Or Tyber, now no longer Roman, rolls, Vain of Italian arts, Italian souls: To happy convents, bosom'd deep in vines, This glorious youth, and add one Venus more. 1 Tuberoses. The winged lion, the arms of Venice. This republic heretofore the most considerable in Europe, for her naval force and the extent of her commerce; now illustrious for her carnivals. 3 It being indeed no small risk to eat through those extraordinary compositions, whose disguised ingredients are generally unknown to the guests, and highly inflammatory and unwholesome. 4 Yet less a body than echo itself; for echo reflects sense or words at least, this gentleman only airs and tunes: --Sonus est, qui vivit in illo.-OVID. MET. So that this was not a metamorphosis either in one or the other, but only a resolution of the soul into its true principles, its real essence being harmony; according to the doctrine of Orpheus, the inventor of opera, who first performed to a choice assembly of beasts.--SCRIBL. 5 With nothing but a solo? Why, if it be a solo, how should there be anything else? Palpable tautology! Read boldly an opera, which is enough of conscience for such a head as has lost all its Latin.-BENTI. 6 Three very eminent persons, all managers of plays; who, though not governors by profession, had, each in his way, concerned themselves in the education of youth; and regulated their wits, their morals, or their finances, at that period of their age which is the most important, their entrance into the polite world. Of the last of these, and his talents for this end, see Book I. ver. 199, &c. 7 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. 8 Virg. Et nati natorum, et qui nascentur ab illis.-Æn. iii. For such have been always esteemed the ablest supports of the throne of Dulness, even by the confession of those her most legitimate sons, who have unfortunately wanted Prop thine, O empress! like each neighbour throne, And make a long posterity thy own. Pleased she accepts the hero, and the dame Wraps in her veil, and frees from sense of shame. Then look'd, and saw a lazy, lolling sort, Unseen at church, at senate, or at court, Of ever-listless loiterers, that attend No cause, no trust, no duty, and no friend. Thee, too, my Paridel9! she mark'd thee there, Stretch'd on the rack of a too easy chair, And heard thy everlasting yawn confess The pains and penalties of idleness. She pitied but her pity only shed Benigner influence on thy nodding head. But Annius, crafty seer, with ebon wand, Soft, as the wily fox is seen to creep, Grant, gracious Goddess! grant me still to cheat 12, that advantage. The illustrious Vanini, in his divine encomium on our Goddess, entitled De Admirandis Naturæ Reginæ Deaque mortalium Arcanis, laments that he was not born a bastard: 0 utinam extra legitimum ac connubialem thorum essem procreatus! &c. He expatiates on the prerogatives of a free birth, and on what he would have done for the Great Mother with those advantages; and then sorrowfully concludes, At quia conjugatorum sum soboles his orbatus sum bonis. 9 The Poet seems to speak of this young gentleman with great affection. The name is taken from Spenser, who gives it to a wandering courtly 'squire, that traveled about for the same reason, for which many young 'squires are now fond of traveling, and especially to Paris. 10 Virg. Æn. vi. Sedet æternumque sedebit, Infelix Theseus, Phlegyasque miserrimus omnes 11 The name taken from Annius, the monk of Viterbo, famous for many impositions and forgeries of ancient manuscripts and inscriptions, which he was prompted to by mere vanity, but our Annius had a more substantial motive. 12 Hor. -Da pulchra Laverna, Noctem peccatis et fraudibus objice nubem. Some read skill, but that is frivolous, for Annius hath that skill already; or if he had not, skill were not wanting to cheat such persons.-BENTL. 13 The owl stamped on the reverse of the ancient money of Athens, Which Chalcis gods and mortals call an owl, is the verse by which Hobbes renders that of Homer, Χαλκίδα κικλήσκουσι Θεοί, ἄνδρες δὲ Κύμινδιν. 14 The first kings of Athens, of whom it is hard to suppose any coins are extant; but not so improbable as what Be rich in ancient brass, though not in gold, Witness, great Ammon! by whose horns I swore, follows, that there should be any of Mahomet, who forbade all images. Nevertheless one of these Anniuses made a counterfeit one, now in the collection of a learned noble man. This name is not merely an allusion to the mummies 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 any were lost or broken, he should procure others to be made in their stead:" by which it should seem (whatever may be pretended) that Mummius was no virtuoso. A king of Egypt, whose body was certainly to be known, as being buried alone in his pyramid, and is therefore more genuine than any of the Cleopatras. This royal mummy, being stolen by a wild Arab, was purchased by the consul of Alexandria, and transmitted to the museum of Mummius; for