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And now the queen, to glad her fons, proclaims
By herald Hawkers, high heroic games.

They fummon all her Race: an endless band
Pours forth, and leaves unpeopled half the land.
A motley mixture! in long wigs, in bags,
In filks, in crapes, in garters, and in rags,
From drawing-rooms, from colleges, from garrets,
On horse, on foot, in hacks, and gilded chariots :
All who true Dunces in her cause appear'd,
And all who knew thofe Dunces to reward.

Amid that area wide they took their ftand,
Where the tall May-pole once o'er-look'd the ftrand,
But now (fo ANNE and Piety ordain)

A church collects the faints of Drury-lane.
With Authors, Stationers obey'd the call,
(The field of glory is a field for all.)
Glory and gain, th' induftrious tribe provoke;
And gentle Dulness ever loves a joke *.
A poet's form fhe plac'd before their eyes,
And bade the nimbleft racer feize the prize;
No meagre, mufe-rid mope, adust and thin,
In a dun night-gown of his own loose skin;
But fuch a bulk as no twelve bards could raise,
Twelve ftarv'ling bards of these degen'rate days.
All as a partridge plump, full-fed and fair,
She form'd this image of well-body'd air;
With pert flat eyes fhe window'd well its head;

A brain of feathers, and a heart of lead † ;

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jest which the court of Rome and the Pope himself entered into so far, as to cause him to ride on an elephant to the Capitol, and to hold a folemn feftival on his coronation; on which it is recorded the Poet himself was fo transported as to weep for joy. He was ever after a constant frequenter of the Pope's table, drank abundantly, and poured forth verfes without number, PAULUS Jovius, Elog. Vir. dott. cap. lxxxiii. Some idea of his poetry is given by Fam. Strada, in his Prolusions,

*This fpecies of mirth called a joke, arising from a mal-entendu, may be well supposed to be the delight of Dulness.

I. e. A trifling head, and a contracted heart,

* See Life of C. C. chap. vi. p.449.

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And empty words fhe gave, and founding ftrain,

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But fenfelefs, lifeless! idol void and vain!

Never was dash'd out, at one lucky hit *,

A fool, fo juft a copy of a wit;

So like, that critics faid, and courtiers swore,

A Wit it was, and call'd the phantom More ++.

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as the poet, book iv. defcribes the accomplished fons of Dulness; of whom this is only an Image, or Scarecrow, and so stuffed out with these correfponding materials. SCRIBL.

* Our author here feems willing to give fome account of the poffibility of Dulness making a Wit (which could be done no other way than by chance.) The fiction is the more reconciled to probability by the known ftory of Apelles, who being at a lofs to exprefs the foam of Alexander's horse, dafh'd his pencil in defpair at the picture, and happened to do it by that fortunate ftroke.

+ CURL, in his Key to to the Dunciad, affirmed this to be James-Moore Smith, Esq; and it is probable (confidering what is faid of him in the Teftimonies) that fome might fancy our author obliged to represent this gentleman as a plagiary, or to pass for one himself. His cafe indeed was like that of a man I have heard of, who, as he was fitting in company, perceived his next neighbour had stolen his handkerchief. "Sir," (faid the thief, finding himself detected) "do not expofe me, I did it for mere want; be so good "but to take it privately out of my pocket again, and say nothing." The honeft man did fo, but the other cry'd out, "See gentleman what a thief "we have among us! look, he is stealing my handkerchief!"

Some time before, he had borrow'd of Dr. Arbuthnot a paper called an Hiftorico-physical Account of the South Sea; and of Mr. Pope the Memoirs of a Parish Clerk, which for two years he kept and read to the Rev. Dr. Young, F. Billers, Efq; and many others as his own. Being applied to for them, he pretended they were loft; but there happening to be another copy of the latter, it came out in Swift and Pope's Mifcellanies. Upon this, it feems, he was fo far mistaken as to confefs his proceeding by an endeavour to hide it: unguardedly printing (in the Daily Journal of April 3, 1728.) "That the contempt which he and others had for thofe pieces," (which only himself had fhewn, and handed about as his own)" occafioned their "being loft, and for that cause only not returned." A fact, of which as none but he could be conscious, none but he could be the publisher of it. The plagiarisms of this perfon gave occafion to the following Epigram; "Moore always fmiles whenever he recites;

"He fmiles (you think) approving what he writes.

