III

But as in graceful ad, with awful eye,
Compos'd he stood, bold Benson thruft him by :
On two unequal crutches propt he came,
Milton's on this, on that one Johnston's name.
The decent knight retir'd with fober rage,
Withdrew his hand, and clos'd the pompous page.
But (happy for him as the times went then)
Appear'd Apollo's Mayor and Aldermen,
On whom three hundred gold-capt youths await,
To lug the ponderous volume off in state.

When Dulnefs fmiling," Thus revive the wits!

But murder firft, and mince them all to bits; 120
As erft Medea (cruel, so to save!)
A new edition of old Æson gave;
Let ftandard-authors, thus, like trophies borne,
Appear more glorious, as more hack'd and torn.
And you, my critics! in the chequer'd fhade,
Admire new light through holes yourselves have

ant: no poet having had a page fince the death of Mr. Thomas Durfey.

SCRIBL. Ver. 131. So by each Bard an Alderman, &c.] Vide the Tombs of the Poets, Editio Weftmona fterienfis.

Ibid.—an Alderman shall sit,] Alluding to the monument erected for Butler by Alderman Barber.

Ver 132. A heavy Lord shall hang at every wit,] How unnatural an image, and how ill fupported faith Ariftarchus. Had it been,

A heavy wit fhall hang at every Lord, fomething might have been said, in an age fodiftin guished for well-judging patrons. For Lord, then, read Load; that is, of debts here, and of commen

REMARKS.

the cafe of the poor author of Hudibras, whole body, long fince weighed down to the grave, by a load of debts, has lately had a more unmerciful

of no one party.

Ver. 110. bold Benfon] This man endeavoured to raise himself to fame by erecting monuments, ftriking coins, fetting up heads, and procuring tranflations, of Milton; and afterwards by as great a pallion for Arthur Johnfton, a Scots Physician's Version of the Psalms, of which he printed many fine editions. See more of him, Book iii. ver. 325.

Ver. 113. The decent knight] An eminent perfon who was about to publish a very pompous edition of a great author at his own expence,

Ver. 115, &c.] Thefe four lines were printed in a feparate 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 foon as Sir T. H.'s Shakspeare should be published.

Ver. 119. Thus revive, &c] The goddess applauds the practice of tacking the obfcure names of perfons not eminent in any branch of learning, to thofe of the most diftinguifhed writers; either by printing editions of their works, with impertinent alterations of their text, as in the former inftances; or by fetting up monuments difgraced with their own vile names and infcriptions, as in the latter.

Ver. 128. A Page, a Grave.] For what lefs than a grave can be granted to a dead author? or what lefs than a page can be allowed a living one!

Ver. 128. A Page.] Pagina, not Pediffequus. A page of a book, not a fervant, follower, or attend

the editor has atchieved more than Virgil himfelf, 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. SCRIBL.

Ariftarchus thinks the common reading right: and that the author himself had been struggling, and but just shaken off his load when he wrote the following epigram:

Dance fcorning Dunce beholds the next advance, But Fop fhows Fop fuperior complaifance.] This is not to be afcribed fo 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 blockheads. For as judgment confifts in finding out the differences in things, and wit in finding out their likeneffes, fo the Dunce is all difcord and diffenfion, and conftantly bufied in reproving, examining, confuting, &c. while the Fop flourishes in peace, with fongs- and hymns of praife, addreffes, characters, epithalamwums, &c

140

When lo! a fpectre rofe, whofe index-hand
Held forth by virtue of the dreadful wand;
His beaver'd brow a birchen garland wears,
Dropping with infant's blood, and mother's tears.
O'er every vein a fhuddering horror runs ;
Eaton and Winton fhake through all their fons.
All flesh is humbled, Westminster's bold race
Shrink, and confefs the Genius of the place:
The pale Boy-Senator yet tingling stands,
And holds his breeches clofe with both his hands.
Then thus, fince man from beaft by words is
known,
149

Words are man's province, words we teach alone.
When Reaton doubtful, like the Samian letter,
Points him two ways, the narrower is the better.
Ple'd at the door of Learning, youth to guide,
We never fuffer it to ftand too wide.

