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BY virtue of the Authority in Us vefted by the Act for subjecting Poets to

the Power of a Licenser, We have revised this Piece; where, finding the Hyle and appellation of King to have been given to a certain Pretender, PfeudoPoet, or Phantom, of the name of Tibbald; and apprehending the fame may be deemed in fome fort a reflection on Majesty, or at least an insult on that Legal Authority which has bestowed on another Perfon the Crown of Poefy: We have ordered the faid Pretender, Pfeudo-Poet, or Phantom, utterly to vanish and evaporate out of this Work; and do declare the faid Throne of Poely from henceforth to be abdicated and vacant, unless duly and lawfully fupplied by the Laureate himself. And it is hereby enacted, that no other Perfon do prefume to fill the fame.

BY THE AUTHOR. A DECLARATION.

WHEREAS certain Haberdashers of Points and Particles, being infligated

*

by the Spirit of Pride, and affuming to themfelves the name of Critics and Reftorers, have taken upon them to adulterate the common and current fenfe of of our Glorious Ancestors, Poets of this Realm, by clipping, coining, defacing the images, mixing their own base alloy, or otherwife falfifying the fame; which they publish, utter, and vend as genuine; the faid Haberdafters having no right thereto, as neither heirs, executors, adminiftrators, affigns, or in any fort related to fuch Poets, to all or any of them: Now We, having carefully revifed this our Dunciad, beginning with the words The Mighty Mother, and ending with the words buries All, containing the entire fum of One thoufand seven hundred and fifty-four verfes, declare every word, figure, point, and comma, of this impreffion to be authentic: and do therefore ftrittly enjoin and forbid any perfon or perfons whatsoever, to erase, reverse, put between hooks, by any other means, directly or indirectly, change or mangle any of them. And we do bereby earnestly exhort all our brethren to follow this our example, which we heartily wish our great Preleceffors had heretofore fet, as a remedy and prevention of all fuch abuses: Provided always, that nothing in this Declaration shall be conftrued to limit the lawful and undoubted right of every fubject of this Realm to judge, cenfure, or condemn, in the whole, or in part, any Poem or Poet whatsoever.

or

Given under our hand at London, this third day of January, in the year of Our Lord One thousand feven hundred and thirty and two.

Declarat' cor' me,

JOHN BARBER, Mayor.

*Read thus confidently, inftead off "beginning with the word Books, and "ending with the word Flies," as formerly it tood: read alfo, containing the entire fum of One thoufand feven hundred and fifty-four verfes," inftead of "One thousand and twelve lines;" fuch being the initial and final words, and fuch the true and entire contents of this Foem.

Thou art to know, Reader! that the first edition thereof, like that of Milton, was never feen by the Author, (though living, and not blind :) the editor himself confefied as much in his preface; and no two poems were ever published in fo arbitrary a manner. The editor of this had as boldly fupprefled whole pañiages, yea, the entire laft book, as the editor of Paradife Loft added and augmented. Milton himfelf gave but ten books, his editor twelve: this Author gave four books, his editor only three. But we have happily done justice to both; and prefume we shall live, in this our laft labour, as long as in any of our others.,

Bentley

TO DR. JONATHAN SWIFT.

BOOK I.

The Argument.

THE Propofition, the Invocation, and the Infcription. Then the original of the great Empire of Dulness, and caufe of the continuance thereof. The College of the Goddefs in the City, with her private academy for poets in particular; the governors of it, and the four cardinal virtues. Then the Poem haftes into the midst of things, prefenting her, on the evening of a Lord Mayor's day, revolving the long fucceffion of her fons, and the glories paft and to come. She fixes her eye on Bayes, to be the inftrument of that great event which is the fubject of the Poem. He is defcribed penfive among his books, giving up the caufe, and apprehending the period of her empire. After debating whether to betake himfelf to the church, or to gaming, or to party-writing, he raifes an altar of proper Books, and (making firft his folean prayer and declaration) purposes thereon to facrifice all his unfuccefsful writings. As the pile is kindled, the Goddefs, beholding the flame from her feat, flies and puts it out, by cafting upon it the Poem of Thule. She forthwith reveals herself to him, tranfports him to her Temple, unfolds her arts, and initiates him into her mysteries; then announc ing the death of Eufden the Poet-Laureat, anoints him, carries him to Court, apd proclaims him fucceffor.

THE mighty Mother, and her Son, who brings
The Smithfield Mufes to the ear of kings,

I fing. Say you, her inftruments, the Great!
Call'd to this work by Dulnefs, Jove, and Fate;

REMARKS.

You

The Dunciad.] It is an inconvenience to which writers of reputation are fubject, that the justice of their refentment is not always rightly under. food: for the calumnies of dull authors being foon forgotten, and thofe whom they aimed to injure not caring to recall to memory the particulars of falfe and fcandalous abufe, their neceffary correction is fufpe&ted of feverity unprovoked. But in this cafe it would be but candid to estimate the chaftifement on the general character of the offender, compared with that of the perfon injured. Let this ferve with the candid reader in justification of the Poet, and, on occafion, of the Editor.

This Poem was written in the year 1726. In the next year an imperfect edition was published at Dublin, and reprinted in London in twelves; another at Dublín, and another at London, in octavo; and three others in twelves the fame year: but there was no perfect edition before that of London in quarto, which was attended with notes. We are willing to acquaint pokerity, that this poem was prefented to King George II. and his Queen, by the hands of Sir Robert Walpole, on the 12th of March, 1728-9. Schol. Vet.

