O! when shall rife a monarch all our own, And all be fleep, as at an ode of thine!" 315 She ceas'd. Then swells the Chapel, royal throat; God fave King Cibber! mounts in ev'ry note.. 320 Familiar White's, God fave King Colley! cries; God fave King Colley! Drury-lane replies : To Needham's quick the voice triumphal rode, But pious Needham dropt the name of God; Back to the Devil the last echoes roli, And Coll! each butcher roars a Hockley-hole. So when Jove's block descended from on high (As fings thy great forefather Ogilby) Loud thunder to its bottom shook the bog, And the hoarse nation croak'd, God fave King Log! 325 329 REMARKS. v. 324. But pious Needham.] A matron of great fame, and very religi ous in her way; whose constant prayer it was that the might "get "enough by her profeffion to leave it off in time, and make her peace "with God." But her fate was not so happy; for being convicted, and fet in the pillory, the was (to the lasting shame of all her great friends and votaries) fo ill ufed by the populace, that it put an end to her days. IMITATIONS. v. 311. 0! when shali rise a monarch, &c.] Boileau, Lutrin, chant ii. "Helas! qu'est devenu ce tems, cet heureux tems, "Ou les rois s'honoroient du nom de Faineans." &c. TO DR. JONATHAN SWIFT. BOOK II. The Argument. THE King being proclaimed, the folemnity is graced with public games and sports of various kinds; not instituted by the Hero, as by Aeneas in Virgil, but for greater honour hy the Goddess in perfon (in like manner as the games Pithia, Iithmia, &c. were anciently faid to be ordained by the gods; and as Thetis herfelf appearing, according to Homer, Odyfey XXIV. propoted the prizes in honour of her fon Achilles.) Hither flock the Poets and Critics, attended, as is but just, with their Patrons and Book(ellers. The Goddess is first pleated, for her difport, to propose games to the Bookfellers, and fetteth up the phantom of a poet, which they contend to overtake. The races defcribed, with their divers accidents. Next the game for a Portefs. Then follow the exercises for the Poets, of tickling, vociferating, diving: the first holds forth the arts and practices of Dedicators, the fecond of Difputants and fultian Poets, the third of Profound, dark, and dirty party-writers. Lastly, for the Critics the Goddess proposes (with great propriety) an exercise, not of their parts, but their patience, in hearing the works of two voluminous authors, the one in verfe and the other in profe, deliberately read, without fleeping; the various effects of which, with the feveral degrees and mannes of their operation, are here fet forth, till the whole number, not of Critics only, but of Spectators, Actors, and all prefent, fall faft afsleep; which naturally and neceflarily ends the Games. HIGH on a gorgeous feat, that far outshone Or that where on her Curls the Public pours, So 5 REMARKS. v. 2.---or Fleckno's Irish throne.] Richard Fleckno was an Irish priest, but had laid afide (as himself expressed it) the mechanic part of priesthood. He printed some plays, poems, letters, and travels. I doubt not our Author took occafion to mention him in respect to the poem of Mr. Dryden, to which this bears fome refemblance, though of a character more different from it than that of the Æneid from the Iliad, or the Lutrin of Boileau from the Defait de Bouts rimees of Sarazin. IMITATIONS. 2. 1. High on a gorgeous feat.] Parody of Milton, Book II. So from the fun's broad beam, in shallow urns, Heav'n's twinkling sparks draw light, and point their horns. Not with more glee, by hands pontific crown'd, With fcarlet hats wide waving circled round, 15 And now the Queen, to glad her fons, proclaims By herald hawkers high heroic games. All who true Dunces in her cause appear'd, Amid that area wide they took their stand, With authors stationers obey'd the call; (The field of glory is a field for all :) REMARKS. 