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 pensive among his Books, giving up the Cause, 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 unfuccessful writings. As the pile is kindled, the Goddefs, beholding the flame from her feat, flies and puts it out by cafting upon it the the poem of Thule. She forthwith reveals herself to him, tranfports him to her Temple, unfolds her Arts, and initiates him into her Myfteries; then announcing the death of Eusden the Poet Laureate, anoints him, carries him to Court, and proclaims him fucceffor. T 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 Reftorer of Shakespeare, conftantly 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 esteem 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 The Smithfield Mufes to the Ear of Kings. Say, great Patricians! fince yourselves infpire Thefe wond'rous works (fo Jove and Fate require) IMITATIONS. Say, great Patricians ! fince yourselves infpire Thefe wondrous works "Dii coeptis (nam vos mutaftis et illas.)" OVID. Met. 1. 5 You by whofe care, in vain decry'd, and curft, 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 fecond 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 himfelf. It was printed originally in a foreign Country. And what foreign Country? Why, one notorious for blunders; where finding blanks only instead of proper names, these blunderers filled them up at their pleasure. The very Hero of the Poem hath been miftaken to this hour; fo that we are obliged to open our Notes with a discovery wha he really was. We learn from the former Editor, that this Piece was prefented 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 Muses 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 verfe, 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 earneft Defire of Perfons of Quality. IMITATIONS. Lastly 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 fecond reigns like Tom the firft." Say, how the Goddess bade Britannia fleep, And pour'd her Spirit o'er the land and deep. REMARKS. In Lastly, 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 said of him "Still Dunce the second reigns like Dunce the firft." 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 chosen as her colleague, (as was anciently the custom in Rome before some 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 Reftoration of the Empire of Dulnefs in Britain, which is not accomplished till the laft. 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 firft 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 firft lines of the Aeneid, affuring him that Virgil there fpeaketh not of himself, but of Aeneas: "Arma virumque cano, Trojae qui primus ab oris Littora multum ille et terris jactatus et alto," &c. I cite the whole three verfes, that I may by the way offer a Conjectural Emendation, purely my own, upon each: Firft, oris should be read aris, it being, as we fee, Aen. ii. 513. from the altar of Jupiter Hercaeus that Aeneas fled as foon as he saw Priam flain. In the second line I would read flatu for fato, fince it is most clear it was by Winds that he arrived at the shore of Italy. Jacatus, 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. VER. 2. The Smithfield Mufes] Smithfield is the place where Bartholomew Fair was kept, whofe fhews, machines, and dramatical |