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280

Though my own aldermen conferr'd the bays,
To me committing their eternal praise,
Their full-fed heroes, their pacific may'rs,
Their annual trophies, and their monthly wars:
Though long my party built on me their hopes,
For writing pamphlets, and for roasting Popes;
Yet lo! in me what authors have to brag on! 285
Reduc'd at last to hiss in my own dragon.
Avert in Heav'n! that thou, my Cibber, e'er
Shouldst wag a serpent-tail in Smithfield fair!
Like the vile straw that's blown about the streets,
The needy poet sticks to all he meets;
Coach'd, carted, trod upon, now loose, now fast,
And carry'd off in some dog's tail at last.
Happier thy fortunes! like a rolling stone,
Thy giddy dulness still shall lumber on,
Safe in its heaviness, shall never stray,
But lick up ev'ry blockhead in the way.
Thee shall the Patriot, thee the Courtier taste,
And ev'ry year be duller than the last;
Till rais'd from booths, to theatre, to court,
Her seat imperial Dulness shall transport.

VARIATIONS.

After v. 28. in the former edit. followed,,

Diff'rent our parties, but with equal grace
The Goddess smiles on Whig and Tory race.

c. 295. Safe in its heaviness, &c.] In e former edit. Too safe in inborn beaviness to stray,

And lick up ev'ry blockhead in the way.
Thy dragons, magistrates, and peers shall taste,
And from each shew rise duller than the last,
Till rais'd from booths, &c.

290

295

300

Already Opera prepares the way,

The sure forerunner of her gentle sway:
Let her thy heart, next drabs and dice, engage,
The third mad passion of thy doting age.
Teach thou the warling Polypheme to roar,
305
And scream thyself as none e'er scream'd before!
To aid our cause, if Heav'n thou canst not bend,
Hell thou shalt move; for Faustus is our friend;
Pluto with Cato, thou for this shalt join,
And link the Mourning Bride to Proserpine. 310
Grub-street! thy fall should men and gods conspire,
Thy stage shall stand, insure it but from fire.
Another Eschylus appears! prepare

For new abortions, all ye pregnant fair!

In flames like Semele's, be brought to bed, 315
While op'ning hell spouts-wild fire at your head.
Now, Bavius, take the poppy from thy brow,
And place it here! here, all ye heroes, bow!
This, this is he, foretold by ancient rhymes:
Th' Augustus born to bring Saturnian times. 320
igns following signs lead on the mighty year!
See! the dull stars roll round, and re-appear.

IMITATIONS.

*. 319, 320. This, this is he foretold by ancient rhymes, The Augustus, &c.]

Hic vir, hic est tibi quem promitti saepius audis, 'Augustus Cæsar, divum genus aurea condet

'Secula qui rursus Latio, regnota per arva

'Saturnio quondam'..

Virg En. VI.

aturnian here relates to the age of Lead, mentioned, B. I,

er. 26.

1

See, see, our own true Phœbus wears the bays!
Our Midas sits Lord Chancellor of plays!
On poets' tombs see Benson's titles writ!
Lo! Ambrose Philips is preferr'd for wit!

REMARKS.

325

v. 325. On poets' tombs see Benson's titles writ !] W-m Beason (Surveyor of the buildings to his Majesty King George 1.) gave in a report to the Lords, that their house and the Paintedchamber adjoining were in immediate danger of falling; whereupon the Lords met in a committee to appoint some other place to sit in while the house should be taken down. But it being proposed to cause some other builders first to inspect it, they found it in very good condition. The Lords upon this, were going upon an address to the King against Benson for such a misrepresentation; but the Earl of Sunderland, then Secretary, gave them an assurance that his Majesty would remove him, which was done accordingly. In favor of this man, the famous Sir Christopher Wren, who had been architect to the crown for above fifty years, who built most of the churches in London, laid the first stone of St. Paul's, and lived to finish it, had been displaced from his employment at the age of near ninety years.

v. 326...Ambrose Philips.] He was (saith Mr. Jacob) one of the wits at Button's, and a Justice of the Peace.' But he hath since met with higher preferment in Ireland: and a much greater character we have of him in Mr. Gildon's Complete Art of Poetry, vol. I. p. 157. Indeed, he confesses, he dares not set him quite on the same foot with Virgil, lest it should seem flat"tery, but he is much mistaken if posterity does not afford bim a greater esteem than he at present enjoys,' He endeavoured to create some misunderstanding between our Author and Mr. Addison, whom also soon after he abused as much. His con

VRRIATIONS.

z. 323. See, see her own, &c.] In the former edit.
Beneath his reign shall Eusden wear the bays,
Cibber preside Lord Chancellor of plays,
Benson, sole judge of architecture sit,

And Namby Pamby be preferr'd for wit!
I see th' unfinish'd Dormitory wall,
1 see the Savoy totter to her fall;

Hibernian politicks, O Swift! thy doom,

And Pope's translating three whole years with Broome.
Proceed, great days, &c.

