As when a dab-chick waddles through the copse
On feet and wings, and flies, and wades, and hops:
So labouring on, with shoulder, hands, and head,
Wide as a wind-mill all his figure spread,
With arms expanded Bernard rows his state,
And left-legg'd Jacob seems to emulate.

Full in the middle way there stood a lake

7

Which Curll's Corinna chanced that morn to make;
(Such was her wont, at early dawn to drop
Her evening cates before his neighbour's shop)
Here fortuned Curll to slide; loud shout the band,
And Bernard! Bernard! rings through all the Strand.
Obscene with filth the miscreant lies bewray'd,

Fall'n in the plash his wickedness had laid:
Then first (if poets aught of truth declare)
The caitiff vaticide conceived a prayer:

'Hear, Jove! whose name my bards and I adore,
As much at least as any gods or more;
And him and his if more devotion warms,
Down with the Bible, up with the pope's arms.'
A place there is, betwixt earth, air, and seas,
Where, from ambrosia, Jove retires for ease.
There in his seat two spacious vents appear,
On this he sits, to that he leans his ear,
And hears the various vows of fond mankind;
Some beg an eastern, some a western wind;

REMARKS.

80

Ver. 70. Curll's Corinna.] This name, it seems, was taken by one Mrs. Thomas, who procured some private letters of Mr. Pope, while almost a boy, to Mr. Cromwell, and sold them without the consent of either of those gentle men, to Curll, who printed them in 12mo, 1727. He dis covered her to be the publisher, in his Key, p. 11. We only take this opportunity of mentioning the manner in which those letters got abroad, which the author was ashamed of as very trivial things, full not only of levities, but of wrong judgments of men and books, and only excusable from the youth and inexperience of the writer.

Ver. 82. Down with the Bible, up with the popo's arins.] The Bible, Curll's sign; the Cross Keys, Lintot's.

All vain petitions mounting to the sky,
With reams abundant this abode supply;
Amused he reads, and then returns the bills

Sign'd with that ichor which from gods distills.

In office here fair Cloacina stands,

And ministers to Jove with purest hands.

90

100

Forth from the heap she pick'd her votary's prayer,
And placed it next him, a distinction rare!
Oft had the goddess heard her servant's call,
From her black grottos near the Temple-wall,
Listening delighted to the jest unclean
Of link-boys vile, and waterman obscene;
Where, as he fish'd her nether realms for wit,
She oft had favour'd him, and favours yet.
Renew'd by ordure's sympathetic force,
As oil'd with magic juices for the course,
Vigorous he rises; from the effluvia strong,
Imbibes new life, and scours and stinks along :
Re-passes Lintot, vindicates the race,

Nor heeds the brown dishonours of his face.

And now the victor stretch'd his eager hand Where the tall nothing stood or seem'd to stand: 110

A shapeless shade, it melted from his sight,

Like forms in clouds, or visions of the night.
To seize his papers, Curll, was next thy care;
His papers light, fly diverse, toss'd in air:
Songs, sonnets, epigrams, the winds uplift,

And whisk them back to Evans, Young, and Swift.
The embroider'd suit at least he deem'd his prey,
That suit an unpaid tailor snatch'd away.

REMARKS.

Ver. 101. Where, as he fish'd, &c.] See the preface to Swift's and Pope's Miscellanies.

Ver. 116. Evans, Young, and Swift.] Some of those persons, whose writings, epigrams, or jests he had owned. See note on ver. 50.

Ver. 118. An unpaid tailor] This line has been loudly complained of in Mist, June 8, Dedicated to Sawney, and others, as a most inhuman satire on the poverty of poets

No rag, no scrap, of all the beau or wit,
That once so flutter'd, and that once so writ.

120

Heaven rings with laughter: of the laughter vain Dulness, good queen, repeats the jest again. Three wicked imps, of her own Grub-street choir, She deck'd like Congreve, Addison and Prior; Mears, Warner, Wilkins, run! delusive thought! Breval, Bond, Besaleel, the varlets caught. Curll stretches after Gay, but Gay is gone, He grasps an empty Joseph for a John:

REMARKS.

out it is thought our author will be acquitted by a jury of ailers. To me this instance seems unluckily chosen; if it be a satire on any body, it must be on a bad pay-master since the person to whom they have here applied it, was a man of fortune. Not but poets may well be jealous of so great a prerogative as non-payment; which Mr. Dennis so far asserts, as boldly to pronounce, that, 'if Homer himself was not in debt, it was because nobody would trust him.'Pref. to Rem. on the Rape of the Lock, p. 15.

Ver. 124. Like Congreve, Addison, and Prior;] These authors being such whose names will reach posterity, we shall not give any account of them, but proceed to those of whom it is necessary.-Besaleel Morris was author of some satires on the translators of Homer, with many other things printed in newspapers-- Bond writ a satire against Mr. P. Capt. Breval was author of the Confederates, an ingenioua dramatic performance, to expose Mr. P., Mr. Gay, Dr. Arbuthnot, and some ladies of quality,' says Curll, Key, p. 11 Ver. 125. Mears, Warner, Wilkins] Booksellers and Printers of much anonymous stuff.

