To stick the Doctor's chair into the throne, O! if my sons may learn one earthly thing, REMARKS. 180 false Latin to him, on purpose to give him the pleasure of correcting it, whereby he wrought himself into his good graces. This great prince was the first who assumed the title of Sacred Majesty, which his loyal Clergy transferred from God to Him. "The principles of Passive Obedience and Non-resistance (says the author of the Dissertation on Parties, Letter viii.), which before his time had skulked perhaps in some old homily, were talked, written, and preached into vogue in that inglorious reign."-P. W. King James prevailed on Camden to alter some passages in the first part of his history, for which Thuanus reproached him.-Warton. Ver. 181, 182. if Dulness sees a grateful day,—'Tis in the shade of arbitrary sway.] And grateful it is in Dulness to make this confession. I will not say she alludes to that celebrated verse of Claudian, 66 nunquam Libertas gratior exstat Quam sub Rege pio ;" But this I will say, that the words Liberty and Monarchy have been frequently confounded and mistaken one for the other, by the gravest authors. I should therefore conjecture, that the genuine reading of the forecited verse was thus, 66 nunquam Libertas gratior exstat Quam sub Lege piâ," and that Rege was the reading only of Dulness herself; and therefore she might allude to it. SCRIBLERUS. I judge quite otherwise of this passage: the genuine reading is Libertas and Rege; so Claudian gave it. But the error lies in the verb; it should be exit, not exstat, and then the meaning will be, that Liberty was never lost, or went away with so good a grace, as under a good King; it being without doubt a tenfold shame to lose it under a bad one. This further leads me to animadvert upon a most grievous piece of nonsense to be found in all the editions of the author of the Dunciad himself. A most capital one it is, and owing to the confusion mentioned above by Scriblerus, of the two words Liberty and Monarchy. Essay on Crit. 66 Nature, like Monarchy, is but restrain'd By the same Laws herself at first ordain'd." Who sees not, it should be, Nature, like Liberty? Correct it therefore, repugnantibus omnibus, (even though the author himself should oppugn,) in all the impressions which have been, or shall be, made of his works. BENTLEY.-P. W. Ver. 183. O! if my sons may learn] The doctrines of true Whiggism, as it is called, were never placed in a stronger light, or set off with more forcible language, than in this and the five following lines. What will the disciples of Hobbes or Filmer say to this passage ?-Warton. That which my priests, and mine alone, maintain, 185 May you, my Cam and Isis, preach it long! 190 [Tho' Christ-church long kept prudishly away.] Each staunch Polemic, stubborn as a rock, Each fierce Logician, still expelling Locke, 195 REMARKS. Ver. 189. Prompt at the call,-Aristotle's friends.] The author, with great propriety, hath made these, who were so prompt, at the call of Dulness, to become preachers of the Divine Right of Kings, to be the friends of Aristotle ; for this philosopher, in his Politics, hath laid it down as a principle, that some men were by nature made to serve, and others to command.-W.† Ver. 192. Aristotle's friends.] A satire on the School Philosophy, which was founded in a corrupt Aristotelianism, and is the art of making a great deal from nothing, in Theology; and the art of making nothing from a great deal, in Physics.-W.t Ver. 192. A hundred head, &c.] It appears by this that the Goddess had been careful of keeping up a succession, according to the rule, Semper enim refice: ac, ne post amissa requiras, It is remarkable with what dignity the poet here describes the friends of this ancient philosopher. Horace does not observe the same decorum with regard to those of another sect, when he says, Cum ridere voles Epicuri de grege Porcum. But the word Drove, Armentum, here understood, is a word of honour, as the most noble Festus, the Grammarian, assures us, Armentum id genus pecoris appellatur, quod est idoneum opus armorum. And alluding to the temper of this warlike breed, our poet very appositely calls them a hundred head. SCRIBLERUS.