proof of which he brings a passage in Sandys's Travels, where that accurate and learned voyager assures us that he saw the sepulchre empty, which agrees exactly (saith he) with the time of the theft above mentioned. But he omits to observe that Herodotus tells the same thing of it in his time. 3 The strange story following, which may be taken for a fiction of the Poet, is justified by a true relation in Spon's Voyages. Vaillant (who wrote the history of the Syrian kings as it is to be found on medals) coming from the Levant, where he had been collecting various coins, and being pursued by a corsair of Sallee, swallowed down twenty gold medals. A sudden bourasque freed him from the rover, and he got to land with them in his belly. On his road to Avignon he met two physicians, of whom he demanded assistance. One advised purgations, the other vomits. In this uncertainty he took neither, but pursued his way to Lyons, where he found his ancient friend, the famous physician and antiquary, Dufour, to whom he related his adventure. Dufour first asked him whether the medals were of the higher empire? He assured him they were. Dufour was ravished with the hope of possessing such a treasure; he bargained with him on the spot for the most curious of them, and was to recover them at his own expense. They are called eîot on their coins. 5 Jupiter Ammon is called to witness, as the father of Alexander, to whom those kings succeeded in the division of the Macedonian empire, and whose horns they wore on their medals. To prove me, Goddess! clear of all design, The Goddess, smiling, seem'd to give consent; So back to Pollio, hand in hand, they went. Then, thick as locusts blackening all the ground7, A tribe, with weeds and shells fantastic crown'd, Each with some wonderous gift approach'd the A nest, a toad, a fungus, or a flower. [Power, But far the foremost, two, with earnest zeal, And aspect ardent, to the throne appeal. The first thus open'd: Hear thy suppliant's call, Great queen, and common mother of us all! Fair from its humble bed I rear'd this flower, Suckled, and cheer'd, with air, and sun, and shower, Soft on the paper ruff its leaves I spread, Bright with the gilded button tipp'd its head, Then throned in glass, and named it CAROLINES: Each maid cried, charming! and each youth, divine! Did Nature's pencil ever blend such rays, Such varied light in one promiscuous blaze? Now prostrate! dead! behold that Caroline: No maid cries, charming! and no youth, divine! And lo the wretch! whose vile, whose insect lust Laid this gay daughter of the spring in dust; O punish him! or to the Elysian shades Dismiss my soul, where no carnation fades. He ceased, and wept. With innocence of mien, The accused stood forth, and thus address'd the queen : Of all the enamel'd race9, whose silvery wing Waves to the tepid zephyrs of the spring, Or swims along the fluid atmosphere, Once brightest shined this child of heat and air. I saw, and started from its vernal bower The rising game, and chased from flower to flower. It fled, I follow'd; now in hope, now pain; It stopp'd, I stopp'd; it moved, I moved again 10; 6 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. 7 The similitude of locusts does not refer more to the numbers than to the qualities of the virtuosi: who not only devour and lay waste every tree, shrub, and green leaf in their course, i. e. of experiments; but suffer neither a moss nor fungus to escape untouched.-SCRIBL. Each maid cried, charming! and each youth, divine! It is a compliment which the florists usually pay to princes and great persons, to give their names to the most curious flowers of their raising. Some have been very jealous of vindicating this honour, but none more than that ambitious gardener at Hammersmith, who caused his favourite to be painted on his sign, with this inscription, This is my Queen Caroline. "The poet seems to have an eye to Spenser, Muiopotmos, Of all the race of silver-winged flies Which do possess the empire of the air, — I started back, 10 It started back; but pleased I soon return'd, Pleased it return'd as soon MILTON. N At last it fix'd, 'twas on what plant it pleased, My sons! (she answer'd) both have done your Live happy both, and long promote our arts. Be that my task (replies a gloomy clerk 5, 1 Of whom see ver, 345 above. 2 Of which the naturalists count I can't tell how many hundred species. 3 One of the first projectors of the Royal Society, who, among many enlarged and useful notions, entertained the extravagant hope of a possibility to fly to the moon; which has put some volatile geniuses upon making wings for that purpose. 