Or, if to Wit a Coxcomb make pretence,

Guard the fure barrier between that and Sense;
Or quite unravel all the reas'ning thread,
And hang fome curious cobweb in its stead!
As, forc'd from wind-guns, lead itself can fly,
And pond'rous flugs cut fwiftly through the sky;

VARIATIONS.

VER. 177. Or, if to Wit, &c.] In the former Edd.
Ah! ftill o'er Britain ftretch that peaceful wand,
Which lulls th' Helvetian and Batavian land;
Where rebel to thy throne if Science rife,
She does but fhew her coward face and dies:
There thy good Scholiafts with unweary'd pains
Make Horace flat, and humble Maro's ftrains:
Here ftudious I unlucky moderns fave,
Nor fleeps one error in its father's grave,
Old puns reftore, loft blunders nicely feek,
And crucify poor Shakespear once a week.
For thee fupplying, in the worft of days,
Notes to dull books, and prologues to dull plays;
Not that my quill to critics was confin'd,

My verfe gave ampler leffons to mankind :
So gravest precepts may fuccefslefs

prove,

180

W.

As

But fad examples never fail to move. As, forc'd from wind-guns, &c. T'hefe lines appear to be better than thofe in the prefent text. Var. And crucify poor Shakespear once a week.] For fome time, once a week or fortnight, he printed in Mifl's Journal a single remark or poor conjecture on fome word or pointing of Shakespear, either in his own name, or in letters to himself as from others without name. Upon these fomebody made this Epigram: "'Tis gen'rous, Tibbald! in thee and thy brothers, To help us thus to read the works of others: Never for this can just returns be shown;

For who will help us e'er to read thy own?"

Var. Notes to dull books, and prologues to dull plays ;] As to Cook's Hefiod, where fometimes a note, and sometimes even half a note, are carefully owned by him: And to Moore's Comedy of the Rival Modes, and other authors of the fame rank: These were people who writ about the year 1726. W.

As clocks to weight their nimble motion owe,

The wheels above urg'd by the load below:

Me Emptiness, and Dulness could inspire,

185

And were my Elasticity, and Fire.

Some Demon ftole my pen (forgive th' offence)
And once betray'd me into common sense:

190

Elfe all my Prose and Verse were much the fame;
This, profe on stilts; that, poetry fall'n lame.
Did on the stage my Fops appear confin'd?
My Life gave ampler leffons to mankind.
Did the dead Letter unfuccefsful prove;

The brisk Example never fail'd to move.

Yet fure, had Heav'n decreed to fave the State, 195 Heav'n had decreed these works a longer date.

VARIATIONS.

Could

VER. 195. Yet fure, had Heav'n, &c.] In the former Edd.
Had Heav'n decreed fuch works a longer date,
Heav'n had decreed to spare the Grubstreet-state.
But fee great Settle to the duft defcend,
And all thy cause and empire at an end!
Could Troy be fav'd, &c.-

REMARK S.

W.

VER. 181. As, forc'd from wind-guns, &c.] The thought of these four verses is found in a poem of our Author's of a very early date (namely written at fourteen years old, and foon after printed) to the Author of a poem called Succeffio.

W.

VER. 185. Me Emptiness,] This firft fpeech of the Hero is full of an impropriety that one could hardly believe our author could fall into; it being contrary to all decorum, character, and probability, that Bays fhould addrefs the Goddefs Dullness, without

IMITATIONS,

VER. 195. Had Heav'n decreed, &c.]

"Me fi coelicolae voluiffent ducere vitam,

Has mihi fervaffent fedes.".

VIRG. Aeneid. ii,

Could Troy be fav'd by any single hand,

This grey-goofe weapon must have made her stand. What can I now ? my Fletcher caft afide,

Take up the Bible, once my better guide?
Or tread the path by vent'rous Heroes trod,
This Box my Thunder, this right-hand my God?

200

REMARKS.

Or

without difguifing or mistaking her, as a defpicable being; and fhould even call himself fool and blockhead. It is in truth outrageously unnatural and abfurd. And fo alfo is another and even more glaring breach of truth and decorum in book iv. v. 210. in making Ariftarchus, that is, even the great and able Bentley, abuse himself, and laugh at his own labours. Bramftone has falles into the fame abfurdity;

"A Footman I would be in outward fhew,

Man of Taste.

In fenfe and education truly fo!" VER. 199. My Fletcher] A familiar manner of speaking, used by modern Critics, of a favourite author. Bays might as juftly fpeak thus of Fletcher, as a French Wit did of Tully, seeing his works in a library, "Ah! mon cher Ciceron! je le connois bien; c'est le même que Marc Tulle." But he had a better title to call Fletcher his own, having made fo free with him. W.

