Now Mayors and Shrieves all hush'd and fatiate lay,
Yet eat, in dreams, the custard of the day;
While penfive Poets painful vigils keep,
Sleepless themselves, to give their readers sleep.
Much to the mindful Queen the feast recalls
What City Swans once fung within the walls;
Much fhe revolves their arts, their ancient praise,
And fure fucceffion down from Heywood's days.
She faw, with joy, the line immortal run,
Each fire impreft and glaring in his son :
So watchful Bruin forms, with plastic care,
Each growing lump, and brings it to a Bear.
She faw old Pryn in restless Daniel shine,
And Eufden eke out Blackmore's endless line;

REMARKS.

95

100

She

to compofe yearly panegyrics upon the Lord Mayors, and verfes to be spoken in the Pageants: But that part of the fhows being at length frugally abolished, the employment of City-poet ceafed; fo that upon Settle's demife, there was no fucceffor to that place.

Ver. 98. John Heywood, whose Interludes were printed in the time of Henry VIII.

Ver. 103. Old Pryn in restless Daniel] The firft edition had it,

She faw in Norton all his father shine:

a great Mistake! for Daniel de Foe had parts, but Norton de Foe was a wretched writer, and never attempted Poetry. Much more juftly is Daniel himself made fucceffor to W. Pryn, both of whom wrote Verfes as well as Politics; as appears by the Poem de Jure divino, &c. of De Foe, and by fome lines in Cowley's Mifcellanies on the other. And both these authors had a refemblance in their fates as well as their writings, having been alike fentenced to the Pillory.

She faw flow Philips creep like Tate's poor page, 105 And all the mighty Mad in Dennis rage.

REMARKS.

In

Ver. 104. And Eufden eke out, &c.] Laurence Fufden Poet Laureate. Mr. Jacob gives a catalogue of fome few only of his works, which were very numerous. Mr. Cooke, in his Battle of Poets, faith of him,

"Eufden, a laurel'd Bard, by fortune rais'd,
“By very few was read, by fewer prais’d.”

Mr. Oldmixon, in his Arts of Logic and Rhetoric,
p. 413, 414. affirms, "That of all the Galimatia's he
"ever met with, none comes up to fome verfes of this
"poet, which have as much of the Ridiculum and the
"Fuftian in them as can well be jumbled together, and are
"of that fort of nonfenfe, which fo perfectly confounds
"all ideas, that there is no diftinct one left in the mind."
Farther he fays of him, "That he hath prophefied his
"own poetry shall be sweeter than Catullus, Ovid, and
"Tibullus; but we have little hope of the accomplish-
"ment of it, from what he hath lately published." Up-
on which Mr. Oldmixon has not fpared a reflection,
"That the putting the laurel on the head of one who
"writ fuch verfes, will give futurity a very lively idea
"of the judgment and juftice of those who bestowed it."
Ibid. p. 417. But the well-known learning of that
noble Perfon, who was then Lord Chamberlain, might
have screened him from this unmannerly reflection.
Nor ought Mr. Oldmixon to complain, fo long after,
that the laurel would have better become his own brows,
or any other's: It were more decent to acquiefce in the
opinion of the Duke of Buckingham upon this matter:
❝ —In rush'd Eufden, and cry'd, who shall have it,
"But I, the true Laureate, to whom the King gave it?
"Apollo begg'd pardon, and granted his claim,
"But vow'd that till then he ne'er heard of his name."
Seffion of Poets.

In each fhe marks her Image full expreft,

But chief in Bays's monster-breeding breast ;

Ver. 108. But chief in Bays's, &c.] In the former Ed. thus,

But chief in Tibbald's monfter-breeding breast;
Sees Gods with Dæmons in strange league engage
And earth, and heaven, and hell her battles wage.
She ey'd the bard, where fupperlefs he fate;
And pin'd, unconscious of his rifing fate;
Studious he fate, with all his books around,
Sinking from thought to thought, &c.

Var. Tibbald] Author of a pamphlet intituled, Shakefpeare reftored. During two whole years while Mr. Pope was preparing his edition of Shakespeare, he published Advertisements, requesting affiftance, and promifing fatisfaction to any who could contribute to its greater perfection. But this Reftorer, who was at that time foliciting

REMARKS.

