240

'Twas chattering, grinning, mouthing, jabbering all,
And Noife and Norton, Brangling and Breval,
Dennis and Diffonance, and captious Art,
And Snip-fnap fhort, and Interruption smart,
And Demonftration thin, and Thefes thick,
And Major, Minor, and Conclufion quick.
Hold (cry'd the Queen): A Cat-call each fhall win;
Equal your merits! equal is your din!

But that this well-difputed game may end,

245

250

Sound forth, my Brayers, and the welkin rend.
As when the long-car'd milky mothers wait
At fome fick mifer's triple-bolted gate,
For their defrauded, absent foals they make
A moan fo loud, that all the Guild awake;
Sore fighs Sir Gilbert, ftarting at the bray,
From dreams of millions, and three groats to pay:
So fwells each wind-pipe: Afs intones to Afs,
Harmonic twang! of leather, horn, and brass;
Such as from labouring lungs th' Enthufiaft blows, 255
High founds, attemper'd to the vocal nofe;
Or fuch as bellow from the deep Divine;

There, Webfter! peal'd thy voice, and Whitefield! thine.

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 241, 242. added fince the first Edition.
Ver. 257, 258. This couplet is an addition.

REMARKS.

Ver. 238. Norton,] See ver. 417.-J. Durant Breval, Author of a very extraordinary Book of Travels, and fome Poems. See before, Note on ver. 126.

Ver. 258. Webfter-and Whitefield] [The one the writer of a News-paper called the Vtekly Mifcellany,

But far o'er all fonorous Blackmore's ftrain;

Walls, fteeples, fkies, bray back to him again. 260
In Tottenham fields, the Brethren, with amaze,
Prick all their ears up, and forget to graze!
Long Chancery-lane retentive rolls the found,
And courts to courts return it round and round;
Thames wafts it thence to Rufus' roaring hall, 265
And Hungerford re-echoes bawl for bawl.
All hail him victor in both gifts of fong,
Who fings fo loudly, and who fings fo long.

:

REMARKS.

the other a Field-preacher. This thought the only means of advancing Religion was by the New-birth of fpiritual madness: That by the old death of fire and faggot and therefore they agreed in this, though in no other earthly thing, to abufe all the fober Clergy. From the fmall fuccefs of these two extraordinary perfons, we may learn how little hurtful Bigotry and Enthufiafm are, while the Civil Magiftrate prudently forbears to lend his power to the one, in order to the employing it against the other.]

Ver. 263. Long Chancery-lane] The place where the offices of Chancery are kept. The long detention of Clients in that Court, and the difficulty of getting out, is humouroufly allegorized in thefe lines.

Ver. 268. Who fings fo loudly, and who fings fo long.] A juft character of Sir Richard Blackmore, knight, who (as Mr. Dryden expreffeth it)

"Writ to the rumbling of his coach's wheels;" and whofe indefatigable Mufe produced no less than fix Epic poems: Prince and King Arthur, twenty books; Eliza, ten; Alfred, twelve; the Redeemer, fix; befides Job, in folio; the whole Book of Pfalms; the Creation, feven books; Nature of Man, three books; and many more. It is in this fenfe he is ftyled afterwards the everlafting Blackmore. Notwithstanding all which,

This labour paft, by Bridewell all defcend, (As morning-prayers and flagellation end)

270

REMARKS.

Mr. Gildon feems affured, that this admirable author "did not think himself upon the fame foot with Homer." Comp. Art of Poetry, vol. i. p. 108.

But how different is the judgment of the author of Characters of the Times? p. 25. who fays, "Sir Ri"chard Blackmore is unfortunate in happening to mif. "take his proper talents; and that he has not for many years been fo much as named, or even thought of among writers." Even Mr. Dennis differs greatly from his friend Mr. Gildon: "Blackmore's Action (faith he) has neither unity, nor integrity, nor morality, nor univerfality; and confequently he can have "no Fable, and no Heroic Poem: His Narration is "neither probable, delightful, nor wonderful; his cha"racters have none of the neceffary qualifications; the "things contained in his narration are neither in their "own nature delightful, nor numerous enough, nor

