Pours forth, and leaves unpeopled half the land.
A motley mixture! in long wigs, in bags,
In silks, in crapes, in garters, and in rags;
From drawing-room, 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'er-look'd the Strand;
But now (so Anne and Piety ordain)

A church collects the saints of Drury-lane.
With authors, stationers obey'd the call,
(The field of glory is a field for all).

m

Glory, and gain, the industrious tribe provoke ;
And gentle Dulness ever loves a joke.
A poet's form she placed 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 starveling bards of these degenerate days,
All as a partridge plump, full-fed, and fair,
She form'd this image of well-bodied air;
With pert flat eyes she window'd well its head;
A brain of feathers, and a heart of lead ;
And empty words she gave, and sounding strain,
But senseless, lifeless! idol void and vain!
Never was dash'd out, at one lucky hit,

This is what Juno does to deceive Turnus, Æn. x.

Tum Dea nube cava, tenuem sine viribus umbram
In faciem Eneæ (visu mirabile monstrum!)
Dardaniis ornat telis, clypeumque jubasque
Divini assimilat capitis-

Dat inania verba,

Dat sine mente sonum

The reader will observe how exactly some of these verses suit with their allegorical application here to a plagiary: there seems to me a great propriety in this episode, where such a one is imaged by a phantom that deludes the grasp of the expecting bookseller.

n Vix illud lecti bis sex

Qualia nunc hominum producit corpora tellus.-VIRG. Æn. xii.

• Our author here seem3 willing to give some account of the possibility of Dulness making a wit (which could be done no other way than by chance). The fiction is the more reconciled to probability, by the known story of Apelles, who being at a loss to express the foam of Alexander's horse, dashed his pencil in despair at the picture, and happened to do it by that fortunate stroke.

A fool, so just a copy of a wit;

So like, that critics said, and courtiers swore,
A wit it was, and call'd the phantom More P.

All gaze with ardour: some a poet's name,
Others a sword-knot and laced suit inflame.
But lofty Lintot in the circle rose:

"This prize is mine, who tempt it are my foes;
With me began this genius, and shall end."
He spoke and who with Lintot shall contend?
Fear held them mute. Alone, untaught to fear,
Stood dauntless Curl; "Behold that rival here!
The race by vigour, not by vaunts, is won;
So take the hindmost, Hell ."-He said, and run.
Swift as a bard the bailiff leaves behind,

He left huge Lintot, and outstripp'd the wind.
As when a dab-chick waddles thro' the copse
On feet and wings, and flies, and wades, and hops;
So labouring on, with shoulders, hands, and head',
Wide as a windmill all his figure spread,

P Curl, in his Key to the Dunciad, affirmed this to be James More Smith, Esq., and it is probable (considering what is said of him in the Testimonies) that some might fancy our author obliged to represent this gentleman as a plagiary, or to pass for one himself. His case, indeed, was like that of a man I have heard of, who, as he was sitting in company, perceived his next neighbour had stolen his handkerchief. "Sir," (said the thief, finding himself detected), "do not expose me, I did it for mere want; be so good but to take it privately out of my pocket again, and say nothing." The honest man did so, but the other cried out, "See, gentlemen, what a thief we have among us! look, he is stealing my handkerchief!" The plagiarisms of this person gave occasion to the following epigram: More always smiles whenever he recites';

He smiles (you think) approving what he writes.

And yet in this no vanity is shown;

A modest man may like what's not his own.

His only work was a comedy called the Rival Modes; the town condemned it in the action, but he printed it in 1726-7, with this modest motto,

Hic cæstus artemque repono.

It appears from hence, that this is not the name of a real person, but fictitious. More from μgos, stultus, pwgía, stultitia, to represent the folly of a plagiary. Thus Erasmus, Admonuit me Mori cognomen tibi, quod tam ad Moriæ vocabulum accedit quam es ipse a re alienus. Dedication of Moriæ Encomium to Sir Tho. More, the farewell of which may be our author's to his plagiary, Vale, More! et moriam tuam gnaviter defende. Adieu, More! and be sure strongly to defend thy own folly.-SCRIBLERUS. Occupet extremum scabies; mihi turpe relinqui est.-Horat. de Arte. So eagerly the fiend

O'er bog, o'er steep, thro' streight, rough, dense, or rare,
With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way,
And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies.

MILTON, book ii.

With arms expanded Bernard rows his state,
And left-legg'd Jacob seems to emulate.

And now as victor stretch'd his eager hand
Where the tall nothing stood, or seem'd to stand;
A shapeless shade, it melted from his sight,
Like forms in clouds, or visions of the night.
To seize his papers, Curl, was next thy care;
His papers light, fly diverse, tost in air";
Songs, sonnets, epigrams the winds uplift,
And whisk 'em back to Evans, Young, and Swift.
The embroider'd suit at least he deem'd his prey;
That suit an unpaid tailor snatch'd away.
No rag, no scrap, of all the beau, or wit,
That once so flutter'd, and that once so writ.
Heaven rings with laughter of the laughter vain,
Dulness, good Queen, repeats the jest again.
Three wicked imps, of her own Grub-street choir,
She deck'd like Congreve, Addison, and Priorˇ
Mears, Warner, Wilkins w run: delusive thought!
Breval, Bond, Besaleel, the varlets caught.
Curl stretches after Gay, but Gay is gone,
He grasps an empty Joseph for a John:
So Proteus, hunted in a nobler shape,
Became, when seized, a puppy, or an ape.