4 This is the third speech of the Goddess to her supplicants, and completes the whole of what she had to give in instruction on this important occasion, concerning learning, civil society, and religion. In the first speech, ver. 119, to her editors and conceited critics, she directs how to deprave wit and discredit fine writers. In her second, ver. 175, to the educators of youth, she shows them how all civil duties may be extinguished, in that one doctrine of divine hereditary right. And in this third, she charges the investigators of nature to amuse themselves in trifles, and rest in second causes, with a total disregard of the first. This being all that Dulness can wish, is all she needs to say; and we may apply to her (as the Poet hath managed it) what hath been said of true wit, that she neither says too little, nor too much. 5 The epithet gloomy in this line may seem the same with that of dark in the next. But gloomy relates to the uncomfortable and disastrous condition of an irreligious sceptic, whereas dark alludes only to his puzzled and embroiled systems. 6 Alluding to a ridiculous and absurd way of some mathematicians, in calculating the gradual decay of moral evidence by mathematical proportions: according to which calculation, in about fifty years it will be no longer probable that Julius Cæsar was in Gaul, or died in the senatehouse. See Craig's Theologiæ Christianæ Principia Mathematica. But as it seems evident, that facts of a thousand years old, for instance, are now as probable as they were five hundred years ago; it is plain that if in fifty more And damns implicit faith, and holy lies, See all in self13, and but for self be born: they quite disappear, it must be owing, not to their arguments, but to the extraordinary power of our Goddess; for whose help therefore they have reason to pray. 7 In these lines are described the disposition of the rational inquirer, and the means and end of knowledge. With regard to his disposition, the contemplation of the works of God with human faculties, must needs make a modest and sensible man timorous and fearful; and that will naturally direct him to the right means of acquiring the little knowledge his faculties are capable of, namely, plain and sure experience; which though supporting only an humble foundation, and permitting only a very slow progress, yet leads, surely, to the end, the discovery of the God of nature. 6 Those who, from the effects in this visible world, deduce the eternal power and godhead of the First Cause, though they cannot attain to an adequate idea of the Deity, yet discover so much of him, as enables them to see the end of their creation, and the means of their happiness: whereas they who take this high priori road (such as Hobbes, Spinoza, Des Cartes, and some better reasoners) for one that goes right, ten lose themselves in mists, or ramble after visions which deprive them of all sight of their end, and mislead them in the choice of wrong means. 9 This was in fact the case of those who, instead of reasoning from a visible world to an invisible God, took the other road; and from an invisible God (to whom they had given attributes agreeable to certain metaphysical principles formed out of their own imaginations) reasoned downwards to a visible world in theory, of man's creation; which not agreeing, as might be expected, to that of God's, they began, from their inability to account for evil which they saw in his world, to doubt of that God, whose being they had admitted, and whose attributes they had deduced a priori, on weak and mistaken principles. 10 This relates to such as being ashamed to assert a mere mechanic cause, and yet unwilling to forsake it entirely, have had recourse to a certain plastic nature, elastic fluid, subtile matter, &c. 11 The first of these follies is that of Des Cartes, the second of Hobbes, the third of some succeeding philosophers. 12 These words are very significant: in their physical and metaphysical reasonings it was a chain of pretended demonstrations that drew them into all these absurd conclusions. But their errors in morals rest only on bold and impudent assertions without the least shadow of proof, in which they overleap all the laws of argument as well as truth. 13 Here the poet, from the errors relating to a deity in natural philosophy, descends to those in moral. Man was made according to God's image; this false theology, measuring his attributes by ours, makes God after man's image. This proceeds from the imperfection of his reason. The next, of imagining himself the final cause, is the effect of his pride: as the making virtue and vice arbitrary, and morality the imposition of the magistrate, is of the corrup Of nought so certain as our reason still', Or that bright image3 to our fancy draw, Roused at his name, up rose the bowzy sire, And shook from out his pipe the seeds of fire 7; Then snapp'd his box, and stroked his belly down: Rosy and reverend, though without a gown. tion of his heart. Hence he centres every thing in himself. The progress of dulness herein differing from that of madness; one ends in seeing all in God, the other in seeing all in self. 1 of which we have most cause to be diffident. Of nought so doubtful as of soul and will: two things the most selfevident, the existence of our soul, and the freedom of our will. 2 Lib. 1. ver. 57. Omnis enim per se Divom natura necesse'st Immortali ævo summa cum pace fruatur, Semota ab nostris rebus, summotaque longe Nec bene pro meritis capitur, nec tangitur ira. From whence the two verses following are translated, and wonderfully agree with the character of our Goddess. SCRIB. 