VER. 200. Take up the Bible, once my better guide?] When, according to his Father's intention, he had been a Clergyman, or (as he thinks himself) a Bishop of the Church of England. Hear his own words: "At the time that the fate of K. James, the Prince of Orange, and myself, were on the anvil, Providence thought fit to poftpone mine, 'till theirs were determined: But had my father carried me a month fooner to the University, who knows but that purer fountain might have washed my Imperfections into a capacity of writing, inftead of Plays and annual Odes, Sermons and Paftoral Letters?" Apology for his Life, chap. iii. W.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 197, 198. Could Troy be fav'd-This grey-goose weapon] "Si Pergama dextra

Defendi poffent, etiam hac defenfa fuiffent." VIRG. ibid. VER. 202. This Box my Thunder, this right hand my God?] "Dextra mihi Deus, et telum quod miffile libro."

VIRGIL of the Gods of Mezentius.

Or chair'd at White's amidst the Doctors fit,

Teach Oaths to Gamefters, and to Nobles Wit?
Or bidst thou rather party to embrace?

205

(A friend to Party thou, and all her race;

'Tis the fame rope at diff'rent ends they twist;

To Dulnefs Ridpath is as dear as Mist.)

Shall I, like Curtius, defp'rate in my zeal,

209

O'er head and ears plunge for the Common-weal?

Or rob Rome's antient geefe of all their glories,
And cackling fave the Monarchy of Tories?

REMARKS.

Hold

VER. 203. At White's amidst the Doctors] These Doctors had a modeft and upright appearance, no air of overbearing; but, like true Masters of Arts, were only habited in black and white: They were justly ftyled fubtiles and graves, but not always irrefragabiles, being fometimes examined, and, by a nice distinction, divided and laid open. SCRIBL. *

This learned Critick is to be understood allegorically: The DOCTORS in this place mean no more than falfe Dice, a cant phrafe ufed amongft Gamefters. So the meaning of these four fonorous Lines is only this, "Shall I play fair, or foul?" P. VER. 208. Ridpath-Mift.] George Ridpath, author of a Whig Paper, called the Flying Poft; Nathaniel Mist, of a famous Tory Journal.

W.

VER 211. Or rob Rome's ancient geefe of all their glories,] Relates to the well-known ftory of the geefe that faved the Capitol; of which Virgil, Aeneid. viii.

66

Atque hic auratis volitans argenteus anfer

Porticibus, Gallos in limine adeffe canebat."

A paffage I have always fufpected. Who fees not the antithefis of auratis and argenteus to be unworthy the Virgilian majesty? And what abfurdity to fay a goofe fings? canebat. Virgil gives a contrary character of the voice of this filly bird, in Ecl. ix.

66

argutos inter ftrepere anfer olores."

Read it, therefore, adeffe ftrepebat. And why auratis porticibus? does not the very verse preceding this inform us,

"Romuleoque recens horrebat regia culmo."

To ferve his caufe, O Queen! is ferving thine.
And fee! thy very Gazetteers give o'er,
Even Ralph repents, and Henley writes no more.
What then remains? Ourself. Still, ftill remain
Cibberian forehead, and Cibberian brain.

215

This brazen Brightness, to the 'Squire fo dear;
This polifh'd Hardness, that reflects the Peer: 220
This arch Abfurd, that wit and fool delights;

This Mefs, tofs'd up of Hockley-hole and White's;
Where Dukes and Butchers join to wreathe my crown,
At once the Bear and Fiddle of the town.

VARIATIONS.

O born

VER. 213. Hold-to the Minifter-] In the former Edd.
Yes, to my Country I my pen confign,

Yes, from this moment, mighty Mist! am thine. W.

REMARK S.

Is this thatch in one line, and gold in another, confiftent? I fcruple not (repugnantibus omnibus manuscriptis) to correct it auritis. Horace uses the same epithet in the same sense,

"Auritas fidibus canoris
Ducere quercus."

And to fay that walls have ears is common even to a proverb.

SCRIBL.

VER. 215. Gazetteers] A band of minifterial writers, hired at the price mentioned in the note on book ii. ver. 316. who, on the very day their patron quitted his poft, laid down their paper, and declared they would never more meddle in Politics.

W.

VER. 217. What then remains? Ourself.] An happy parody on the famous Moy of Corneille in his Medea; who unluckily weakened the force of this word by adding, & c'est affez. But the original is, in Seneca's Tragedy of Medea,

"Medea fupereft."