X

To him the Goddess: Son! thy grief lay down, And turn this whole illusion on the town:

• Milton, of the motion of the swan,

rows

His state with oary feet.

And Dryden, of another's,- With two left legs.

Par levibus ventis, volucrique simillima somno.

Virgil, Æn. vi. of the Sibyl's leaves,

Carmina

VIRG. Æn. vi.

turbata volent rapidis ludibria ventis.

▾ 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. -Besaleel 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-. Captain Breval was author of The Confederates, an ingenious dramatic performance to expose Mr. P., Mr. Gay, Dr. Arb., and some ladies of quality," says Curl, Key, p. 11.

w Booksellers and printers of much anonymous stuff.

Joseph Gay, a fictitious name put by Curl before several pamphlets, which made them pass with many for Mr. Gay's.

y It was a common practice of this bookseller to publish vile pieces of obscure hands under the names of eminent authors.

Did on the stage my fops appear confin'd?
My life gave ampler lessons to mankind.
Did the dead letter unsuccessful prove?
The brisk example never fail'd to move.
Yet sure had heaven decreed to save the state,
Heaven had decreed these works a longer date.
Could Troy be saved by any single hand,

This grey-goose weapon must have made her stand.
What can I now ? my Fletcher1 cast aside,
Take up the Bible, once my better guide"?
Or tread the path by venturous heroes trod,
This box my thunder, this right hand my god"?
Or chair'd at White's amidst the doctors sit,
Teach oaths to gamesters, and to nobles wit?
Or bidst thou rather Party to embrace ?
(A friend to Party thou, and all her race;
'Tis the same rope at different ends they twist ;
To Dulness, Ridpath is as dear as Mist.)
Shall I, like Curtius, desperate in my zeal,
O'er head and ears plunge for the commonweal?
Or rob Rome's ancient geese of all their glories,
And cackling save the monarchy of tories?
Hold-to the minister I more incline;

To serve his cause, O queen! is serving thine.
And see! thy very gazetteers give o'er,

Even Ralph repents, and Henley writes no more.

Me si calicolæ voluissent ducere vitam,

Has mihi servassent sedes

-Si Pergama dextra

-VIRG. En. ii.

Defendi possent, etiam hac defensa fuissent.-VIRG. ibid.

1 A familiar manner of speaking, used by modern critics, of a favourite author. Bays might as justly speak thus of Fletcher, as a French wit did of Tully, seeing his works in a library. "Ah! mon cher Cicéron! Je le connois bien; c'est le même que Marc Tulle." But he had a better title to call Fletcher his own, having made so free with him.

m When, according to his father's intention, he had been a clergyman, or (as he thinks himself) a bishop of the Church of England. Hear his own words: "At the time that the fate of King James, the Prince of Orange, and myself, were on the anvil, Providence thought fit to postpone 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 capacity of writing, instead of plays and annual odes, sermons and pastoral letters ?"-Apology for his Life, chap. iii. ■ Dextra mihi Deus, et telum quod missile libro. Virgil, of the Gods of Mezentius.

George Ridpath, author of a Whig paper, called the Flying Post; Nathaniel Mist, of a famous Tory journal.

PA band of ministerial writers, hired at the price mentioned in the note.

What then remains? Ourself. Still, still remain
Cibberian forehead, and Cibberian brain.
This brazen brightness, to the squire so dear;
This polish'd hardness, that reflects the peer;
This arch absurd, that wit and fool delights;
This mess, toss'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 sin, and forth in folly brought !

Works damn'd, or to be damn'd! (your father's fault)
Go, purified by flames, ascend the sky,
My better and more Christian progeny!

Unstain'd, untouch'd, and yet in maiden sheets;
While all your smutty sisters walk the streets.
Ye shall not beg, like gratis-given Bland",
Sent with a pass, and vagrant through the land;
Not sail, with Ward', to ape-and-monkey climes,
Where vile Mundungus trucks for viler rhymes;
Not sulphur-tipp'd, emblaze an ale-house fire!
Not wrap up oranges, to pelt your sire!
O! pass more innocent, in infant state,
To the mild limbo of our Father Tate":
Or peaceably forgot, at once be blest
In Shadwell's bosom with eternal rest!
Soon to that mass of nonsense to return,

Where things destroy'd are swept to things unborn.
With that, a tear (portentous sign of grace!)

Stole from the master of the sevenfold face:
And thrice he lifted high the birth-day brand',

on book ii. ver. 316, who, on the very day their patron quitted his post, laid down their paper, and declared they would never more meddle in politics.

It was a practice so to give the Daily Gazetteer and ministerial pamphlets (in which this B. was a writer) and to send them post-free to all the towns in the kingdom.

"Edward Ward, a very voluminous poet in Hudibrastic verse, but best known by the London Spy, in prose. He has of late years kept a public-house 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."-JACOB, Lives of Poets, vol. ii. p. 225. Great numbers of his works were yearly sold into the Plantations. Ward, in a book called Apollo's Maggot, declared this account to be a great falsity, protesting that his public-house was not in the City, but in Moorfields.

• Two of his predecessors in the Laurel.

Ovid of Althea on a like occasion, burning her offspring :

Tum conata quater flammis imponere torrem,
Capta quater tenuit.