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Or rob Rome's ancient geefe of all their glories, And cackling fave the monarchy of Tories?

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REMARKS.

"poftpone mine, till theirs were determined: But "had my father carried me a month sooner to the University, who knows but that purer fountain "might have washed my imperfections into a ca"pacity of writing, inftead of plays and annual "odes, fermons, and paftoral letters?"

Apology for bis Life, cbap iii. Ver. 203. At White's, amidft the doctors.] Thefe doctors had a modest and upright appearance, no air of overbearing; but, like true Mafters of Arts, were only habited in black and white: They were justly ftyled fubtiles and graves, but not always irrefragabiles, being fometimes examined, and, by a nice diftinction, divided and laid open. SCRIBL.

This learned critic is to be understood allegorically: The doctors in this place mean no more than falfe dice; a cant phrafe ufed among gamefters. So the meaning of thefe four fonorous lines is only this," Shall I play fair or foul?"

Ver. 208. Ridpath-Mift.] George Ridpath, author of a Whig paper, called the Flying Poft; Nathaniel Mift, of a famous Tory Journal.

Ver. 211. Or rob Rome's ancient geefe of all their glories.] Relates to the well-known ftory of the geese that saved the capitol; of which Virgil, Æn. viii.

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Auritas fidibus canoris

"Ducere quercus."

And to fay that walls have ears is common even to a proverb. SCRIBL.

Hold -to the minifter I more incline;
To serve his cause, O queen! is ferving thine.
And fee! thy very gazetteers give o'er,
Ev'n Ralph repents, and Henley writes no more.
What then remains? Ourfelf. Still, ftill remain
Cibberian forehead, and Cibberian brain.
This brazen brightness, to the 'fquire fo dear;
This polish'd hardness, that reflects the peer: 220
This arch abfurd, that wit and fool delights;
This mefs, tofs'd up of Hockley-hole and White's;
Where dukes and butchers join to wreathe my
crown;

At once the bear and fiddle of the town.

O born in fin, and forth in folly brought! Works damn'd, or to be damn'd! (your father's fault)

Go, purify'd by flames, afcend the sky,
My better and more Christian progeny !
Unftain'd, untouch'd, and yet in maiden fheets;
While all your smutty fifters walk the streets. 230

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ters whatsoever: "That he defends the supreme powers, as the geefe by their cackling defended "the Romans, who held the Capitol; for they fa"voured them no more than the Gauls, their ene"mies, but were as ready to have defended the "Gauls, if they had been poffeffed of the Capi"tol."—Epift. Dedic. to the Leviatban.

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Ver. 215. Gazetteers.] A band of minifterial writers, hired at the price mentioned in the note on book ii. ver. 316, who, on the very day their patron quitted his poft, laid down their paper, and declared they would never more meddle in politics.

Ver. 218. Cibberian forehead.] So indeed all the MSS. read, but I make no fcruple to pronounce them all wrong, the laureat being elsewhere celebrated by our poet for his great modefty-modest Cibber-read, therefore, at my peril, Cerberian forehead. This is perfectly claffical, and what is more, Homerical; the dog was the ancient, as the bitch is the modern fymbol of impudence: Kovi; uurxar, fays Achilles to Agamemnon) which, when in a fuperlative degree, may well be denominated from Cerberus, the dog with three heads. But as to the latter part of this verfe, Cibberian brain, that is certainly the genuine reading.

BENTL.

Ver. 225. O born in fin, &c.] This is a tender and passionate apostrophe to his own works, which he is going to facrifice, agreeable to the nature of man in great affliction; and reflecting, like a pa rent, on the many miferable fates to which they would otherwife be subject.

Ver. 228. My better and more Chriftian progeny !] “It may be observable, that my mufe and

my fpoufe were equally prolific; that the one "was feldom the mother of a child, but in the "fame year the other made me the father of a Ver. 212. And cackling fave the monarchy of "play. I think we had a dozen of each fort beTories?] N ot out of any preference or affection "tween us; of both which kinds fome died in to the Tories. For what Hobbes fo ingenioufly" their infancy," &c. Life of C. C. p. 217. 8vo* Confeffes of himfelf, is true of all minifterial wri-edit.

