the poem of Thulé. She forthwith reveals herself to him, tranfports him to her Temple, unfolds her Arts, and initiates him into her Mysteries; then announcing the death of Eusden the Poet Laureate, anoints him, carries him to Court, and proclaims him fucceffor. THE BOOK I. HE Mighty Mother, and her Son, who brings I fing. Say you, her instruments the Great! REMARKS. You The DUNCIAD, fic MS. It may well be difputed whether this be a right reading: Ought it not rather to be spelled Dunceiad, as the Etymology evidently demands? Dunce with an e, therefore Dunceiad with an e. That accurate and punctual Man of Letters, the Restorer of Shakespeare, constantly obferves the preservation 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 learned 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 efteem for the remains of Menander and Philemon." THEOBALD. VARIATIONS. VER. I. The Mighty Mother, &c.] In the firft Edit. it was thus, Books and the Man I fing, the first who brings IMITATIONS. Say, great Patricians ! fince yourselves infpire Thefe wond'rous works "Dii coeptis (nam vos mutaftis et illas.)" OVID. Met: r'. 5 You by whofe care, in vain decry'd, and curst, Still Dunce the fecond reigns like Dunce the first; REMARKS. Say, This Poem was written in the year 1726. In the next year an imperfect Edition was published at Dublin, and reprinted at London in twelves; another at Dublin, and another at London in octavo; and three others in twelves the fame year. But there was no perfect Edition before that of London in quarto; which was attended with Notes. We are willing to acquaint Pofterity, that this Poem was prefented to King George the second and his Queen, by the hands of Sir Robert Walpole, on the 12th of March 1728-9. SCHOL. VET. It was exprefly confeffed in the Preface to the first edition, that this Poem was not published by the Author himself. It was printed originally in a foreign Country. And what foreign Country? Why, one notorious for blunders; where finding blanks only inftead of proper names, these blunderers filled them up at their pleasure. The very Hero of the Poem hath beeŋ mistaken to this hour; so that we are obliged to open our Notes with a discovery who he really was. We learn from the former Editor, that this Piece was presented by the hands of Sir Robert Walpole to King George II. Now the author directly tells us, his Hero is the Man "who brings The Smithfield Mufes to the ear of Kings." And it is notorious who was the perfon on whom this Prince conferred the honour of the Laurel. It appears as plainly from the Apoftrophe to the Great in the third verse, that Tibbald could not be the perfon, who was never an author in fashion, or careffed by the Great: whereas this fingle characteristic is fufficient to point out the true Hero; who, above all other Poets of his time, was the Peculiar Delight and Chofen Companion of the Nobility of England; and wrote, as he himself tells us, certain of his Works at the earnest Defire of Perfons of Quality. IMITATIONS, Laftly VER. 6. Alluding to a verfe of Mr. Dryden, not in Mac Fleckno (as is faid ignorantly in the Key to the Dunciad, p. 1.) but in his verfes to Mr. Congreve, "And Tom the second reigns like Tom the first." Say, how the Goddess bade Britannia sleep, And pour'd her Spirit o'er the land and deep. REMARKS. In Laftly, the fixth verfe affords full proof; this Poet being the only one who was univerfally known to have had a Son fo exactly like him, in his poetical, theatrical, political, and moral Capacities, that it could justly be faid of him "Still Dunce the second reigns like Dunce the first." BENTL. VER. 1. The Mighty Mother and her Son, &c.] The Reader ought here to be cautioned, that the Mother, and not the Son, is the principal Agent in this Poem: The latter of them is only chofen as her colleague, (as was anciently the custom in Rome before fome great expedition), the main action of the Poem being by no means the Coronation of the Laureate, which is performed in the very first book, but the Restoration of the Empire of Dulness in Britain, which is not accomplished till the last. Ibid.-her Son, who brings, &c.] Wonderful is the stupidity of all the former Critics and Commentators on this work! It breaks forth at the very first line. The author of the Critique prefixed to Sawny, a Poem, p. 5. hath been so dull as to explain the Man who brings, &c. not of the Hero of the piece, but of our Poet himself, as if he vaunted that Kings were to be his readers; an honour, which tho' this Poem hath had, yet knoweth he how to receive it with more modefty. We remit this Ignorant to the first lines of the Aeneid, affuring him that Virgil there speaketh not of himself, but of Aeneas: "Arma virumque cano, Trojae qui primus ab oris Italiam, fato profugus, Lavinaque venit Littora: multum ille et terris jactatus et alto," &c. I cite the whole three verfes, that I may by the way offer 2 Conjectural Emendation, purely my own, upon each: First, oris fhould be read aris, it being, as we fee, Aen. ii. 513. from the altar of Jupiter Hercaeus that Aeneas fled as foon as he faw Priam flain. In the second line I would read flatu for fato, since it is most clear it was by Winds that he arrived at the bore of Italy. Ja&atus, in the third, is furely as improperly applied to terris, as proper to alto; to fay a man is toft on land, is much at one with faying he walks at fea: Rifum teneatis, amici? Correct it, as I doubt not it ought to be, vexatus. SCRIBLERUS. the place where machines, and dramatical VER. 2. The Smithfield Mufes] Smithfield is Bartholomew Fair was kept, whofe fhews, In eldest time, ere mortals writ or read, Still her old Empire to restore she tries, Thou! whatever title please thine ear, Dean, Drapier, Bickerftaff, or Gulliver! Whether thou chufe Cervantes' serious air, Or laugh and shake in Rab'lais' eafy chair, REMARKS, 10 15 20 Or dramatical entertainments, formerly agreeable only to the tafte of the Rabble, were, by the Hero of this poem, and others of equal genius, brought to the Theatres of Covent Garden, Lincolns-inn-fields, and the Haymarket, to be the reigning pleasures of the Court and Town. This happened in the reigns of King George I. and II. See Book iii. VER. 12. Daughter of Chaos, &c.] The beauty of the whole Allegory being purely of the poetical kind, we think it not our proper business, as a Scholiaft, to meddle with it: but leave it (as we fhall in general all fuch) to the reader; remarking only that Chaos (according to Hefiod's toyovia) was the Progenitor of all the Gods. SCRIBLERUS. VER. 20. Drapier, Bickerflaff, or Gulliver!] The feveral Names and Characters he affumed, in his ludicrous, his fplenetic, or his party writings; which take in all his works. VER. 21.-Cervantes' ferious air,] In the Travels of Gulliver; written to decry the Lying Vanities of Travellers, juft as Don Quixote's adventures were to expose the absurdities of Books of Chivalry; and with the fame ferious and folemn air. The laughing with Rab'lais, in the next line, alludes to the Tale of a Tub, |