THE DUN CIA D: то DR. JONATHAN SWIFT. BOOK THE FIRST. ARGUMENT. THE Propofition, the Invocation, and the Infcription. Then the Original of the great Empire of Dulness, and cause of the continuance thereof. The College of the Goddess 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, presenting her, on the evening of a Lord Mayor's day, revolving the long fucceffion of her Sons, and the glories paft and to come. She fixes her eye on Bays* to be the Inftrument of that great Event which is the Subject of the Poem. He is described penfive among his Books, giving up the Caufe, and apprehending the Period of VARIATION. her In the first editions Tibbald was the Hero of the Poem, which will account for most of the subsequent variations. her Empire: After debating whether to betake himfelf to the Church, or to Gaming, or to Party-writing, he raises an Altar of proper books, and (making first his folemn prayer and declaration) purposes thereon to facrifice all his unfuccessful writings. As the pile is kindled, the Goddess beholding the flame from her feat, flies and puts it out by casting upon it the poem of Thulé. She forthwith reveals herfelf to him, transports him to her Temple, unfolds her Arts, and initiates him into her Mysteries; then announcing the death of Eufden the Poet Laureate, anoints him, carries him to court, and proclaims him Succeffor. BOOK T BOOK I. HE mighty Mother, and her Son, who brings VARIATION." I fing. Ver. 1. The mighty Mother, &c.] In the firft Edit. it was thus, Books and the Man I fing, the first who brings REMARKS. The DUNCIAD, fic MS. It may well be difputed whether this be a right reading: Ought it not rather to be fpelled Dunceiad, as the Etymology evidently demands? Dunce with an e, therefore Dunceiad with an e. That accurate and punctual Man of Letters, the Reftorer of Shakespeare, constantly obferves the prefervation of this very Letter e, in fpelling the Name of his beloved Author, and not like his common careless Editors, with the omiffion of one, nay fometimes of two ee's (as Shakspear) which is utterly unpardonable. "Nor is the neglect of a Single Letter fo trivial as to "fome it may appear; the alteration whereof in a learn"ed language is an Atchievement that brings honour "to the Critic who advances it; and Dr. Bentley will "be remembered to pofterity for his performances of "this fort, as long as the world fhall have any esteem "for the remains of Menander and Philemon.” THEOBALD. This is furely a flip in the learned author of the foregoing note; there having been fince produced by an accu this Author mean, by erecting a Player instead of one of his Patrons (a perfon, "never a hero even on the "ftage o"), to this dignity of Collegue in the Empire of Dulness, and Atchiever of a work that neither old Omar, Attila, nor John of Leyden, could entirely bring to pafs. To all this we have, as we conceive, a fufficient anfwer from the Roman historian, “ Fabrum effe fuæ quemque fortune" That every man is the Smith of his own fortune. The politic Florentine, Nicholas Machiavel, goeth ftill further, and affirmeth that a man needeth but to believe himself a Hero to be one of the worthiest. "Let him (faith he) but fancy himself capable of the "highest things, and he will of course be able to at"chieve them." From this principle it follows, that nothing can exceed our Hero's prowess; as nothing ever equalled the greatnefs of his conceptions. Hear how he constantly paragons himself; at one time to Alexander the Great and Charles the XII. of Sweden for the excefs and delicacy of his Ambition p; to Henry the IV. of France, for honeft Policy 9; to the first Brutus, for love of liberty; and to Sir Robert Walpole, for good Government while in powers: At another time, to the godlike Socrates for his diverfions and amusements : t to Horace, Montaigne, and Sir William Temple, for an elegant Vanity that maketh them for ever read and admired; to two Lord Chancellors, for law, from whom, when confederate against him at the bar, he carried away the prize of Eloquence w; and, to fay all in a word, to the right reverend the Lord Bishop of London himself, in the art of writing paftoral letters x. Nor did his actions fall fhort of the sublimity of his Conceit. In his early youth he met the Revolution y face to face in Nottingham; at a time when his betters contented themselves with following her. It was here he got acquainted with Old Battle-array, of whom he hath made fo honourable mention in one of his immortal Odes. But he fhone in Courts as well as in Camps: He was called up when the nation fell in labour of this Revolution z; and was a goffip at her chriftening, with the Bishop and the Ladies 2. As to his Birth, it is true he pretendeth no relation either to Heathen God or Goddefs; but, what is as good, he was descended from a Maker of both b. And that he did not pafs himself on the world for a Hero, as well by birth as education, was his own fault: For his lineage he bringeth into his life as an Anecdote, and is fenfible he had it in his power to be thought nobody's fon at all: And what is that but coming into the world a Here? But be it (the punctilious Laws of Epic Poefy fo requiring) that a Hero of more than mortal birth must u Life, p. 425. w P. 436, 437. × P. 52. z P. 57. a P. 58, 59. F2 b A Statuary. y P. 47. < P. 6. needs |