Say, how the Goddess bade Britannia fleep, REMARK S. VER 1. The mighty Mother, and her Son, &c.] The Reader ought here to be cautioned, that the Mother, and not the Son, is the principal Agent of this Poem: The latter of them is only chofen as her Collegue (as was anciently the custom in Rome before fome great Expedition) the main action of the Poem being by no means the Coronation of the Laureate, which is performed in the very first book, but the Restoration of the Empire of Dulnefs in Britain, which is not accomplished till the laft. Ibid.-her Son who brings, &c.] Wonderful is the Stupidity of all the former Critics and Commentators on this work! It breaks forth at the very first line. The author of the Critique prefixed to Sawney, a Poem, p. 5. hath been fo dull as to explain the Man who brings, &c. not of the hero of the piece, but of our Poet himself, as if he vaunted that Kings were to be his readers; an honour, which though this Poem hath had, yet knoweth he how to receive it with more modefty. We remit this Ignorant to the first lines of the Æneid, affuring him that Virgil there speaketh not of himself, but of Eneas: Arma virumque cano, Trojæ qui primus ab oris Italiam, fato profugus, Lavinaque venit Littora: multum ille et terris jactatus et alto, &c. I cite the whole three verfes, that I may by the way offer a Conjectural Emendation, purely my own, upon each: First, oris fhould be read aris, it being, as we fee En. ii. 513. from the altar of Jupiter Hercaus that Eneas fled as foon as he faw Priam flain. In the fecond line I would read flatu for fato, fince it is moft clear it was by Winds that he arrived at the fore of Italy. Jactatus, in the third, is furely as improperly applied to terris, as proper to alto; to fay a man is toft on land, is much at one with faying he walks at Jea: Rifum teneatis, amici? Correct it, as I doubt not it ought to be vexatus. SCRIBL. VER. 2. The Smithfield Mufes] Smithfield is the place where Bartholomew Fair was kept, whofe fhews, machines, and dramatical entertainments, formerly agreeable only to the taste of the Rabble, were, by the Hero of this poem, and others of equal genius, brought to the Theatres of Covent-garden,. Lincolns-inn-fields, and the Hay-market, to be the reigning plea In eldest time, e'er mortals writ or read, REMARK S. 10 15 fures of the Court and Town. This happened in the Reigns of K. George I, and II. See Book iii. VER. 4. By Dulness, Jove, and fate :] i. e. by their Judgments, their Interefts, and their Inclinations. VER. 7. Sy how the Goddess, &c.] The Poet ventureth_to fing the Ation of the Goddefs: but the Paffion the impreffeth on her illuftrious Votaries, he thinketh can be only told by themselves. SCRIBL. VER. 12. Daughter of Chaos, &c.] The beauty of this whole Allegory being purely of the poetical kind, we think it not our proper bufinefs, as a Scholiaft, to meddle with it: But leave it (as we fhall in general all fuch) to the reader; remarking only that Chaos (according to Hefiod's toyovia) was the progenitor of all the Gods. SCRIBL. VER. 15. Laborious, heavy, busy, bold, &c.] I wonder the learned Scriblerus has omitted to advertife the Reader, at the opening of this Poem, that Dulness here is not to be taken contractedly for mere.Stupidity, but in the enlarged fenfe of the word, for all Slowness of Apprehenfion, Shortnefs of Sight, or imperfect Senfe of things. It includes (as we fee by the Poet's own words) Labour, Industry, and fome degrees of Activity and Boldnefs: a ruling principle not inert, but turning topfy turvy the Understanding, and inducing an Anarchy or confufed State of Mind. This remark ought to be carried along with the Reader throughout the work; and without this caution he will be apt to miftake the importance of many of the Characters, as well as of the Defign of the Poet. Hence it is, that some have complained he chufes too mean a subject, and imagined he employs himself, like Domitian, in killing flies; whereas those who have the true key VOL. III. M Still her old Empire to restore fhe tries, For, born a Goddess, Dulness never dies. O Thou! whatever title please thine ear, . After VER. 22. in the MS. Or in the graver Gown instruct mankind, 20 But this was to be understood, as the Poet fays, ironicè, like the 23d Verfe. REMARK S. will find he sports with nobler quarry, and embraces a larger compass; or, (as one faith, on a like occafion) BENTL. Will fee his Work, like Jacob's ladder, rife. Its foot in dirt, its head amid the skies. VER. 16. She rul'd, in native Anarchy, the mind.] The native Anarchy of the mind is that state which precedes the time of Reafon's affuming the rule of the Paffions. But in that state, the uncontrolled violence of the Paffions would