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240

Ye fhall not beg, like gratis-given Bland, Sent with a pass, and vagrant through the land; Nor fail with Ward, to ape-and-monkey climes, Where vile Mundungus trucks for viler rhymes: Not, fulphur-tipt, emblaze an ale-house fire; Nor wrap up oranges to pelt your fire! O! pals more innocent, in infant ftate, To the mild limbo of our father Tate : Or peaceably forgot, at once be bleft In Shadwell's bofom with eternal reft! Soon to the mafs of Nonsense to return, Where things destroy'd are fwept to things unWith that, a tear (portentous fign of grace!) Stole from the mafter of the feven-fold face : And thrice he lifted high the birth-day brand, And thrice he dropt it from his quivering hand; Then lights the ftructure, with averted eyes: The rolling fmokes involve the facrifice. The opening clouds difclofe each work by turns, Now flames the Cid, and now Perolla burns; 250

VARIATIONS.

[born.

Ver. 250. Now flames the Cid, &c.] In the former edit.

Now flames old Memnon, now Rodrigo burns,
In one quick flash fee Proferpine expire,
And laft, his own cold Æfchylus took fire.
Then guth'd the tears, as from the Trojan's eyes,
When the laft blaze, &c.

Var. Now flames old Memnon, now Rodrigo burns,

In one quick flash fee Proferpine expire.] Memnon, a hero in the Perfian Princess, very apt

RIMARKS.

Ver. 231. gratis-given Bland,---Sent with a pafs] It was a practice fo to give the Daily Gazetteer and minifterial pamphlets (in which this A was a writer) and to fend them poft-free to all the towns in the kingdom.

Ver. 233-with Ward, to Ape-and-monkey climes,]" Edward Ward, a very voluminous poet "in Hudibraftic verfe, but beft known by the "London Spy, in profe. He has of late years kept a public houfe in the city (but in a genteel way), and with his wit, humour, and good liquor (ale), afforded his guests a pleasurable entertainment, especially those of the high-church party." Jacos, Lives of Poets, vol. ii. p. 225. Great number of his works were yearly fold into the plantations.---Ward, in a book called Apollo's Maggot, declared this account to be a great falfity, protefting that his public houfe was not in the city, but in Moorfields.

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Ver. 218, 240. Tate---Shadwell] Two of his predeceffors in the laurel.

Ver. 250. Now flames the Cid, &c.] In the first Rotes on the Dunciad it was faid, that this author was particularly excellent at tragedy. "This (fays he) is as unjuft as to fay I could not dance "on a rope." But certain it is that he had attempted to dance on this rope, and fell most thamefully, having produced no less than four agedies (the names of which the poet preferves

Great Cæfar roars, and hiffes in the fires;
King John in filence modeftly expires:
No merit now the dear Nonjuror claims,
Moliere's old ftubble in a moment flames.
Tears gush'd again, as from pale Priam's eyes,
When the laft blaze fent Ilion to the fkies.

Rous'd by the light, old Dulness heav'd the head,

Then fnatch'd a fheet of Thule from her bed;

VARIATIONS.

to take fire, as appears by these lines, with which he begins the play,

"By heaven! it fires my frozen blood with rage, "And makes it fcald my aged trunk."

Rodrigo, the chief perfonage of the Perfidious Brother (a play written between Theobald and a watch-maker). The Rape of Proferpine, one of the farces of this author, in which Ceres, fetting fire to a corn-field, endangered the burning of the play-house.

Var. And last, his own cold Æschylus took fire.] He had been (to use an expreffion of our poet) about Æfchylus for ten years, and had received fubfcriptions for the fame; but then went about other books. The character of this tragic poet, is fire and boldness in a high degree; but our author fuppofes it very much cooled by the tranflation: upon fight of a specimen of which, was made this epigram,

"Alas, poor fchylus! unlucky dog!