3 Bright image was the title given by the later Platonists to that idea of nature, which they had formed in their fancy, so bright, that they called it AŬTOTтоv "Ayaλμa, or the self-seen image, i. e. seen by its own light. 4 Thus this philosopher calls upon his friend, to partake with him in these visions: "To-morrow, when the eastern sun To wander with me in the woods you see, By favour of the sylvan nymphs: and invoking first the Genius of the place, we'll try to obtain at least some faint and distant view of the sovereign Genius and first Beauty." Charact. Vol. 2, p. 245. This Genius is thus apostrophized (p. 345) by the same philosopher : Supremely fair, and sovereignly good! Thee I invoke, and thee alone adore. Sir Isaac Newton distinguishes between these two in a very different manner. [Princ. Schol. gen. sub fin.]Hunc cognoscimus solummodo per proprietates suas et attributa, et per sapientissimas et optimas rerum structuras, et causas finales; veneramur autem et colimus ob dominium. Deus etenim sine dominio, providentia, et causis finalibus, nihil aliud est quam fatum et natura. 5 "Above all things I loved ease, and of all philosophers those who reasoned most at their ease, and were never angry or disturbed, as those called sceptics never were. I looked upon this kind of philosophy as the prettiest, agreeablest, roving exercise of the mind, possible to be imagined." Vol. 2, p. 206. 6 Silenus was an Epicurean philosopher, as appears from Virgil, Eclog. 6. where he sings the principles of that philosophy in his drink. 7 The Epicurean language, Semina rerum, or atoms. Virg. Eclog. 6. Semina ignis—semina flammæ. Bland and familiar to the throne he came, Led up the youth, and call'd the goddess dame. With that, a WIZARD OLD his cup extends 10; Which whoso tastes, forgets his former friends, 8 The learned Scriblerus is here very whimsical. It would seem, says he, by this, as if the priests (who are always plotting and contriving mischief against the law of natur.) had inveigled these harmless youths from the bosom of their mother, and kept them in open rebellion to her, till Silenus broke the charm, and restored them to her indulgent arms. But this is so singular a fancy, and at the same time so unsupported by proof, that we must in justice acquit them of all suspicions of this kind. 9 A recapitulation of the whole course of modern education described in this book, which confines youth to the study of words only in schools, subjects them to the authority of systems in the Universities, and deludes them with the names of party-distinctions in the world. All equally concurring to narrow the understanding, and establish slavery and error in literature, philosophy, and politics. The whole finished in modern free-thinking; the completion of whatever is vain, wrong, and destructive to the happiness of mankind, as it establishes self-love for the sole principle of action. 10 Here beginneth the celebration of the greater mysteries of the Goddess, which the Poet in his invocation, ver. 5, promised to sing. For when now each aspirant, as was the custom, had proved his qualification and claim to a participation, the high-priest of Dulness first initiateth the assembly by the usual way of libation. And then each of the initiated, as was always required, putteth on a new nature, described from ver. 518 to 529. When the high priest and Goddess have thus done their parts, each of them is delivered into the hands of his conductor, an inferior minister or hierophant, whose names are Impudence, Stupefaction, Self-conceit, Self-interest, Pleasure, Epicurism, &c. to lead them through the several apartments of her mystic dome or palace. When all this is over, the sovereign Goddess, from ver 565 to 600 conferreth her titles and degrees; rewards inseparably attendant on the participation of the mysteries; which made the ancient Theon say of them-κάλλιστα μὲν οὖν, καὶ τῶν μεγίστων ἀγαθῶν, τὸ Μυστηρίων μετέχειν. Hence being enriched with so many various gifts and graces, initiation into the mysteries was anciently, as well as in these our times, esteemed a necessary qualification for every high office and employment, whether in church or state. Lastly the great mother shutteth up the solemnity with her gracious benediction, which concludeth in drawing the curtain, and laying all her children to rest. It is to be observed that Dulness, before this her restoration, had her pontiffs in partibus; who from time to time held her mysteries in secret, and with great privacy. But now, on her re-establishment, she celebrateth them, like those of the Cretans (the most ancient of all mysteries) in open day, and offereth them to the inspection of all men. SCRIBL. Sire, ancestors, himself'. One casts his eyes But she, good Goddess 4, sent to every child Kind Self-conceit to some her glass applies, Others the Syren Sisters warble round, Why all your toils? your sons have learn'd to sing. On some, a priest succinct in amice white 1 The cup of self-love, which causes a total oblivion of the obligations of friendship, or honour, and of the service of God or our country; all sacrificed to vain-glory, courtworship, or yet meaner considerations of lucre and brutal pleasures. From ver. 520 to 528. Homer of the Nepenthe, Odyss. 