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THE DUNCIAD.1(a)

N.B.-The letters refer to the Editor's Notes (pp. 312-371) as distinct from the footnotes, references to which are indicated by the numerals.

BOOK I.

THE Mighty Mother, and her Son,' who brings

1 The DUNCIAD, sic MS. It may well be disputed whether this be a right reading: Ought it not rather to be spelled Dunceiad, as the etymology evidently demands? Dunce with an e, therefore Dunceiad with an e. That accurate and punctual man of letters, the restorer of Shakespeare, constantly observes the preservation of this very letter e, in spelling the name of his beloved author, and not like his common careless editors, with the omission of one, nay sometimes of two ee's, (as Shakspear) which is utterly unpardonable. "Nor is the neglect of a single letter so trivial as to some it may appear; the alteration whereof in a learned language is an achievement that brings honour to the critic who advances it; and Dr. Bentley will be remembered to posterity for his performances of this sort, as long as the world shall have any esteem for the remains of Menander and Philemon." - THEOBALD [POPE, 1729].

This is surely a slip in the learned author of the foregoing note; there having been since produced by an accurate antiquary, an autograph of Shakspeare himself, whereby it ap pears that he spelled his own name

without the first e. And upon this authority it was, that those most critical curators of his monument in Westminster Abbey erased the former wrong reading, and restored the true spelling on a new piece of old Ægyptian granite. Nor for this only do they deserve our thanks, but for exhibiting on the same monument the first specimen of an edition of an author in marble; where (as may be seen on comparing the tomb with the book) in the space of five lines, two words and a whole verse are changed, and it is to be hoped will there stand, and outlast whatever hath been hitherto done in paper; as for the future, our learned sister University (the other eye of England) is taking care to perpetuate a Total new Shakespeare, at the Clarendon press. -Bentley. HYPERCRITICA [POPE and WARBURTON, 1743].

It is to be noted, that this great critic also has omitted one circumstance; which is, that the inscription with the name of Shakspeare was intended to be placed on the marble scroll to which he points with his hand; instead of which it is now placed behind his back, and that specimen of an edition is put on the

H 2

The Smithfield Muses '(b) to the ear of Kings,

scroll, which indee. Shakspeare hath great reason to point at.-ANON. [POPE and WARBURTON, 1743].

See Editor's note.

Though I have as just a value for the letter e, as any grammarian living, and the same affection for the name of this poem as any critic for that of his author; yet cannot it induce me to agree with those who would add yet another e to it, and call it the Dunceiade; which being a French and foreign termination, is no way proper to a word entirely English, and vernacular. One e therefore in this case is right, and two e's wrong. Yet upon the whole I shall follow the manuscript, and print it without any e at all; moved thereto by authority (at all times, with critics, equal, if not superior to reason). In which method of proceeding, I can never enough praise my good friend, the exact Mr. Tho. Hearne; who, if any word occur, which to him and all mankind is evidently wrong, yet keeps he it in the text with due reverence, and only remarks in the margin, sic MS. In like manner we shall not amend this error in the Title itself, but only note it obiter, to evince to the learned that it was not our fault, nor any effect of inattention. our ignorance or SCRIBLERUS [POPE, 1729].

This poem was written in the year 1726. In the next year an imperfect edition was published at Dublin, and reprinted at London in twelves; another at Dublin, and another at London in octavo; and three others in twelves the same year. But there was no perfect edition before that of London in quarto; which was at tended with notes. We are willing to acquaint posterity, that this poem was presented to King George the Second and his Queen by the hands of Sir Robert Walpole, on the 12th of March, 1728-9.-SCHOL. VET. [POPE and WARBURTON, 1743].

It was expressly confessed in the Preface to the first edition, that this poem was not published by the author himself. It was printed originally in a foreign country. And what foreign country? Why, one notorious for blunders; where finding blanks only instead of proper names, these blunderers filled them up at their pleasure.

The very hero of the poem hath been mistaken to this hour; so that we are obliged to open our notes with We a discovery who he really was. learn from the former editor, that this piece was presented by the hands of Sir Robert Walpole to King George II. Now the author directly tells us, his hero is the man

who brings

The Smithfield Muses to the ear of Kings.

And it is notorious who was the person on whom this prince conferred the honour of the Laurel.

It appears as plainly from the apostrophe to the Great in the third verse, that Tibbald could not be the person, who was never an author in fashion, or caressed by the great; whereas this single characteristic is sufficient to point out the true hero; who, above all other poets of his time, was the peculiar delight and chosen companion of the nobility of England; and wrote, as he himself tells us, certain of his works at the earnest desire of persons of quality.