"And yet in this no vanity is fhown;

"A modest man may like what's not his own.

This young gentleman's whole misfortune was too inordinate a passion to be

thought

All gaze with ardour: fome a poet's name,
Others a fword-knot and lac'd fuit inflame.
But lofty Lintot* in the circle rofe:
"This prize is mine; who tempt it are my foes;
"With me began this genius, and fhall end.”
He spoke and who with Lintot fhall contend?
Fear held them mute. Alone, untaught to fear,
Stood dauntless Curl +; "Behold that rival here!

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"The

thought a wit. Here is a very strong instance attested by Mr. Savage, fon of the late earl Rivers, who having fhewn fome verfes of his in manufcript to Mr. Moore, wherein Mr. Pipe was called first of the tuneful train, Mr. Moore the next morning sent to Mr. Savage to desire him to give those verses anoother turn, to wit, "That Pope might now be the first, because More had left him unrival'd, in turning his style to Comedy." This was during the rehearsal of the Rival Modes, his first and only work; the town condemned it in the action, but he printed it in 1726-7, with this modest motto,

Hic cæftus, artemque repono.

The fmaller pieces which we have heard attributed to this author are, An Epigram on the Bridge at Blenheim, by Dr. Evans: Cofmelia, by Mr. Pit, Mr. Jones, etc. The Mock-marriage of a mad Divine, with a Cl. for a Parfon, by Dr. W. The Saw-pit, a Simile, by a Friend. Certain Phyfical works on Sir James Baker; and fome unown'd Letters, Advertisements, and Epigrams against our author in the Daily Journal.

Notwithstanding what is here collected of the person imagin`d by Curl to be meant in this place, we cannot be of that opinion: fince our poet had certainly no need of vindicating half a dozen verses to himself, which every reader had done for him; fince the name itself is not spelled Moore, but More ; and lastly, fince the learned Scriblerus has fo well proved the contrary.

It appears from hence, that this is not the name of a real perfon, but fictitious. More from ãpes, ftultus, papia, ftultitia, to reprefent the folly of a plagiary. Thus Erafmus, Admonuit me Mori cognomen tibi, quod tam ad Moriæ vocabulum accedit quam es ipfe a re alienus. Dedication of Moriæ Encomium to Sir Tho. More; the farewel of which may be our author's to his plagiary, Vale, More! et moriam tuam graviter defende. Adicu, More! and be fure strongly to defend thy own folly.

SCRIBL.

* We enter here upon the episode of the Bookfellers; perfons, whofe names being more known and famous in the learned world than thofe of the Authors in this poem, do therefore need less explanation. The action of Mr. Lintot here imitates that of Dares in Virgil, rifing juft in this manner to lay hold on a Bull. This eminent bookfeller printed the Rival Modes before mentioned.

† We come now to a character of much respect, that of Mr. Edmund Curl. As a plain repetition of great actions is the best praise of them, we shall only say of this eminent man, that he carried the trade many lengths

beyond

"The race by vigour, not by vaunts, is won;
"So take the hindmoft, Hell," (he faid) and run.
Swift as a bard the Bailiff leaves behind,

He left huge Lintot, and out-ftript the wind.
As when a dab-chick waddles through the copfe
On feet and wings, and flies, and wades, and hops;
So lab'ring on, with shoulders, hands and head,
Wide as a wind-mill all his figure spread,
With arms expanded Bernard rows his ftate,
And left legg'd Jacob feems to emulate.
Full in the middle way there ftood a lake,

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Which Curl's Corinna * chanc'd that morn to make: 70 (Such

beyond what it ever before had arrived at; and that he was the envy and admiration of all his profeffion. He poffeffed himself of a command over all authors whatever; he caufed them to write what he pleased; they could not call their very Names their own. He was not only famous among these; he was taken notice of by the State, the Church, and the Law, and received particular marks of distinction from each.

