punctually at forty. For at that feafon it was that Virgil finished his Georgics; and Sir Richard Blackmore at the like age compofing his Arthurs, declared the fame to be the very Acme and pitch of life for Epic poefy Though fince he hath altered it to fixty, the year in which he published his Alfred *. True it is, that the talents for Criticism, namely fmartness, quick cenfure, vivacity of remark, certainty of affeveration, indeed all but acerbity, feem rather the gifts of Youth than of riper Age: But it is far otherwife in Poetry; witness the works of Mr. Rymer annd Mr. Dennis, who beginning with Criticism, became afterwards fuch Poets as no age hath paralleled. With good reafon therefore did our author chufe to write his Effay on that fubject at twenty, and reserve for his maturer years this great and wonderful work of the Dunciad.

RICARDUS ARISTARCHUS

OF

OF THE

HERO OF THE POEM..

F the Nature of Dunciad in general, whence derived, and on what authority founded, as well as of the art and conduct of this our poem in particular, the learned and laborious Scriblerus hath, according to his manner, and with tolerable share of judgment, dissertated. But when he cometh to speak of the Person of the Hero fitted for fuch Poem, in truth he miferably halts and hallucinates: for, mifled by one Monfieur Bossu, a Gallic critic, he prateth of I cannot tell what Phantom of a Hero, only raised up to support the Fable. A putid conceit! As if Homer and Virgil, like modern Undertakers, who first build their house and then seek out for a tenant, had contrived the story of a War and a Wandering, before they once thought either of Achilles or Æneas. We shall therefore fet our good brother and the world alfo right in this particular, by affuring them, that, in the greater Epic, the prime intention of the Mufe is to exalt Heroic Virtue, in order to propagate the love of it among the children of men ; and confequently that the Poet's first thought must needs be turned upon a real subject meet for laud and celebration; not one whom he is to make, but one whom he may find, truly illuftrious. This is the primum mobile

of

of his poetic world, whence every thing is to receive life and motion. For, this fubject being found, he is immediately ordained, or rather acknowledged, an Hero, and put upon fuch action as befitteth the dignity of his

character.

But the Muse ceaseth not here her Eagle-flight. For fometimes, fatiated with the contemplation of these Suns of glory, fhe turneth downward on her wing, and darts with Jove's lightning on the Goofe and Serpent kind. For we may apply to the Mufe in her various moods, what an ancient mafter of Wisdom affirmeth of the Gods in general: "Si Dii non irafcuntur impiis et "injustis, nec pios utique juftosque diligunt. In rebus "enim diverfis, aut in utramque partem moveri neceffe ❝est, aut in neutram. Itaque qui bonos diligit, et malos "odit ; et qui malos non odit, nec bonos diligit. Quia "et diligere bonos ex odio malorum venit; et malos "odiffe ex bonorum caritate defcendit." Which in our vernacular idiom may be thus interpreted: "If the "Gods be not provoked at evil men, neither are they delighted with the good and juft. For contrary ob

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jects must either excite contrary affections, or no af"fections at all. So that he who loveth good men, must "at the fame time hate the bad; and he who hateth not "bad men, cannot love the good; because to love good "men proceedeth from an averfion to evil, and to hate " evil men from a tenderness to the good." From this delicacy of the Muse arose the little Epic, (more lively and choleric than her elder fifter, whofe bulk and complexion incline her to the phlegmatick :) And for this,

fome

fome notorious Vehicle of vice and folly was fought out, to make thereof an Example. An early inftance of which (nor could it escape the accurate Scriblerus) the Father of Epic poem himself affordeth us. From him the practice defcended to the Greek Dramatic Poets, his Offspring; who, in the composition of their Tetralogy, or fet of four pieces, were wont to make the last a Satiric Tragedy. Happily, one of these ancient Dunciads (as we may well term it) is come down unto us, amongst the Tragedies of the poet Euripides. And what doth the reader fuppofe may be the fubject thereof? Why in truth, and it is worthy obfervation, the unequal Contest of an old, dull, debauched buffoon Cyclops, with the heaven-directed Favourite of Minerva; who, after having quietly borne all the monster's obfcene and impious ribaldry, endeth the farce in punishing him with the mark of an indelible brand in his forehead. May we not then be excufed, if for the future we confider the Epics of Homer, Virgil, and Milton, together with this our poem, as a complete Tetralogy; in which the last worthily holdeth the place or station of the fatiric piece?

Proceed we therefore in our fubject. It hath been long, and alas for pity! ftill remaineth a question, whether the Hero of the greater Epic fhould be an honest Man ; or, as the French Critics express it, un honnête homme but it never admitted of a doubt, but that the Hero of the little Epic fhould be just the contrary.

a Si un Heros Poëtique doit être un honnête homme. Boffu, du Poême Epique, liv. v. ch. 5.

Hence,

Hence, to the advantage of our Dunciad, we may obferve, how much jufter the Moral of that Poem must needs be, where fo important a question is previously decided. But then it is not every Knave, nor (let me add) every Fool, that is a fit subject for a Dunciad. There muft ftill exift fome Analogy, if not Refemblance of Qualities between the Heroes of the two Poems; and this in order to admit what Neoteric critics call the Parody, one of the livelieft graces of the little Epic. Thus it being agreed, that the conftituent qualities of the greater Epic Hero, are Wisdom, Bravery, and Love, from whence fpringeth heroic Virtue; it followeth, that thofe of the leffer Epic Hero should be Vanity, Assurance, and Debauchery, from which happy affemblage refulteth heroic Dulness, the never-dying subject of this our Poem.

This being fettled, come we now to particulars. It is the character of true Wisdom, to feek its chief fupport and confidence within itself; and to place that support in the refources which proceed from a confcious rectitude of Will.-And are the advantages of Vanity, when arifing to the heroic standard, at all short of this felf-complacence? Nay, are they not, in the opinion of the enamoured owner, far beyond it? "Let the world "(will fuch an one fay) impute to me what folly or "weakness they pleafe; but till Wifdom can give me "fomething that will make me more heartily happy, "I am content to be GAZED AT b.” This, we fee, is

b Ded. to the Life of C. C.