170 Dulness whofe good old caufe I yet defend, 165 175 *The firft vifible caufe of the paffion of the town for our hero, was a fair flaxen full-bottomed periwig, which, he tells us, he wore in his firft play of the Fool in fofhion. It attracted, in a particular manner, the friendhip of Col. Brett, who wanted to purchase it. "Whatever contempt {fays "he) philofophers may have for a fine periwig, my friend, who was not to "defpife the world but live in it, knew very well that fo material an article of drefs upon the head of a man of fenfe, if it became him, could never "fail of drawing to him a more partial regard and benevolence, than could 66 upon poffibly be hoped for in an ill made one. This, perhaps, may soften the grave cenfure, which fo youthful a purchase might otherwife have laid him. In a word, he made his attack upon this periwig, as your young fellows generally do upon a lady of pleasure, firft by a few familiar "praises of her perfon, and then a civil enquiry into the price of it: and 86 we finished our bargain that night over a bottle." See Life, octavo, p. 303. This remarkable periwig ufually made its entrance upon the stage in a fedan, brought in by two chairmen, with infinite approbation of the audience. 180 For quit or reafoning are never greatly hurtful to Dulness, but when the first is founded in truth, and the other in usefulness. The thought of these four verses is found in a poem of our author's of a very early date (namely written at fourteen years old, and foon after printed) to the author of a poem called Succeffio. As As clocks to weight their nimble motion owe, ; Some Dæmon ftole my pen (forgive th' offence) 185 190 195 200 Or *Alluding to the old English weapon, the arrow of the long bow, which was fletched with the feathers of the grey goofe. † A familiar manner of fpeaking, used by modern critics, of a favourite anthor. Bays might as jufly fpeak thus of Fletcher, as a French wit did of Tully, feeing his works in a library, Ah! mon cher Ciceron! je Ir con"nois bien; c'eft le même que Mare Tulle." But he had a better title to call Fletcher bis oren, having made fo frex with him. 16 When, according to his father's intention, he had been a clergyman, or (as he thinks himfelf) a bishop of the church of England. Hear his own words: "At the time that the fate of K. James, the Prince of Orange, and myfelf were on the anvil, Providence thought fit to postpone mine, 'till theirs were determined: but had my father carried me a month fooner to the University, who knows but that purer fountain might have washed my imperfections, into a capacity of writing, inftead of Plays and annual Odes, "Sermons and Paftoral Letters?' Apology for his Life, chap. iii Thefe doctors had a modest and upright appearance, no air of overbearing but, like true mafters of arts, were only habited in black and white They Or bidft thou rather party to embrace ? 205 They were juftly tiled fubtiles and graves, but not always irrefragabiles, being fometimes examined, and, by a nice distinction, divided and laid open. SCRIBL. 210 This learned critic is to be understood allegorically: the DOCTORS in this place mean no more than falfe dice, a cant phrase used among gamesters. So the meaning of these four fonorous lines is only this, "Shall I play fair, "or foul?" "Atque hic auratis volitans argenteus anfer * George Ridpath, author of a Whig-paper, called the Flying-poft ; Nathanael Mift, of a famous Tory Journal. Relates to the well-known ftory of the geefe that faved the Capitol; of which Virgil, Æn. viii. A paffage I have always fuípected. Who fees not the antithefis of auratis and argenteus to be unworthy the Virgilian majesty? And what abfurdity to say a goofe fings? canebat. Virgil gives a contrary character of the voice of this filly bird, in Eccl. ix. "" -argutos inter ftrepere anfer olores." Read it, therefore, adeffe ftrepebat. And why auratis porticibus? does not the very verfe preceding this inform us, "Romuleoque recens horrebat regia culmo." Is this thatch in one line, and gold in another, confiftent? I fcruple not (repugnantibus omnibus manufcriptis) to correct it auritis. Horace ufes the fame epithet in the fame fenfe, 66 Auritas fidibus canoris And to say that walls bave ears is common even to a proverb. SCRIBL. Not out of any preference or affection to the Tories. For what Hobbes fo ingenuously confeffes of himself, is true of all minifterial writers whatfo"That he defends the fupreme powers, as the geefe by their cackling "defended the Romans, who held the Capitol; for they favoured them no more than the Gau's, their enemies, but were as ready to have defended the Gauls if they had been poffeffed of the capital." Epilt. Dedic. to the Leviathan. ever: And And fee! thy very Gazetteers * give o'er, 215 220 225 O born in fin, and forth in folly brought! Works damn'd, or to be damn'd! (your father's fault) Go, purify'd by flames afcend the fky, My better and more chriftian progeny § ! Unftain'd, untouch'd, and yet in maiden fheets; While all your smutty fifters walk the streets. Ye fhall not beg, like gratis-given Bland ||, Sent with a pafs, and vagrant thro' the land; 230 Nor * A band of minifterial writers, hired at the price mentioned in the note on book i. ver. 316, who, on the very day their patron quitted his post, laid down their paper, and declared they would never more meddle in po litics. So indeed all the MSS. read, but I make no fcruple to pronounce them all wrong, the Laureate being elfewhere celebrated by our poet for his great modefty-modeft Cibber-Read, therefore, at my peril, Cerberian forebead. This is perfly claffical, and, what is more, Homerical; the dog was the ancient, as the bitch is the modern, fymbol of Impudence: (Kuvo's opat exar fays Achilles to Agamemnon) which, when in a fuperlative degree, may well be denominated from Cerberus, the dog with three beads.-But as to the latter part of this verse, Cibberian brain, that is certainly the genuine reading. BENTL. This is a tender and passionate apoftrophe to his own works, which he is going to facrifice agreeable to the nature of man in great affliction `; and reflecting like a parent on the many miferable fates to which they would otherwife be fubject. $ "It may be obfervable, that my mufe and my fpoufe were equally pro"lific; that the one was feldom the mother of a child, but in the fame " year the other made me the father of a play. I think we had a dozen of "each fort between us; of both which kinds fome died in their infancy," etc. Life of C C. p. 217, 8vo. edit. It was a practice fo to give the Daily Gazetteer and ministerial pam phlets Nor fail with Ward *, to Ape-and-monkey climes, 235 240 245 250 Great phlets (in which this B. was a writer) and to fend them Post-free to all the towns in the kingdom. Edward Ward, a very voluminous poet in Hudibraftic verfe, but best "known by the London Spy, in profe. He has of late years kept a pub"lic houfe in the city, (but in a genteel way) and with his wit, humour, "and good liquor (ale) afforded his guefts a pleasurable entertainment, efpecially thofe of the high-church party." JACOB, Lives of Poets vol. ii. p. 225. Great numbers of his works were yearly fold into the plantations. -Ward, in a book called Apollo's Maggot, declared this account to be a great falfity, protesting that his public houfe was not in the city, but in Moorfields. <? Two of his predeceffors in the laurel. It is to be observed that our poet hath made his hero, in imitation of Virgil's, obnoxious to the tender paffions. He was indeed fo given to weeping, that he tells us, when Goodman the player swore, if he did not make a good a&or, be'd be damn'd; "the furprife of being commended by one, who had been himself fo eminent on the ftage, and in fe pofitive a manner, was "more than he could fupport. In a word (fays h) it almost took away my "breath, and (laugh if you please) fairly drew tears from my eyes." P. 149, of his Life, octavo. In the first notes on the Dunciad, it was faid, that this author was particularly excellent at tragedy. "This (ays he) is as unjust as to fay I “ could dance on a rope." But certain it is that he had attempted to dance VA |