Another Phœbus, thy own Phoebus, reigns, The gathering number, as it moves along, Who, gently drawn, and struggling less and less, Nor absent they, no members of her state, 70 On two unequal crutches propt he came, 120 When Dulness, smiling-thus revive the wits! But murder first, and mince them all to bits; As erst Medea (cruel, so to save!) A new edition of old son gave; Let standard authors thus, like trophies borne, Appear more glorious as more hack'd and torn. And you, my critics! in the chequer'd shade, Admire new light thro' holes yourselves have made Leave not a foot of verse, a foot of stone, A page, a grave, that they can call their own; But spread, my sons, your glory thin or thick, 80 On passive paper, or on solid brick; So by each bard an alderman shall sit, A heavy lord shall hang at every wit, And while on Fame's triumphant car they ride, Some slave of mine be pinion'd to their side.' 90 100 There march'd the bard and blockhead side by side, Who rhym'd for hire, and patroniz'd for pride. REMARKS. Ver. 76 to 101. It ought to be observed that here are three classes in this assembly. The first, of men absolutely and avowedly dull, who naturally adhere to the goddess, and are imaged in the simile of the bees about their queen. The second involuntarily drawn to her, though not caring to own her influence; from ver. 81 to 90. The third, of such as, though not members of her state, yet advance her service by flattering Dulness, cultivating mistaken talents, patronising vile scribblers, discouraging living merit, or setting up for wits, and men of taste in arts they understand not; from ver. 91 to 101. Ver. 108. --bow'd from side to side:] As being of no one party. Ver. 110. Bold Benson.] This man endeavoured to raise himself to fame by erecting monuments, striking coins, setting up beads, and procuring translations of Milton; and afterwards by as great a passion for Arthur Johnston, a Scotch physician's Version of the Psalms, of which he printed many fine editions. See more of him, Book iii. ver. 325. 130 Now crowds on crowds around the goddess press, Each eager to present the first address. Dunce scorning dunce behold the next advance, But fop shows fop superior complaisance. REMARKS. Ver. 113. The decent knight.] An eminent person who was about to publish a very pompous edition of a great author at his own expense. Ver. 115, &c.] These four lines were printed in a sepa rate leaf by Mr. Pope in the last edition, which he himself gave, of the Dunciad, with directions to the printer, to put this leaf into its place as soon as Sir T. H.'s Shakspeare should be published. Ver. 119. Thus revive,' &c.] The goddess applauds the practice of tacking the obscure names of persons not eminent in any branch of learning, to those of the most distinguished writers; either by printing editions of their works with impertinent alterations of their text, as in former in stances; or by setting up monuments disgraced with their own vile names and inscriptions, as in the latter. Ver. 128. A page, a grave,] For what less than a grave can be granted to a dead author! or what less than a page can be allowed a living one? Ibid. A page,] Pagina, not pedissequus. A page of a book, not a servant, follower, or attendant; no poet having had a page since the death of Mr. Thomas Durfey. Scribl Ver. 131. So by each bard an alderman, &c.] Vide the Tombs of the Poets, editio Westmonasteriensis. Ibid. ment erected for Butler by alderman Barber. -an alderman shall sit,] Alluding to the mont Ver. 132. A heavy lord shall hang at every wit.] How unnatural an image, and how ill supported! saith Aristat chus. Had it been, A heavy wit shall hang at every lord, something might have been said, in an age so distinguished for well-judging patrons. For lord, then, read load; that is, of debts here, and of commentaries hereafter. To this par pose, conspicuous is the case of the poor author of Hudibras, whose body, long since weighed down to the grave by a load of debts, has lately had a more unmerciful load of commen taries laid upon his spirit; wherein the editor has achieved more than Virgil himself, when he turned critic, could boast of, which was only, that he had picked gold out of another man's dung; whereas the editor has picked it out of his own. Scribi. Aristarchus thinks the common rending right: and that the author himself had been struggling, and but just shaken off his load, when he wrote the following epigram: My lord complains, that Pope, stark mad with gardens, To stick the doctor's chair into the throne, When lo! a spectre rose, whose index-hand Words are man's province, words we teach alone. 