VARIATIONS.

v. 1. The mighty Mother, &c.] In the first edition it was thus:

Books and the man I fing, the first who brings

The Smithfield Mufes to the ear of kings.

Say, great Patricians! fince yourselves infpire
Thefe wond'rous works, (fo Jove and Fate require,)
Say, for what caufe, in vain decry'd and curs'd,
Still------

IMITATIONS.

Say, great Patricians! fince yourselves inspire
Thefe wondrous works---

----Dii coeptis (nam vos mutatis et illas.) Ovid Met. I.

You by whofe care, in vain decry'd and curft,
Still Dunce the fecond reigns like Dunce the first;
Say how the Goddefs bade Britannia sleep,
And pour'd her spirit o'er the land and deep.

In eldeft time, ere mortals writ or read,
Ere Pallas iffu'd from the Thund'rer's head,
Dulnefs o'er all poffefs'd her antient right,
Daughter of Chaos and eternal Night:
Fate in their dotage this fair idiot gave,
Grofs as her fire, and as her mother grave;
Laborious, heavy, bufy, bold, and blind,
She rul'd, in native anarchy, the mind.

Still her old empire to restore fhe tries,
For, born a goddess, Dulness never dies.

O Thou! whatever title please thine ear, Dean, Drapier, Bickerstaff, or Gulliver! Whether thou chute Cervantes' ferious air, Or laugh and shake in Rab’lais' easy chair,

REMARKS.

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It was exprefsly confeffed in the preface to the first edition, that this Poem was not published by the Author himfelf. It was printed originally in a foreign country. And what foreign country? Why, one notorious for blunders; where finding blanks only instead of proper names, these blunderers filled them up at their pleasure.

The very Hero of the Poem hath been mistaken to this hour; fo that we are obliged to open our Notes with a difcovery who he really was. We learn from the former editor, that this piece was prefented by the hands of Sir Robert Walpole to King George II. Now the Author directly tells us, his Hero is the man

---who brings

The Smithfield Mufes to the ear of kings.

And it is notorious who was the perfon on whom this Prince conferred the honour of the laurel.

It appears as plainly from the apostrophe to the Great in the third verfe, that Tibbald could not be the perfon, who was never an Author in fafhion or careffed by the great: whereas this fingle characteristic is fufficient to point out the true Hero; who, above all other Poets of his time, was the peculiar delight and chofen companion of the nobility of England; and wrote, as he him/elf tells us, certain of his works at the earnest defire of perfons of quality.

Lastly, The fixth verfe affords full proof; this Poet being the only one who was univerfally known to have had a fon fo exactly like him, in his poetical, theatrical, political and moral capacities, that it could justly be Laid of him,

Still Dunce the Second reigns like Dunce the First.
IMITATIONS.

Bentley.

v. 6.] Alluding to a verfe of Mr. Dryden, not in Mac Fleckno, (as is faid ignorantly in the Key to the Dunciad, p. 1.) but in his verfes to Mr. Congreve, And Tom the Second reigns like Tom the Firk."

25

Or praife the Court, or magnify mankind,
Or thy griev'd country's copper chains unbind
From thy Boeotia though her pow'r retires,
Mourn not, my Swift! at ought our realm acquires.
Here pleas'd behold her mighty wings outfpread
To hatch a new Saturnian age of Lead.

Close to thofe walls where Folly holds her throne,
And laughs to think Monroe would take her down, 30
Where o'er the gates, by his fam'd father's hand,
Great Cibber's brazen, brainless brothers ftand,
One cell there is, conceal'd from vulgar eye,
The cave of Poverty and Poetry:

Keen hollow winds howl thro' the black recefs,
Emblem of mufic caus'd by emptiness :
Hence bards, like Proteus long in vain ty'd down,
Efcape in monsters, and amaze the Town;
Hence Miscellanies spring, the weekly boast
Of Curl's chafte prefs, and Lintot's rubric post:
Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiac lines;
Hence Journals, Medley's, Merc'ries, Magazines:

REMARKS.

35

4.0

Sepulchral

v. 31.by his fam'd father's hand.] Mr. Caius-Gabriel Cibber, father f the Poet laureate. The two ftatues of the lunatics over the gates of Bedlam hofpital were done by him, and (as the fon justly fays of them) are no ill monuments of his fame as an artist.

VARIATIONS.

After ver. 22. in the MSS.

Or in the graver gown inftruct mankind,
Or filent let thy inora's tell thy mind.

But this was to be underfood, as the Poet fays, ironice, like the 23d verse.

v. 29. Close to thofe walls, &c.] In the former edit. thus: Where wave the tatter'd enfigns of Rag-fair,

A yawning ruin hangs and neds in air;

Keen hollow winds howl thro' the bleak recefs,
Emblem of mufic caus'd by emptiness;
Here in one bed two fhiv'ring fitters lie,
The cave of Poverty and Poetry.

v. 41. In the former edit.

Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiac lay,
Hence the foft fing-fong on Cecilia's day.

v. 42. Alludes to the annual fongs compofed to mufic on St. Cecilia's feat.

IMITATIONS.

v. 41, 42. Hence hymning Tyburn's- --Hence, &c.]

"Genus unde Latinum,

"Albanique patres, atque altæ mœnia Romæ.”

Virg. Æn, I.

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