Te ak, to guess, to know, as they commence,
As fancy opens the quick springs of fense,
We ply the memory, we load the brain,
Blind rebel Wit, and double chain on chain,
Confine the thought, to exercise the breath;
And keep them in the pale of words till death. 160
Whate'er the talents, or howe'er defign'd,
We hang one jingling padlock on the mind:
A port the first day, he dips his quill;
And what the laft? a very poet still.
Pity! the charm works only in our wall,
Loft, loft too foon in yonder house or hall.
There truant Windham every mufe gave o'er,
There Talbot funk, and was a wit no more!
How sweet an Ovid, Murray was our boast!
How many martials were in Pulteney lost!
Elfe fure fome bard, to our eternal praise,
In twice ten thousand rhyming nights and days,
Had reach'd the work, the all that mortal can;
And South beheld that masterpiece of man.

170

Oh (cry'd the Goddess) for fome pedant reign! Some gentle James, to bless the land again; To ftick the Doctor's chair into the throne, Give law to words, or war with words alone,

REMARKS.

Ver. 140. the dreadful wand;] A cane ufually borne by schoolmasters, which drives the poor fouls about like the wand of Mercury. SCRIBL

Ver. 151. like the Samian letter,] The letter Y fed by Pythagoras as an emblem of the different roads of virtue and vice.

“Et tibi quæ Samios diduxit lisera ramos." Perf.

Ver. 174. that masterpiece 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 fay, "An epic poem "is the greatest work human nature is capable

" of."

Ver. 176 Some gentle James, &c.] Wilfon tells us that this king, James the Firft, took upon himfelf to teach the Latin tongue to Car, Earl of Somerfet; and that Gondomar the Spanish Ambaffa dor would fpeak falfe Latin to him, on purpose to give him the pleasure of correcting it, whereby he Wrought himself into his good graces,

Senates and courts with Greek and Latin rule,

And turn the council to a Grammar School! 180
For fure, if Dulnefs fees a grateful day,
'Tis in the fhade of arbitrary fway.

O! if my fons may learn one earthly thing,
Teach but that one, fufficient for a king;
That which my priests, and mine alone, maintain,
Which, as it dies, or lives, we fall, or reign;
May you, my Cam, and Ifis, preach it long,
"The Right Divine of Kings to govern wrong."

Prompt at the call, around the Goddess roll
Broad hats, and hoods, and caps, a fable shoal: 190
Thick and more thick the black blockade extends,
A hundred head of Ariftotle's friends.
Nor wert thou, Ifis wanting to the day,
[Though Chrift Church long kept prudishly away.]
Each ftaunch Polemic, ftubborn as a rock,
Each fierce Logician, ftill expelling Locke,
Came whip and spur, and dash'd through thin and
thick

On German Crouzaz, and Dutch Burgerfdyck.

Ver. 194. Though Chrift Church, &c.] This line is doubtlefs fpurious, and foifted in by the impertinence of the editor; 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.

BINTL.

Ver. 196. ftill expelling Locke,] In the year. 1703 there was a meeting of the heads of the University of Oxford to cenfure Mr. Locke's Ef. fay on Human Understanding, and to forbid the reading of it See his Letters on the last edit.

Ver. 198. On German Crouzaz, and Dutch Burgerfdyck.] There feems to be an improbability that the Doctors and Heads of Honfes should ride on horseback, who of late days, being gouty or unwieldy, have kept their coaches. But thefe are horses of great ftrength, and fit to carry any weight, as their German and Dutch extraction may manifeft; and very famous we may con clude, being honoured with names, as were the SCRIBL. horfes Pegafus and Bucephalus.

Though I have the greatest deference to the penetration of this eminent fcholiaft, and must own that nothing can be more natural than his interpretation, or juster than that rule of criticism, which directs us to keep to the literal fenfe, when no apparent abfurdity accompanies it (and fure there is no abfurdity in fuppofing a Logician on horfeback), yet ftill 1 muft needs think the hackneys here celebrated were not real horfes, nor even Centaurs, which, for the fake of the learned Chiron, I fhould rather be inclined to think, if

For Attic phrafe in Plato let them seek,
I poach in Suidas for unlicens'd Greek.
In ancient fenfe if any needs will deal,
Be fure I give them fragments, not a meal;
What, Gellius or Stobæus hafh'd before,