"Whom once a lobster kill'd, and now a log!"

But this is a grievous error; for Æfchylus was not flain by the fall of a lobster on his head, but of a tortoife, tefte Val. Max. I. ix. cap. 12. SCRIBL,

REMARKS.

in thefe few lines); the three firft of them were fairly printed, acted, and damned; the fourth fuppreffed in fear of the like treatment.

Ver. 253. the dear Nonjuror-Moliere's old ftubble] A Coniedy threshed out of Moliere's Tartuffe, and fo much the tranflator's favourite, that he affures us all our author's dislike to it could only arife from difaffection to the government. He affures us, that "when he had the honour to "kifs his Majefty's hand upon prefenting his "dedication of it, he was graciously pleased, out " of his royal bounty, to order him two hundred "pounds for it. And this he doubts not grieved "Mr. P."

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Ver. 258. Thule] An unfinished poem of that name, of which one fheet was printed many years ago, by Ambrofe Philips, a northern author. is an ufual method of putting out a fire, to caft wet fheets upon it. Some critics have been of opinion that this fheet was of the nature of the Afbestos, which cannot be confumed by fire: but I rather think it an allegorical allufion to the coldnefs and heaviness of the writing.

Sudden the flies, and whelms it o'er the pyre;
Down fink the flames, and with a hifs expire. 260
Her ample prefence fills up all the place;
A veil of fogs dilates her awful face: [mayors
Great in her charms! as when on fhrieves and
She looks, and breathes herself into their airs.
She bids him wait her to her facred dome :
Well pleas'd he enter'd, and confe'd his home.
So, fpirits ending their terrestrial race,
Afcend, and recognise their native place.
This the great mother dearer held than all 269
The clubs of quidnuncs, or her own Guildhall:
Here ftood her opium, here the nurs'd her owls,
And here the plann'd th' Imperial feat of fools.
Here to her chofen all her works fhe fhows;
Profe fwell'd to verfe, verfe loitering into profe:
How random thoughts now meaning chance to
Now leave all memory of fenfe behind:
How prologues into prefaces decay,
And these to notes are fritter'd quite away:
How index-learning turns no ftudent pale,
Yet holds the cel of science by the tail:
How, with lefs reading than makes felons 'scape,
Lefs human genius than God gives an ape,
Shall thanks to France, and none to Rome or
Greece,

(find,

280

A paft, vamp'd, future, old, reviv'd, new piece,
"Twixt Flautus, Fletcher, Shakspeare, and Cor-
Can make a Cibber, Tibbald, or Ozell. [neille,

VARIATIONS.

After ver. 268. in the former Ed. followed
thefe two lines,

Raptur'd, he gazes round the dear retreat,
And in fweet numbers celebrates the feat.

Var. And in sweet numbers celebrates the feat.]
Tibbald writ a poem called the Cave of Poverty,
which concludes with a very extraordinary wish, |
"That some great genius, or man of distinguished
"merit, may be starved, in order to celebrate her
power, and defcribe her cave." It was printed
in octavo, 1715.

Ver. 286. Can make a Cibber, Johnson, or Ozell.

REMARKS.

here

Ver. 269 Great mother] Magna mater, applied to Dulness. The Quidnuncs, a name given to the ancient members of certain political clubs, who were conftantly inquiring Quid nunc? What news?

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VARIATIONS.

Ver. 293. Know, Eufden, &c.] In the former Ed.
Know, Settle, cloy'd with custard and with praise,
Is gather'd to the dull of ancient days,
Where Gildon, Banks, and high-born Howard, rest,
Safe where no critics damn, no duns moleft,
I fee a king! who leads my chofen fons
To lands that flow with clenches and with puns;
Till each fam'd theatre my empire own;
Till Albion, as Hibernia, bless my throne!
I fee! I fee-Then rapt the spoke no more,
God fave king Tibbald! Grubtreet alleys roar.
So when Jove's block, &c.