It will be owned that he is here introduced with all poffible dignity: he fpeaks like the intrepid Diomed; he runs like the swift-footed Achilles; if he falls, 'tis like the beloved Nifus; and (what Homer makes to be the chief of all praises) he is favoured of the Gods; he says but three words, and his prayer is heard; a Goddess conveys it to the feat of Jupiter: Though he Boses the prize, he gains the victory; the great Mother herself comforts him, fhe inspires him with expedients, she honours him with an immortal present, (fuch as Achilles receives from Thetis, and Æneas from Venus) at once inftructive and prophetical: After this he is unrivalled and triumphant.

name.

The tribute our author here pays him is a grateful return for several unmerited obligations: many weighty animadverfions on the public affairs, and many excellent and diverting pieces on private perfons, has he given to his If ever he owed two verfes to any other, he owed Mr. Curl fome thousands. He was every day extending his fame, and enlarging his writings: witnefs innumerable inftances; but it shall suffice only to mention the Court Poems, which he meant to publish as the work of the true writer, a lady of quality; but being first threatened, and afterwards punished for it by Mr. Pope, he generously transferred it from ber to bim, and ever since printed it in his name. The fingle time that ever he spoke to C. was on that affair, and to that happy incident he owed all the favours fince received from him : So true is the faying of Dr. Sydenham, "that any one shall be, at fome time or other, the better or the worfe, for having but feen or spoken to a good or bad man.'

This name, it feems, was taken by one Mrs. T.

who procured fome

(Such was her wont, at early dawn to drop

Her ev'ning cates before his neighbour's fhop)
Here fortun'd Curl to flide; loud fhout the band,
And Bernard! Bernard! rings thro' all the Strand.
Obscene with filth* the mifcreant lies bewray'd,
Fall'n in the plash his wickedness had laid :
Then first (if poets aught of truth declare)
The caitiff Vaticide conceiv'd a pray❜r.

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Hear Jove! whose name my bards and I adore,
As much at least as any God's, or more;
And him and his, if more devotion warms,

Down with the Bible, up with the Pope's arms f.

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some private letters of Mr. Pope, while almost a boy, to Mr. Cromwell, and fold them without the confent of either of those gentlemen to Curl, who printed them in 12mo, 1727. He difcovered her to be the publisher in his Key, p. 11. We only take this opportunity of mentioning the manner in which those letters got abroad, which the author was ashamed of as very trivial things, full not only of levities, but of wrong judgments of men and books, and only excufable from the youth and inexperience of the writer.

* Though this incident may feem too low and bafe for the dignity of an epic poem, the learned very well know it to be but a copy of Homer and Virgil; the very words Ove and fimus are used by them, though our poet (in compliance with modern nicety) has remarkably enriched and coloured his language, as well as raised the verfification, in this Episode, and in the following one to Eliza. Mr. Dryden, in Mack-Fleckno, has not fcrupled to mention the Morning Toaft at which the fishes bite in the Thames, Piffing Alley, Relicts of the Bum, etc. but our author is more grave, and (as a fine writer fays of Virgil in his Georgics) tosses about bis Dung with an air of Majefty. If we confider that the exercises of his Authors could with justice be no higher than tickling, chattering, braying, or diving, it was no easy matter to ¡nvent such games as were proportioned to the meaner degree of Booksellers. In Homer and Virgil, Ajax and Nifus, the perfons drawn in this plight, are Heroes; whereas here they are such with whom it had been great impropriety to have joined any but vile ideas; besides the natural connection there is between Libellers and common Nuifances. Nevertheless I have heard our author own, that this part of his poem was (as it frequently happens) what coft him moft trouble and pleafed him leaft; but that he hoped it was excufable, fince levelled at such as understand no delicate fatire: Thus the po liteft men are fometimes obliged to fwear, when they happen to have to de with porters and oyfter wenches.

†The Bible, Curl's fign; the Cross-Keys, Lintet's.

VOL. II.

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