-W. Ver. 192. of Aristotle's friends.] Let those who wantonly and ignorantly condemn the philosophy of Aristotle, carefully read the truly learned treatise of the late James Harris, Esq. entitled, Philosophical Arrangements; where they may see in what manner the preceptor of Alexander the Great arranged his pupil's ideas, so that they might not cause confusion for want of accurate disposition.-Warton. Ver. 194. [Tho' Christ-church] This line is doubtless spurious, and foisted in by the impertinence of the editor; and accordingly we have put it between hooks. For I affirm this College came as early as any other, by its proper Deputies; nor did any College pay homage to Dulness in its whole body. BENTLEY.-P. W. Ver. 196. still expelling Locke,] In the year 1703 there was a meeting of the heads of the University of Oxford to censure Mr. Locke's Essay on Came whip and spur, and dash'd through thin and thick, REMARKS. 200 Human Understanding, and to forbid the reading it. See his Letters in the last Edit. of his works.-P. W. 66 Such was the fate of this new Philosophy at Oxford. The new Theology of Erasmus met with pretty much the same treatment, a century or two before, in the University of Cambridge. See Dr. Knight's Life of Erasmus, p. 137. But our obnoxious Essayist had given scandal to the scholiastic spirit of Anthony Wood, the famed Oxford Historian, long before; who, in the Journal of his own life, has furnished us with this curious anecdote. April 23rd, 1663, I began a Course of Chemistry, [in Oxford,] under the noted Chemist and Rosicrusian, Peter Sthael of Strasburg in Royal Prussia. The club consisted of ten at least, whereof was JOHN LOCK, of Christ Church, afterwards a noted writer. This John Lock was a man of a turbulent spirit, clamorous, and never contented. The club wrote, and took notes from the mouth of their Master: but the said John Lock scorned to do it: so that while every man besides was writing, he would be prating and troublesome."-W.† Whatever might have been the case in the year 1703, certain I am, that Locke's Essay has been universally read and recommended at Oxford, for above fifty years last past.-Warton. Ver. 196. Locke,] I could never learn that Locke was expelled the University. He was deprived of his studentship of Christ-Church for being privy to the designs of Lord Shaftesbury against the Government; and if we consider the nature of the offence, we shall have reason to admire the mildness of the punishment. BANnister. They who would wish to see our Universities most ably and eloquently vindicated, must consult Dr. Parr's note in his celebrated Spital Sermon.Bowles. -- Ver. 198. Crouzaz] Author of a very absurd and abusive commentary on the Essay on Man.-W.+ Ver. 198. On German Crouzaz and Dutch Burgersdyck.] There seems to be an improbability that the Doctors and Heads of Houses should ride on horseback, who, of late days, being gouty or unwieldy, have kept their coaches. But these are horses of great strength, and fit to carry any weight, as their German and Dutch extraction may manifest; and very famous we may conclude, being honoured with names, as were the horses Pegasus and Bucephalus. SCRIBLERUS.-P. W. Ver. 198. On German Crouzaz and Dutch Burgersdyck.] The hostility of Pope to Crouzaz is readily accounted for by the attack made by the latter on the Essay on Man, which he represented as inculcating the principles of fatalism and infidelity; but it has been observed by a philosophical writer of the first authority, that Pope should not have committed so gross a mistake as to introduce his adversary in the Dunciad amongst Locke's Aristotelian opponents "Each fierce logician, still expelling Locke." He having not only spoken in terms of high approbation of Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding, but having (as observed by Mr. Gibbon) formed his philosophy in the school of Locke." Dugald Stewart's Diss. i. p. 2, Encycl. Brit. Suppl. vol. v. p. 12. 1821. Ver. 199. the streams] The river Cam, running by the walls of these Where Bentley late tempestuous wont to sport Thy mighty Scholiast, whose unwearied pains REMARKS. 205 210 Colleges, which are particularly famous for their skill in disputation.