Curl stretches after Gay, but Gay is gone: He grasps an empty Joseph for a John;' (ƒƒ) To him the Goddess: "Son! thy grief lay down, by the poet as phantoms. So at first sight it may seem; but be not deceived, reader; these also are not real persons. 'Tis true, Curl declares Breval, a captain, author of a piece called The Confederates; but the same Curl first said it was written by Joseph Gay is his second assertion to be credited any more than his first? He likewise affirms Bond to be one who writ a satire on our poet: but where is such a satire to be found; where was such a writer ever heard of? As for Besaleel, it carries forgery in the very name; nor is it, as the others are, a surname. Thou may'st depend upon it, no such authors ever lived; all phantoms.-SCRIBLERUS [POPE, 1729]. See Editor's note. 1 Joseph Gay, a fictitious name put by Curl before several pamphlets, which made them pass with many for Mr. Gay's.-POPE [1729]. See Editor's note. 2 It was a common practice of this bookseller to publish vile pieces of obscure hands under the names of eminent authors.-POPE [1729]. *The man here specified writ a 130 135 140 thing called The Battle of Poets, in which Philips and Welsted were the Heroes, and Swift and Pope utterly routed. He also published some malevolent things in the British, London, and Daily Journals; and at the same time wrote letters to Mr. Pope, protesting his innocence. His chief work was a translation of Hesiod, to which Theobald writ notes and half-notes, which he carefully owned. In the first edition of this poem there were only asterisks in this place, but the names were since inserted, merely to fill up the verse, and give ease to the ear of the reader.-POPE [1729]. With that she gave him (piteous of his case, Yet smiling at his rueful length of face) ' ject, yet he has found means to insert their panegyric, and has made even Dulness out of her own mouth pronounce it. It must have been particularly agreeable to him to celebrate Dr. Garth; both as his constant friend, and as he was his predecessor in this kind of satire. The Dispensary attacked the whole body of Apothecaries, a much more useful one undoubtedly than that of the bad poets; if in truth this can be a body, of which no two members ever agreed. It also did what Mr. Theobald says is unpardonable, drew in parts of private character, and introduced persons independent of his subject. Much more would Boileau have incurred his censure, who left all subjects whatever, on all occasions, to fall upon the bad poets (which, it is to be feared, would have been more immediately his concern).-POPE [1729]. But certainly next to commending good writers, the greatest service to learning is to expose the bad, who can only that way be made of any use to it. This truth is very well set forth in these lines addressed to our author: The craven Rook, and pert Jackdaw, Risit pater optimus illi.- "The decrepid person or figure of a man are no reflections upon his genius: An honest mind will love and esteem a man of worth, tho' he be deformed or poor. Yet the author of the Dunciad hath libelled a person for his rueful length of face!"-Mist's Journal, June 8. This genius and man of worth, whom an honest mind should love, is Mr. Curl. True it is, he stood in the Pillory, an incident which will lengthen the face of any man though it were ever so comely, therefore is no reflection on the natural beauty of Mr. Curl. But as to reflections on any man's face, or figure, Mr. Dennis saith excellently: "Natural deformity comes not by our fault; 'tis often occasioned by calamities and diseases, which a man can no more help than a monster can his deformity. There is no one misfortune, and no one disease, but what all the rest of mankind are subject to. But the deformity of this author is visible, present, lasting, unalterable, and peculiar to himself. "Tis the mark of God and Nature upon him, to give us warning that we should hold no society with him, as a creature not of our original, nor of our species and they who have refused to take this warning which God and Nature have given them, and have, in spite of it, by a senseless presumption ventured to be familiar with him, have severely suffered, &c. "Tis certain his original is not from Adam, but from the Devil," &c.DENNIS, Character of Mr. P., octavo, 1716.-POPE [1729]. Admirably it is observed by Mr. Dennis against Mr. Law, p. 33: "That the language of Billingsgate can never be the language of charity, nor consequently of Christianity." I should else be tempted to use the language of a critic; for what is more provoking to a commentator, than to behold his author thus portrayed? Yet I consider it really hurts not A shaggy Tap'stry,' worthy to be spread him; whereas to call some others dull, might do them prejudice with a world too apt to believe it: therefore, though Mr. D. may call another a little ass or a young toad, far be it from us to call him a toothless lion or an old serpent. Indeed, had I written these notes (as was once my intent) in the learned language, I might have given him the appellations of balatro, calceatum caput, scurra in triviis, being phrases in good esteem and frequent usage among the best learned: but in our mother tongue, were I to tax any gentleman of the Dunciad, surely it should be in words not to the vulgar intelligible; whereby Christian charity, decency, and good accord among authors, might be preserved. SCRIBLERUS POPE, 1729]. The good Scriblerus here, as on all occasions, eminently shows his humanity. But it was far otherwise with the gentlemen of the Dunciad, whose scurrilities were always personal, and of that nature which provoked every honest man but Mr. Pope; yet never to be lamented, since they occasioned the following amiable verses: While Malice, Pope, denies thy page While wayward pens thy worth assail, But when the World's loud praise is thine, When none shall rail, and ev'ry lay Devote a wreath to thee; That day (for come it will) that day -POPE and WARBURTON [1743]. 