150 Points him two ways, the narrower is the better. To ask, to guess, to know, as they commence, A many Martials were in Pulteney lost! Else sure some bard, to our eternal praise, 180 Prompt at the call, around the goddess roll Nor wert thou, Isis! wanting to the day, Came whip and spur, and dash'd through thin and thick 160 On German Crouzaz, and Dutch Burgersdyck. REMARKS. 200 some old homily, were talked, written, and preached into vogue in that inglorious reign.' Ver. 194. Though Christ-church, &c.] This line is doubtless spurious, and foisted in by the impertinence of the edi170 tor; and accordingly we have put it in between hooks. For I affirm this college came as early as any other, by its proper deputies; nor did any college pay homage to Dulness in its whole body. Bentl. In twice ten thousand rhyming nights and days, Ver. 137, 138. REMARKS. Ver. 196. Still expelling Locke.] In the year 1703 there was a meeting of the heads of the University of Oxford, to censure Mr. Locke's Essay on Human Understanding, and to forbid the reading of it. See his Letters in the last edition. Ver. 198. On German Crouzaz, and Dutch Burgersdyck.] There seems to be an improbability that the doctors and heads of houses should ride on horseback, who of late days being gouty or unwieldy, have kept their coaches. But these are horses of great strength, and fit to curry any. weight, as their German and Dutch extraction may manifest; and very famous we may conclude, being honoured with names, as were the horses Pegasus and Bucephalus. Scribl. Dunce scorning dunce behold the next advance, But fop shows fop superior complaisance.] This is not to be ascribed so much to the different manners of a court and college, as to the different effects which a pretence to learning and a pretence to wit, have on blockThough I have the greatest deference to the penetration heads. For as judgment consists in finding out the differ- of this eminent scholiast, and must own that nothing can be ences in things, and wit in finding out their likenesses, so of criticism, which directs us to keep the literal sense, when more natural than his interpretation, or juster than that rule the dunce is all discord and dissension, and constantly busied in reproving, examining, confuting, &c. while the fop absurdity in supposing a logician on horseback,) yet still I no apparent absurdity accompanies it (and sure there is no flourishes in peace, with songs and hymns of praise, addresses, characters, epithalamiums, &c. Ver. 140. The dreadful wand;] A cane usually borne horses, nor even Centaurs, which, for the sake of the learnby schoolmasters, which drives the poor souls about like the wand of Mercury. Scribl. Ver. 151. Like the Samian Letter.] The letter Y used by Pythagoras, as an emblem of the different roads of virtue and vice. 'Et tibi quæ Samios diduxit litera ramos.'-Pers. Ver. 174. That master-piece of man.] Viz. an epigram. The famous Dr. South declared a perfect epigram to be as difficult a performance as an epic poem. And the critics say, An epic poem is the greatest work human nature is capable of." must needs think the hackneys here celebrated were not real ed Chiron, I should rather be inclined to think, if I were forced to find them four legs, but downright plain men, though logicians: and only thus metamorphosed by a rule of rhetoric, of which Cardinal Perron gives us an example, where he calls Clavius, Un esprit pesant, lourd, sans subtilite, ni gentilesse, un gros cheval d'Allemagne.' Scip. Maff. Here I profess to go opposite to the whole stream of commentators. I think the poet only aimed, though awkwardly, at an elegant Græcism in this representation; for in that language the word 'os (horse) was often prefixed to others, to denote greatness of strength; as XαASON, INT γλώσσον, ἵππομαραθρον, and particularly ΙΠΠΟΓΝΩΜΩΝ, Ver. 176. Some gentle James, &c.] Wilson tells us that a great connoisseur, which comes nearest to the case in this king, James the first, took upon himself to teach the hand. Latin tongue to Car, earl of Somerset; and that Gondomar, Ver. 199. The streams.] The river Cam, running by the the Spanish ambassador, would speak false Latin to him, walls of these colleges, which are particularly famous for on purpose to give him the pleasure of correcting it, whereby their skill in disputation. he wrought himself into his good graces. Ver. 202. Sleeps in port,] Viz. 