Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

you, fitter than the Offspring of Chance, to affift in restoring the Empire of Night and Chaos?

There is in truth another objection of greater weight, namely, "That this Hero ftill existeth, and hath not yet finished his earthly courfe. For if Solon faid well, that no man could be called happy till his death, furely much lefs can any one, till then, be pronounced a Hero: this fpecies of men being far more fubject than others to the caprices of Fortune and Humour." But to this alfo we have an answer, which will (we hope) be deemed decifive. It cometh from himself; who, to cut this matter short, hath folemnly protested that HE WILL

NEVER CHANGE OR AMEND.

With regard to his Vanity, he declareth that nothing fhall ever part them. "Nature (faith he) hath amply supplied me in Vanity; a pleasure which neither the pertnefs of Wit, nor the gravity of Wisdom, will ever perfuade me to part with '.” Our poet had charitably endeavoured to administer a cure to it: But he telleth us plainly, "My fuperiors perhaps may be mended by him; but for my part I own myself incorrigible. I look upon my Follies as the best part of my Fortune"." And with good reason: We fee to what they have brought him!

Secondly, as to Buffoonry, "Is it (faith he) a time of day for me to leave off these fooleries, and fet

up

a new

[ocr errors]

g Ibid. p. 19,

f Cibber's Life, p. 424.

a new character? I can no more put off my Follies than my Skin; I have often tried, but they stick too "clofe to me; nor am I fure my friends are displeased with them, for in this light I afford them frequent matter of mirth, &c. &c.h" Having then fo publickly declared himself INCORRIGIBLE, he is become dead in law, (I mean the law Epopoeian) and devolveth upon the Poet; is now his property; and may be taken and dealt with like an old Egyptian Hero; that is to fay, emboweled and embalmed for Pofterity.

Nothing therefore (we conceive) remaineth to hinder his own prophecy of himself from taking immediate effect. A rare felicity! and what few Prophets have had the fatisfaction to fee, alive! Nor can we conclude better than with that extraordinary one of his, which is conceived in thefe Oraculous words, MY DULNESS WILL FIND SOMEBODY TO DO IT RIGHT.

* Tandem PHOEBUS adeft, morfufque inferre parentem Congelat, et patulos, ut erant, INDURAT hiatus k.

W.

h Cibber's Life, `p. 17.

i Ibid. p. 243, octavo edit.

* Ovid, of the ferpent biting at Orpheus's head.

* It is difficult to fee the propriety and juftnefs of this application from Ovid.

By AUTHORITY.

By virtue of the Authority in Us veßted by the* Act for fubjecting Poets to the Power of a Licenser, we have revised this Piece; where finding the Ayle and appellation of KING to have been given to a certain Pretender, Pfeudo-Poet, 02 Phantom, of the name of TIBBALD; and apprehending the fame may be deemed in some fozt a Reflection on Majesty, of at least an infult on that Legal Authority which has bestowed on another Person the Crown of Poefy: We have ozdered the laid Pretender, Pfeudo-Poet, 02 Phantom, utterly to vanish and evaporate out of this work: And do declare the faid Throne of Poely from henceforth to be abdicated and vacant, unless duly and lawfully fupplied by the LAUREATE himself. And it is hereby enacted, that no other person do presume to fill the fame.

OC Ch.

* A stroke of fatire against the act for licensing plays, which was oppofed with equal wit and vehemence, by many of our poet's friends, and particularly by the Earl of Chesterfield.

[blocks in formation]

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 midft of things, prefenting 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 defcribed penfive among his Books, giving up the Caufe, and apprehending the Period of her Empire: After debating whether to betake himself 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 unfuccefsful writings. As the pile is kindled, the Goddess, beholding the flame from her feat, flies and puts it out by cafting upon it

the

« ZurückWeiter »