115

5

Great Cibber fate: The proud Parnaffian fneer,
The conscious fimper, and the jealous leer,
Mix on his look: All eyes direct their rays
On him, and crouds turn Coxcombs as they gaze.
His Peers fhine round him with reflected grace,
New edge their dulness, and new bronze their face.
So from the Sun's broad beam, in fhallow urns,
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 faw Querno fit,

Thron'd on feven hills, the Antichrift of Wit.

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 5. Great Tibbald nods.

Ver. 8. In the former edit.

On him, and crouds grow foolish as they gaze. The four next lines are added.

REMARKS.

10

15

And

Truth, not in the least any Vain-glory, or Defire to contend with Great Authors. And further, our Miftakes, we conceive, will the rather be pardoned, as fcarce poffible to be avoided in writing of fuch Perfons and Works as do ever fhun the Light. However, that we may not any way foften or extenuate the fame, we give them thee in the very Words of our Antagonists not defending, but retracting them from our heart, and craving excufe of the Parties offended: For furely in this Work, it hath been above all things our defire, to provoke no Man. SCRIBL.

:

Ver. 15. Rome in her Capitol faw Querno fit,] Camillo Querno was of Apulia, who hearing the great En

couragement

And now the Queen, to glad her fons, proclaims
By herald Hawkers, high heroic Games.

They fummon all her Race: An endless band
Pours forth, and leaves unpeopled half the land.
A motley mixture in long wigs, in bags,
In filks, in crapes, in Garters, and in rags,
From drawing-rooms, from colleges, from garrets,
On horfe, on foot, in hacks, and gilded chariots:
All who true Dunces in her cause appear'd,
And all who knew thofe Dunces to reward.

Amid that area wide they took their stand,
Where the tall May-pole once o'er-look'd the Strand,

20

25

But

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 17.

Το grace this honour'd day, the Queen proclaims. Ver. 19. She fummons all her fons, &c.

REMARKS.

couragement which Leo X. gave to poets, travelled to Rome with a harp in his hand, and fung to it twenty thousand verfes of a poem called Alexias. He was introduced as a Buffoon to Leo, and promoted to the honour of the Laurel; a jeft which the court of Rome and the Pope himself entered into fo far, as to cause him to ride on an elephant to the Capitol, and to hold a folemn feftival on his coronation; at which it is recorded the Poet himself was fo tranfported as to weep for _joy *. He was ever after a conftant frequenter of the Pope's table, drank abundantly, and poured forth verses without number. PAULUS JOVIUS, Elog. Vir. doct. cap. lxxxiii. Some idea of his poetry is given by Fam. Strada, in his Prolufions.

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

But now (fo ANNE and Piety ordain)
A Church collects the faints of Drury-lane.

With Authors, Stationers obey'd the call
(The field of glory is a field for all).
Glory and gain, th' induftrious tribe provoke ;
And gentle Dulness ever loves a joke.
A Poet's form the plac'd before their eyes,

30

35

And bade the nimbleft racer seize the prize;
No meagre, mufe-rid mope, aduft and thin,
In a dun hight-gown of his own loose fkin;
But fuch a Bulk as no twelve bards could raise,
Twelve ftarveling bards of thefe degenerate days.
All as a partridge plump, full-fed and fair,
She form'd this image of well-body'd air;
With pert flat eyes she window'd well its head;

40

A brain of feathers, and a heart of lead;

And empty words fhe gave, and founding ftrain,

45

But fenfelefs, lifelefs! idol void and vain!

Never was dash'd out, at one lucky hit,

A Fool, fo just a copy of a Wit;

REMARKS.

So

Ver. 34. And gentle Dulness ever loves a joke.] This fpecies of mirth called a joke, arifing from a Mal-entendu, may be well fuppofed to be the delight of Dulness.

· Ver. 47. Never was dafh'd out, at one lucky hit.] Our author here feems willing to give fome account of the poffibility 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 ftory of Apelles, who being at a lofs to exprefs the form of Al

exander's

So like, that critics faid, and courtiers swore,

A Wit it was, and call'd the phantom More.

REMARKS.

50

All

exander's horse, dashed his pencil in defpair 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, Efq; and it is probable (confidering what is faid of him in the Teftimonies) that fome might fancy our author obliged to represent this gentleman as a plagiary, or to pafs for one himself. His cafe indeed was like that of a man I have heard of, who, as he was fitting in company, perceived his next neighbour had stolen his handkerchief. "Sir," (faid the thief, finding himfelf detected)" do not expofe me, I did it for mere "want; be fo good but to take it privately out of my "pocket again, and fay nothing." The honeft man did fo, but the other cried out, "See, gentlemen, what "a thief we have among us! look, he is ftealing my "handkerchief!"

Some time before, he had borrowed of Dr. Arbuthnot a paper called an Hiftorico-phyfical 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, Efq; and many others, as his own. Being applied to for them, he pretended they were loft; but there happening to be another copy of the letter, it came out in Swift and Pope's Miscellanies. Upon this, it feems, he was fo far mistaken as to confefs his proceeding by an endeavour to hide it: unguardedly printing (in the Daily Journal of April 3, 1728.) "That the contempt which he and others had "for those pieces," (which only himself had shewn, and handed about as his own) "occafioned their being "loft, and for that cause only not returned." A fact, of which as none but he could be confcious, none but

he

All gaze with ardour: Some a poet's name, Others a fword-knot and lac'd fuit inflame.

But

REMARKS.

he could be the publisher of it. The plagiarifms of this perfon gave occafion to the following Epigram: "Moore always fmiles whenever he recites;

"He fmiles (you think) approving what he writes. "And yet in this no vanity is shown;

"A modeft man may like what's not his own." This young Gentleman's whole misfortune was too inordinate a paffion to be thought a Wit. Here is a very ftrong inftance attefted by Mr. Savage, fon of the late Earl Rivers; who having fhewn fome verfes of his in manufcript to Mr. Moore, wherein Mr. Pope was called first of the tuneful train, Mr. Moore the next morning fent to Mr. Savage to defire him to give those verses another turn, to wit, "That Pope might now be the "first, because Moore had left him unrivaled, in turn"ing his ftyle to Comedy." This was during the rehearfal of the Rival Modes, his firft and only work; the Town condemned it in the action, but he printed it in 1726-7, with this modest Motto,

"Hic cœftus, artemque repono."

The smaller pieces which we have heard attributed to this author, are, An Epigram on the Bridge at Blenheim, by Dr. Evans: Cofmelia, by Mr. Pit, Mr. Jones, &c. The Mock-Marriage of a mad Divine, with a Cl. for a Parfon, by Dr. W. The Saw-pit, a Simile, by a Friend. Certain Physical works on Sir James Baker; and fome unowned Letters, Advertisements, and Epigrams against our author in the Daily Journal.

Notwithstanding what is here collected of the Person imagined by Curll to be meant in this place, we cannot be of that opinion; fince our Poet had certainly no VOL. III.

K

need