'Now retired into harThis great prince was the first who assumed the title of bour, after the tempests that had long agitated his society." Sacred Majesty, which his loyal clergy transferred from So Scriblerus. But the learned Scipio Maffei understands it God to him. The principles of passive obedience and non- of a certain wine called Port, from Oporto, a city of Porturesistance,' says the author of the Dissertation on Parties, gal, of which this professor invited him to drink abundantly. Letter 8, which before his time had skulked, perhaps in Scip. Maff. De Compotationibus Academicis. [And to the Before them march'd that awful Aristarch; 210 So upright quakers please both man and God. Let Freind affect to speak as Terence spoke, REMARKS. opinion of Maffei inclineth the sagacious annotator on Dr. King's advice to Horace.] Ver. 210. Aristarchus.] A famous commentator and corrector of Homer, whose name has been frequently used to signify a complete critic. The compliment paid by our author to this eminent professor, in applying to him so great a name, was the reason that he hath omitted to comment on this part which contains his own praises. We shall, therefore, supply that loss to our best ability. 230 For me, what Virgil, Pliny may deny 240 250 'Ah think not, mistress! more true dulness lies In folly's cap, than wisdom's grave disguise. Like buoys, that never sink into the flood, 220 On learning's surface we but lie and nod: Thine is the genuine head of many a house, And much divinity without a Nevs. Nor could a Barrow work on every block, Nor has one Atterbury spoil'd the flock. See! still thy own, the heavy cannon roll, And metaphysic smokes involve the pole; For these we dim the eyes, and stuff the head With all such reading as was never read: For thee explain a thing till all men doubt it, And write about it, goddess, and about it: So spins the silk-worm small its slender store, And labours till it clouds itself all o'er. What though we let some better sort of fool Ver. 214. Critics like me-] Alluding to two famous Thrid every science, run through every school? editions of Horace and Milton; whose richest veins of poe- Never by tumbler through the hoops was shown try he had prodigally reduced to the poorest and most beg- Such skill in passing all, and touching none. garly prose.--Verily the learned scholiast is grievously mistaken. Aristarchus is not boasting here of the wonders of He may indeed (if sober all this time) his art in annihilating the sublime; but of the usefulness of Plague with dispute, or persecute with rhyme. 260 it, in reducing the turgid to its proper class; the words We only furnish what he cannot use, make it prose again,' plainly showing that prose it was, Or wed to what he must divorce, a muse; though ashamed of its original, and therefore to prose it should return. Indeed, much it is to be lamented that Dul- Full in the midst of Euclid dip at once, ness doth not confine her critics to this useful task; and And petrify a genius to a dunce: commission them to dismount what Aristophanes calls Panova, all prose on horse-back. Or, set on metaphysic ground to prance, Scribl. Ver. 216. Author of something yet more great than let-Show all his paces, not a step advance. ter:] Alluding to those granimarians, such as Palamedes With the same cement, ever sure to bind, and Simonides, who invented single letters. But Aristarchus, who had found out a double one, was therefore wor- We bring to one dead level every mind; Then take him to develope, if you can, And hew the block off, and get out the man. But wherefore waste I words? I see advance Whore, pupil, and lac'd governor, from France. thy of double honour. Scribl. Scribl. Ver. 217, 218. While towering o'er your alphabet, like Saul.-Stands. our digamma,] Alludes to the bonsted restoration of the Eolic digamma, in his long projected edition of Homer. He calls it something more than letter, from the enormous figure it would make among the other letters, being one gamma, set upon the shoulders of another. REMARKS. 270 Ver. 220. Of Me or Te.] It was a serious dispute, about which the learned were much divided, and some treatises had it in their choice to comment either on Virgil or Mariwritten: had it been about meum and tuum it could not be lius, Pliny or Solinus, bave chosen the worse author, the more contested, than whether at the end of the first Ode of more freely to display their critical capacity. Horace, to read, Me doctarum hedere præmia frontium, Ver. 228, &c. Suidas, Gellius, Stobæus.] The first & or Te doctarum hedere-By this the learned scholiast would dictionary-writer, a collector of impertinent facts and barseem to insinuate that the dispute was not about meum and barous words; the second a minute critic; the third an au tuum, which is a mistake: for as a venerable sage observ-thor, who gave his common place book to the public, where eth, words are the counters of wise men, but the money of we happen to find much mince-meat of old books. fools; so that we see their property was indeed concerned. Ver. 245, 246. Barrow, Atterbury.] Isane Barrow, ma Scribl. ter of Trinity, Francis Atterbury, dean of Christ-chorch, Ver. 222. Or give up Cicero to C or K.] Grammatica: both great geniuses and eloquent preachers; one more cond'sputes about the manner of pronouncing Cicero's name in versant in the sublime geometry, the other in classical learn Greek. It is a dispute whether in Latin the name of Her-ing; but who equally made it their care to advance the pomagoras should end in as or a. Quintilian quotes Cicero as lite arts in their several societies. writing it, Hermagora, which Bentley rejects, and says, Quintilian must be mistaken, Cicero could not write it so, and that in this case he would not believe Cicero himself These are his very words: Ego vero Ciceronem ita scripsisse ne Ciceroni quidem affirmanti crediderim.