Where o'er the gates, by his fam'd father's hand, 31 VARIATIONS. Fronte fub adverfa fcopulis pendentibus antrum : May we not fay in like manner, "The nymphs must be "the waters and the ftones, or the waters and the ftones "must be the houses of the Nymphs?" Infulfe! The fecond line Intus aquæ, &c. is a parenthefis (as are two lines of our Author, Keen hollow Winds &c.) and it is the Antrum, and the yawning Ruin, in the line before that parenthefis, which are the Domus and the Cave. Let me again, I beseech thee, Reader, prefent thee with another Conjectural Emendation on Virgil's fcopulis pendentibus: He is here defcribing a place, whither the weary mariners of Æneas repaired to drefs their dinner.-Feffifrugefque receptas & torrere parant flammis: What has fcopulis pendentibus here to do? Indeed the aqua dulces and fedilia are fomething; fweet waters to drink, and feats to rest on: the other is furely an error of the Copyifts. Restore it, without the leaft fcruple, Populis prandentibus. But for this and a thousand more, expect our Virgil reftor'd. REMARKS. VER. 31. By his fam'd father's hand,] Mr. Caius-Gabriel Cibber, father of the Poet-Laureate. The two Statues of the Lunatics over the gates of Bedlam-hofpital were done by him, and (as the fon juftly says of them) are no ill monuments of his fame as an Artist. VER, 53. One Cell there is,] The cell of poor Poetry is here very properly reprefented as a little unindowed Hall in the neighbourhood of the magnific College of Bedlam; and Keen, hollow winds howl thro' the bleak recefs, 35 Emblem of Mufic caus'd by Emptiness. Hence Bards, like Proteus long in vain ty'd down, Efcape in Monsters, and amaze the town. REMARKS. as the fureft Seminary to fupply thofe learned walls with profeflors. For there cannot be a plainer fymptom of madness than for men to chufe poverty and contempt by fcribling, to Escape in Monsters, and amaze the Town, when they might have benefited themselves and others in profitable and honeft employments. The qualities and productions of the Students of this private Academy are afterwards defcribed in this first book; as are alfo their actions throughout the fecond; by which it appears, how near allied Dulness is to Madness. This naturally prepares the reader for the fubject of the third book, where we find them in union; and acting in conjunction to produce the Catastrophe of the fourth; a mad poetical Sibyl leading our Hero through the Regions of vifion, to animate him in the prefent undertaking, by a view of the past triumphs of barbarifm over Science. W. VER, 34. Poverty and Poetry.] I cannot here omit a remark that will greatly endear our Author to every one, who shall attentively obferve that Humanity and Candor, which every where appears in him towards thofe unhappy objects of the ridicule of all mankind, the bad Poets. He here imputes all fcandalous rhymes, fcurrilous weekly papers, bafe flatteries, wretched elegies, fongs, and verfes (even from thofe fung at Court, to ballads in the streets) not fo much to malice or fervility as to Dulnefs; and not fo much to Dulnefs as to Neceffity. And thus, at the very commencement of his Satire, makes an apology for all that are to be fatirized. VER. 37. Hence Bards, like Proteus long in vain ty'd down, Efcape in Monflers, and amaze the town.] Hence Miscellanies fpring, the weekly boast Of Curl's chafte prefs, and Lintot's rubric post: 40 REMARK S. Ovid has given us a very orderly account of thefe escapes; "Sunt quibus in plures jus eft tranfire figuras: Ut tibi, complexi terram maris incola, Proteu; "Nunc violentus Aper; nunc, quem tetigiffe timerent, "Anguis eras; modo te faciebant cornua Taurum: Sæpe Lapis poteras. Met. viii. Neither Palaphatus, Phurnutus, nor Heraclides give us any fteddy light into the mythology of this mysterious fable. If I be not deceived in a part of learning which has fo long exercifed my pen, by Proteus muft certainly be meant a hacknied Town fcribler; and by his transformations, the various disguises such a one affumes, to elude the purfuit