Soft creeping, words on words, the fenfe compofe, Their heads, and lift them as they ceafe to blow; 395 400 Then down are roll'd the books; ftretch'd o'er 'em lięs Each gentle clerk, and mutt'ring feals his eyes. VARIATION S. VER. 399. in the first Edit. it was, Collins and Tindal, prompt at Priests to jeɛr. REMARKS. VER. 397. Thrice Budgel aim'd to fpeak,] Famous for his fpeeches on many occafions about the South Sea fcheme, etc. "He is a very ingenious gentleman, and hath written fome excellent "Epilogues to plays, and one fmall piece on Love, which is very "pretty." Jacob, Lives of Poets, vol. ii. p. 289. But this gentleman fince made himself much more eminent, and perfonally well known to the greatest Statesmen of all parties, as well as to all the Courts of Law in this nation. VER. 399. Toland and Tindal,] Two perfons not so happy as to be obfcure, who writ against the Religion of their Country. Toland, the Author of the Atheist's liturgy, called Pantheifficon, was a fpy, in pay to Lord Oxford. Tindal was author of the Rights of the Chriftian Church, and Chriftianity as old as the Creation. He alfo wrote an abufive pamphlet against Earl S, which was fuppreffed, while yet in MS. by an eminent perfon, then out of the miniftry, to whom he fhewed it, expecting his approbation: This Doctor afterwards published the fame piece, mutatis mutandis, against that very perfon. VER. 400. Chrift's No kingdom, etc.] This is faid by Curl, Key to Dunc. to allude to a fermon of a reverend Bishop. As what a Dutchman plumps into the lakes, 405 Round and more round, o'er all the fea of heads. 410 Boyer the State, and Law the Stage gave o'er, VARIATIONS. VER. 413. in the first Edit. it was, T-s and T-the Church and State gave o'er, REMARK S. VER. 405. As what a Dutchman, ete.] It is a common and foolish mistake, that a ludicrous parody of a grave and celebrated paffage is a ridicule of that paffage. The reader, therefore, if he will, may call this a parody of the author's own fublime Similitude in the Effay on Man, Ep. iv. As the fmall pebble, etc. but will any body therefore fufpect the one to be a ridicule of the other? A ridicule indeed there is in every parody; but when the image is transferred from one fubject to another, and the subject is not a poem burlesqued (which Scriblerus hopes the reader will diftinguish from a burlesque poem), there the ridicule falls not on the thing imitated, but imitating. Thus, for instance, when Old Edward's armour beams on Cibber's breast, it is, without doubt, an object ridiculous enough. But I think it falls neither on old king Edward, nor his armour, but on his armourbearer only. Let this be faid to explain our Author's parodies, (a figure that has always a good effect in a mock epic poem) either from profane or facred writers. VER. 411. Centlivre] Mrs. Sufanna Centlivre, wife to Mr. Centlivre, Yeoman of the Mouth to his Majefty. She writ many Plays, and a Song (fays Mr. Jacob, vol. i. p. 32.), before she was feven years old. She alfo writ a Ballad against Mr. Pope's Homer, before he began it. IMITATIONS. VER. 410. O'er all the fea of beads.] "A waving fea of heads was round me spread, Blackm. Job. Norton, from Daniel and Ostrœa sprung, 415 Blefs'd with his father's front, and mother's tongue, REMARKS. VER. 413. Boyer the State, and Law the Stage gave o'er,] A. Boyer, a voluminous compiler of Annals, Political Collections, etc. -William Law, A. M. wrote with great zeal against the Stage; Mr. Dennis answered with as great: Their books were printed in 1726. Mr. Law affirmed, that "The Playhouse is the temple of "the Devil; the peculiar pleasure of the Devil; where all they "who go, yield to the Devil; where all the laughter is a laughter "among Devils; and all who are there are hearing Mufic in the "very porch of Hell." To which Mr. Dennis replied, that " There "is every jot as much difference between a true Play, and one "made by a Poetafter, as between two religious books, the Bible and "the Alcoran." Then he demonftrates, that "All those who had "written against the Stage were Jacobites and Nonjurors; and