And empty heads console with empty sound. Why all your Toils? your Sons have learn'd to sing. The Sire is made a Peer, the Son a Fool. On some, a Priest succinct in amice white (4x) 1 Scriblerus seems at a loss in this place. Speciosa miracula (says he) according to Horace, were the monstrous Fables of the Cyclops, Læstrygons, Scylla, &c. What relation have these to the transformation of hares into larks, or of pigeons into toads? I shall tell thee. The Læstrygons spitted men upon spears, as we do larks upon skewers and the fair pigeon turned to a toad is similar to the fair Virgin Scylla ending in a filthy beast. But here is the difficulty, why pigeons in so shocking a shape should be brought to a table. Hares indeed might be cut into larks at a second dressing, out of frugality: yet that seems no probable motive, when we consider the extravagance before mentioned, of dissolving whole oxen and boars into a small vial of jelly; nay it is expressly said, that all flesh is nothing in his sight. I have searched in Apicius, Pliny, and the Feast of Trimalchio, in vain: I 2 345 550 555 can only resolve it into some mysterious superstitious rite, as it is said to be done by a priest, and soon after called a sacrifice, attended (as all ancient sacrifices were) with libation and song. SCRIBLERUS. This good scholiast, not being acquainted with modern luxury, was ignorant that these were only the miracles of French cookery, and that particular pigeons en crapeau were a common dish. POPE and WARBURTON [1742]. 2 French terms relating to wines, which signify their flavour and poign ancy. Et je gagerois que chez le Commandeur Villandri priseroit sa Sève & sa Verdeur. -DEPREAUX. St. Evremont has a very pathetic letter to a Nobleman in Disgrace, advising him to seek comfort in a good table, and particularly to be attentive to these qualities in his champagne. - POPE and WARBURTON [1742]. With French Libation, and Italian Strain, Wash Bladen white, and expiate Hays's stain.' (4 ≈) The Queen confers her Titles and Degrees. (5b) Shine in the dignity of F.R.S. (5 d) Some, deep Free-Masons, join the silent race, Nor past the meanest unregarded, one 1 Names of gamesters. Bladen is a black man. ROBERT KNIGHT, cashier of the South Sea Company, who fled from England in 1720 (afterwards pardoned in 1742). These lived with the utmost magnificence at Paris, and kept open tables frequented by persons of the first quality of England, and even by Princes of the Blood of France.-POPE and WARBURTON [1742]. The The former note of Bladen is a black man, is very absurd. manuscript here is partly obliterated, and doubtless could only have been Wash Blackmoors white, alluding to a known proverb.-SCRIBLERUS. -POPE and WARBURTON [1742]. See Editor's note. 560 565 570 575 580 All my commands are easy, short, and full: The Cap and Switch be sacred to his Grace; (5 i) 3 Or draw to silk Arachne's subtile line; (5 m) The sturdy Squire to Gallic masters stoop, And drown his Lands and Manors in a Soupe. (5) This speech of Dulness to her sons at parting may possibly fall short of the reader's expectation; who may imagine the Goddess might give them a charge of more consequence, and, from such a theory as is before delivered, incite them to the practice of something more extraordinary than to personate running footmen, jockeys, stage coachmen, &c. But if it be well considered, that whatever inclination they might have to do mischief, her sons are generally rendered harmless by their inability; and that it is the common effect of Dulness (even in her greatest efforts) to defeat her own design; the poet, I am persuaded, will be justified, and it will be allowed that these worthy 585 590 595 600 persons, in their several ranks, do as much as can be expected from them. -POPE and WARBURTON. 2 This is one of the most ingenious employments assigned, and therefore recommended only to peers of learning. Of weaving stockings of the webs of spiders, see the Phil. Trans. -POPE and WARBURTON. 3 Alluding perhaps to that ancient and solemn dance entitled, A Call of Serjeants.-POPE and WARBURTON. 4 An ancient amusement of sovereign princes, viz., Achilles, Alexander, Nero; though despised by Themistocles, who was a Republican. -Make Senates dance, either after their Prince, or to Pontoise, or Siberia. -POPE and WARBURTON. Tyrant supreme! shall three Estates command, And MAKE ONE MIGHTY DUNCIAD OF THE LAND ! " (5 s) More she had spoke, but yawn'd-All Nature nods: What Mortal can resist the Yawn of Gods?1 Churches and Chapels instantly it reach'd; (St. James's first, for leaden G preach'd) (5 t) Then catch'd the Schools; the Hall scarce kept awake; And Chiefless Armies doz'd out the Campaign; 1 This verse is truly Homerical; as is the conclusion of the action, where the great Mother composes all, in the same manner as Minerva at the period of the Odyssey. It may indeed seem a very singular epitasis of a poem, to end as this does, with a great yawn; but we must consider it as the yawn of a God, and of powerful effects. It is not out of nature, most long and grave counsels concluding in this very manner: nor without authority, the incomparable Spencer having ended one of the most considerable of his works with a Roar; but then it is the roar of a lion, the effects whereof are described as the Catastrophe of the Poem.-POPE and WARBURTON [1743]. 2 The progress of this Yawn is iudicious, natural, and worthy to be noted. First it seizeth the churches and chapels, then catcheth the schools, where, though the boys be unwilling to sleep, the masters are not next, Westminster Hall, much more hard 605 610 615 indeed to subdue, and not totally put to silence even by the Goddess: then the Convocation, which though extremely desirous to speak, yet cannot : even the House of Commons, justly called the sense of the nation, is lost (that is to say suspended) during the Yawn (far be it from our author to suggest it could be lost any longer!), but it spreadeth at large over all the rest of the kingdom, to such a degree, that Palinurus himself (though as incapable of sleeping as Jupiter) yet noddeth for a moment: the effect of which, though ever so momentary, could not but cause some relaxation, for the time, in all public affairs.SCRIBLERUS.-POPE and WARBURTON [1743]. 3 Verses 615, 618 were written many years ago, and may be found in the State Poems of that time. So that Scriblerus is mistaken, or whoever else have imagined this poem of a fresher date. - POPE and WARBURTON [1743]. O Muse! relate (for you can tell alone, 620 'Till drown'd was Sense, and Shame, and Right, and Wrong O sing, and hush the Nations with thy Song! In vain, in vain-the all-composing Hour She comes! she comes! the sable Throne behold' The sick'ning stars fade off th' ethereal plain; 1 This seems to be the reason why the poets, whenever they give us a catalogue, constantly call for help on the Muses, who, as the daughters of Memory, are obliged not to forget anything. So Homer, Iliad ii. : Πληθὺν δ ̓ οὐκ ἂν ἐγὼ μυθήσομαι οὐδ ̓ ὀνομήνω, Εἰ μὴ Ὀλυμπιάδες Μούσαι, Διὸς αἰγιό χοιο Θυγατέρες, μνησαίαθ'. And Virgil, En. vii. : Et meministis enim, Divæ, & meinorare potestis: Ad nos vix tenuis famæ perlabitur aura. But our poet had yet another reason 626 630 635 640 |