of his natural enemy, the Bailiff. And in this light, doubtless Horace understood the fable, where speak. ing of Proteus, he says, Quum RAPIES IN JUS malis ridentem alienis, "Fiet aper, &c. Proteus is represented as one bred of the mud and flime of Egypt, the original foil of Arts and letters: and what, I pray you, is a Town fcribler, but a creature made up of the excrements of luxurious science? By the change then into a Boar, is meant his character of a furious and dirty Party-writer; the Snake fignifies a Libeller; and the Horns of the Bull, the Dilemmas of a polemical Anfwerer. These are the three great parts he affumes; and when he has completed his circle, he finks back again, (as the laft change into a Stone denotes) into his natural ftate of immoveable Stupidity. Hence it is, that the Poet, where fpeaking at large of all these various Metamorphofes in the fecond Book, defcribes MOTHER OSBORNE, the great Antitype of our Proteus, in ver. 312. after all her changes, as at laft quite flupified to Stone. If I may expect thanks of the learned world for this difcovery, I would by no means Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiac lines, Hence Journals, Medleys, Merc'ries, MAGAZINES: VARIATIONS. VER. 41. in the former lines, Hence hymning Tyburn's eligiac Lay, VER. 42. Alludes to the annual Songs compofed to Mufic on St. Cecilia's Feast. REMARK S. deprive that excellent Critic of his fhare, who difcovered before me, that in the character of Proteus was defigned Sophiftam, Magum, Politicum, præfertim rebus omnibus fefe accommodantem. Which in English is, A political writer, a Libeller, and a Difputer, writing indifferently for cr against every Party in the ftate, every Sect in religion, and every Character in private life. See my Fables of Ovid explained. ABBE BBNIER. W. VER. 40. Curl's chafte prefs, and Lintot's rubric Poft :] Two bookfellers, of whom fee Book ii. The former was fined by the Court of King's Bench for publishing obscene Books; the latter ufually adorned his fhop with titles in red letters. VER. 41. Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiac lines,] It is an ancient English custom for the Malefactors to fing a Pfalm at their execution at Tyburn; and no lefs cuflomary to print Elegies on their deaths, at the fame time, or before. VER. 42. MAGAZINES] The common names of those monftrous collections in profe and verfe; where Dulness affumes all the various fhapes of Folly to draw in, and IMITATIONS. VER. 41, 42. Hence hymning Tyburn's-Hence, &c.] Albanique patres, atque altæ monia Romæ. Virg. Æn. i Sepulchral Lies, or holy walls to grace, And New-year Odes, and all the Grub-street race, REMARK S. 45 cajole the Rabble. The eruption of every miferable Scribler; the dirty fcum of every ftagnant News paper: the rags of worn-out Nonfenfe and Scandal, picked up from every Dunghill; under the title of Effays, Reflections, Queries, Songs, Epigrams, Riddles, &c. equally the difgrace of human Wit, Morality, and Common Sense. P. W. VER. 43. Sepulchral Lies,] Is a juft fatire on the Flatteries and Falfhoods admitted to be infcribed on the walls of Churches, in Epitaphs; which occafioned the following Epigram, "Friend! in your Epitaphs, I'm griev'd, "So very much is faid: "One half will never be believ'd, 66 The other never read. VER. 44. New-year Odes,] Made by the Poet Laureate for the time being, to be fung at court on every Newyear's day, the words of which are happily drowned in the voices and inftruments. The New-year Odes of the Hero of this work were of a caft diftinguifhed from all that preceded him, and made a confpicuous part of his character as a writer, which doubtless induced our Author to mention them here fo particularly. VER. 45. In clouded Majefty here Dulness fhone ;] See this Cloud removed, or rolled back, or gathered up to her Head, book iv. ver. 17, 18. It is worth while to compare this defcription of the Majefty of Dulness in a state of peace IMITATIONS. VER. 45. In clouded Majefty] the Moon Rifing in clouded Majefty Milton, Book iv. |