See under Ripley rise a new Whitehall,

While Jones' and Boyle's united labours fall: While Wren with sorrow to the grave descends, Gay dies unpension'd, with a hundred friends; 330

REMARKS.

stant cry was, that Mr. P. was an enemy to the government; and in particular he was the avowed author of a report very industriously spread, that he had a hand in a party-paper called The Examiner: A falsehood well known to those, yet living, who had the direction and publication of it.

v. 330. Gay dies unpension'd, &c.] See Mr. Gay's fable of the Hare and many Friends. This gentleman was early in the riendship of our Author, which continued to his death. He wrote several works of humor with great success; The Sheperd's Week, Trivia, the What-d'ye-call it, Fables; and, lastly, he celebrated Beggar's Opera; a piece of satire which hit all astes and degrees of men, from those of the highest quality to he very rabble. That verse of Horace,

Primores populi arripuit, populumque tributim.'

ould never be so justly applied as to this. The vast success of t was unprecedented, and almost incredible: what is related of he wonderful effects of the ancient music or tragedy hardly came p to it: Sophocles and Euripides were less followed and famous. It was acted in London sixty-three days uninterrupted; and reewed the next season with equal applause. It spread into all e great towns of England, was played in many places to the irtieth and fortieth time, and at Bath and Bristol fifty, &c. lt tade its progress into Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, where it as performed twenty-four days together: it was last acted in finores. The fame of it was not confined to the author only; e ladies carried about with them the favourite songs of it in ins; and houses were furnished with it in screens. The pers.n ho acted Polly, till then obscure, became all at once the favote of the Town; her pictures were engraved, and sold in great umbers; her life written, books of letters and verses to her ublished, and pamphlets made even of her sayings and jests. Furthermore, it drove out of England, for that season, the Itaan opera, which had carried all before it for ten years. That lol of the nobility and people, which the great critic Mr. Denis, by the labors and outeries of a whole life, could not overrow, was demolished by a single stroke of this gentleman's en. This happened in the year 1728. Yet so great was his odesty, that he constantly prefixed to all the editions of it this otto. Nos hæc novimus esse nihil.

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Hibernian politics, O Swift! thy fate;
And Pope's, ten years to comment and translate.

Proceed, great days! 'till Learning fly the shore,
Till Birch shall blush with noble blood no more;
Till Thames see Eton's sons for ever play, 335
Till Westminster's whole year be holiday;
Till Isis' elders reel, their pupils' sport,
And Alma Mater lie dissolv'd in Port!

REMARKS.

v. 333. Proceed, great days! &c... Till Birch shall blush, &c.] Another great prophet of Dulness, on this side Styx, proiniseth those days to be near at hand. The devil (saith he) 'censed bishops to license masters of schools to instruct youth in the knowledge of the Heathen gods, their religion, &c. The 'schools and universities will soon be tired and ashamed of clas 'sics, and such trumpery.' Hutchinson's Use of Reason recovered. Scribl.

VARIATIONS.

v. 331. In the former edit, thus:

O Swift! thy doom,

And Pope's translating ten whole years with Broome. On which was the following note: 'He concludes his irony with a stroke upon himself: for whoever imagines this a sarcasm on the other ingenious person is surely mistaken. The opinion our Author had of him was sufficiently shewn by his joining him in the undertaking of the Odyssey: in which Mr. Broome,

ving engaged without any previous agreement, discharged his part so much to Mr. Pope's satisfaction, that he gratified him 'with the full sum of five hundred pounds, and a present of all 'those books for which his own interest could procure him subscribers, to the value of one hundred more. The Author only 'seems to lament that he was employed in translation at all.' After v. 338, in the first edit. were the following lines:

Then when these signs declare the mighty year,
When the dull stars roil round, and re-appear;
Let there be darkness! (the dread Pow'r shall say)
All shall be darkness, as it ne'er were day:
To their first chaos Wit's vain works shall fall,
And universal darkness cover all.

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