-Epist. ad Mill. in fin. Frag. Menand. et Phil. Ver. 223, 224. Freind-Alsop.] Dr. Robert Freind, master of Westminster-school, and canon of Christ-churchDr. Anthony Alsop, a happy imitator of the Horatian style. Ver. 226. Manilius and Solinus. Some critics having Ver. 272. Laced governor.] Why laced? Because gold and silver are necessary trimming to denote the dress of 4 person of rank, and the governor must be supposed so in foreign countries, to be admitted into courts and other places of fair reception. But how comes Aristarchus to know at sight that this governor came from France? Know? Why, by the laced coat. Scrill Ibid. Whore, pupil, and laced governor.] Some critics have objected to the order here, being of opinion that the governor should have the precedence before the whore, if Walker! our hat'- But chief her shrine where naked Venus keeps, In flow'd at once a gay embroider'd race, The stews and palace equally explored, 'Receive, great empress! thy accomplish'd son; Thence bursting glorious, all at once let down, Prop thine, O empress! like each neighbour throne, 300 And make a long posterity thy own.' To where the Seine, obsequious as she runs, REMARKS. not before the pupil. But were he so placed, it might be thought to insinuate that the governor led the pupil to the whore; and were the pupil placed first, he might be supposed to lead the governor to her. But our impartial poet, as he is drawing their picture, represents them in the order in which they are generally seen; namely, the pupil between the whore and the governor; but placeth the whore first, as she usually governs both the other. Ver. 280. As if he saw St. James's.] Reflecting on the disrespectful and indecent behaviour of several forward young persons in the presence, so offensive to all serious men, and to none more than the good Scriblerus. Ver. 308. And Cupids ride the lion of the deeps;] The Ver. 281. The attendant orator.] The governor above winged lion, the arms of Venice. This republic, heretofore said. The poet gives him no particular name: being un-the most considerable in Europe, for her naval force and the willing, I presume, to offend or to do injustice to any, by extent of her commerce; now illustrious for her carnivals. celebrating one only with whom this character agrees, in Ver. 318. Greatly daring dined:] It being, indeed, no preference to so many who equally deserve it. Scribl. small risk to eat through those extraordinary composiVer. 284. A dauntless infant! never scared with God.]tions, whose disguised ingredients are generally unknown to i. e. brought up in the enlarged principles of modern educa- the guests, and highly inflammatory and unwholesome. tion; whose great point is, to keep the infant mind free from Ver. 324. With nothing but a solo in his head ;] With the prejudices of opinion, and the growing spirit unbroken nothing but a solo? Why, if it be a solo, how should there by terrifying names. Amongst the happy consequences of be any thing else? Palpable tautology! Read boldly an this reformed discipline, it is not the least that we have opera, which is enough of conscience for such a head as has never afterwards any occasion for the priest, whose trade, lost all its Latin. Bentl. as a modern wit informs us, is only to finish what the nurse Ver. 326. Jansen, Fleetwood, Cibber.] Three very emibegan. Scribl. nent persons, all managers of plays: who, though not goVer. 286. The blessing of a rake.] Scriblerus is here vernors by profession, had, each in his way, concerned themmuch at a loss to find out what this blessing should be. He selves in the education of youth; and regulated their wits, is sometimes tempted to imagine it might be the mar- their morals, or their finances, at that period of their age rying a great fortune: but this again, for the vulgarity of it, which is the most important, their entrance into the polite he rejects, as something uncommon seemed to be prayed world. Of the last of these, and his talents for this end, see for: and after many strange conceits, not at all to the ho- Book i. ver. 199, &c. nour of the fair sex, he at length rests in this, that it was, that her son might pass for a wit: in which opinion he fortifies himself by ver. 316, where the orator, speaking