of DULNESS. So weighty an atchievement must require the particular favour and protection of the GREAT; who being the natural patrons and fupporters of Letters, as the ancient Gods were of Troy, must first be drawn off, and engaged in another Intereft, before the total fubverfion of them can be accomplished. To furmount, therefore, this laft and greatest difficulty, we have, in this excellent man, a profeffed Favourite and Intimado of the GREAT. And look, of what force ancient piety was to draw the Gods into the party of Aeneas, that, and much stronger is modern incense, to engage the Great in the party of Dulness. Thus have we effayed to pourtray or fhadow out this noble Imp of Fame. But now the impatient reader will be apt to fay, if fo many and various graces go to the making up a Hero, what mortal fhall fuffice to bear his character? Ill hath he read, who feeth not, in every trace of this picture, that individual, ALL-ACCOMPLISHED PERSON, in whom these rare virtues and lucky circumftances have agreed to meet and concentre, with the strongest luftre and fullest harmony. The good Scriblerus indeed, nay the World itself, might be impofed on, in the late fpurious editions, by I can't tell what Sham Hero, or Phantom : But it was not so easy to impofe on HIM whom this égregious error most of all concerned. For no fooner had the fourth book laid open the high and fwelling fwelling scene, but he recognized his own heroic Acts: And when he came to the words, Soft on her lap her Laureat fon reclines, (though Laureat imply no more than one crown'd with laurel, as befitteth any affociate or Confort in Empire) he loudly refented this indignity to violated Majefty. Indeed not without cause, he being there represented as fast asleep; fo misbeseeming the Eye of Empire, which, like that of Jove, fhould never doze nor flumber. "Hah! (faith he) fast asleep, it seems! that's a little too strong. Pert and dull at leaft you might have allowed me, but as feldom afleep as any fool!." However, the injured Laureat may comfort himself with this reflection, that tho' it be a fleep, yet it is not the fleep of death, but of immortality. Here he will live at leaft, tho' not awake; and in no worse condition than many an enchanted Hero before him. The famous Durandarte, for inftance, was, like him, caft into a long flumber by Merlin the British Bard and Necromancer: and his example, for fubmitting to it with a good grace, might be of service to our Hero. For that difaftrous knight being forely preffed or driven to make his answer by feveral perfons of quality", only replied with a figh, Patience, and fhuffle the cards. Colly Cibber's Letter to Mr. P. p. 53. n See Cibber's Letter to Mr. P. But m Ibid. p. I. But now, as nothing in this world, no not the moft facred or perfect things either of Religion or Government, can escape the stings of Envy, methinks I already hear these carpers objecting to the clearness of our Hero's title. It would never (fay they) have been esteemed fufficient to make an Hero for the Iliad or Aeneis, that Achilles was brave enough to overturn one Empire, or Aeneas pious enough to raise another, had they not been Goddess-born, and Princes-bred. What then did this Author mean, by erecting a Player instead of one of his Patrons, (a perfon, "never a Hero even on the stage "") to this dignity of Colleague in the empire of Dulnefs; and Atchiever of a work, that neither old Omar, Attila, nor John of Leiden, could entirely bring to pass. To all this we have, as we conceive, a fufficient anfwer from the Roman hiftorian, Fabrum effe fuae quemque fortunae: That every man is the Carver 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 worthieft that ever breathed. "Let him (faith he) but fancy himself capable of high things, and he will of course be able to atchieve the highest." From this principle it followeth, that nothing can exceed our Hero's prowefs; as nothing ever equalled the ? See Cibber's Life, p. 148. Hear how he at one time, to the greatness of his conceptions. conftantly paragons himself; ALEXANDER the Great and CHARLES the XII. of Sweden, for the excess and delicacy of his Ambition; to HENRY the IV. of FRANCE, for honest Policy'; to the first BRUTUS, for love of Liberty'; to Sir ROBERT WALPOLE, for good Government while in power: At another time, to the godlike SOCRATES, for his Diverfions and Amusements"; 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; and, to fay all in a word, to the right reverend the Lord BISHOP of LONDON himself, in the art of writing Paftoral letters . Nor did his Actions fall fhort of the fublimity of his Conceit. In his early youth, he met the Revolution face to face in Nottingham; at a time when other Patriots contented themselves to follow 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 a. 2 "Old BATTLE-ARRAY in confufion is fled; But he fhone s Ibid. p. 366. w Ibid. p. 425. z Ibid. 47. And olive-rob'd Peace is come in his ftead," &c. Colly Cibber's Birth-day Ode, or New-year's Ode, (I don't know which) on the Peace. fhone in Courts as well as Camps: He was called up when the Nation fell in labour of this Revolution: and was a goffip at her christening, with the Bishop and the Ladies ". As to his Birth, it is true he pretendeth no relation either to heathen God or Goddefs; but, what is as good, he was defcended from a Maker of both. And that he did not pass 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 no body's fon at all: And what is that, I pray you, but coming into the world a Hero? But be it (the punctilious Laws of Epic Poefy fo requiring) that a Hero of more than mortal birth must needs be procured for this atchievement: Even for this we have a refource. We can easily derive our Hero's pedigree from a Goddess of no fmall power and authority amongst men; and legitimate and install him after the right claffical and authentic fashion: For, like as the ancient Sages found a fon of Mars in a mighty Warrior; a fon of Neptune in a skilful Seaman; a son of Phoebus in a harmonious Poet; fo have we here, if need be, a son of FORTUNE in an artful Gamefter. And who, I pray you, b Colly Cibber's Life, p. 57. • A Statuary. A very pitiful jeft indeed! c Ibid. 58, 59. e Cibber's Life, p. 6. |