20 25 30 35 No v. 15. Rome in her Capitol faw Querno fit. Camillo Querno was of Apulia, who, hearing the great encouragement which Leo X. gave to poets, travelled to Rome with a harp in his hand, and fung to it twentythousand verses of a poem called Alexias. He was introduced as a buffoon to Leo, and promoted to the honour of the Laurel; a jest which the court of Rome and the Pope himself entered into fo far, as to cause him to ride on an elephant to the Capitol, and to hold a folema festival on his coronation; at which it is recorded, the poet himself was fo transported as to weep for joy. He was ever after a conftant frequenter of the Pope's table, drank abundantly, and poured forth verses without number. Paulus Jovius, Elog. Vir. doct. cap. xxxii. Some idea of his poetry is given by Fam. Strada in his Prolufions. * IMITATIONS. v. 35. A poet's form the plac'd before their eyes.] This is what Juno does to deceive Turnus, Æn. X. * See Life of C. C. chap. vi. p. 149. No meagre, muse-rid mope, adust and thin, So like, that critics said, and courtiers swore, 50 All gaze with ardour: fome a poet's name. 55 REMARKS. v. 53. But lofty Lintot. We enter here upon the Episode of the Bookteilers; perfons, whose names being more known and famous in the learned world than those of the authors in this Poem, do therefore need lefs explanation. The action of Mr. Lintot here, imitates that of Dares in Virgıl, rifing juft in this manner to lay hold on a bull. This eminent bookfeller printed the Rival Modes before mentioned. v. 58. Stood dauntless Curl.] We come now to a character of much refpect, that of Mr. Edmund Curl. As a plain repetition of great actions IMITATIONS. "Tum Dea nube cava, tenuem fine viribus umbram "Divini affimilat capitis----- Dat inania verba, "Dat fine mente jonum--------" is The reader will obferve how exactly some of these verses suit with their allegorical application here to a plagiary. There feems to me a great propriety in this Episode, where fuch an one is imaged by a phantom that deludes the grafp of the expecting bookfeller. v. 39. But fuch a bulk as no twelve bards could raije.] "Vix illud lecti bis sex---- Qualia nunc hominum producit corpora tellus." Aa Virg. Æn. XII. "The "The race by vigour, not by vaunts, is won; He left huge Lintot, and outstript the wind. REMARKS. With is the best praise of them, we shall only fay of this eminent man, that he carried the trade many lengths beyond what it ever before had arrived at; and that he was the envy and admiration of all his profeffion. He poffefsed himself of a command over all authors whatever; he caufed them to write what he pleated; they could not call their very names their own. He was not only famous among thefe, he was taken notice of by the frate, the church, and the law, and received particular marks of ditinction from each. It will be owned that he is here introduced with all possible dignity: he speaks like the intrepid Diomed, he runs like the fwift-footed Achilles; if he falls, 'tis like the beloved Nifus; and (what Horner makes to be the chief of all praifes) he is favoured of the gods: he fays but three words, and his prayer is heard; a goddess conveys it to the feat of Jupiter. Though he lofes the prize, he gains the victory: the Great Mother herfelf comforts him, the inspires him with expedients, the honours him with an immortal prefent (fuch as Achilles receives from Thetis, and Æneas from Venus) at once instructive and prophetical. After this he is unrivalled and triumphant. The tribute our Author here pays him is a grateful return for feveral unmerited obligations: many weignty animadverfions on the public affairs, and many excellent and diverting pieces on private perfons, has he given to his name. 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; witness innumerable intances: but it shali fuffice 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, IMITATIONS. v. 60. So take the hindmost, Hell.] "Occupet extremum scabies; mihi turpe relinqui est." and Hor. de Arte. ข. 61, &c.] Something like this is in Homer, Iliad X. ver. 220. of Diomed. Two different manners of the fame author in his fimilies are alfo imitated in the two following; the first, of the Bailiff, is thort, unadorned, and (as the critics well know) from familiar life; the fecond of the Water-fow', more extended, picturesque, and from rural life. The 59th verse is likewife a literal tranflation of one in Homer. 2. 64, 65. On feet and wings, and flies, and wades, and bops; So lab'ring on, with shoulders, hands, and head.] "------So eagerly the Fiend Milton, Book II. |