of his pupil, says that he Intrigued with glory, and with spirit whored, which seems to insinuate that her prayer was heard. Here the good scholiast, as, indeed, every where else, lays open the very soul of modern criticism, while he makes his own ignorance of a poetical expression hold open the door to Ver. 331. Her too receive, &c.] This confirms what the learned Scriblerus advanced in his note on ver. 272, that the governor, as well as the pupil, had a particular interest in this lady. Ver. 341. Thee too, my Paridel!] The poet seens to speak of this young gentleman with great affection. The name is taken from Spenser, who gives it to a wandering courtly 'squire, that travelled about for the same reason for which many young 'squires are now fond of travelling, and especially to Paris. And heard thy everlasting yawn confess But Annius, crafty seer, with ebon wand, Where bask on sunny banks the simple sheep, True, he had wit, to make their value rise: 380 390 'Witness, great Ammon! by whose horns I swore,' 'Grant, gracious goddess! grant me still to cheat; 370 Ver. 363. Attys and Cecrops.] The first king of Athens, of whom it is hard to suppose any coins are extant; but not so improbable as what follows, that there should be any of Mahomet, who forbade all images; and the story of whose pigeon was a monkish fable. Nevertheless, one of these Anniuses made a counterfeit medal of that impostor, now in the collection of a learned nobleman. The first thus open'd: 'Hear thy suppliant's call, 410 He ceased, and wept. With innocence of mien, The accused stood forth, and thus address'd the queen: 'Of all the enamell'd race, whose silvery wing 421 Waves to the tepid zephyrs of the spring, REMARKS. Ver. 371. Mummius.] This name is not merely an allusion to the Mummius he was so fond of, but probably referred to the Roman general of that name, who burned Corinth, and committed the curious statues to the captain of a ship, assuring him, that if they were lost or broken, he met two physicians, of whom he demanded assistance. One should procure others to be made in their stead;' by which advised purgations, the other vomits. In this uncertainty it should seem (whatever may be pretended) that Mummius he took neither, but pursued his way to Lyons, where be was no virtuoso. found his ancient friend the famous physician and antiquary Ibid. Fool-renown'd,] A compound epithet in the Greek Dufour, to whom he related his adventure. Dufour, with manner, renowned by fools, or renowned for making fools. out staying to inquire about the uneasy symptoms of the Ver. 372. Cheops.] A king of Egypt whose body was burthen he carried, first asked him, whether the medals certainly to be known, as being buried alone in his pyramid, were of the higher empire? He assured him they were. and is therefore more genuine than any of the Cleopatras. Dufour was ravished with the hope of possessing so rare a This royal mummy, being stolen by a wild Arab, was pur-treasure; he bargained with him on the spot for the most chased by the consul of Alexandria, and transmitted to the curious of them, and was to recover them at his own expense. museum of Mummius; for proof of which he brings a pas- Ver. 387. Witness great Ammon!] Jupiter Ammon is sage in Sandy's Travels, where that accurate and learned called to witness, as the father of Alexander, to whom those voyager assures us that he saw the sepulchre empty, which kings succeeded in the division of the Macedonian empire, agrees exactly, saith he, with the time of the theft above- and whose horns they wore on their medals. mentioned. But he omits to observe that Herodotus tells the same thing of it in his time. Ver. 394. Douglas.] A physician of great learning and no less taste; above all, curious in what related to Horace, of whom he collected every edition, translation, and comment, to the number of several hundred volumes. Ver. 375. Speak'st thou of Syrian princes? &c.] The strange story following, which may be taken for a fiction of the poet, is justified by a true relation in Spon's Voyages. Ver. 409. And named it Caroline:] It is a compliment Vaillant (who wrote the History of the Syrian kings as it is which the florists usually pay to princes and great persons, to be found on medals) coming from the Levant, where he to give their names to the most curious flowers of their had been collecting various coins, and being pursued by a raising: some have been very jealous of vindicating this ho corsair of Sallee, swallowed down twenty gold medals. A nour, but none more than that ambitious gardener at Ham sudden borasque freed him from the rover, and he got to mersmith, who caused his favourite to be painted on his land with them in his belly. On his road to Avignon he sign, with this inscription: This is my Queen Caroline. |