No merit now the dear Nonjuror claims, Rous'd by the light, old Dulness heav'd the head, Her ample presence fills up all the place; 255 260 Great in her charms! as when on Shrieves and May'rs She looks, and breathes herself into their airs. 265 She bids him wait her to her sacred Dome 5: 270 How random thoughts now meaning chance to find, 275 How Prologues into Prefaces decay, And these to Notes are fritter'd quite away: How Index-learning turns no student pale, Yet holds the eel of science by the tail: 280 How, with less reading than makes felons scape, Less human genius than God gives an ape, Small thanks to France, and none to Rome or Greece, 285 Such was the Hiss, in which great John should of which one sheet was printed many years ago, have expired: But wherefore do I strive in vain to number Those glorious Hisses, which from age to age Our family has borne triumphant from the stage?' Pistol (Theophilus Cibber) in Fielding's Historical Register for 1736.] 1 The dear Nonjuror-Moliere's old stubble] A Comedy threshed out of Moliere's Tartuffe, and so much the Translator's favourite, that he assures us all our author's dislike to it could only arise from disaffection to the Government. P. [Part om. This play, however, is still occasionally performed.] 2 When the last blaze sent Ilion to the skies.] See Virgil, En. II. where I would advise the reader to peruse the story of Troy's destruction, rather than in Wynkyn. SCRIBL. [Part om.] 3 Thule] An unfinished poem of that name, by Amb. Philips, a northern author. It is an usual method of putting out a fire, to cast wet sheets upon it. Some critics have been of opinion that this sheet was of the nature of the Asbestos, which cannot be consumed by fire: but I rather think it an allegorical allusion to the coldness and heaviness of the writing. P. 4 [Wakefield traces the origin of this line to Dryden's MacFlecknoe: "His brows thick fogs, instead of glories, grace, And lambent dulness play'd around his face.'] 5 Sacred Dome:] Where he no sooner enters, but he reconnoitres the place of his original; as Plato says the spirits shall, at their entrance into the celestial regions. P. 6 Great Mother] Magna mater, here applied to Dulness. The Quidnuncs, a name given to the ancient members of certain political clubs, who were constantly enquiring quid nunc? what news? P. Can make a Cibber, Tibbald1, or Ozell". The Goddess then, o'er his anointed head, 1 Tibbald,] Lewis Tibbald (as pronounced) or Theobald (as written) was bred an Attorney, and son to an Attorney (says Mr Jacob) of Sittenburn in Kent. He was author of some forgotten Plays, Translations, and other pieces. He was concerned in a paper called the Censor, and a Translation of Ovid. P. [Part om.] 2 Ozell.] "Mr John Ozell (if we credit Mr Jacob) did go to school in Leicestershire, where somebody left him something to live on, when he shall retire from business. He was designed to be sent to Cambridge, in order for priesthood; but he chose rather to be placed in an office of accounts, in the City, being qualified for the same by his skill in arithmetic, and writing the necessary hands. He has obliged the world with many translations of French Plays." JACOB, Lives of Dram. Poets, p. 198. P. [Part om.] 3 A Heideggre] A strange bird from Switzerland, and not (as some have supposed) the name of an eminent person who was a man of parts, and, as was said of Petronius, Arbiter Elegantiarum. P. [The German Heydegger, who held the Opera-house with Handel, and managed it, according to Dibdin, 'like another Cibber,' introduced masquerades into England. He brought them into such vogue, that in 1729 he was presented as a nuisance by the Grand Jury. He said of himself that he 'he had come to England out of Switzerland without a farthing, and had then found means to get £5000 a year, and spend it.' In a facetious fragment by Pope, published in Roscoe's Supplement (1825), he is apostrophised as "false Heidegger, who wert so wicked To let in the Devil."] ▲ Ver 293. Know, Eusden &c.] In the former Editions. 'Know, Settle, cloy'd with custard and with praise, 290 295 300 So when Jove's block &c.' Warburton. 5 Withers,] 'George Withers was a great pretender to poetical zeal against the vices of the times, and abused the greatest personages in power, which brought upon him frequent correction. The Marshalsea and Newgate were no strangers to him.' Winstanley. P. [He went over from the Royalist to the Parliamentary side; yet his honesty is undoubted and his power as a satirist now generally acknowledged.] 6 Gildon] Charles Gildon, a writer of criticisms and libels of the last age, bred at St Omer's with the Jesuists; but renouncing popery, he published Blount's books against the divinity of Christ, the Oracles of Reason, &c. He signalized himself as a critic, having written some very bad Plays; abused Mr P. very scandalously in an anonymous pamphlet of the Life of Mr Wycherley, printed by Curl; in another called the New Rehearsal, printed in 1714; in a third, entitled, the Complete Art of English Poetry, in two volumes; and others. P. [See note to Epistle to Arbuthnot, v. 151.] 7 Howard,] Hon. Edward Howard, author of the British Princes, and a great number of wonderful pieces, celebrated by the late Earls of Dorset and Rochester, Duke of Buckingham, Mr Waller, &c. P. And thou his Aid-de-camp, lead on my sons, She ceas'd. Then swells the Chapel-royal throat : And "Coll!" each Butcher roars at Hockley-hole. So when Jove's block descended from on high Under Archer's wing,-Gaming, &c.] When the Statute against Gaming was drawn up, it was represented, that the King, by ancient custom, plays at Hazard one night in the year; and therefore a clause was inserted, with an exception as to that particular. Under this pretence, the Groom-porter had a room appropriated to Gaming all the summer the Court was at Kensington, which his Majesty accidentally being acquainted of with a just indignation prohibited. It is reported the same practice is yet continued wherever the Court resides, and the Hazard Table there open to all the professed Gamesters in town. 