THE ARGUMENT. The king being proclaimed, the solemnity is graced with public games and sports of various kinds; not instituted by the hero, as by Æneas in Virgil, but, for greater honour, by the goddess in person, in like manner as the games Pithia, Isthmia, &c. were anciently said to be ordained by the gods; and as Thetis herself appearing, according to Homer, Ody'ssey XXIV, proposed the prizes in honour of her son Achilles. Hither flock the poets and critics, attended, as is but just, with their patrons and booksellers, The goddess is first pleased, for her disport, to propose games to the booksellers, and setteth up the phantom of a poet, which they contend to overtake. The races described, with their divers accidents. Next the game for a poetess. Then follow the exercises for the poets, of tickling, vociferating, diving: the first holds forth the arts and practices of dedicators, the second of disputants and fustian 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 verse and the other in prose, deliberately read, without sleeping; the various effects of which, with the several degrees and manners of their operation, are here set forth, till the whole number, not of critics only, but of spectators, actors, and all present, fall fast asleep, which naturally and necessarily ends the games. THE DUNCIAD. TO DR. JONATHAN SWIFT. BOOK II. HIGH on a gorgeous seat, that far outshone REMARKS. ໑. 2.-or Fleckno's Irish throne.] Richard Fleckno was an Irish priest, but had laid aside, as himself expressed it, the mechanic part of priesthood. He printed some plays, poems, letters, and travels. I doubt not our author took occasion to mention him in respect to the poem of Mr. Dryden, to which this bears some resemblance, though of a character more different from it than that of the Aneid from the Iliad, or the Lutrin of Boileau from the Defait de Bouts rimees of Sarazin. 1 Mix on his look: all eyes direct their rays His peers shine round him with reflected grace, horns. Not with more glee, by hands pontific crown'd, REMARKS. 11 15 v. 15. Rome in her capitol saw Querno sit.] 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 sung to it twenty thousand 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 so far, as to cause him to ride on an elephant to the capitol, and to hold a solemn festival on his coronation; at which, it is recorded, the poet himself was so transported as to weep for joy. He was ever after a constant 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 Prolusions. And now the queen, to glad her sons, proclaims By herald hawkers high heroic games. They summon all her race: an endless band Pours forth, and leaves unpeopled half the land. 20 A motley mixture! in long wigs, in bags, In silks, in crapes, in garters, and in rags, From drawing-rooms, from colleges, from garrets, On horse, on foot, in hacks and gilded chariots: All who true dunces in her cause appear'd, And all who knew those dunces to reward. Amid that area wide they took their stand, Where the tall may-pole once o'erlook'd the Strand, But now, so Anne and Piety ordain, A church collects the saints of Drury-lane. 25 30 35 With authors, stationers obey'd the call; (The field of glory is a field for all) : Glory and gain th' industrious tribe provoke, And gentle Dulness ever loves a joke. A poet's form she plac'd before their eyes, And bade the nimblest racer seize the prize : No meagre, muse-rid mope, adust and thin, In a dun night-gown of his own loose skin ; But such a bulk as no twelve bards could raise, Twelve starv'ling bards of these degen'rate days. 40 All as a partridge plump, full-fed and fair, She form'd this image of well-body'd air; |