And loudly claims the Journals and the Lead. The plunging Prelate,' and his ponderous Grace,2 326 With holy envy gave one Layman place. First he relates, how sinking to the chin, Smit with his mien, the Mud-nymphs sucked him in : How young Lutetia, softer than the down, 3 1 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 no power at all, in unicus; I owe so much to the memory of my 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.-Warburton. It was imagined he meant Bishop Sherlock. Sir Robert Walpole, who was Sherlock's contemporary at Eton, used to relate, that when some of the scholars, going to bathe in the Thames, stood shivering on the bank, Sherlock plunged in immediately over his head and ears.-Warton. 2 The Archbishop of Canterbury, whether Wake, who died in 1737, or Potter, who was Archbishop in 1743 (when this couplet first appeared), and who had published some ponderous editions of Greek authors. I think the meaning is that Walpole-the "one Layman"-succeeded in diving even deeper in flattery than Sherlock and the Archbishop.-Courthope. 3 Virg. Æn. vi. of the Sibyl: "Majorque videri, Nec mortale sonans."-P. 335 Nigrina black, and Merdamante brown, 2 A branch of Styx here rises from the Shades, That tinctured 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 offerings to his Arethuse) Pours into Thames and hence the mingled wave : Intoxicates the pert, and lulls the grave: Here brisker vapours o'er the Temple creep, 345 1 Who was ravished by the water-nymphs, and drawn into the river. The story is told at large by Valerius Flaccus, lib. iii. Argon Se , Ecl. vi. -P. 2 Οἵ τ ̓ ἀμφ' ἱμερτὸν Τιταρήσιον ἔργ ̓ ἐνέμοντο, Of the Land of Dreams, in the same region, he makes mention, Odyss. xxiv. See also Lucian's True History. Lethe and the Land of Dreams allegorically represent the Stupefaction and visionary Madness of Poets, equally dull and extravagant. Of Alpheus's waters gliding secretly under the sea of Pisa, to mix with those of Arethuse in Sicily, see Moschus, Idyll. viii., Virg. Ecl. x. "Sic tibi, cum fluctus subter labere Sicanos, Doris amara suam non intermisceat undam.' And again, Æn. iii. : Alpheum fama est huc Elidis amnem Occultas egisse vias subter mare; qui nunc Ore, Arethusa, tuo Siculis confunditur undis." There, all from Paul's to Aldgate drink and sleep. Thence to the banks where reverend Bards repose,1 They led him soft; each reverend Bard arose; And Milbourn chief,2 deputed by the rest,] Gave him the cassock, surcingle, and vest. 350 "Receive" (he said,) “these robes which once were mine, Dulness is sacred in a sound divine." He ceased, and spread the robe; the crowd confess The reverend Flamen in his lengthened dress. Around him wide a sable Army stand, 355 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 Man." Through Lad's famed gates, along the wellknown Fleet, "Tum canit errantem Permessi ad flumina Gallum, 2 Luke Milbourn, a Clergyman, the fairest of Critics; 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. Appendix.-P. See Essay on Criticism, v. 463. 3 See Dryden's "Hind and Panther:" "Those Swisses fight on any side for pay." Warton. King Lud repairing the City, called it after his Rolls the black troop, and overshades the street; 360 'Till showers of Sermons, Characters, Essays, In circling fleeces whiten all the ways: So clouds, replenished from some bog below, Mount in dark volumes, and descend in snow. Here stopped the Goddess: and in pomp proclaims 365 A gentler exercise to close the games. "Ye Critics! in whose heads, as equal scales, I weigh what author's heaviness prevails; Which most conduce to soothe the soul in 'slumbers, My H-ley's periods,' or my Blackmore's numbers; Attend the trial we propose to make: 370 If there be man, who o'er such works can wake, Sleep's all-subduing charms who dares defy, own name, Lud's Town; the strong gate which he built in the west part, he likewise, for his own honour, named Ludgate. In the year 1260, this gate was beautified with images of Lud and other Kings. Those images, in the reign of Edward VI., had their Heads smitten off, and were otherwise defaced by unadvised folks. Queen Mary did set new heads upon their old bodies again. The 28th, of Queen Elizabeth the same gate was clean taken down, and newly and beautifully builded, with images of Lud and others, as afore."-Stow's Survey of London.-P. Ludgate was pulled down in 1760. The early editions, except the first, read "Henley's periods." The blank was afterwards restored, so that the name "Hoadley" might be supplied, as was originally intended. See note on v. 400. 2 See Hom. Odyss. xii.; Ovid, Met. i.-P. To cavil, censure, dictate, right or wrong; 1 Three College Sophs, and three pert Templars came, The same their talents, and their tastes the same; 380 Each prompt to query, answer, The clamorous crowd is hushed with mugs of Mum,5 385 'Till all, tuned equal, send a general hum. Then mount the Clerks, and in one lazy tone Through the long, heavy, painful page drawl on ; & 6 1 At first "Three Cambridge Sophs;" and more properly as, I believe, the term is not used at Oxford. Wakefield. "Soph" is a contraction of "Sophister," the old form of "Sophist." Second and third year men at Cambridge are called Junior and Senior Sophs. 2 "Ambo florentes ætatibus, Arcades ambo, Et certare pares, et respondere parati.' Virg. Ecl. vi.-P. 3 Smit with the love of sacred song." Milton.-P. 4 "Consedere duces, et vulgi stante corona. Ovid, Met. xiii.-P. 5 Mum was a strong beer made at Brunswick, and so called from Christian Mumme, who first brewed it in 1492. "All these lines very well imitate the slow drowsiness with which they proceed. It is impossible to any one who has a poetical ear, to read them without perceiving the heaviness that lags in the verse, to imitate the action it describes. The simile of the Pines is very just, and well adapted to the subject;" |