did "it always at a time when fomething was to be done for the Pretender. Mr. Collier published his Short View when France de"clared for the Chevalier; and his Diffuafive, juft at the great "form, when the devastation which that hurricane wrought, had "amazed and aftonished the minds of men, and made them ob"noxious to melancholy and defponding thoughts. Mr. Law took "the opportunity to attack the Stage upon the great preparations he "heard were making abroad, and which the Jacobites flattered "themselves were defigned in their favour. And as for Mr. Bed"ford's Serious Remonftrance, tho' I know nothing of the time of "publishing it, yet I dare to lay odds it was either upon the Duke "d'Aumont's being at Somerset-house, or upon the late rebellion." DENNIS, Stage defended against Mr. Law, p. ult. The fame Mr. Law is Author of a book, intitled, An Appeal to all that doubt of or difbelieve the truth of the Gospel; in which he has detailed a System of the rankeft Spinozifm, for the most exalted Theology; and amongst other things as rare, has informed us of this, that Sir Ifaac⚫ Newton stole the principles of his philofophy from one Jacob Bebmen, a German Cobler. VER. 414. Morgan] A writer against Religion, distinguished no otherwife from the rabble of his tribe, than by the pompoufness of his Title; for having ftolen his Morality from Tindal, and his Philofophy from Spinofa, he calls himself, by the courtesy of England, a Moral Philofopher. Ibid. Mandevil This writer, who prided himself as much in the reputation of an Immoral Philofopher, was author of a famous book called the Fable of the Bees; written to prove, that Moral Virtue is the Invention of knaves, and Christian Virtue the Impofition of fools; and that Vice is neceffary, and alone fufficient to render Society flourishing and happy. Hung filent down his never-blufhing head; REMARKS. 420 425 VER. 415. Norton] Norton De Foe, offspring of the famous Daniel. Fortes creantur fortibus. One of the authors of the Flying Poft, in which well-bred work Mr. P. had fometime the honour to be abused with his betters; and of many hired fcurrilities and daily papers, to which he never fet his name. VER. 426. And to mere mortals seem'd a Priest in drink:] This line prefents us with an excellent moral, that we are never to pafs judgment merely by appearances; a leffon to all men, who may happen to fee a reverend Perfon in the like fituation, not to determine too rafhly: fince not only the Poets frequently defcribe a Bard infpired in this posture, (On Cam's fair bank, where Chaucer lay infpir'd, and the like) but an eminent Cafuift tells us, that "if a Prieft be "feen in any indecent action, we ought to account it a deception of "fight, or illufion of the Devil, who fometimes takes upon him the fhape of holy men on purpofe to caufe fcandal." VER. 427. Fleet] A prifon for infolvent Debtors on the bank of the Ditch. IMITATION S. VER. 418. And all was hush'd, as Folly's felf lay dead.] Alludes to Dryden's verfe in the Indian Emperor : All things are hush'd as Nature's felf lay dead." THE END OF THE SECOND BOOK. THE DUNCIA D. BOOK THE THIRD. ARGUMENT. After the other perfons are difpofed in their proper places of reft, the Goddess transports the King to her Temple, and there lays him to flumber with his head on her lap ; a pofition of marvellous virtue, which causeth all the Vifions of wild enthusiasts, projectors, politicians, inamoratos, caftle-builders, chemifts, and poets. He is immediately carried on the wings of Fancy, and led by a mad Poetical Sibýl, to the Elysian shade; where, on the banks of Lethe, the fouls of the dull are dipped by Bavius, before their entrance into this world. There be 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 deftined to perform. He takes him to a Mount of Vifion, from whence he shews him the paft triumphs of the Empire of Dulness, then the prefent, and lastly the future: how small a part of the world was ever conquered by Science, how foon those conquefts were ftopped, and thofe very nations again reduced to her dominion. Then diftinguishing the Island |