145 1 A sorry kind of tapestry frequent in old inns, made of worsted or some coarser stuff; like that which is spoken of by Donne-Faces as frightful as theirs who whip Christ in old hangings. The imagery woven in it alludes to the mantle of Cloanthus, in Æn. v.-POPE [1729]. 2 Of Codrus the poet's bed, see Juvenal, describing his poverty very copiously, Sat. iii. v. 103, &c. Lectus erat Codro, &c. Codrus had but one bed, so short to boot, That his short Wife's short legs hung dangling out. His cupboard's head six earthen pitchers grac'd, Beneath them was his trusty tankard plac'd; And to support this noble plate, there lay A bending Chiron, cast from honest clay. His few Greek books a rotten chest contain'd, Whose covers much of mouldiness complain'd, Where mice and rats devour'd poetic bread, And on heroic verse luxuriously were fed. But Mr. Concanen, in his dedication of the letters, advertisements, &c., to the author of the Dunciad, assures us, "that Juvenal never satirised the poverty of Codrus." John Dunton was a broken bookseller, and abusive scribler; he writ Neck or Nothing, a violent satire on some ministers of State; a libel on the Duke of Devonshire and the Bishop of Peterborough, &c.- POPE [1729]. See Editor's note. Earless on high, stood unabash'd De Foe, 2 And Tutchin flagrant from the scourge below.' (kk) As, from the blanket, high in air he flies; (mm) 150 And "Oh!" (he cry'd) "what street, what lane but knows In ev'ry loom our labours shall be seen, 1 John Tutchin, author of some vile verses, and of a weekly paper called the Observator: He was sentenced to be whipped through several towns in the west of England, upon which he petitioned King James II. to be hanged. When that prince died in exile, he wrote an invective against his memory, occasioned by some humane elegies on his death. He lived to the time of Queen Anne. -POPE [1729]. And run for ever purple in the looms. See Editor's note. 155 5 In this game is exposed, in the most contemptuous manner, the profligate licentiousness of those shameless scriblers (for the most part of that sex, which ought least to be capable of such malice or impudence) who in libellous Memoirs and Novels, reveal the faults or misfortunes of both sexes, to the ruin of public fame, or disturbance of private happiness. Our good poet (by the whole cast of his work being obliged not to take off the irony) where he could not shew his indignation, hath shewn his contempt, as much as possible; having here drawn as vile a picture as could be represented in the colours of Epic poesy.-SCRIBLERUS [POPE, 1729]. Eliza Haywood; this woman was authoress of those most scandalous books called the Court of Carimania, and the new Utopia. For the two babes of love, see CURL, Key, p. 22. But whatever reflection he is pleased to throw upon this lady, surely it was what from him she little deserved, who had celebrated Curl's undertakings for Reformation of manners, and declared herself "to be so perfectly acquainted with the sweetness of his disposition, and that tenderness with which he considered the errors of his fellow creatures; that, though Two babes of love close clinging to her waist; ' (pp) In flow'rs and pearls by bounteous Kirkall dress'd." "With cow-like udders, and with ox-like eyes.' 5 Osborne (q q) and Curl accept the glorious strife, (Tho' this his Son dissuades, and that his Wife). she should find the little inadvertencies of her own life recorded in his papers, she was certain it would be done in such a manner as she could not but approve."-Mrs. Haywood, Hist. of Clar. printed in the Female Dunciad, p. 18.-POPE [1729]. See Editor's note. 1 Cressa genus, Pholoë, geminique sub ubere nati.-Virg. Æn. v. -POPE [1729]. See Editor's note. 2 Kirkall, the name of an engraver. Some of this lady's works were printed in four volumes in 12mo, with her picture thus dressed up before them. -POPE [1729]. 3 In allusion to Homer's Bownis πότνια "Ηρη. -POPE [1729]. Tertius Argolica hac galea contentus abito.-Virg. Æn. v. -POPE [1729]. In the games of Homer, Il. xxiii. there are set together, as prizes, a Lady and a Kettle, as in this place Mrs. Haywood and a Jordan. But there the preference in value is given to the Kettle, at which Mad. Dacier is justly displeased. Mrs. H. is here treated with distinction, and acknowledged to be the more valuable of the two.-POPE [1729]. 5 Osborne Thomas, a bookseller in Gray's Inn, very well qualified by his 160 165 Upon this advertisement the Gazetteer harangued thus, July 6, 1739: "How melancholy must it be to a writer to be so unhappy as to see his works hawked for sale in a manner so fatal to his fame? How, with honour to yourself, and justice to your subscribers, can this be done? What an ingratitude to be charged on the only honest poet that lived in 1738! and than whom virtue has not had a shriller trumpeter for many ages! That you were once generally admired and esteemed can be denied by none; but that you and your works are now despised, is verified by this fact:" which being utterly false, did not indeed much humble the author, but drew this just chastisement on the bookseller.-POPE and WARBURTON [1743]. See Editor's note. |