Ver. 126. Breval, Bond, Besaleel,] I foresee it will be objected from this line, that we were in an error in our assertion on ver. 50 of this book, that More was a fictitious name, since those persons are equally represented by the poet as phantoms. So at first sight it may be seen; but be not deceived, reader; these also are not real persons. "T'is true, Curll declares Breval a captain, author of a piece ca'led The Confederates; but the same Curll first said it was written by Joseph Gay. Is his second assertion to be credited any more than his first? He likewise affirms Bond to be one who writ a satire on our poet: but where is such a satire to be found? where was such a writer ever heard of? As for Besaleel, it cames forgery in the very name; nor is 't, as the others are, a surname. Thou mayest aepend upon t no such authors ever lived: all phantoms. Scribl. Ver. 128. Joseph Gay, a fictitious name put by Curl

So Proteus, hunted in a nobler shape,
Became, when seized, a puppy or an ape.

130

To him the goddess: 'Son! thy grief lay down, And turn this whole illusion on the town:

As the sage dame, experienced in her trade,
By names of toasts retails each batter'd jade;

(Whence hapless Monsieur much complains at Paris
Of wrongs from duchesses and lady Maries ;)
Be thine, my stationer! this magic gift;
Cook shall be Prior: and Concanen, Swift:
So shall each hostile name become our own,
And we too boast our Garth and Addison.'

REMARKS.

140

before several pamphlets, which made them pass with many for Mr. Gay's. The ambiguity of the word Joseph, which likewise signifies a loose upper coat, gives much pleasantry to the idea.

Ver. 132. And turn this whole illusion on the town:] It was a common practice of this bookseller to publish vile pieces of obscure hands under the names of eminent authors.

Ver. 138. Cook shall be Prior;] The man here specified writ a thing called The Battle of the Poets, in which Phillips and Welsted were the heroes, and Swift and Pope utterly routed. He also published some malevolent things in the British, London, and Daily Journals; and at the same time wrote letters to Mr. Pope, protesting his innocence. His chief work was a translation of Hesiod, in which Theobald writ notes and half notes, which he carefully owned.

Ver. 138. And Concanen, Swift: In the first edition of this poem there were only asterisks in this place, but the names were since inserted, merely to fill up the verse, and give ease to the ear of the reader.

Ver. 140. And we too boast our Garth and Addison.] Nothing is more remarkable than our author's love of praising good writers. He has in this very poem celebrated Mr. Locke, Sir Isaac Newton, Dr. Barrow, Dr. Atterbury, Mr Dryden, Mr. Congreve, Dr. Garth, Mr. Addison; in a word, almost every man of his time that deserved it; even Cibber himself, (presuming him to be the author of the Careless Husband.) It was very difficult to have that pleasure in a poem on this subject, yet he has found means to insert their panegyric, and has made even Dulness out of her own mouth pronounce it. It must have been particularly agreeable to him to celebrate Dr. Garth both as as constant friend, and as he was mis predecessor in this kind of satire. The Dispensary attacked the whole body of apothecaries, a

With that she gave him (piteous of his case, Yet smiling at his rueful length of face)

REMARKS.

much more useful one undoubtedly than that of the bad poets; if in truth this can be a body, of which no two members ever agreed. It also did, what Mr. Theobald says is unpardonable, draw in parts of private character, and intro duce persons independent of his subject. Much more would Boileau have incurred his censure, who left all subjects whatever, on all occasions, to fall upon the bad poets (which, it is to be feared, would have been more immediately his concern.) But certainly next to commending good writers, the greatest service to learning is to expose the bad, who can only that way be made of any use to it. This truth is very well set forth in these lines, addressed to our author:

'The craven rook, and pert jackdaw

(Though neither birds of moral kind,)
Yet serve if hang'd, or stuff'd with straw,
To show us which way blows the wind.
'Thus dirty knaves, or chattering fools,
Strung up by dozens in thy lay,
Teach more by half than Dennis' rules,
And point instruction every way.

'With Egypt's art thy pen may strive:
One potent drop let this but shed,
And every rogue that stunk alive,

Becomes a precious mummy dead.

Ver. 142. Rueful length of face.] The decrepit person or figure of a man are no reflections upon his genius. An honest mind will love and esteem a man of worth, though he be deformed or poor. Yet the author of the Dunciad hath libelled a person for his rueful length of face!' Mist's Journal, June 8. This genius and man of worth, whom an honest mind should love, is Mr. Curll. True it is, he stood in the pillory, an incident which will lengthen the face of any man, though it were ever so comely, therefore is no reflection on the natural beauty of Mr. Curll. But as to reflections on any man's face or figure, Mr. Dennis saith excellently; Natural deformity comes not by our fault; it is often occasioned by calamities and diseases, which a man can no more help than a monster can his de ormity. There is no one misfortune, and no one disease, but what all the rest of mankind are subject to.-But the deformity of this author is visible, present, lasting, unalterable, and peculiar o himself. "Tis the mark of God and nature upon him, te