When, lo! a burst of thunder shook the flood, Which most conduce to soothe the soul in slumbers, How young Lutetia, softer than the down, 330 340 Then sung, how, shown him by the nut-brown maids, 350 He ceased, and spread the robe; the crowd confess If there be man, who o'er such works can wake, The ponderous books two gentle readers bring! The clamorous crowd is hush'd with mugs of mum, Then down are roll'd the books; stretch'd o'er them Rolls the black troop, and overshades the street, 360 Each gentle clerk, and muttering seals his eyes. Till showers of sermons, characters, essays, 'Ye critics! in whose heads, as equal scales, I weigh what author's heaviness prevails; REMARKS. 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. As what a Dutchman plumps into the lakes, REMARKS. Ver. 397. Thrice Budgel aim'd to speak.] Famous for his speeches on many occasions about the South Sea schemes, &c. He is a very ingenious gentleman, and hath Ver. 349. And Milbourne.] Luke Milbourne, a clergy-written some excellent epilogues to plays, and one small man, 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. Ver. 355. Around him wide, &c.] It is to be hoped, that the satire in these lines will be understood in the confined sense in which the author meant it, of such only of the elergy, who, though solemnly engaged in the service of religion, dedicate themselves for venal and corrupt ends to that of ministers or factions; and though educated under an entire ignorance of the world, aspire to interfere in the government of it, and consequently, to disturb and disorder it; in which they fall short of their predecessors only by being invested with much less of that power and authority, which they employed indifferently (as is hinted at in the lines above) either in supporting arbitrary power, or in exciting rebellion; in canonizing the vices of tyrants, or in blackening the virtues of patriots; in corrupting religion by superstition, or betraying it by libertinism, as either was thought best to serve the ends of policy, or flatter the follies of the great. piece on Love, which is very pretty.-Jacob, Lives of Poets, vol. ii. p. 289. But this gentleman since made himself much more eminent, and personally well known to be the greatest statesman of all parties, as well as to all the courts of law in this nation. Ver. 399. Toland and Tindal,] Two persons not so happy as to be obscure, who writ against the religion of their country. Toland, the author of the atheist's liturgy, called Pantheisticon, was a spy, in pay to lord Oxford. Tin dal was author of the Rights of the Christian Church, and Christianity as old as the Creation. He also wrote an abusive pamphlet against earl S- which was suppressed while yet in MS. by an eminent person, then out of the ministry, to whom he showed it, expecting his approbation. This doctor afterwards published the same piece, mutatis mutandis, against that very person. Ver. 400. Christ's no kingdom.] This is said by Curll, Key to Dunc. to allude to a sermon of a reverend bishop. Ver. 411. Centlivre.] Mrs. Susanna Centlivre, wife to Mr. Centlivre, yeoman of the mouth to his majesty. She writ many plays, and a song, (says Mr. Jacob, vol. i. p. 32,) before she was seven years old. She also writ a ballad against Mr. Pope's Homer, before he began it. Boyer the state, and Law the stage gave o'er, Thus the soft gifts of sleep conclude the day, 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, And soft besprinkles with Cimmerian dew, The king descending, views the Elysian shade. 10 19 And never wash'd, but in Castalia's streams. 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 fancy, and led by a mad poetical Sibyl to the Elysian 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 Her tresses staring from poetic dreams, 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 na- Ver 5, 6, &c.] Hereby is intimated that the following tions again reduced to her dominion. Then distin- vision is no more than the chimera of the dreamer's brain, guishing the island of Great Britain, shows by what and not a real or intended satire on the present age, doubtless more learned, more enlightened, and more abounding aids, by what persons, and by what degrees it shall be with great geniuses in divinity, politics, and whatever arts brought to her empire. Some of the persons he causes and sciences, than all the preceding. For fear of any such to pass in review before his eyes, describing each by mistake of our poet's honest meaning, he hath again, at the his proper figure, character, and qualifications. On a end of the vision, repeated this monition, saying that it all sudden the scene shifts, and a vast number of mira-passed through the ivory gate, which (according to the ancles and prodigies appear, utterly surprising and uncients) denoteth falsity. REMARKS. REMARKS. 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. 15. A slip-shod Sibyl.] This allegory is extremely Ver. 413. Boyer the state, and Law the stage gave o'er,] just, no conformation of the mind so much subjecting it to 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 books were printed in 1726. 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. Wherelieve the truth of the Gospel; in which he has detailed 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 ology; and amongst other things as rare, has informed us of steel) for the necessary impressions of art. But the common this, that sir Isaac Newton stole the principles of his phi-people have been taught (I do not know on what foundalosophy from one Jacob Behmen, a German cobbler. Ver. 414. Morgan] A writer against religion, distin- and our modern Methodists do of holiness. But if the cause tion) to regard lunacy as a mark of wit, just as the Turks guished no otherwise from the rabble of his tribe, thau by of madness assigned by a great philosopher be true, it will the pompousness of his title; for having stolen his morality unavoidably fall upon the dunces. He supposes it to be the from 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. tention is occasioned either by grief or study, it will be fixed Ibid. Mandevil This writer who prided himself in the by dulness: which hath not quickness enough to comprereputation 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 rare example of modesty in a poet! Ver. 19. Taylor.] John Taylor, the water poet, an honest virtue the imposition of fools; and that vice is necessary, man, who owns he learned not so much as the accidence: a and alone sufficient to render society flourishing and happy Ver. 415. Norton,] Norton De Foe, offspring of the famous 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 many hired scurrilities and daily papers, to which he never get his name. Ver. 427. Fleet,] A prison for insolvent debtors on the bank of the ditch. 