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When you, like Orpheus, strike the warbling lyre,
Attentivé blocks stand round you and admire.
Wit pass'd through thee no longer is the same,
As meat digested takes a different name;
But sense must sure thy safest plunder be,
Since no reprisals can be made on thee.
Thus thou may'st rise, and in thy daring flight
(Tho' ne'er so weighty) reach a wondrous height:
So forced from engines, lead itself can fly,

And ponderous slugs move nimbly through the sky.
Sure Bavius copied Mævius to the full,

And Chœrilus taught Codrus to be dull;
Therefore, dear friend, at my advice give o'er
This needless labour; and contend no more
To prove a dull succession to be true,
Since 'tis enough we find it so in you.

1740.

A FRAGMENT OF A POEM.

O WRETCHED B! jealous now of all,
What God, what mortal, shall prevent thy fall?
Turn, turn thy eyes from wicked men in place,
And see what succour from the patriot race.
C his own proud dupe, thinks monarchs things
Made just for him, as other fools for kings;
Controls, decides, insults thee every hour,
And antedates the hatred due to power.

Thro' clouds of passion P's views are clear,
He foams a patriot to subside a peer;
Impatient sees his country bought and sold,
And damns the market where he takes no gold.
Grave, righteous S― jogs on, till, past belief,
He finds himself companion with a thief.

To purge and let thee blood, with fire and sword, Is all the help stern S would afford.

That those who bind and rob thee, would not kill, Good Chopes, and candidly sits still.

Of Ch-s W

who speaks at all,

No more than of Sir Harry or Sir Paul?

Whose names once up; they thought it was not wrong To lie in bed, but sure they lay too long.

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G- -r, Cm, B-t, pay thee due regards, Unless the ladies bid them mind their cards.

with wit that must

And C▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬d, who speaks so well and writes,
Whom (saving W.) every S. harper bites.

Whose wit and

must needs

equally provoke one, Finds thee, at best, the butt to crack his joke on. As for the rest, each winter up they run, And all are clear, that something must be done. Then urged by Ct, or by C -t, or by Ct stopp'd, Inflamed by P and by P dropp'd;

They follow reverently each wondrous wight,
Amazed that one can read, that one can write:
So geese to gander prone obedience keep,
Hiss if he hiss, and if he slumber, sleep.
Till having done whate'er was fit or fine,
Utter'd a speech, and ask'd their friends to dine;
Each hurries back to his paternal ground,
Content but for five shillings in the pound;
Yearly defeated, yearly hopes they give,
And all agree, Sir Robert cannot live.
Rise, rise, great W- fated to appear,
Spite of thyself, a glorious minister!
Speak the loud language princes

And treat with half the

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Though still he travels on no bad pretence,
To show

Or those foul copies of thy face and tongue,
Veracious W and frontless Young;

Sagacious Bub, so late a friend, and there

So late a foe, yet more sagacious H-?

Hervey and Hervey's school, F, H—y, ¤—— Yea, moral Ebor, or religious Winton.

How! what can O w, what can D----

The wisdom of the one and other chair,

N- laugh, or D's sager,

Or thy dread truncheon, M.'s mighty peer?

What help from J's opiates canst thou draw, Or H-k's quibbles voted into law?

C., that Roman in his nose alone,

Who hears all causes, B, but thy own,
Or those proud fools whom nature, rank, and fate
Made fit companions for the sword of state.

Can the light packhorse, or the heavy steer,
The sowzing prelate, or the sweating peer,
Drag out with all its dirt and all its weight,
The lumbering carriage of thy broken state?
Alas! the people curse, the carman swears,
The drivers quarrel, and the master stares.

The plague is on thee, Britain, and who tries To save thee in the infectious office dies. The first firm P―y soon resign'd his breath, Brave Sw loved thee, and was lied to death. Good M-m-t's fate tore Pth from thy side, And thy last sigh was heard when W

-m died. Thy nobles sl-s, thy se-s bought with gold, Thy clergy perjured, thy whole people sold. An atheist a """'s ad

Blotch thee all o'er, and sink

Alas! on one alone our all relies,

Let him be honest, and he must be wise;
Let him no trifler from his

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Be but a man! unminister'd, alone,

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school,

And free at once the senate and the throne;
Esteem the public love his best supply,

A o's true glory his integrity;

Rich with his. . . in his . . . strong,
Affect no conquest, but endure no wrong.
Whatever his religion or his blood,
His public virtue makes his title good.
Europe's just balance and our own may stand
And one man's honesty redeem the land.