The fame plea might alfo ferve for his Succeffor, Mr. Cibber; and is further ftrengthened in the following Epigram made on that occafion :

In

merry Old England it once was à rule, The King had his Poet, and alfo his Fool:

But now we're so frugal, I'd have you to know it,
That Cibber can ferve both for Fool and for Poet.

Of Blackmore, see Book ii. Of Philips, Book i. ver. 262. and Book iii. prope fin.

Nahum Tate was Poet Laureate, a cold writer, of no invention; but fometimes translated tolerably when befriended by Mr. Dryden. In his fecond part of Abfalom and Achitophel are above two hundred admirable lines together of that great hand, which strongly shine through the infipidity of the reft. Something parallel may be obferved of another author here mentioned.

Bays, form'd by nature Stage and Town to bless,
And act, and be, a Coxcomb with fuccefs.

VARIATIONS.

110

Dulnefs

citing favours of him by letters, did wholly conceal his defign, till after its publication: (which he was fince not ashamed to own, in a Daily Journal of Nov. 26, 1728.) And then an outcry was made in the prints, that our author had joined with the Bookfeller to raise an extravagant fubfcription; in which he had no share, of which he had no knowledge, and against which he had publicly advertised his own propofals for Homer. Probably that proceeding elevated Tibbald to the dignity he holds in this Poem, which he feems to deferve no other way better than his brethren; unless we impute it to the fhare he had in the Journals, cited among the Teftimonies of Authors prefixed to this work.

REMARKS.

Ver. 106. And all the mighty Mad in Dennis rage.] Mr. Theobald, in the Cenfor, vol. ii. N. 33. calls Mr. Dennis by the name of Furius. "The modern Furius "is to be looked upon more as an object of pity, than "of that which he daily provokes, laughter and con"tempt. Did we really know how much this poor "man" [I wish that reflection on poverty had been fpared]"fuffers by being contradicted, or, which is

the fame thing in effect, by hearing another praised; "we fhould, in compaffion, fometimes attend to him "with a filent nod, and let him go away with the tri"umphs of his ill-nature.-Poor Furius (again) when

any of his contemporaries are spoken well of, quit"ting the ground of the present difpute, steps back a "thousand years to call in the fuccour of the ancients. "His very panegyric is fpiteful, and he uses it for the "fame reafon as fome Ladies do their commendations "of a dead beauty, who would never have had their "good word, but that a living one happened to be men

❝tioned

Dulness with transport eyes the lively Dunce,
Remembering she herfelf was Pertness once.

REMARKS.

Now

❝tioned in their company. His applaufe is not the tri"bute of his Heart, but the facrifice of his Revenge," &c. Indeed his pieces against our poet are somewhat of an angry character, and as they are now fcarce extant, a taste of his style may be fatisfactory to the curious. "A young, fquab, fhort gentleman, whose out"ward form, though it should be that of downright monkey, would not differ fo much from human shape as his unthinking immaterial part does from human "understanding. He is as ftupid and as venomous as a "hunch-back'd toad. A book through which Folly and "Ignorance, those brethren so lame and impotent, do "ridiculously look big and very dull, and ftrut and "hobble, cheek by jowl, with their arms on kimbo, be"ing led and fupported, and bully-back'd by that "blind Hector, Impudence." Reflect. on the Effay on Criticism, P. 26. 29, 30.

It would be unjuft not to add his reafons for this Fury, they are fo ftrong and fo coercive. "I regard "him (faith he) as an Enemy, not so much to me, as "to my King, to my Country, to my Religion, and "to that Liberty which has been the fole felicity of my "life. A vagary of Fortune, who is fometimes pleased "to be frolickfome, and the epidemic Madness of the "times have given him Reputation, and Reputation (as "Hobbes fays) is Power, and that has made him dan

gerous. Therefore I look on it as my duty to King "George, whofe faithful subject I am; to my Country, "of which I have appeared a conftant lover; to the "Laws, under whofe protection I have so long lived; "and to the Liberty of my Country, more dear to me "than life, of which I have now for forty years been "a conftant affertor, &c. I look upon it as my duty, "I say, to do-you fhall fee what-to pull the lion's