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Great Cibber sat: the proud Parnassian sneer,
The conscious simper, and the jealous leer,

REMARKS.

Ver. 2. Henley's gilt tub,] The pulpit of a dis senter is usually called a tub; but that of Mr. Ora tor Henley was covered with velvet, and adorned with gold. He had also a fair altar, and over it this extraordinary inscription: The primitive eucharist.' See the history of this person, book iii.

Ver. 2. or Fleckno's Irish throne,] Richard Fleckno was an Irish priest, but had laid aside (as him self expressed it) the mechanic part of priesthood. He printed some plays, poems, letters, and travels. I doubt not, our author took occasion to mention him in respect to the poem of Mr. Dryden, to which this bears some resemblance, though of a character more different from it than that of the Eneid from the Iliad, or the Lutrin of Boileau from the Defait de Bouts rimées of Sarazin.

It may be just worth mentioning, that the eminence from whence the ancient sophists entertained their auditors, was called by the pompous name of a throne. Themistius, Orat. i.

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Ver. 3. Or that whereon her Curlls the public pours.] Edmund Curll stood in the pillory at Charing-cross, in March 1727-8. 'This,' saith Edmund Curll, is a false assertion--I had, indeed, the cor poral punishment of what the gentlemen of the long robe are pleased jocosely to call mounting the ros trum for one hour: but that scene of action was not in the month of March, but in February.' (Curliad, 12mo, p. 19.) And of the history of his being tost in a blanket, he saith, Here Scriblerus! thou lesest in what thou assertest concerning the blanket: it was not a blanket, but a rug.' p. 25. Much in the same manner Mr. Cibber remonstrated, that his brothers, at Bedlam, mentioned Book i. were not brazen, but blocks; yet our author let it pass unal

Mix on his look: all eyes direct their rays
On him, and crowds turn coxcombs as they gaze.
His peers shine round him with reflected grace,
New edge their dulness, and new bronze their face.
So from the sun's broad beam, in shallow urns, 11
Heaven's twinkling sparks draw light, and point
their horns.

Not with more glee, by hands pontific crown'd,
With scarlet hats wide-waving circled round,
Rome in her Capitol saw Querno sit,

Thron'd on seven hills, the antichrist of wit.

REMARKS.

tered, as a trifle that no way altered the relationship.

We should think, gentle reader, that we but ill performed our part, if we corrected not as well our own errors now, as formerly those of the printer. Since what moved us to this work, was solely the love of truth, not in the least any vain glory, or desire to contend with great authors. And further, our mistakes, we conceive, will the rather be pardoned, as scarce possible to be avoided in writing of such persons and works as do ever shun the light. However, that we may not any way soften or exte nuate the same, we give them thee in the very words of our antagonists; not defending, but retracting them from our heart, and craving excuse of the parties offended: for surely in this work, it hath been above all things our desire to provoke no man.

SCRIBL.

Ver. 15. Rome in her Capitol saw Querno sit,] Camillo Querno was of Apulia, who hearing the great encouragement which Leo X. gave to poets, travelled to Rome with a harp in his hand, and sung to it twenty thousand verses of a poem, called Alexias. He was introduced as a buffoon to Leo, and promoted to the honour of the laurel; a jest which the court of Rome and the pope himself en

And now the queen, to glad her sons, procha By herald hawkers, high heroic games.

They summon all her race: an endless band
Pours forth, and leaves unpeopled half the land
A motley mixture! in long wigs, in bags,
In silks, in crapes, in garters, and in rags,
From drawing-rooms, from colleges, from garrets,
On horse, on foot, in hacks, and gilded chariots
All who true Dunces in her cause appear'd,
And all who knew those Dunces to reward.

Amid that area wide they took their stand, Where the tall may-pole once o'erlook'd the Stran But now (so Anne and piety ordain)

A church collects the saints of Drury-lane.
With authors, stationers obey'd the call
(The field of glory is a field for all).

