service of his pen to two great men, of opinions phers, sir Isaac Newton, has lain with his face upon the and interests directly opposite; by both of whom being re-ground before the ark of God, Scripture philosophy; for so Jected, he set up a new project, and styled himself the Restorer long Moses's Principia have been published; and the Treaof ancient Eloquence. He thought it as lawful to take a tise of Power Essential and Mechanical, in which sir Isaac licence from the king and parliament in one place as ano- Newton's philosophy is treated with the utmost contempt, ther; at Hickes's Hall, as at Doctors' Commons; so set up has been published a dozen years; yet is there not one of bis oratory in Newport-market, Butcher-row. There,' says the whole society who hath had the courage to attempt to his friend, he had the assurance to form a plan, which raise him up. And so let aim lie.' The Philosophical Prin

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