foon bring things to confufion, were it not for the intervention of DULNESS in this abfence of Reafon; who though fhe cannot regulate them like Reafon, yet blunts and deadens their Vigour, and, indeed, produ ces fome of the good effects of it: Hence it is that Dulness has often the appearance of Reafon. This is the only good she ever did; and the candid Poet is careful to tell it in the very introduction of his Poem. It is to be obferved indeed, that this is *fpoken of the univerfal rule of Dulnels in ancient days, but we may form an idea of it from her partial Government in lat*ter times. VRR. 17. Still her old Empire to restore] This Restoration makes the Completion of the Poem. Vide Book iv. VER. 23. Or praise the Court, or magnify Mankind,] Ironicè, alluding to Gulliver's reprefentations of both.-The next line relates to the papers of the Drapier against the currency of Wood's Copper coin in Ireland, which, upon the great difcontent of the people, his Majefty was graciously pleafed to recal. From thy Bootia tho' her Pow'r retires, 25 Mourn not, my SWIFT, at ought our Realm acquires. Here pleas'd behold her mighty wings out-fpread To hatch a new Saturnian age of Lead. Clofe to those walls where Folly holds her throne, And laughs to think Monroe would take her down, VER. 29. Close to thofe walls, &c.] In the former Edit. thus, Where wave the tatter'd enfigns of Rag-fair, A yawning ruin hangs and nods in air ; Keen hollow winds howl thro' the bleak recefs, Here in one bed two fhiv'ring Sifters lie, The Cave of Poverty and Poetry. Var. Where wave the tattering enfigns of Rag-fair,] Rag-fair is a place near the Tower of London, where old cloaths and frippery are fold. Var. A yawning ruin hangs and nods in air ;- Hear upon this place the fore-cited Critic on the Dunciad. "Thefe lines (faith he) have no conftruction, or are nonsense. "The two fhiv'ring Sifters must be the fifter caves of Poverty "and Poetry, or the bed and cave of Poverty and Poetry muft› "be the fame [questionless, if they lie in one bed] and the two Si❝fters the Lord knows who." O the construction of gramma-. tical heads! Virgil writeth thus: En. I. Fronte fub adverfa fcopulis pendentibus antrum : May we not fay in like manner : "The Nymphs must be the "waters and the ftones, or the waters and the ftones must be "the houfes of the Nymphs?" Infulfe! The fecond line, Intus aque, &c. is a parenthesis (as are two lines of our Author. Keen hollow Winds, &c.) and it is the Antrum, and the yawning Ruin, in the line before that parentheses, which are the Domus and the Cave. Let me again, I beseech thee, Reader, prefent thee with another Conjectural Emendation on Virgil's fcopulis pendentibus: He is here defcribing a place, whither the weary Mariners of Æneas repaired to dress their dinner. -Feffi- frugesque receptas & tor Where o'er the gates, by his fam'd father's hand, 31 rere parant flammis: What has fcopulis pendentibus here to do Indeed the aqua dulces and fedilia are fomething; fweet waters to drink, and feats to reft on: the other is furely an error of the Copyifts Reftore it, without the leaft fcruple, Populis prandentibus. But for this and a thousand more, expect our Virgil Restored. SCRIBL. REMARK S. VER. 26, Mourn not, my Swift! at ought our realm acquires.} Ironicè iterum. The Politics of England and Ireland were at this time by fome thought to be oppofite, or interfering with each other: Dr Swift, of course, was in the interest of the latter, our Author of the former. VER. 28. To hatch a new Saturnian age of Lead.] The ancient Golden Age is by Poets ftyled Saturnian, as being under the reign of Saturn: but in the Chemical language Saturn is Lead. She is faid here only to be spreading her wings to hatch this age; which is not produced completely till the fourth book. VER. 31. By his fam'd father's band,] Mr Caius-Gabriel Cibber, father of the Poet-Laureate. The two Statues of the Lunatics over the gates of Bedlam hofpital were done by him, and (as the fon justly fays of them) are no ill monuments of his fame as an Artift. VER. 33. One Cell there is,] The cell of poor Poetry is here very properly reprefented as a little unindowed Hall in the neighbourhood of the Magnific College of Bedlam; and as the fureft Seminary to fupply thofe learned walls with Profeffors. For there cannot be a plainer Symptom of Madness than for Men to chufe Poverty and Contempt; to starve themselves and offeud the public by feribling, Escape in Monsters, and amaze the Town, when they might have benefited themselves and others in profitable and honeft employments. The Qualities and Productions of the Students of this private Academy are afterwards defcribed in this first book; as are alfo their Ations throughout the |