Book 2. And hears the various vows of fond mankind; Some beg an eastern, some a western wind: All vain petitions, mounting to the sky, With reams abundant this abode supply: Amus'd he reads, and then returns the bills, Sign'd with that ichor which from gods distils. In office here fair Cloacina stands, 93 And ministers to Jove with purest hands. Forth from the heap she pick'd her votary's pray'r, Of link-boys vile, and watermen obscene ; And now the victor stretched his eager hand Where the tall nothing stood, or seem'd to stand; A shapeless shade, it melted from his sight, 111 Like forms in clouds, or visions of the night. REMARKS. 95 The Roman goddess of the common-sewers. IMITATIONS. 108 Nor heeds the brown dishonours of his face.] Faciem ostentabat, et udo Turpia membia fimo.'- 11 A shapeless, shade &c.] Effugit imago VIRG. An. V. Par levibus ventis, volucrique simillima somuo.' VIRG. Æn. VI. 114 To seize his papers, Curl, was next thy care; No rag, no scrap, of all the beau, or wit, 124 116 Heaven rings with laughter: of the laughter vain, REMARKS. 116 Evans, Young, and Swift.] Some of those persons whose writings, epigrams, or jests, he had owned. W. 144-Like Congreve, Addison, and Prior.] These authors being such whose names will reach posterity, we shall not give any account of them, but proceed to those of whom it is necessary. Bezaleel Morris was author of some satires on the translators of Homer, with many other things printed in newspapers- Bond writ a satire against Mr. P. Capt. Breval was author of The Confederates, an ingenious dramatic performance, to expose Mr. P. Mr. Gay, Dr. Arbuth not, and some ladies of quality,' says Curl, Key, p. 11. W. 125 Mears, Warner, Wilkins.] Booksellers, and printers of much anonymous stuff. W. 198 Joseph Gay.] A fictitious name put by Curl before se veral pamphlets, which made them pass with many for Mr. Gay's. The ambiguity of the word Joseph, which likewise signified a loose upper coat, gives much pleasantry to the idea. IMITATIONS. 114 His papers light, fly diverse, toss'd in air.] Virgil, En. VI. of the Sibyl's leaves: 'Carmina Turbata volent rapidis ludibria ventis." So Proteus, hunted in a nobler shape, Became, when seiz'd, a puppy, or an ape. To him the goddess: Son! thy grief lay down, And turn this whole illusion on the town. As the sage dame, experienc'd in her trade, By names of toasts retails each batter'd jade; (Whence hapless Monsieur much complains at Paris Of wrongs from Duchesses and Lady Maries) Be thine, my stationer! this magic gift; Cooke shall be Prior; and Concanen, Swift: 138 So shall each hostile name become our own, And we, too, boast our Garth and Addison.' With that she gave him (piteous of his case,141 Yet smiling at his rueful length of face) A shaggy tap'stry, worthy to be spread On Codrus' old, or Dunton's modern bed; REMARKS. 144 138 Cooke shall be Prior.] The man here specified writ a thing called the Battle of Poets, in which Philips and Weisted were the heroes, and Swift and Pope utterly routed. He also published some malevolent things in the British, London, aud Daily Journals; and, at the same time, wrote letters to Mr., Pope, protesting his innocence. His chief work was a translation of Hesiod, to which Theobald wrote W. notes, and half notes, which he carefully owned. 198 and Concanen, Swift.] In the first edition of this poem there were only asterisks in this place; but the names were since inserted, merely to fill up the verse, and give ease to the ear of the reader. 144 -Dunton's modern bed.] John Dunton was a broken bookseller, and abusive scribbler: he writ Neck or Nothing,' 141, 142 IMITATIONS. (piteous of his case, Yet smiling at his rueful length of face)] Risit pater optimus olli. Me liceat casus miserari insontis amici. Sic fatus, tergum Gætuli immane leonis.' &c. VIRG. Æn. V. Instructive work! whose wry-mouth'd portraiture REMARKS. 151 156 a violent satire on some ministers of state; a libel on the Duke of Devonshire and the Bishop of Peterborough,&c. W. 148 John Tutchin, author of some vile verses, and of a weekly paper called The observator,' he was sentenced to be whipped through several towns in the west of England, upon which he petitioned King James II to be hanged. When that prince died in exile, he wrote au invective against bis memory, occasioned by some humane elegies on his death. He lived to the time of Queen Anne. 149 There Ridpath, Roper.] Authors of the Flying-Post, and Post-Boy, two scandalous papers on different sides, for which they equaily and alternately deserved to be cudgelled, and were so. W. 151 The history of Curl's being tossed in a blanket, and whipped by the scholars of Westminster, is well known. Of his purging and vomiting, see a full and true account of a horrid revenge on the body of Edmund Curl, &c. in Swift and Pope's Miscellanies. IMITATIONS. * 151 Himself among the storied chiefs he spies.] W. Se quoque principibus permixtum agnovit Achivis→→→→→→→ VIRG. Æn. 1. 155 And the fresh vomit run for ever green!] A parody of these lines of a late noble author: 'His bleeding arm had furnish'd all their rooms, See in the circle next Eliza plac'd, '57 Two babes of love close clinging to her waist; 158 With cow-like udders, and with ox-like eyes, Osborne and Curl accept the glorious strife; 167 (Though this his son dissuades, and that his wife) REMARKS. 157 Eliza Haywood: this woman was authoress of those most scandalous books, called the Court of Carimania and the New Utopia. For the two Babes of Love, see Curl, Key, p. 22. W. 100 Kirkall.] The name of an engraver. Some of this lady's works were printed in four volumes, in 12mo. with ber picture thus dressed up before them. W. 167 Osborne, Thomas.] A bookseller in Gray's-Inn, very well qualified by his impudence to act this part; therefore placed here instead of a less deserving predecessor. This raan published advertisements for a year together, pretending to sell Mr. Pope's subscription-books of Homer's Iliad IMITATIONS. 158 Two babes of love close clinging to her waist.] 163 yon Juno With cow-like udders, and with ox-like eyes.] In allusion to Homer's Bows Wornia "Hen. 165 This China jordan.] Tertius Argolica hac galea coutentus abito.' VIRG. Æn. VI. In the games of Homer, Iliad XXIII. there are set together as prizes a lady and a kettle, as in this place Mrs. Haywood and a jordan. But there the preference in value is given to the kettle, at which Madame Dacier is justly displeased. Mrs. H. is here treated with distinction, and acknowledged to be the more valuable of the two. W, |