'Greatest and justest Sov'REIGN! know you this? Alas! no more than Thames' calm head can know Whose meads his arms drown or whose corn o'erflow.' Donne to Queen Eliz. P. [Cf. The Basset-Table, v. 99. The Groom-porter was an officer in the royal household who had succeeded to most of the functions of the Master 305 310 315 320 325 330 of the Revels. As to the practice referred to by Pope, see Evelyn's Diary, 8 Jan. 1667-8, et al.ĺ 2 Chapel-royal] The voices and instruments used in the service of the Chapel-royal being also employed in the performance of the Birth-day and New-year Odes. P. 3 But pious Needham] A Matron of great fame, and very religious in her way; whose constant prayer it was, that she might "get enough by her profession to leave it off in time, and make her peace with God." But her fate was not so happy; for being convicted and set in the pillory, she was (to the lasting shame of all her great Friends and Votaries) so ill used by the populace, that it put an end to her days. P. Back to the Devil] The Devil Tavern in Fleet-street, where these Odes are usually rehearsed before they are performed at Court. P. [Cf. Imit. of Hor. Bk. 11. Ep. 1. v. 91.] 5 Ogilby-God save King Log!] See Ogilby's Esop's Fables, where, in the story of the Frogs and their King, this excellent hemistic is to be found. P. [Part om.] THE DUNCIAD. BOOK THE SECOND. 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 Pythia, Isthmia, &r. were anciently said to be ordained by the Gods, and as Thetis herself appearing, according to Homer, Odyss. 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, 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 asleep; which naturally and necessarily ends the games. BOOK II. IGH on a gorgeous seat, that far out-shone 1 Henley's gilt tub,] The pulpit of a Dissenter is usually called a Tub; but that of Mr Orator Henley was covered with velvet, and adorned with gold. He had also a fair altar, and over it this extraordinary inscription, The Primitive Eucharist. See the history of this person, Book III. [v. 199]. P. 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 Æneid from the Iliad, or the Lutrin of Boileau from the Défait de Bouts rimées of Sara zin. P. [It is not known whether Flecknoe had actually died about the time (1682) when Dryden wrote his famous satire, or whether the latter with careless malice gave unenviable notoriety to a harmless living writer, who had to the best of his ability honoured Dryden himself. As to the relations between the Dunciad and Dryden's Satire see Introduction to Dunciad, p. 349.] It may be just worth mentioning, that the Eminence, from whence the ancient Sophists entertained their auditors, was called by the pompous name of a throne;—ἐπὶ θρόνον τινὸς υψηλοῦ μάλα σοφιστικῶς καὶ σοβαρῶς. Themistius, Orat. 1. P. 3 Or that where on her Curls the Public pours,] Edmund Curl stood in the pillory at Charingcross, in March 1727-8. "This (saith Edmund Great Cibber sate: The proud Parnassian sneer, On him, and crowds turn Coxcombs as they gaze: New edge their dulness, and new bronze their face. Heav'n's twinkling Sparks draw light, and point their horns. Not with more glee, by hands pontific crown'd, 5 IO With scarlet hats wide-waving circled round, Rome in her Capitol saw Querno sit1, 15 Thron'd on seven hills, the Antichrist of wit. And now the Queen, to glad her sons, proclaims, By herald Hawkers, high heroic Games. 20 In silks, in crapes 2, in Garters, and in Rags, 25 30 Curl) is a false assertion- -I had indeed the corporal punishment of what the Gentlemen of the long robe are pleased jocosely to call mounting the Rostrum for one hour; but that scene of action was not in the month of March, but in February." And of the History of his being tost in a Blanket, he saith, "Here, Scriblerus! thou leeseth in what thou assertest concerning the blanket; it was not a blanket, but a rug.' Much in the same manner Mr Cibber remonstrated, that his Brothers, at Bedlam, mentioned Book 1. were not Brazen, but Blocks; yet our Author let it pass unaltered, as a trifle that no way altered the relationship. Scriblerus. 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. Some idea of his poetry is given by Fam. Strada, in his Prolusions. P. 2 [The material of an ordinary clergyman's gown. Cf. Moral Essays, Ep. 1. v. 137.] 3 [In front of the spot now occupied by St Mary-le-Strand, commonly called the New Church, anciently stood a cross, at which, says Stowe, "in the year 1294, and other times, the justices itinerant sat without London." In the place of this cross was set up a May-pole, which having been taken down in 1713, a new one was erected opposite Somerset House. This second May-pole had two gilt balls and a vane on the summit, and was decorated on holidays with flags and garlands. It was removed in 1718, probably being thought in the way of the new church which was then being erected. Sir Isaac Newton begged it of the parish, and afterwards sent it to the Rector of Wanstead, who set it up in Wanstead Park to support the then largest telescope in Europe.' Leigh Hunt's Town.] 4 [Stationers, i.e. booksellers.] |