46

rightly difpofed, nor furprifing, nor pathetic."-Nay he proceeds fo far as to fay Sir Richard has no Genius; first laying down, that "Genius is caufed by a furious joy and pride of foul, on the conception of an extra"ordinary Hint. Many men (fays he) have their Hints, "without thofe motions of fury and pride of foul, because they want fire enough to agitate their spirits; "and thefe we call cold writers. Others who have a

great deal of fire, but have not excellent organs, feel "the fore-mentioned motions, without the extraordi66 nary hints; and thefe we call fuftian writers. But "he declares that Sir Richard had neither the Hints nor "the Motions." Remarks on Pr. Arth. octavo, 1696. Preface.

This gentleman in his firft works abused the character of Mr. Dryden; and in his laft, of Mr. Pope, accuting him in very high and fober terms of profanenefs and immorality (Effay on Polite Writing, vol. ii. p. 270.) on a mere report from Edm. Curll, that he was author

To where Fleet-ditch with disemboguing streams
Rolls the large tribute of dead dogs to Thames,

REMARKS.

of a Travestie on the first Pfalm. Mr. Dennis took up the fame report, but with the addition of what Sir Richard had neglected, an Argument to prove it; which being very curious, we fhall here transcribe.

"he who burlefqued the Pfalms of David.

66

"It was

It is ap

parent to me that Pfalm was burlefqued by a Popish "rhymefter. Let rhyming perfons who have been "brought up Proteftants be otherwife what they will, "let them be rakes, let them be fcoundrels, let them "be Atheists, yet education has made an invincible im"preffion on them in behalf of the facred writings. "But a Popish rhymefter has been brought up with a contempt for thofe facred writings; now fhew me "another Popish rhymefter but he." This manner of argumentation is ufual with Mr. Dennis; he has employed the fame against Sir Richard himself, in a like charge of Impiety and Irreligion." All Mr. Blackmore's "celeftial Machines, as they cannot be defended fo "much as by common received opinion, fo are they di"rectly contrary to the doctrine of the church of Eng"land; for the vifible defcent of an Angel must be a "miracle. Now it is the doctrine of the Church of

England that miracles had ceased a long time before "Prince Arthur came into the world. Now if the doc"trine of the Church of England be true, as we are "obliged to believe, then are all the celestial machines "in Prince Arthur unfufferable, as wanting not only "human, but divine probability. But if the machines are fufferable, that is, if they have fo much as divine probability, then it follows of neceffity that the doc"trine of the Church is falfe. So I leave it to every "impartial Clergyman to confider," &c. Preface to the Remarks on Prince Arthur.

Ver. 270. (As morning prayer and flagellation end)] It is between eleven and twelve in the morning, after church fervice, that the criminals are whipt in Bride

1

The King of dykes! than whom no fluice of mud With deeper fable blots the filver flood.

"Here ftrip, my children! here at once leap in, 275 "Here prove who beft can dash through thick and 66 thin,

"And who the most in love of dirt excel, " Or dark dexterity of groping well.

"Who flings moft filth, and wide pollutes around "The stream, be his the Weekly Journals bound; 280 "A pig of lead to him who dives the best; "A peck of coals apiece fhall glad the rest." In naked majefty Oldmixon ftands,

And, Milo-like, furveys his arms and hands;

VARIATION.

Ver. 283. In former Ed..

-great Dennis ftands.

REMARKS.

well. This is to mark punctually the time of the day: Homer does it by the circumftance of the Judges rifing from court, or of the Labourers dinner: our author by one very proper both to the Perfons and the Scene of his poem, which we may remember commenced in the evening of the Lord mayor's day: The firft book paffed in that night; the next morning the games begin in the Strand, thence along Fleet-ftreet (places inhabited by Bookfellers) then they proceed by Bridewell toward Fleet-ditch, and laftly through Ludgate to the City and the Temple of the Goddefs.

Ver. 280. the Weekly Journals] Papers of news and fcandal intermixed, on different fides and parties, and frequently shifting from one fide to the other, called the London Journal, British Journal, Daily Journal, &c. the concealed writers of which for fome time were Oldmixon, Roome, Arnall, Concanen, and others; perfons never feen by our author.