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priesthood; but he chofe rather to be placed in "an office of accounts, in the city, being qualified "for the fame by his fkill in arithmetic, and wri"ting the neceffary hands. He has obliged the "world with many tranflations of French plays." JACOB, Lives of Dram. Poets, p 198.

Mr Jacob's character of Mr. Ozell seems vastly fhort of his merits, and he ought to have further justice done him, having fince fully confuted all farcafms on his learning and genius, by an advertifement of Sept. 20, 1729, in a paper called the Weekly Medley, &c. "As to my learning, this "envious wretch knew, and every body knows, "that the whole bench of bithops, not long ago, "were pleased to give me a purfe of guineas, for "difcovering the erroneous tranflations of the "Common-prayer in Portuguese, Spanish, French, "Italian, &c. As for my genius, let Mr. Cleland "fhow better verfes in all Pope's works, than "Ozell's version of Boileau's Lutrin, which the "late Lord Halifax was fo pleased with, that he Ver. 286. Tibbald,] Lewis Tibbald, as pro- "complimented him with leave to dedicate it to nounced) or Theobald (as written) was bred an " him, &c. Let him how better and truer poetry attorney, and fon to an attorney (fays Mr. Jacob) "in the Rape of the Lock, than in Ozell's Rape of Sittenburn in Kent. He was author of fome "of the Bucket (la Secchia rapita). And Mr. forgotten plays, tranflations, and other pieces. He "Toland and Mr. Gildon publicly declared Ozell's was concerned in a paper called the Cenfor, and "tranflation of Homer to be, as it was prior, fo a tranflation of Ovid. There is a notorious idiot," likewife fuperior to Pope's. Surely, furely, every "one hight Wachum, who, from an under-fpur-"man is free to deferve well of his country " "leather to the law, is become an under-frapper "to the play-house, who hath lately burlesqued "the Metamorphoses of Ovid by a vile tranflation, "&c. This fellow is concerned in an impertinent paper called the Cenfor." DENNIS, Rem. on Pope's Hom, p. 9, 10.

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JOHN ÖZELL.

We cannot but fubfcribe to fuch reverend teftimonies, as thofe of the bench of Bishops, Mr. Toland, and Mr. Gildon.

Ver. 290. a Heidegger] A ftrange bird from Switzerland, and not (as lome have supposed) the

Safe, where no critics damn, no duns molest, Where wretched Withers, Ward, and Gildon reft,

300

And high-born Howard, more majestic fire, With Fool of Quality completes the quire. Thou, Cibber! thou, his laurel fhalt fupport, Folly, my fon, has ftill a friend at Court. Lift up your gates, ye princes, fee him come! Sound, found ye viols, be the cat-call dumb! Bring, bring the madding bay, the drunken vine; The creeping, dirty, courtly ivy join.

309

And thou! his aid-de-camp, lead on my fons,
Light-arm'd with points, antithefes, and puns.
Let Bawdry, Billingsgate, my daughters dear,
Support his front, and oaths bring up the rear:
And under his, and under Archer's wing,
Gaming and Grub-street skulk behind the king.
O when shall rife a monarch all our own,
And I, a nursing mother, rock the throne;
'Twixt prince and people close the curtain draw,
Shade him from light, and cover him from law;
Fatten the courtier, starve the learned band,
And fuckle armies, and dry-nurse the land:

REMARKS.

pame of an eminent perfon who was a man of parts, and, as was faid of Petronius, Arbiter Elegantiarum.

Ver. 296. Withers,] See on ver. 146.

Ver. 296. Gildon] Charles Gildon, a writer of criticisms and libels in the laft age, bred at St. Omer's with the Jefuits; but renouncing popery, be published Blount's books against the Divinity of Christ, the Oracles of Reason, &c. He fignalized himself as a critic, having written fome very bad plays; abused Mr. P. very fcandalously in an anonymous pamphlet of the Life of Mr. Wycherley, printed by Curll; in another, called the New Rehearsal, printed in 1714; in a third, intituled the Complete Art of English Poetry, in two vo James; and others.