Or chew'd by blind old scholiafts o'er and o'er,
The critic eye, that microscope of wit,
Sees hairs and pores, examines bit by bit:
How parts relate to parts, or they to whole;
The body's harmony, the beaming foul,
Are things which Kufter, Burman, Waffe shall fee,
When man's whole frame is obvious to a flea.
Ah, think not, mistress! more true Dulnefs lies
In Folly's cap, than Wifdom's grave disguise. 240
Like buoys, that never fink into the flood,
On Learning s furface we bút lie and nod,
Thine is the genuine head of many a house,
And much divinity without a Nõs.
Nor could a Barrow work on every block,
Nor has one Atterbury spoil'd the flock.
See ftill thy own, the heavy Canon roll,
And metaphyfic fmokes involve the Pole.
For thee we dim the eyes, and ftuff the head
With all fuch reading as was never read:
For thee explain a thing till all men doubt it,
And write about it, Goddefs, and about it:
Bo fpins the filk-worm fmall its flender flore,
And labours, till it clouds itself all o'er.
What though we let fome better fort of fool
Thrid ev'ry fcience, run through every school?
Never by tumbler through the hoops was shown
Such skill in paffing all, and touching none.
He may indeed (if fober all this time)
Plague with Difpute, or perfecute with Rhyme.
We only furnish what he cannot use,

Or wed to what he must divorce, a mufe:

250

261

Full in the midft of Euclid dip at once,
And petrify a Genius to a Dunce :
Or fet on metaphysic ground to prance,
Show all his paces, not a step advance.
With the fame cement, ever fure to bind,
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. 270

REMARKS.

having had it in their choice to comment either on Virgil or Manilus, Pliny or Solinus, have chofen the worse author, the more freely to display their critical capacity.

In flow'd at once a gay embroider'd race, And tittering pufh'd the pedants off the place: Some would have spoken, but the voice was drown'd

Ver. 272. lac'd Governor] Why lac'd? Because gold and filver are neceffary trimming to denote the drefs of a perfon of rank, and the Governor must be fuppofed fo in foreign countries, to be admitted into courts and other places of fair reception. But how comes Ariftarchus to know at fight that this Governor came from France? Know? Why, by the laced coat. SCRIBL.

Ibid. Whore, Pupil, and lac'd Governor] Some critics have objected to the order here, being of opinion that the Governor fhould have the precedence before the Whore, if not before the Pupil, But were he fo placed, it might be thought to infinuate that the Governor led the Pupil to the Whore; and were the Pupil placed first, he might be fuppofed to lead the Governor to her. But our impartial poet, as he is drawing 'their picture, reprefents them in the order in which they are generally feen; namely, the Pupil between the Whore and the Governor; but placeth the Whore firft, as the usually governs both the other.

Ver. 280. As if he faw St. James's] Reflecting on the disrespectful and indecent behaviour of several forward young perfons in the prefence, fo offenfive to all ferious men, and to none more than the good Scriblerus.

Ver. 281. th' attendant orator] The Governor above-faid. The poet gives him no particular name; being unwilling, I prefume, to offend or to do injuftice to any, by celebrating one only with whom this character agrees, in preference to so many who fo equally deferve it.

SCRIBL.

Ver. 284. A dauntless infant' never fcar'd with God] i. e. Brought up in the enlarged principles of modern education; whofe great point is, to keep the infant mind free from the prejudices of

pen to find much mince-meat of old books.

Ver. 245, 246. Barrow, Atterbury] Ifaac Barrow, Mafter of Trinity, Francis Atterbury, Dean of Christ Church, both great geniufes and eloquent preachers; one more converfant in the fublime geometry, the other in claffical learning; but who equally made it their care to advance the polite arts in their feveral focieties.

rifying names. Amongst the happy confequences of this reformed difcipline, it is not the leaft, that we have never afterwards any occafion for the pricft, whofe trade, as a modern wit informs us, is SCRIAL, only to finish what the nurse began.