4. 2 So strange as this must seem to a mere English reader, the famous Mons. de la Bruyère declares it to be the character of every good subject in a monarchy: "Where (says he) there is no such thing as love of our country, the interest, the glory and service of the prince supply its place." De la République, chap. 10. 3 The effects of the Magus's cup are just contrary to that of Circe. Hers took away the shape, and left the human mind: this takes away the mind, and leaves the human shape. 4 The only comfort such people can receive, must be owing in some shape or other to Dulness; which makes some stupid, others impudent, gives self-conceit to some, upon the flatteries of their dependants, presents the false colours of interest to others, and busies or amuses the 'rest with idle pleasures or sensuality, till they become easy under any infamy. Each of which species is here shadowed under allegorical persons. 5 The true balm of dulness, called by the Greek physicians, Koλakeía, is a sovereign remedy, and has its name from the Goddess herself. Its ancient dispensators were her poets; but it is now got into as many hands as Goddard's Drops or Daffy's Elixir. It is prepared by the clergy, as appears from several places of this poem: And by ver. 534, 535, it seems as if the nobility had it made up in their own houses. This, which opera is here said to administer, is but a spurious sort. See my Dissertation on the Silphium of the Ancients.-BENT. • Scriblerus seems at a loss in this place. Speciosa mi Another (for in all what one can shine??) Some, deep Freemasons", join the silent race racula (says he) according to Horace, were the monstrous fables of the Cyclops, Læstrygons, Scylla, &c. What relation have these to the transformation of hares into larks, or of pigeons into toads? I shall tell thee. The Læstrygons spitted men upon spears, as we do larks upon skewers: and the fair pigeon turned to a toad is similar to the fair virgin Scylla ending in a filthy beast. But here is the difficulty, why pigeons in so shocking a shape should be brought to a table. Hares indeed might be cut into larks at a second dressing out of frugality: Yet that seems no probable motive, when we consider the extravagance before mentioned, of dissolving whole oxen and boars into a small vial of jelly; nay it is expressly said that all flesh is nothing in his sight. I have searched in Apicius, Pliny, and the Feast of Tremalchio, in vain: I can only resolve it into some mysterious superstitious rite, as it is said to be done by a priest, and soon after called a sacrifice, attended (as all ancient sacrifices were) with libation and song.—SCRIBL. This good scholiast, not being acquainted with modern luxury, was ignorant that these were only the miracles of French cookery, and that particularly pigeons en crapaud were a common dish. 7 Alludes to that of Virgil, Eel. 3. -non omnia possumus omnes. 8 French terms relating to wines. St. Evremont has a very pathetic letter to a nobleman in disgrace, advising him to seek comfort in a good table, and particularly to be attentive to these qualities in his champagne. 9 Bladen-Hays-Names of gamesters Bladen is a black man. Robert Knight, cashier of the South Sea company. who fled from England in 1720, (afterwards pardoned in 1742.) These lived with the utmost magnificence at Paris, and kept open tables frequented by persons of the first quality of England, and even by princes of the blood of France. The former note of Bladen is a black man, is very absurd. The manuscript here is partly obliterated, and doubtless could only have been, Wash blackamoors white, alluding to a known proverb.-SCRIBL. 10. e. Two dissolved into quintessence to make sauce for the third. The honour of this invention belongs to France, yet has it been excelled by our native luxury, a hundred squab turkeys being not unfrequently deposited in one pie in the bishopric of Durham: to which our Author alludes in ver. 593 of this work. 11 The Poet all along expresses a very particular concern for this silent race: he has here provided, that in case they will not waken or open (as was before proposed) to a hummingbird or cockle, yet at worst they may be made free-masons; where taciturnity is the only essential qualification, as it was the chief of the disciples of Pythagoras, 12 A sort of lay-brothers, slips from the root of the free masons. |