-P. W. Ver. 202. sleeps in port.] viz. " Now retired into harbour after the tempests that had long agitated his society." So Scriblerus. But the learned Scipio Maffei understands it of a certain Wine called Port, from Oporto, a city of Portugal, of which this professor invited him to drink abundantly. SCIP. MAFF. De Compotationibus Academicis.-P. W. Ver. 205. His hat, &c.—So upright Quakers please both Man and God.] The Hat-worship, as the Quakers call it, is an abomination to that sect; yet, where it is necessary to pay that respect to man (as in the Courts of Justice and Houses of Parliament) they have, to avoid offence, and yet not violate their conscience, permitted other people to uncover them.P. W. Ver. 206. Walker with rev'rence took,] He was Bentley's constant friend in College. B. This appears sufficiently from the records of the controversies alluded to in ver. 201, 202.-Wakefield. Ver. 210. Aristarchus] A famous commentator and corrector of Homer, whose name hath been frequently used to signify a complete critic. The compliment paid by our author to this eminent Professor, in applying to him so great a name, was the reason that he hath omitted to comment on this part which contains his own praises. We shall therefore supply that loss to our best ability. SCRIBLERUS.-P. W. Ver. 214. Critics like me] Alluding to two famous editions of Horace and Milton; whose richest veins of poetry he had prodigally reduced to "Dost thou not feel me, Rome?" Ben Jonson.-P.† Roman and Greek Grammarians! know your better; REMARKS. 220 the poorest and most beggarly prose. Verily, the learned Scholiast is grievously mistaken. Aristarchus is not boasting here of the wonders of his art, in annihilating the sublime, but of the usefulness of it, in reducing the turgid to its proper class; the words make it prose again, plainly showing that prose it was, though ashamed of its original; and therefore resolved he was that to prose it should return. Indeed, much is it to be lamented that Dulness doth not confine her critics to this useful task, and commission them to dismount what Aristophanes calls Ῥήμαθ' ἱπποβάμονα, all prose on horseback, wherever they meet with it. SCRIBL.-W.† Ver. 214. Critics like me] This is the line in which, contrary to nature, character, and decorum, Bentley is made to condemn and ridicule himself, and his own labours. Besides, his Horace ought not to be ranked with his Milton, as containing many acute remarks and happy emendations; and therefore did not make Horace dull.-Warton. Ver. 216. Author of something yet more great than letter;] Alluding to Grammarians, such as Palamedes and Simonides, who invented single letters. But Aristarchus, who had found out a double one, was therefore worthy of double honour. SCRIBL.-W.† Ver. 217, 218. While tow'ring o'er your alphabet, like Saul,--Stands our Digamma,] Alludes to the boasted restoration of the Eolic Digamma, in his long projected edition of Homer. He calls it something more than letter, from the enormous figure it would make among the other letters, being one Gamma set upon the shoulders of another.-P. W. Ver. 220. of Me or Te,] It was a serious dispute, about which the learned were much divided, and some discourses written. Had it been about Meum and Tuum it could not have been more warmly contested, than whether at the end of the first Ode of Horace, we should read, Me doctarum hederæ præmia frontium, or, Te doctarum hedera.-By this the learned scholiast would seem to insinuate that the dispute was not about Meum and Tuum, which is a mistake; for, as a venerable sage observeth, Words are the counters of wise men, but the money of fools; so that we see their property was indeed concerned. SCRIBL.-W.† Ver. 220. Dispute of Me or Te, of aut or at,] It is remarkable that there is an old Greek epigram of Herodicus, quoted by Athenæus in his fifth book, page 112, Basileæ, apud J. Valderum, 1635, folio; ridiculing verbal criticism, in a manner exactly resembling these lines of Pope, which it is not at all probable he had ever read. The two second lines follow: “ Γωνιοβόμβυκες, μονοσύλλαβοι, οἶσι μέμηλε, Tò opĩv, kai opwìv, kai tò μìv, ǹdè rò vív.”—Warton. IMITATIONS. Ver. 215. Roman and Greek Grammarians, &c.] Imitated from Propertius speaking of the Æneid: Cedite, Romani scriptores, cedite, Graii! |