Yet ate, in dreams, the custard of the day; While pensive Poets painful vigils keep, Sleepless themselves, to give their readers sleep. Much to the mindful Queen the feast recalls 95 What City Swans once sung within the walls; Much she revolves their arts, their ancient praise, And sure succession down from Heywood's days.' She saw, with joy, the line immortal run, 3 105 1 John Heywood, whose Interludes were printed in the time of Henry VIII.-P. 2 The first edition had it, "She saw in Norton all his father shine :" a great mistake! for Daniel De Foe had parts, but Norton De Foe was a wretched writer, and never attempted Poetry. Much more justly is Daniel himself made successor to W. Pryn, both of whom wrote Verses as well as Politics. And both these authors had a resemblance in their fates as well as writings, having been alike sentenced to the Pillory.-P. William Prynne (1600-1669), was a most voluminous writer. He was placed in the pillory and fined £5,000 for his "Histriomastix. دو 3 Laurence Eusden, Poet Laureate. Mr. Jacob gives a catalogue of some few only of his works, which were very numerous. Of Blackmore, see Book_ii. ; of Philips, Book i. 258, and Book iii. prope fin.-P. 4 Nahum Tate was Poet Laureate, a cold writer, of no invention; but sometimes translated tolerably when befriended by Mr. Dryden. In his second part of Absalom and Achitophel are above two hundred admirable lines together of that great hand, which And all the mighty Mad in Dennis rage.1 strongly shine through the insipidity of the rest. Something parallel may be observed of another author here mentioned.-P. The other author was Ambrose Philips, who was supposed to have received assistance from Addison. This is by no means to be understood literally, as if Mr. Dennis were really mad, according to the Narrative of Dr. Norris in Swift and Pope's Miscellanies, vol. iii. No-it is spoken of that excellent and divine Madness, so often mentioned by Plato; that poetical rage and enthusiasm, with which Mr. D. hath, in his time, been highly possessed; and of those extraordinary hints and motions whereof he himself so feelingly treats in his preface to the Rem. on Pr. Arth. [See Notes on Book ii. ver. 268.]—Scriblerus. -P. Mr. Theobald, in the Censor, vol. ii. N. 33, calls Mr. Dennis by the name of Furius. "The modern Furius is to be looked upon as more an object of pity, than of that which he daily provokes, laughter and contempt. Did we really know how much this poor man (I wish that reflection on poverty had been spared) suffers by being contradicted, or, which is the same thing in effect, by hearing another praised; we should, in compassion, sometimes attend to him with a silent nod, and let him go away with the triumphs of his ill-nature. Poor Furius (again) when any of his con temporaries are spoken well of, quitting the ground of the present dispute, steps back a thousand years to call in the succour of the Ancients. His very panegyric is spiteful, and he uses it for the same reason as some ladies do their commendations of a dead beauty, who would never have had their good word, but that a living one happened to be mentioned in their company. His applause is not the tribute of his Heart, but the sacrifice of his Revenge," &c. Indeed, his pieces against our poet are somewhat of an angry character, and as they are now scarce extant, a taste of his style may be satisfactory to the curious. young, squab, short gentleman, whose outward form, though it should be that of downright monkey, would not differ so much from human shape as his unthinking immaterial part does from human understanding.He is as stupid and as venomous as a hunch-backed "A In each she marks her Image full expressed, toad.—A book through which folly and ignorance, those brethren so lame and impotent, do ridiculously look very big and very dull, and strut and hobble, cheek by jowl, with their arms on kimbo, being led and supported, and bully-backed by that blind Hector, Impudence."-Reflect. on the Essay on Criticism, pp. 26, 29, 30. It would be unjust not to add his reasons for this fury, they are so strong and so coercive: "I regard him," saith he, "as an Enemy, not so much to me, as to my King, to my Country, to my Religion, and to that Liberty which has been the sole felicity of my life. A vagary of Fortune, who is sometimes pleased to be frolicsome, and the epidemic Madness of the Times, have given him Reputation, and Reputation (as Hobbes says) is Power, and that has made him dangerous. Therefore I look on it as my duty to King George, whose faithful subject I am; to my Country, of which I have appeared a constant lover; to the laws, under whose protection I have so long lived; and to the Liberty of my Country, more dear to me than life, of which I have now for forty years been a constant assertor, &c. I look upon it as my duty, I say, to do-you shall see what-to pull the lion's skin from this little Ass, which popular error has thrown round him; and to show that this Author, who has been lately so much in vogue, has neither sense in his