She mounts the Throne: her head a Cloud conceal'd, In broad Effulgence all below reveal'd *, ('Tis thus afpiring Dulness ever fhines) Soft on her lap her Laureate fon + reclines. M m 2 20 There *It was the opinion of the Antients, that the Divinities manifefted themfalves to Men by their Back-parts. Virg. En. er avertens, rafea cervice refulfit. But this paffage may admit of another expofition.-Vet. Adag. the higher you climb, the more pou shew your a Verified in no instance more than in Dulness aspiring. Eniblematize also by an Ape climbing and expofing his pofteriors. SCRIBL. With great judgment it is imagined by the Poet, that fuch a Colleague as Dulness had elected, should sleep on the Throne, and have very little share in the Action of the Poem. Accordingly he hath done little or nothing from the day of his Anointing; having past thro' the second book without taking part in any thing that was tranfacted about him; and through the third in profound Sleep Nor ought this, well confidered, to feem ftrange in our days, when fo many King-conforts have done the like. SCRIBL. This verse our excellent Laureate took so to heart, that he appealed to all mankind, "if he was not as feldom asleep as any fool!" But it is hoped the Poet has not injured him, but rather verified his Prophecy (p. 243, of his own Life, 8vo. ch. ix.) where he says, "the reader will be as much pleased to find me a Dunce in my Old Age, as he was to prove me a brisk blockhead in my Youth." Wherever there was any room for Brifknefs, or Alacrity of any fort, even in finking, he hath had it allowed; but here, where there is nothing for him to do but to take his natural reft, he must permit his Hiftorian to be filent. It is from their actions only that Princes have their character, and Poets from their works: And if in thofe he be as much afleep as any fool, the Poet muft leave him and them to fleep to all eternity. BENTL. Ibid. "When I find my Name in the fatirical works of this Poet, I ne"ver look upon it as any malice meant to me, but PROFIT to himself For "he confiders that my Face is more known than most in the nation; and therefore a Lick at the Laureate will be a fure bait ad captandum vulgus, 10 "catch little readers." Life of Colley Cibber, ch. ii. Now if it be certain, that the works of our Poet have owed their fuccefs to this ingenious expedient, we hence derive an unanswerable Argument, that this Fourth DUNCIAD, as well as the former three, hath had the Author's laft hand, and was by him intended for the Prefs: Or eife to what purpose hath he crown'd it, as we see, by this finishing stroke, the profitable Lick at the Laureate ? BENT. We are next prefented with the pictures of those whom the Goddefs leads in Captivity. Science is only depressed and confined 1, as to be rendered useless; but Wit or Genius, as a more dangerous and active enemy, pun There foam'd rebellious Logic, gagg'd and bound; 25 And dies, when Dulnefs gives her Page + the word. 30 Mad Mathefis alone was unconfin'd, Too mad for mere material chains to bind, Now to pure Space || lifts her extatic ftare, Now running round the Circle, finds it square §. Watch'd both by Envy's and by Flatt'ry's ** eye; 35 There ished, or driven away: Dulness being often reconciled in some degree with Learning, but never upon any terms with Wit. And accordingly it will be feen that she admits fomething like each Science, as Cafuistry, Sophistry, etc. but nothing like Wit, Opera alone fupplying its place. *Morality is the Daughter of Aftræa. This alludes to the Mythology of the ancient Poets; who tells us that in the Gold and Silver ages, or in the State of Nature, the Gods cohabited with men here on earth; but when by reafon of human degeneracy men were forced to have recourse to a Magiftrate, and that the Ages of Brafs and Iron came on; (that is, when Laws were wrote on brazen tablets inforced by the Sword of Justice) the Celestials foon retired from Earth, and Aftræa last of all; and then it was fhe left this her Orphan Daughter in the hands of the Guardians aforefaid. SCRIBL. There was a Judge of this name, always ready to hang any man that came before him, of which he was suffered to give a hundred miserable examples during a long life, even to his dotage-Tho' the candid Scriblerus imagined Page here to mean no more than a Fage or Mute, and to allude to the cuftom of ftrangling State Criminals in Turkey by Mutes or Pages. A practice more decent than that of our Page, who before he hanged any one, loaded him with reproachful language. SCRIBE. Alluding to the strange Conclufions fome Mathematicians have deduced from their principles, concerning the real Quantity of Matter, the Reality of Space, etc. I. e. Pure and defecated from Matter.