'I must confess I do want eloquence, I there was gravell'd, could no farther get." Benlowes, propitious still to blockheads, bows; Known by the band and suit which Settle wore Instant, when dipp'd, away they wing their flight, REMARKS. Ver. 21. Benlowes,] A country gentleman, famous for his own bad poetry, and for patronizing bad poets, as may Roll all their tides, then back their circles bring; be seen from many dedications of Quarles and others to Or whirligigs, twirl'd round by skilful swain, him. Some of these anagramed his name Benlows into Be-[ nevolus: to verify which, he spent his whole estate upon Suck the thread in, then yield it out again: them. All nonsense thus, of old or modern date, Shall, in thee centre, from thee circulate. For this, our queen unfolds to vision true 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, Thy mental eye, for thou hast much to view : celebrated by Virgil for the like causes as Bays by our au- Old scenes of glory, times long cast behind, thor, though not in so Christian-like a manner: for heathen ishly it is declared by Virgil of Bavins, 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 See, round the poles, where keener spangles shine, forth in the form of books, dressed in calf's leather, and 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! 60 70 Far eastward cast thine eye, from whence the sun REMARKS. 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 the 17th of February, 1727. Mr. Curil (having likewise stood there) looks upon the mention of such a gentleman in a satire, as a great act of barbarity, Key to Dunc. 3d edit. p. 16. And another author reasons thus upon it: Durgen. 8vo. p. 11, 12. How unworthy is it of Christian charity to ani mate the rabble to abuse a worthy man in such a situation! What could move the poet thus to mention a brave sufferer, 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 polilady,' &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. Welsted 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 nighty rival of Dryden; nay, for many years, bore his repuWard, 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 poproceeded 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 insooverlook it! Yet that scholiast takes not the least notice lent, the wits writ against his play, he replied, and the town 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.] Boeotia 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 certain; but he was (happily) a stranger to the pillory. This note is partly Mr. Theobald's, partly Scribl. 'Bootum 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; How little, mark! that portion of the ball, Behold yon isle, by palmers, pilgrims trod, 80 Men bearded, bald, cowl'd, uncowl'd, shod, unshod, How keen the war, if Dulness draw the sword! 120 100 Lo! Rome herself, proud mistress now no more REMARKS. 130 This favourite isle, long sever'd from her reign, 140 Mark first that youth who takes the foremost place, A second see, by meeker manners known, Ver. 81, 82. The caliph, Omar I. having conquered Jacob, the scourge of grammar, mark with awe; 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.)] Phoenicia, 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 sancVer. 128. What aids, what armies, to assert her cause!] tissimus ille Gregorius, qui melleo prædicationis imbre totami. e. Of poets, antiquaries, critics, divines, freethinkers. But Figavit et inebriavit ecclesiam; non modo mathesin jussit ab as this revolution is only here set on foot by the first of these aula, sed, ut traditur a majoribus, incendio dedit probate 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 divinæ 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. siderius, archbishop of Vienna, was sharply reproved by 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 the poets: because (says this pope) In uno se ore cum Jovis Romsey in Southamptonshire, and bred to the law under a laudibus 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 adniat, ipse considera.' He is said among the rest to have mirer of poets and their works, which has occasioned him burned Livy; 'Quia in superstitionibus et sacris Romano- to try his genius that way. He has writ in Prose the Lives rum perpetuo versatur.' The same pope is accused by Vos- of the poets, Essays, and a great many law books, The Ac sius, 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. 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 a regard for my judgdevotion. At length they spared some of the temples, by ment; otherwise he never would have subscribed two guiconverting 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 turned to that of Holofernes. Jacob, the scourge of grammar, mark with awe; This honour. Lo, P-p-le's brow, tremendous to the town, Each cygnet sweet, of Bath and Tunbridge race, Silence, ye wolves! while Ralph to Cynthia howls, REMARKS. this he (civilly) became a member of both, and after having 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 Ver. 173. Ah, Dennis! Gildon, ah!] These men became charity. 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 think prophetically, since, after the publishing of this piece, the former dying, the latter succeeded him in honour and 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 Fleet street, and writ some of the papers called Pasquin, where, 'You ask why Roome diverts you with his jokes? 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. would needs turn critics of their own country writers (just 'How parts relate to parts, and they to whole; Scribl Here Scriblerus, in this affair of the Fire-side, I want thy usual candour. It is true, Mr. Upton did write notes upon it, but with all the honour and good faith in the world. He took it to be a panegyric on his patron. 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 seen 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 poet 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 Kwearing 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 particuJar 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. slightly touched, in this poem. But in truth he looked upon him with some esteem, for having (more generously than all 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 author of a weekly paper called The Grumbler, as the other 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 has 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 (since 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 million 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 strangle should have the honour of his education. To compound one Hercules in his cradle? |