Ver. 286.-the bleffing of a rake.] Scriblerus is here much at a lofs to find out what this blefing fhould be. He is fometimes tempted to imagin

300

Thou gav'ft that ripenefs, which fo foon began,
And ceas'd fo foon, he ne'er was boy, nor man.
Through school and college, thy kind cloud o'ercaft,
Safe and unfeen the young Æneas paft: 290
Thence bursting glorious, all at once let down,
Stunn'd with his giddy larum half the town.
Intrepid then, o'er feas and lands he flew :
Europe he faw, and Europe faw him too.
There all thy gifts and graces we display,
Thou, only thou, directing all our way:
To where the Seine, obfequious as fhe runs,
Pours at great Bourbon's feet her filken fons;
Or Tyber, now no longer Roman, rolls,
Vain of Italian arts, Italian fouls:
To happy convents, bofom'd deep in vines,
Where flumber abbots, purple as their wines:
To ifles of fragrance, lily-filver'd vales,
Diffufing langour in the panting gales:
To lands of finging, or of dancing flaves, [waves.
Love-whispering woods, and lute-refounding
But chief her fhrine where naked Venus keeps,
And Cupids ride the lion of the deeps,
Where, eas'd of fleets, the Adriatic main
Wafts the smooth eunuch and enamour'd fwain..
Led by my hand, he faunter'd Europe round,
And gather'd every vice on Christian ground;
Saw every court, heard every king declare
His royal fenfe of operas, or the fair;
The ftews and palace equally explor'd,
Intrigued with glory, and with fpirit whor'd;
Try'd all hors d'œuvres, all liqueurs defin'd,
Judicious drank, and greatly-daring din'd;

309

319

Dropt the dull lumber of the Latin store,
319
Spoil'd his own language, and acquir'd no more;
All claffic learning loft on claffic ground;
And last turn'd air, the echo of a found;
See now, half cur'd, and perfectly well-bred,
With nothing but a folo in his head;
As much eftate, and principle, and wit,
As Janfen, Fleetwood, Cibber, fhall think fit;
Stoľn from a duel, follow'd by a nun,
And, if a borough choose him, not undone !
See, to my country happy I restore
This glorious youth, and add one Venus more.
Her too receive (for her my foul adores),
So may the fons of fons of fons of whores
Prop thine, O emprefs. like each neighbour throne,
And make a long pofterity thy own.
Pleas'd, the accepts the hero and the dame,
Wraps in her veil, and frees from fenfe or fhame.
Then look'd, and faw a lazy, lolling fort,
Unfeen at church, at fenate, or at court,
Of ever-liftless loiterers, that attend
No cause, no trust, no duty, and no friend.
Thee too, my Paridel! fhe 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 idlenefs.
She pity'd! but her pity only shed
Benigner influence on thy nodding head.

But Annius, crafty feer, with ebon wand,
And well-diffembled emerald on his hand,

340

Intrigued with glory, and with fpirit whor'd, which feems to infinuate that her prayer was heard. Here the good scholiaft, as, indeed, every where elfe, lays open the very foul of modern criticifm, while he makes his own ignorance of a poetical expreffion hold open the door to much erudition and learned conjecture: the bleffing of a rake fignifying no more than that he might be a rake; the effects of a thing for the thing itself, a common figure. The careful mother only with ed her fon might be a rake, as well knowing that its attendant bleffings would follow of course.

Ver. 307. But chief, &c.] Thefe two lines, in their force of imagery and colouring, emulate and equal the pencil of Rubens.

Ver. 308. And Cupids ride the lion of the deeps.] The winged lion, the arms of Venice. This republic heretofore the most confiderable in Europe, for her naval force, and the extent of her commerce, now illuftrious for her carnival..

REMARKS.

Ver. 318. Greatly-daring din'd.] It being indeed no small rifk to eat through those extraor dinary compofitions, whofe disguised ingredients are generally unknown to the guests, and highly inflammatory and unwholefome.

Ver. 374. With nothing but a folo in his head;} With nothing but a folo? Why, if it be a folo, how fhould there be any thing else? Palpable teutolo 8y! Read boldly an opera, which is enough of confcience for such a head as has loft all its Latin.

BENTL.

Ver. 326. Janfen, Fleetwood, Cibber.] Three very eminent perfons, all managers of plays; who, though not governors by profeffion, 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, fee Book i. ver. 199, &c.

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 feems to speak of this young gentleman with great affection. The name is taken from Spenter, whe gives it to a wandering courtly 'fquire, that tra velled about for the fame reafon for which many young 'fquires are now fond of travelling, and efpecially to Paris.

Ver. 347. Annius] The narge taken from At