Ver. 297. 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.

Ver. 309, 310. under Archer's wing,-Gaming, &c.] When the statute againfl gaming was drawn up, it was reprefented, that the king, by ancient cuftom, plays at hazard one night in the year; and therefore a claufe was inferted, with an exemption as to that particular. Under this pretence, the groom porter had a room appropriated to gaming all the fummer the court was at Kenlington, which his majefty accidentally being acquainted with, with a juft indignation, prohibited. It is reported the fame practice is yet continued wherever the court refides, and the hazard table there open to all the profeffed gamefters in town.

"Greatest and jufteft SOVEREIGN; know you this; "Alas! no more, than Thames calm head can "know, [o'erflow." "Whofe meads his arms drown, or whofe corn DONNE to Queen Eliz.

Till fenates nod to Lullabies divine, And all be fleep, as at an ode of thine.

She ceas'd. Then fwells the chapel-royal throat: God fave king Cibber! mounts in every note. 310 Familiar White's, God fave king Colley cries; God fave king Colley! Drury-lane replies: To Needham's quick the voice triumphal rode, But pious Needham dropt the name of God; Back to the devil the laft echoes roll, And Coll each butcher roars at Hockley-hole. So when Jove's block defcended from on high (As fings thy great forefather Ogilby)

REMARKS.

Ver. 319. Chapel-royal] The voices and inftruments used in the fervice of the Chapel-royal being alfo employed in the performance of the Birth-day, and New-year odes.

Ver. 324. But pious Needham] a matron of great fame, and very religious in her way; whofe conftant prayer it was, that the might "get enough

by her profeffion to leave it off in time, and "make her peace with God." But her fate was 66 not fo happy; for being convicted, and fet in the pillory, he was (to the lafting fhame of all her great friends and votaries) fo ill used by the populace, that it put an end to her days.

Ver. 325 Back to the Devil] The Devil Tavern in Fleet-street, where thefe odes are ufually rehearfed before they are performed at Court. Upon which a wit of thofe times made this epigram: "When laureates make odes, do you ask of what fort?

"Do you ask if they're good, or are evil? "You may judge-From the Devil they come to "the Court,

"And go from the Court to the Devil."

Ver. 328—Ogilby)—God fave King Log !] See Ogilby's fop's Fables, where, in the ftory of the frogs and their king, this excellent hemiftich is to

be found.

Our author manifefts here, and elsewhere, a prodigious tenderness for the bad writers. We fee he felects the only good paffage, perhaps, in all that ever Ogilby writ! which shows how candid and patient a reader he must have been. What can be more kind and affectionate than the words in the preface to his poems, where he labours to call up all our humanity and forgiveness toward thefe unlucky men, by the most moderate reprefentation of their cafe, that has ever been given by any author?

But how much all indulgence is loft upon thefe people may appear from the just reflection made on their conftant conduct and conftant fate, in the following epigram:

"Ye little wits, that gleam'd a-while,

"When Pope vouchfaf'd a ray, "Alas depriv'd of his kind fmile, "How foon ye fade away!

"To compaf Phœbus' car about, "Thus empty vapours rife,

Loud thunder to its bottom fhook the bog,
And the hoarfe nation croak'd, God fave king Log!

Or that where on her Curlls the public pours,
All bounteous, fragrant grains and golden fhowers,

REMARKS

"Each lends his cloud to put him out, "That rear'd him to the fkies.

"Alas! thofe skies are not your sphere; "There he shall ever burn:

Weep, weep, and fall for earth ye were, "And muft to earth return."

BOOK II.

ARGUMENT.

REMARKS.

We cannot therefore, enough admire the learn ed Scriblerus for his alteration of the text in the two laft verfes of the preceding book, which in all the former editions flood thus:

Hoarfe thunder to its bottom fhook the bog,
And the loud nation croak'd, God fave king Log.