-Extatic ftare, the action of Mex who look about with full affurance of feeing what does not exift, fuch as those who expect to find Space a real being. § Regards the wild and fruitless attempts of squaring the Circle. * One of the misfortunes falling on Authors, from the A for fubjecting Plays to the power of a Licenfer, being the false representations to which they There to her heart fad Tragedy addrest The dagger wont to pierce the Tyrant's breast; And promis'd vengeance on a barb'rous age. Nor could'ft thou, CHESTERFIELD! a tear refuse, 40 45 Foreign they were expos'd, from fuch as either gratify'd their Envy to Merit, or made their Court to Greatness, by perverting general Reflections against Vice into Libels on particular Perfons. * Hiftory attends on Tragedy, Satire on Comedy, as their fubftitutes in the discharge of their distinct functions; the one in high life, recording the crimes and punishments of the great; the other in low, exposing the vices or follies of the common people. But it may be asked, How came Hiftory and Satire to be admitted with impunity to minifter comfort to the Muses, even in the prefence of the Goddels, and in the midst of all her triumphs? A question, fays Scriblerus, which we thus refolve; History was brought up in her infancy by Dulness herself; but being afterwards efpoufed into a noble houfe, the forgot (as is ufual) the humility of her birth, and the cares of her carly friends. This occafioned a long eltrangement between her and Dulness. At length, in procefs of time, they met together, in a Monk's Cell, were reconciled, and became better friends than ever. After this they had a fecond quarrel, but it held not long, and are now again on reasonable terms, and fo are like to continue. This accounts for the connivance fhewn to History on this occafion. But the boldness of SATIRE fprings from a very different caufe; for the reader ought to know, that the alone of all the fifters is unconquerable, never to be silenced, when truly infpired and animated (as should feem) from above, for this very purpofe, to oppose the kingdom of Dulness to her last breath. ↑ This noble Perfon in the year 1737. when the A& aforefaid was brought into the House of Lords, opposed it in an excellent speech (fays Mr. Cibber) "with a lively fpirit, and uncommon eloquence." This fpeech had the honour to be answered by the faid Mr. Gibber, with a lively fpitit alfo, and in a manner very uncommon, in the 8th Chapter of his Life and Manners. And here, gentle Reader, would I gladly infert the other fpeech, whereby thou mightest judge between them: but 1 must defer it on account of fome differences not yet adjusted between the noble Author, and myself, concerning the True Reading of certain paffages BENTI. The Attitude given to this Phantom reprefents the nature and genius of the Foreign her air, her robe's difcordant pride She trip'd and laugh'd, too pretty much to stand : O Cara! Cara! filence all that train · 50 55 ნი the Italian Opera; its affected airs, its effeminate founds and the practice of patching up thefe Operas with favourite Songs, incoherently put toge ther. Thefe things were fupported by the fubfcriptions of the Nobility. This circumftance that OPERA fhould prepare for the opening of the grand Seffions, was prophefied of in Book iii. ver. 304. "Already Opera prepares the way, "The fure fore-runner of her gentle faay." Alluding to the falfe taste of playing tricks in Mufic with numberless divifions, to the neglect of that harmony which conforms to the Senfe, and applies to the Paffions. Mr. Handel had introduced a great number of Hands, and more variety of Inftruments into the Orchestra, and employed even Drums and Cannon to make a fuli.r Chorus; which prov'd fo much too manly for the fine Gentlemen of his age, that he was obliged to remove his Music into Ireland. After which they were reduc.d, for want of Compofers, to practise the patch work abovementioned. That fpecies of the antient mufic called the Chromatic was a variation and embellishment, in odd irregularities, of the Diatonic kind. They fay it was invented about the time of Aleand.r, and that the Spartans fortad the use of it as languid and effeminate. 1. e. Diffipate the devotion of the one by light and wanton airs; and fubdue the Pathos of the other by recitative and fing. song. § Not the ancient Phabus, the God of Harmony, but a modern Phœbus of French extraction, married to the princefs Galimatbia, one of the handmaids of Dulnefs, and an affiant to Opera. Of whom fee Boubours, and other Critics of that nation. SCBIBL. But But foon, ah foon, Rebellion will commence, 65 70 75 None Pofterior, viz, her fecond or inore certain Report; unless we imagine this word posterior to relate to the position of one of her Trumpets, according to Hudibras. "She blows not both with the fame Wind, "But one before and one behind; "And therefore modern Authors name "One good, and t' other evil Fame." In this new world of Dulness each of these three claffes hath its appoint. ed flation, as beft fuits its nature, and concurs to the harmony of the System, The firft, drawn only by the ftrong and fimple impulse of Attraction, are reprefented as falling directly down into her; as conglobed into her substance, and refling in her centre. "Hung to the Goddefs, and coher'd arcund." The fecond, tho' within the sphere of her attraction, yet having at the fame a time projectile motion, are carried, by the compofition of these two, in planetary revolutions round her centre, fome nearer to it, fome further off: "Who gently drawn, and struggling lefs and lefs, "Roll in her Vortex, and her pow'r confefs." The third are properly excentrical, and no. constant members of her state or fyftem: fometimes at an immense distance from her influence, and fome, times again almost on the surface of her broad effulgence. Their use in their Perihelion, or nearest approach to Dulness, is the fame in the moral World, as that of Comets in the natural, namely to refresh and recreate the drynefs and decays of the fyftem; in the manner marked out from ver. 91 to 98. The fons of Dulness want no instructors in ftudy, nor guides in life: They are their own masters in all Sciences, and their own Heralds and introducers into all places. |