ordained, or rather acknowledged, an hero, and put upoǹ fuch action as befitteth the dignity of his character. But the Mufe ceaseth not here her eagle-flight. For fometimes, fatiated with the contemplation of these funs of glory, fhe turneth downward on her wing, and darts with Jove's lightning on the goose 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 injuftis, nec pios utique juftofque diligunt. In rebus enim diverfis, aut in utramque partem moveri neceffe eft, 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 objects muft either excite con"trary affections, or no affections at all. So that he "who loveth good men, muft 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 66 an averfion to evil, and to hate evil men from a ten"derness to the good." From this delicacy of the Muse arofe the little Epic, (more lively and choleric than her elder fifter, whofe bulk and complexion inclineth her to the flegmatic:) and for this, 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 compofition of their Tetralogy, or fet of four pieces, were wont to make the laft a Satiric Tragedy. Happily, one of thefe antient Dunciads (as we may well term it) is come down unto us, amongst the Tragedies of the poet Euri-, pides. And what doth the reader suppose may be the fubject thereof? Why in truth, and it is worthy observation, the unequal conteft of an old, dull, debauched buffoon Cyclops, 1 Cyclops, with the heaven-directed favourite of Minerva who, after having quietly borne all the monfter's obscene and impious ribaldry, endeth the farce in punifhing 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 laft worthily holdeth the place or ftation of the fatiric piece? Proceed we therefore in our fubject. It hath been Jong, and alas for pity! ftill remaineth a queftion, whether the hero of the greater Epic fhould be an honost man; or, as the French critics exprefs it, un honnête homme a but it never admitted of any doubt, but that the hero of the little Epic fhould be juft the contrary. Hence, to the advantage of our Dunciad, we may obferve, how much jufter the moral of that Poem muft 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 fubject for a Dunciad. There must ftill exift fome analogy, if not resemblance 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 springeth heroic virtue; it followeth, that thofe of the leffer epic hero fhould be vanity, affurance, and debauchery, from which happy affemblage refulteth beroic dulnefs, the never-dying fubject of this our Poem. This being fettled, come we now to particulars. It is the character of true wisdom, to feek its chief support 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 -- a Si un Heros Poëtique doit être un honnête homme. Boffu du Poême Epique, liv. v. ch. 5. to to the heroic ftandard, at all fhort 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 weak"ness they please; but till Wisdom can give me some"thing that will make me more heartily happy, I am ❝content to be GAZED AT b." This, we fee, is vanity according to the heroic gage or measure; not that low and ignoble fpecies which pretendeth to virtues we have not; but the laudable ambition of being gazed at for glorying in those vices, which every body knows we have. "world may ask (fays he) why I make my follies pub"lic? Why not? I have paffed my life very pleasantly with them." In fhort, there is no fort of vanity fuch a hero would fcruple, but that which might go near to degrade him from his high ftation in this our Dunciad; namely, "whether it would not be vanity in him "to take shame to himself for not being a wife man a ?” "The d Bravery, the fecond attribute of the true hero, is cou rage manifefting itself in every limb: while its correfpondent virtue in the mock hero, is, that fame courage all collected into the face. And as power, when drawn together, muft needs have more force and spirit than when difperfed, we generally find this kind of courage in so high and heroic a degree, that it infults not only men but gods. Mezentius is, without doubt, the bravest character in all the Eneis: but how? His bravery we know, was an high courage of blafphemy. And can we say less of this brave man's, who having told us that he placed "his fummum bonum in those follies, which he was "not content barely to poffefs but would likewise glory "in,” adds, If I am misguided, 'TIS NATURE'S FAULT, "and I follow HER." Nor can we be mistaken in making this happy quality a species of courage, when we confider thofe illuftrious marks of it, "which made his FACE "more known (as he justly boafteth) than moft in the c Life, p. 2. oct. edit. b Ded. to the life of C. C. e Life, p. 23. octavo. d Id. « king "kingdom;" and his language to confift of what we muft allow to be the moft daring figure of speech, that which is taken from the name of God. Gentle love, the next ingredient in the true hero's compofition, is a mere bird of paffage, or (as Shakespeare calls it) summer-teeming luft, and evaporates in the heat of youth; doubtless by that refinement it fuffers in paffing through thofe certain trainers which our poet fomewhere Speaketh of. But when it is let alone to work upon the lees, it acquireth ftrength by old age; and becometh a lafting ornament to the little Epic. It is true, indeed, there is one objection to its fitnefs for such an use: for not only the ignorant may think it common, but it is admitted to be fo, even by Him who best knoweth its value. "Don't you think (argueth he) to say only a man has "his whore, ought to go for little or nothing? Because defendit numerus; take the firft ten thousand men you "meet, and, I believe, you would be no lofer if you "betted ten to one, that every single finner of them, one "with another, had been guilty of the fame frailty "." But here he seemeth not to have done juftice to himself : the man is fure enough a hero, who hath his lady at fourscore. How doth his modesty herein leffen the merit of a whole well spent life: not taking to himself the commendation (which Horace accounted the greatest in a theatrical character) of continuing to the very dregs, the fame he was from the beginning, "Qualis ab incepto procefferat.——” But here, in juftice both to the poet and the hero, let us farther remark, that the calling her his whore, implieth fhe was his own, and not his neighbour's. Truly a commendable continence! and fuch as Scipio himself muft have applauded. For how much felf-denial was f Alluding to these lines in the Epistle to Dr., Arbuthnot; "And has not Colly ftill his lord and whore, g Letter to Mr P. p. 46. necef neceffary not to covet his neighbour's whore? and what disorders must the coveting her have occafioned in that fociety, where (according to this political calculator) nine in ten of all ages have their concubines ! We have now, as briefly as we could devise, gone through the three conftituent qualities of either hero. But it is not in any, nor in all of thefe, that Heroifm properly or effentially refideth. It is a lucky result rather from the collifion of these lively qualities against one another. Thus, as from wisdom, bravery, and love, arifeth magnanimity, the object of admiration, which is the aim of the greater Epic; fo from vanity, affurance, and debauchery, fpringeth buffoonery, the fource of ridicule, that laughing ornament," as he well termeth it", of the little Epic. He is not ashamed (God forbid he ever should be afhamed!) of this character; who deemeth, that not reafon but rifibility diftinguisheth the human fpecies from the brutal. "As nature (faith this profound philofo-> "pher) diftinguished our species from the mute crea"ation by our rifibility, her design MUST have been by "that faculty as evidently to raise our HAPPINESS, as by "our Os fublime (OUR ERECTED FACES) to lift the dig"nity of OUR FORM above them." All this confidered, how complete a hero must he be, as well as how happy a man, whose rifibility lieth not barely in his muscles, as in the common fort, but (as himself informeth us) in his very spirits? and whose Os fublime is not fimply an erect face, but a brazen head; as fhould feem by his preferring it to one of iron, faid to belong to the late king of Sweden *? But whatever personal qualities a hero may have, the examples of Achilles and Æneas fhew us, that all those are of fmall avail, without the conftant affiflance of the GODS: for the fubverfion and erection of empires have never been adjudged the work of man. How greatly fo h Letter to Mr. P. p. 31. VOL. II. iLife, p. 23, 24. k Letter, p. 8. ever |