That tinctur'd as it runs with Lethe's ftreams,
And wafting vapours from the land of dreams,
(As under feas Alpheus' fecret fluice
Bears Pifa's off'ring to his Arethufe)
Pours into Thames: and hence the mingled wave
Intoxicates the pert, and lulls the grave:
Here brifker vapours o'er the TEMPLE creep,
There, all from Paul's to Aldgate drink and fleep.
Thence to the banks where rev'rend bards repofe,
They led him foft; each rev'rend Bard arose;
And Milbourn* chief, deputed by the reft,
Gave him the caflock, furcingle, and veft.
"Receive (he faid) these robes which once were mine,
“Dulness is facred in a found divine.”

350

He ceas'd, and fpread the robe; the crowd confefs
The rev'rend Flamen in his lengthen'd drefs.
Around him wide † a fable army ftand,
A low-born, cell-bred, selfish, servile band,

"Sic tibi, cum fluctus fubter labere Sicanos. • Doris amara fuam non intermifceat undam" And again, Æn. iii.

-f

Alpheum fama eft huc, Elidis amnem,

"Occultas egiffe vias fubter mare, qui nunc

"Ore, Arethufa, tuo Siculis confunditur undis."

355

Prompt

seprefent the Stupefaction or visionary Madness of poets, equally dull and exfravagant. Of Alpheus's waters glid ng fecretly under the sea of Pifa, to mix with thofe of Arethufe in Sicily, fee Mofchus, Idyll, viii. Virg. Ecl. x.

340

345

* Luke Milbourn, a clergyman, the fairest of Critics; who, when he wrote againft Mr. Dryden's Virgil, did him juftice in printing at the same time his own tranflations of him, which were intolerable. His manner of writing has a great refemblance with that of the gentlemen of the Dunciad against our author, as will be feen in the Parallel of Mr. Dryden and him. Append.

fit is to be hoped that the fatire in thefe lines will be understood in the confined fenfe in which the Author meant it, of fuch only of the Clergy, who, tho' folemnly engaged in the fervice of Religion, dedicate themselves for venal and corrupt ends to that of Ministers or Factions; and tho' educated under an entire ignorance of the world, afpire to interfere in the government of it, and confequently to disturb and disorder it; in which they

fall

Prompt or to guard or stab, to faint or damn,
Heav'n's Swifs, who fight for any God, or Man.

360

Thro' Lud's fam'd gates *, along the well known Fleet
Rolls the black troop, and overshades the street,
'Till show'rs of Sermons, Characters, Effays,
In circling fleeces whiten all the ways:
So clouds replenish'd from fome bog below,
Mount in dark volumes, and defcend in fnow.
Here ftopt the Goddess; and in pomp proclaims
A gentler exercife to close the games.

"Ye Critics! in whofe heads, as equal fcales
"I weigh what author's heaviness prevails:
"Which moft conduce to footh the foul in flumbers,
"My H-ley's periods, or my Blackmore's numbers ;
"Attend the trial we propofe to make :
37L

"If there be man, who o'er fuch works can wake,
"Sleep's all-fubduing charms who dares defy,
"And boafts Ulyffes' ear with Argus' eye +;
"To him we grant our ampleft pow'rs to fit
Judge of all present, past, and future wit ;
"To cavil, cenfure, dictate, right or wrong,
Full and eternal privilege of tongue."

66

365

fall short of their Predeceffors only by being invested with much less of that power and authority, which they employed indifferently (as is hinted at in the lines above) either in fupporting arbitrary power, or in exciting rebellion; in canonizing the vices of Tyrants, or in blackening the virtues of Patriots; in corrupting religion by superstition, or betraying it by libertinifm, as either was thought best to ferve the ends of policy, or flatter the follies of the great.

375

*«King Lud repairing the city, called it after his own name, Lud's "Town; the ftrong gate which he built in the west part, he likewife, for "his own honour, named Ludgate. In the year 1260, this gate was beautified with images of Lud and other kings. Those images in the reign of "Edward VI. had their heads fmitten off and were otherwife defaced by unadvifed folks. Queen Mary did fet new heads upon their old bodies again. The 28th of queen Elizabeth the fame gate was clean taken down, and newly and heautifully builded, with images of Lud and others, as "afore." Stow's Survey of London.

† See Hom. Odyss. xii. Ovid, Met. i,

Three

Three College Sophs, and three pert Templars came, The fame their talents, and their taftes the fame; 380 Each prompt to query, anfwer, and debate, And finit with love of Poefy and Prate.

The pond'rous books too gentle readers bring!
The heroes fit, the vulgar form a ring,

The clam'rous crowd is hufh'd with mugs of Mum, 385
'Till all tun'd equal, fend a gen'ral hum.
Then mount the Clerks, and in one lazy tone

;

Through the long, heavy, painful page drawl on *
Soft creeping, words on words, the fenfe compofe,
At ev'ry line they ftretch, they yawn, they doze.
As to foft gales top-heavy pines bow low
Their heads, and lift them as they ceafe to blow:
Thus oft they rear, and oft the head decline,
As breathe, or pause, by fits, the airs divine.
And now to this fide, now to that they nod,
As verfe, or profe, infufe the drowzy God.
Thrice Budgel aim'd to speak †, but thrice fuppreft
By potent Arthur, knock'd his chin and breaft.
Toland and Tindal, prompt at priefts to jeer,
Yet filent bow'd to Chrift's No kingdom here .

399

395

400

Who

*All thefe lines very well imitate the flow drowzinefs with which they

proceed. It is impoffible to any one, who has a poetical ear, to read "them without perceiving the heavinefs that lags in the verfe, to imitate "the action it defcribes. The fimile of the Pines is very juft and well a

dapted to the fubject;" fays an enemy, in his Ellay on the Dunciad,

P. 21.

etc.

+ Famous for his fpeeches on many occafions about the South Sea fcheme, "He is a very ingenious gentleman, and hath written fome excellent "Epilogues to plays, and one fmall piece on Love, which is very pretty." Jacob, Lives of Poets, vol. ii. p. 289. But this gentleman fince made himfelf much more eminent, and perfonally well known to the greatest states men of all parties, as well as to all the Courts of Law in this nation.

Two perfons not fo happy as to be obfcure, who writ against the Religion of their Country. Toland, the Author of the Atheist's liturgy, called Pantheifticon, was a spy, in pay to lord Oxford. Tindal was author of the Rights of the Chriftian Church, and Christianity as old as the Creation. He alfo wrote an abufive pamphlet against earl S-, which was fuppreffed, while yet in MS. by an eminent perfor, then out of the ministry, to whom he fhewed

And now to this side, now to that they nod
As Verse or Prose infuse the drowsy God.

Dunciad.

"