He has, with great judgment, transposed these two epithets; putting hoarfe to the nation, and loud to the thunder: And this being evidently the true reading, he vouchfafed not fo much as to mention the former; for which affertion of the juft right of a critic he merits the acknowledgement of all found commentators.

Ver. 2. Henley's gilt tub,] The pulpit of a diffenter is ufually 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 infcription, The Primitive Eucharift.' See the history of this person, book iii.

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Ver. 2. or Fleckno's Irish throne,] Richard Fleckno was an Irish priest, but had laid afide (as himfelf expreffed it) the mechanic part of priefthood. He printed fome plays, poems, letters, and travels. I doubt not, our author took occasion to mention him in refpect to the poem of Mr Dryden, to which this bears fome refemblance, though

The king being proclaimed, the folemnity is graced with public games and fports of various kinds; not inftituted by the hero, as by Æneas in Virgil, but for greater honour by the goddefs in perfon (in like manner as the games Pythia, Ifthmia, &c. were anciently faid to be ordained by the Gods, and as Thetis herself appearing, according to Homer, Odyff. xxiv. propofed the prizes in honour of her fon Achilles). Hither flock the poets and critics, attended, as is but juft, with their patrons and bookfellers. The goddefs is first pleased, for her difport, to propofe games to the book fellers, and fetteth up the phantom of a poet, which they contend to overtake. The races defcribed, with their divers accidents. Next, the game for a poetefs. Then follow the exercifes for the poets, of tick-of a character more different from it than that of ling, vociferating, diving: The first holds forth the arts and practices of dedicators, the fecond of difputants and fuftian poets, the third of profound, dark, and dirty party-writers. Laftly, 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 verfe, and the other in profe, deliberately read, without fleeping: The various effects of which, with the feveral degrees and manners of their operation, are here fet forth; till the whole number, not of critics only, but of spectators, actors, and all prefent, fall faft afleep; which naturally and neceffarily ends the games.

HIGH on a gorgeous feat, that far out-fhone
Henley's gilt tub, or Fleckno's Irish throne.

REMARKS.

Two things there are, upon the fuppofition of which the very bafts of all verbal criticifm is found ed and fupported: The first, that an author could never fail to ufe the best werd on every occafion; the fecond, that a critic cannot choofe but know which that is. This bung granted, whenever any word doth not fully content us, we take upon us to conclude, firft, that the author could never have und it; and, fecondly, that he must have used that very one, which we cork & ure, in its dead.

the Æncid from the Iliad, or the Lutrin of Boileau from the Defait de Bouts rimées of Sarazin.

It may be juft worth mentioning, that the eminence from whence the ancient fophifts entertained their auditors, was called by the pompous name of a throne. Themiftius, Orat. i.

Ver. 3. Or that where on her Curils the public pours,] Edmund Curli flood in the pillory at Charing-crofs, in March 1727-8. "This (faith Ed"mund Curll) is a falfe affertion—I had indeed "the corporal punishment of what the gentle

men of the long robe are pleafed jocofely to call "mounting the roftrum for one hour but that "fcene of action was not in the month of March, "but in February." [Curlliad, 12mo, p. 19.) And of the history of his being toft in a blanket, he faith, "Here, Scriblerus! thou leefeft in what "thou afferteft concerning the blanket: it was "not a blanket, but a rug," p. 25. Much in the fame manner Mr. Cibber remonftrated, that his brothers, at bedlam, mentioned Book i. were not brazen, but blocks; yet our author let it pass un altered, as a trifle that no way altered the relation fhip.

We fheald think (gentle reader) that we but ill performed our part, if we corrected not as well our own errors now, as formerly thofe of the printSince what moved us to this work, was felly the love of truth not in the leaft any vain-glory, or defire to contend with great authors. And farther, our mistakes, we conceive, will the rather

er.

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