Lastly, The sixth verse affords full proof; this poet being the only one who was universally known to have had a son so exactly like him, in his poetical, theatrical, political, and moral capacities, that it could justly be said of him

Still Dunce the second reign'd like Dunce the first.-BENTLEY.

-POPE and WARBURTON [1743].

2 The reader ought here to be cautioned, that the mother, and not

I sing. (c) Say you, her instruments the Great! Call'd to this work by Dulness, Jove, and Fate:* (d) You by whose care, in vain decry'd and curst,

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Still Dunce the second reigns like Dunce the first; (e)

Say, how the Goddess bade Britannia sleep,

And pour'd her Spirit o'er the land and deep.

In eldest time, ere mortals writ or read, Ere Pallas issu'd from the Thund'rer's head,

the son, is the principal agent of this poem The latter of them is only chosen as her colleague (as was anciently the custom in Rome before some 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 Dulness in Britain, which is not accomplished till the last. - WARBURTON [1743].

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 so 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 modesty.

We remit this Ignorant to the first lines of the Æneid, assuring him that Virgil there speaketh not of himself, but of Æneas :

Arma virumque cano, Trojæ qui primus ab

oris

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Eneas fled as soon as he saw Priam slain. In the second line I would read flatu for fato, since it is most clear it was by winds that he arrived at the shore of Italy. Jactatus, in the third, is surely as improperly applied to terris, as proper to alto; to say a man is tost on land, is much at one with saying he walks at sea: Risum teneatis, amici? Correct it, as I doubt not it ought to be, vexatus. SCRIBLERUS [POPE, 1729].

3 Smithfield is the place where Bartholomew Fair was kept, whose shows, 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, Lincoln's Inn Fields, and the Haymarket, to be the reigning pleasures of the Court and town. This happened in the reigns of King George I. and II. See Book iii.-POPE [1729].

See Editor's note.

i.e., by their judgments, their interests, and their inclinations.WARBURTON [1743].

See Editor's note.

5 Alluding to a verse of Mr. Dryden, not in Mac Fleckno (as is said ignorantly in the Key to the Dunciad, p. 1), but in his verses to Mr. Congreve,

And Tom the second reigns like Tom the first.-POPE [1729].

See Editor's note.

Dulness o'er all possess'd her ancient right,
Daughter of Chaos and eternal Night:'(ƒ)
Fate in their dotage this fair Idiot gave,
Gross as her sire, and as her mother grave, (g)
Laborious, heavy, busy, bold, and blind,'
She rul'd, in native Anarchy, the mind."

Still her old Empire to restore she tries,* For, born a Goddess, Dulness never dies. (h) /O Thou! whatever title please thine ear, Dean, Drapier, Bickerstaff, or Gulliver! (i)

1 The beauty of this whole allegory being purely of the poetical kind, we think it not our proper business, as a scholiast, to meddle with it: but leave it (as we shall in general all such) to the reader; remarking only that Chaos (according to Hesiod's Θεογονία) was the progenitor of all the Gods. SCRIBLERUS [POPE, 1729].

See Editor's note.

2 I wonder the learned Scriblerus has omitted to advertise the reader, at the opening of this poem, that Dulness here is not to be taken contractedly for mere stupidity, but in the enlarged sense of the word, for all slowness of apprehension, shortness of sight, or imperfect sense of things. It includes (as we see by the Poet's own words) labour, industry, and some degree of activity and boldness: a ruling principle not inert, but turning topsy-turvy the understanding, and inducing an anarchy or confused 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 mistake the importance of many of the characters, as well as of the design of the Poet. Hence it is, that some have complained he chooses too mean a subject, and imagined he employs himself, like Domitian, in

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killing flies; whereas those who have the true key will find he sports with nobler quarry, and embraces a larger compass; or (as one saith, on a like occasion) :

Will see his Work, like Jacob's ladder rise, Its foot in dirt, its head amid the skies.BENTLEY.

[POPE and WARBURTON, 1743].

3 The native anarchy of the mind is that state which precedes the time of Reason's assuming the rule of the passions. But in that state, the uncontrolled violence of the passions would soon bring things to confusion, were it not for the intervention of DULNESS in this absence of Reason; who, though she cannot regulate them like Reason, yet blunts and deadens their vigour, and, indeed, produces some of the good effects of it: Hence it is that Dulness has often the appearance of Reason. This is the only good she ever did; and the poet takes particular care to tell it in the very introduction of his poem. It is to be observed indeed, that this is spoken of the universal rule of Dulness in ancient days, but we may form an idea of it from her partial government in later times.-WARBURTON [1743].

4 This restoration makes the completion of the poem. Vide Book iv. -POPE and WARBURTON [1743].

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