Glory and gain, th' industrious tribe provoke;
And gentle Dulness ever loves a joke.
A poet's form she plac'd before their eyes,
And bade the nimblest racer seize the prize;
No meagre, muse-rid mope, adust and thin,
In a dun night-gown of his own loose skin,
But such a bulk as no twelve bards could raise,
Twelve starveling bards of these degen'rate days.
All as a partridge plump, full-fed and fair,
She form'd this image of well-bodied air;

REMAKRS.

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tered into so far, as to cause him to ride on an ele phant to the Capitol, and to hold a solemn festival on his coronation; at which it is recorded the poet himself was so transported as to weep for joy. He was ever after a constant frequenter of the pope's ta ble, drank abundantly, and poured forth verses with out number. Paulus Jovius, Elog. Vir. doct. cap. lxxxiii. Some idea of his poetry is given by Fam Strada, in his Prolusions.

* See Life of C. C. chap. vi. p. 149.

S

th pert flat eyes she window'd well its head; brain of feathers, and a heart of lead;

d empty words she gave, and sounding strain, it senseless, lifeless! idol void and vain! ever was dash'd out at one lucky hit, fool, so just a copy of a wit;

like, that critics said, and courtiers swore, wit it was, and call'd the phantom More.

REMARKS.

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Ver. 34. And gentle Dulness ever loves a joke.] This species of mirth, called a joke, arising from a malentendu, may be well supposed to be the delight of Dulness.

Ver. 47. Never was dash'd out, at one lucky hit,} Our author here seems willing to give some account of the possibility of Dulness making a wit (which could be done no other way than by chance). The fiction is the more reconciled to probability by the known story of Apelles, who, being at a loss to ex press the foam of Alexander's horse, dash'd his pen cil in despair at the picture, and happened to do it by that fortunate stroke.

-Ver. 50. and call'd the phantom More.] Curll, in his Key to the Dunciad, affirmed this to be JamesMoore Smith, Esq. and it is probable (considering what is said of him in the testimonies) that some might fancy our author obliged to represent this gentleman as a plagiary, or to pass for one himself. His case, indeed, was like that of a man I have heard of, who, as he was sitting in company, perceived his next neighbour had stolen his handkerchief; 'Sir,' said the thief, finding himself detected, 'do not expose me, I did it for mere want; be so good but to take it privately out of my pocket again, and say nothing." The honest man did so, but the other cried out, 'See, gentlemen, what a thief we have among us! look, he is stealing my handkerchief!'

Some time before, he had borrowed of Dr. Ar

All gaze with ardour: some a poet's name, Others a sword-knot and lac'd suit inflame.

REMARKS.

buthnot a paper, called a Historico-physical account of the South Sea; and of Mr. Pope the Memoirs of a. Parish Clerk, which for two years he kept, and read to the Rev. Dr. Young, F. Billers, Esq. and many others, as his own. Being applied to for them, he pretended they were lost, but there happening to be another copy of the letter, it came out in Swift and Pope's Miscellanies. Upon this, it seems, he was so far mistaken as to confess his proceeding by an endeavour to hide it: unguardedly printing (in the Daily Journal of April 3, 1728), That the con tempt which he and others had for those pieces,' (which only himself had shown, and handed about as his own) occasioned their being lost, and for that cause only not returned.' A fact, of which, as none but he could be conscious, none but he could be the publisher of it. The plagiarisms of this person gave occasion to the following epigram:

Moore always smiles whenever he recites ;
He smiles (you think) approving what he writes.
And yet in this no vanity is shown;

A modest man may like what's not his own. This young gentleman's whole misfortune was too inordinate a passion to be thought a wit. Here is a very strong instance attested by Mr. Savage, son of the late earl Rivers; who having shown some verses of his in manuscript to Mr. Moore, wherein Mr. Pope was called first of the tuneful train, Mr. Moore the next morning sent to Mr. Savage to de sire him to give those verses another turn, to wit, That Pope might now be the first, because Moore had left him unrivalled, in turning his style to comedy.' This was during the rehearsal of the Rival Modes, his first and only work; the town con

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