thoughts, nor English in his expressions.' -Dennis, Rem. on Hom. Pref. pp. 2, 91, &c. ور Besides these public-spirited reasons, Mr. D. had a private one; which, by his manner of expressing it in p. 92, appears to have been equally strong. He was even in bodily fear of his life from the machinations of the said Mr. P. "The story (says he) is too long to be told, but who would be acquainted with it, may hear it from Mr. Curl, my Bookseller. However, what my reason has suggested to me, that I have with a just confidence said, in defiance of his two clandestine weapons, his Slander and his Poison.” Which last words of his book plainly discover Mr. D.'s suspicion was that of being poisoned, in like manner as Mr. Curl had been before him: Of which fact see A full and true Account of a Horrid and Barbarous Revenge, by Poison, on the Body of Ed But chief in BAYS's monster-breeding breast:1 mund Curl, printed in 1716, the year antecedent to that wherein these remarks of Mr. Dennis were published. But what puts it beyond all question, is a passage in a very warm treatise, in which Mr. D. was also concerned, price twopence, called A true Character of Mr. Pope, and his Writings, printed for S. Popping, 1716; in the tenth page whereof he is said "to have insulted people on those calamities and diseases which he himself gave them, by administering Poison to them; " and is called (p. 4) 66 a lurking waylaying coward, and a stabber in the dark." Which (with many other things most lively set forth in that piece) must have rendered him a terror, not to Mr. Dennis only, but to all Christian people. For the rest: Mr. John Dennis was the son of a Saddler in London, born in 1657. He paid court to Mr. Dryden; and having obtained some correspondence with Mr. Wycherly and Mr. Congreve, he immediately obliged the public with their Letters. He made himself known to the Government by many admirable schemes and projects; which the Ministry, for reasons best known to themselves, constantly kept private. For his character, as a writer, it is given us as follows: "Mr. Dennis is excellent at Pindaric writings, perfectly regular in all his performances, and a person of sound Learning. That he is master of a great deal of Penetration and Judgment, his criticisms (particularly on Prince Arthur) do sufficiently demonstrate. From the same account it also appears that he writ plays "more to get Reputation than Money."-Dennis of himself. See Giles Jacob's Lives of Dram. Poets, pp. 68, 69, compared with p. 286.-P. In the editions before 1743, these lines ran as follows: "But chief, in Tibbald's monster-breeding-breast; See gods with demons in strange league engage, And earth, and heaven, and hell her battles wage. She eyed the bard, where supperless he sate, And pined, unconscious of his rising fate; Studious he sate, with all his books around, Sinking from thought to thought," &c. Tibbald. Author of a pamplet entitled Shakespear Restored. During two whole years while Mr. Bays, formed by nature Stage and Town to bless,1 And act, and be, a Coxcomb with success. IIO Dulness with transport eyes the lively Dunce, Remembering she herself was Pertness once. Pope was preparing his edition of Shakespear, he published Advertisements, requesting assistance, and promising satisfaction to any who could contribute to its greater perfection. But this Restorer, who was at that time soliciting favours of him by letters, did wholly conceal his design till after its publication (which he was since not ashamed to own, in a Daily Journal of Nov. 26, 1728). And then an outcry was made in the Prints, that our Author had joined with the booksellers to raise an extravagant subscription; in which he had no share, of which he had no knowledge, and against which he had publicly advertised in his own proposals for Homer. Probably that proceeding elevated Tibbald to the dignity he holds in this Poem, which he seems to deserve no other way better than his brethren; unless we impute it to the share he had in the Journals, cited among the Testimonies of Authors prefixed to this work.-P. Lewis Theobald was the exact contemporary of Pope, being born in 1688, and dying in 1744. His edition of Shakespeare, published in 1733, was greatly superior to Pope's edition, published five years earlier. Theobald was hero of the Dunciad from 1728 till 1743, when he was replaced by Cibber. See Memoir, p. xxxii. It is hoped the poet here hath done full justice to his Hero's character, which it were a great mistake to imagine was wholly sunk in stupidity; he is allowed to have supported it with a wonderful mixture of Vivacity. This character is heightened, according to his own desire, in a Letter he wrote to our author. "Pert and dull at least you might have allowed me. What! am I only to be dull, and dull still, and again, and for ever?" He then solemnly appealed to his own conscience, that "he could not think himself so, nor believe that our Poet did; but that he spoke worse of him than he could possibly think; and concluded it must be merely to show his Wit, or for |