BOOK II. (a) HIGH on a gorgeous seat, that far out-shone' 1 Parody of Milton, Book ii. High on a throne of royal state, that far Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind, Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand Show'rs on her Kings Barbaric pearl and gold, Satan exalted sate.-POPE [1729]. 2 The pulpit of a Dissenter is usually called a tub; but that of Mr. Orator Henley was covered with velvet, and adorned with gold. He had also a fair altar, and over it is this extraordinary inscription, The Primitive Eucharist.-See the History of this person, Book iii. POPE [1729]. 3 Richard Fleckno was an Irish priest, but had laid aside (as himself expressed it) the mechanic part of priesthood. He printed some plays, poems, letters, and travels. I doubt not our author took occasion to mention him in respect to the poem of Mr. Dryden, to which this bears some resemblance, though of a character more different from it than that of the Eneid from the Iliad, or the Lutrin of Boileau from the Defait de Bouts rimées of Sarazin.POPE [1729]. It may be just worth mentioning, VOL. IV. POETRY. that the eminence from whence the ancient Sophists entertained their auditors, was called by the pompous name of a Throne ;—ἐπὶ θρόνον τινὸς ὑψηλοῦ μαλα σοφισικῶς καὶ σοβαρῶς. Themistius, Orat. i.-POPE and WARBURTON [1743]. 4 Edmund Curl stood in the pillory at Charing Cross, in March 1727-8.POPE [1729]. "This (saith Edmund Curl) is a false assertion-I had indeed the corporal punishment of what the Gentlemen of the long Robe are pleased jocosely to call mounting the rostrum for one hour: but that scene of action was not in the month of March, but in February." [Curliad, 12mo, p. 19.] And of the History of his being tost in a Blanket, he saith, "Here, Scriblerus! thou leeseth in what thou assertest concerning the blanket it was not a blanket, but a rug," p. 25. Much in the same manner Mr. Cibber remonstrated, that his brothers, at Bedlam, mentioned Book i., were not brazen, but blocks; yet our author let it pass unaltered, as a trifle that no way altered the relationship. We should think (gentle reader) that we but ill performed our part, if K Great Cibber sate: The proud Parnassian sneer, (c) On him, and crowds turn Coxcombs as they gaze : (d) New edge their dulness, and new bronze their face. 5 10 Heav'n's twinkling Sparks draw light, and point their horns. (e) Not with more glee, by hands pontific crown'd, With scarlet hats wide-waving circled round, Rome in her Capitol saw Querno sit,' (ƒ) Thron'd on seven hills, the Antichrist of wit. And now the Queen, to glad her sons, proclaims, we corrected not as well our own errors now, as formerly those of the printer. Since what moved us to this work, was solely the love of truth, not in the least any vainglory, or desire to contend with great authors. And further, our mistakes, we conceive, will the rather be pardoned, as scarce possible to be avoided in writing of such persons and works as do ever shun the light. However, that we may not any way soften or extenuate the same, we give them thee in the very words of our antagonists not defending, but retracting them from our heart, and craving excuse of the parties offended: for surely in this work, it hath been above all things our desire, to provoke no man. SCRIBLERUS.-POPE and WARBURTON [1743]. 1 Camillo Querno was of Apulia, who hearing the great encouragement 15 20 which Leo X. gave to poets, travelled to Rome with a harp in his hand, and sung to it twenty thousand verses of a poem called Alexias. He was introduced as a Buffoon to Leo, and promoted to the honour of the Laurel; a jest which the court of Rome and the Pope himself entered into so far, as to cause him to ride on an elephant to the Capitol, and to hold a solemn festival on his coronation; at which it is recorded the poet himself was so transported as to weep for joy.* He was ever after a constant frequenter of the Pope's table, drank abundantly, and poured forth verses without number.-PAULUS Jovius, Elog. Vir. doct. chap. lxxxii.-Some idea of his poetry is given by Fam. Strada, in his Prolusions.-POPE [1729]. • See Life of C. C., chap. vi., p. 149. From drawing-rooms, from colleges, from garrets, And all who knew those Dunces to reward. Amid that area wide they took their stand, Where the tall may-pole once o'er-look'd the Strand. (1) A Church collects the saints of Drury-lane. (m) (The field of glory is a field for all). A Poet's form she plac'd before their eyes,' 25 30 35 And bade the nimblest racer seize the prize; No meagre, muse-rid mope, adust and thin, And empty words she gave, and sounding strain, 40 45 Never was dash'd out, at one lucky hit,' A fool, so just a copy of a wit; So like, that critics said, and courtiers swore, 1 Our author here seems willing to give some account of the possibility of Dulness making a wit (which could be done no other way than by chance). The fiction is the more reconciled to probability, by the known story of Apelles, who being at a loss to express the foam of Alexander's horse, dashed his pencil in despair at the picture, and happened to do it by that fortunate stroke.-POPE [1729]. 2 Curl, in his Key to the Dunciad, affirmed this to be James-More Smith, Esq., and it is probable (considering what is said of him in the Testimonies) that some might fancy our author obliged to represent this gentleman as a plagiary, or to pass for one himself. His case indeed was like that of a man I have heard of, who, as he was sitting in company, perceived his next neighbour had stolen his handkerchief. "Sir, (said the thief, finding himself detected) do not expose me, I did it for mere want; be so good but to take it privately out of my pocket again, and say nothing." The honest man did so, but the other cry'd out, "See, gentlemen, what a thief we have among us! look, he is stealing my handkerchief!" Some time before, he had borrowed of Dr. Arbuthnot a paper called an Historico-physical account of the South Sea; and of Mr. Pope the Memoirs of a Parish Clark, which for two years he kept, and read to the Rev. Dr. Young,-F. Billers, Esq., and many others, as his own. Being applied to for them, he pretended they were lost; but there happening to be another copy of the latter, it 50 came out in Swift and Pope's Miscellanies. Upon this, it seems he was so far mistaken as to confess his proceeding by an endeavour to hide it : unguardedly printing (in the Daily Journal of April 3, 1728): "That the contempt which he and others had for those pieces (which only himself had shown, and handed about as his own) "occasion'd their being lost, and for that cause only not return'd.” A fact, of which as none but he could be conscious, none but he could be the publisher of it. The plagiarisms of this person gave occasion to the following epigram: More always smiles whenever he recites; He smiles (you think) approving what he writes. And yet in this no vanity is shown; own. This young gentleman's whole misfortune was too inordinate a passion to be thought a wit. Here is a very strong instance attested by Mr. Savage, son of the late Earl Rivers; who having shown some verses of his in manuscript to Mr. Moore, wherein Mr. Pope was called first of the tuneful train, Mr. Moore the next morning sent to Mr. Savage to desire him to give those verses another turn, to wit, "That Pope might now be the first, because Moore had left him unrival'd in turning his style to comedy." This was during the rehearsal of the Rival Modes, his first and only work; the town condemned it in the action, but he printed it in 1726-7, with this modest motto, Hic cæstus, artemque repono. |