THE DUNCIAD,'

IN FOUR BOOKS.

PRINTED ACCORDING TO THE COMPLETE COPY FOUND IN THE YEAR 1742; WITH THE PROLEGOMENA OF SCRIBLERUS, AND NOTES.

Tandem Phœbus adest, morsusque inferre parantem
Congelat, et patulos, ut erant, indurat hiatus.-OVID.

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER

I HAVE long had a design of giving some sort of notes on the works of this poet. Before I had the happiness of his acquaintance, I had written a commentary on his Essay on Man, and have since finished another on the Essay on Criticism. There was one already on the Dunciad, which had met with general approbation: but I still thought some additions were wanting (of a more serious kind) to the humorous notes of Scriblerus, and even to those written by Mr. Cleland, Dr. Arbuthnot, and others. I had lately the pleasure to pass some months with the author in the country, where I prevailed upon him to do what I had long desired, and favour me with his explanation of several passages in his works. It happened, that just at that juncture was published a ridiculous book against him, full of personal reflections, which furnished him with a lucky opportunity of improving this poem, by giving it the only thing it wanted, a more considerable hero. He was always sensible of its defect in that particular, and owned he had let it pass with the hero it had, purely for want of a better; not entertaining the least expectation that such an one was reserved for this post, as has since obtained the laurel: but since that had happened, he could no longer deny this justice either to him or the Dunciad.

And yet I will venture to say, there was another motive which had still more weight with our author: this person was one, who from every folly (not to say vice) of which another would be ashamed, has constantly derived a vanity: and therefore was the man in the world who would least be hurt by it.

W. W.

1 The Dunciad is here reprinted from the last and the only complete edition issued during the life of the author, and approved by him; with the sole addition of the variations in the poem noticed by Warburton in his edition published after the death of Pope..

BY AUTHORITY.

BY VIRTUE OF THE AUTHORITY IN US VESTED BY THE ACT FOR SUBJECTING POETS TO THE POWER OF A LICENSER, WE HAVE REVISED THIS PIECE; WHERE, FINDING THE STYLE AND APPELLATION OF KING TO HAVE BEEN GIVEN TO A CERTAIN PRETENDER, PSEUDO-POET, OR PHANTOM, OF THE NAME OF TIBBALD; AND APPREHENDING THE SAME MAY BE DEEMED IN SOME SORT A REFLECTION ON MAJESTY, OR AT LEAST AN INSULT ON THAT LEGAL AUTHORITY WHICH HAS BESTOWED ON ANOTHER PERSON THE CROWN OF POESY: WE HAVE ORDERED THE SAID PRETENDER, PSEUDO-POET, OR PHANTOM, UTTERLY TO VANISH AND EVAPORATE OUT OF THIS WORK: AND DO DECLARE THE SAID THRONE OF POESY FROM HENCEFORTH TO BE ABDICATED AND · VACANT, UNLESS DULY AND LAWFULLY SUPPLIED BY THE LAUREATE HIMSELF, AND IT IS HEREBY ENACTED, THAT NO OTHER PERSON DO PRESUME TO FILL THE SAME.

ос. сн.

MARTINUS SCRIBLERUS

HIS PROLEGOMENA AND ILLUSTRATIONS TO THE DUNCIAD: WITH THE HYPER-CRITICS OF ARISTARCHUS,

A LETTER TO THE PUBLISHER,

OCCASIONED BY THE FIRST CORRECT EDITION OF THE DUNCIAD.

Ir is with pleasure I hear, that you have procured a correct copy of the DUNCIAD, which the many surreptitious ones have rendered so necessary: and it is yet with more, that I am informed it will be attended with a CoMMENTARY: a work so requisite, that I cannot think the author himself would have omitted it, had he approved of the first appearance of this poem.

Such notes as have occurred to me I herewith send you you will oblige me by inserting them amongst those which are, or will be, transmitted to you by others; since not only the author's friends, but even strangers appear engaged by humanity, to take some care of an orphan of so much genius and spirit, which its parent seems to have aban

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