But oh! with One, immortal One, difpenfe, That beams on earth, each Virtue he infpires, 220 But, Learn, ye DUNCES! not to fcorn your God." 166 REMARKS. Thus Indeed, the Zeal for this fort of Gibberish [mathe"matical Principles] is greatly abated of late: and though it is now upwards of twenty years that the "Dagon of modern Philofophers, SIR ISAAC NEW"TON, has lain with his face upon the ground before "the Ark of God, Scripture philofophy; for fo long "MOSES'S PRINCIPIA have been published; and the "Treatife of Power Effential and Mechanical, in which "Sir Ifaac Newton's Philofophy is treated with the UT"MOST CONTEMPT, has been published a dozen years; yet is there not one of the whole faciety who hath had "the COURAGE to attempt to raise him up. And fo "let him lie."-The philofophical principles of Mofes afferted, &c. p. 2. by JULIUS BATE, A. M. Chaplain to the Right Honourable the Earl of Harrington. London 1744, octavo. SCRIBL. Ver. 224. But, "Learn ye Dunces! not to fcorn your God."] The hardest leffon a Dunce can learn. For being bred to fcorn what he does not understand, that which he understands leaft he will be apt to scorn moft. Of which, to the difgrace of all Government, and (in the Poet's opinion) even of that of DULNESS herself, we have had a late example in a book intitled, Philofophical Effays concerning human Understanding. Thus he, for then a ray of Reason stole Half through the folid darkness of his foul; VARIATION. 225 230 235 Hell Ver. 231, 232. Added when the Hero was changed. REMARKS. Ver. 224. not to fcorn your God."] See this fubject pursued in Book iv. Ver. 232. (Not half fo pleas'd, when Goodman prophefy'd.)] Mr. Cibber tells us, in his Life, p. 149. that Goodman being at the rehearsal of a play, in which he had a part, clapped him on the fhoulder, and cried, "If he does not make a good actor, I'll be d-d.— "And (says Mr. Cibber) I make it a question, whether "Alexander himself, or Charles the twelfth of Sweden, "when at the head of their first victorious armies, could "feel a greater transport in their bofoms than I did in "mine." Ver. 233. a fable Sorcerer] Dr. Fauftus, the fubject of a fet of Farces, which lafted in vogue two or three feafons, in which both Playhouses ftrove to outdo each other for fome years. All the extravagancies in the fixteen lines following were introduced on the Stage, and frequented by perfons of the first quality in England, to the twentieth and thirtieth time. Hell rifes, Heaven defcends, and dance on Earth: Till one wide conflagration fwallows all. Thence a new world, to Nature's laws unknown, Breaks out refulgent, with a heaven its own: Another Cynthia her new journey runs, And other planets circle other funs. The forefts dance, the rivers upward rife, Whales fport in woods, and dolphins in the skies; And last, to give the whole creation grace, 240 245 Lo! one vaft Egg produces human race. Joy fills his foul, joy innocent of thought; What power, he cries, what power these wonders wrought? Son; what thou feek'ft is in thee! Look, and find 250 Yet would'st thou more! In yonder cloud behold, Her magic charms o'er all unclaffic ground: REMARKS. Yon Ver. 237. Hell rifes, Heaven defcends, and dance on Earth: This monftrous abfurdity was actually repre'fented in Tibbald's Rape of Proferpine. Ver. 248. Lo! one vaft Egg] In another of these Farces Harlequin is hatched upon the ftage, out of a large egg. Yon ftars, yon funs, he rears at pleasure higher, 260 165 Booth VARIATION. Ver. 266. In former Ed. New wizards rife: here Booth, and Cibber there. REMARKS. Ver. 261. Immortal Rich!] Mr. John Rich, Mafter of the Theatre Royal in Covent-garden, was the first that excelled this way. Ver. 266. I fee my Cibber there!] The hiftory of the foregoing abfurdities is verified by himself, in these words, (Life, chap. xv.) " Then fprung forth that "fucceffion of monftrous medleys that have fo long "infefted the ftage, which arofe upon one another al"ternately at both houses, out-vying each other in ex66 pence." He then proceeds to excufe his own part in them, as follows: If I am afked why I affented? I "have no better excufe for my error than to confefs I "did it against my confcience, and had not virtue "enough to ftarve. Had Henry IV. of France a better "for changing his Religion? I was ftill in my heart, "as much as he could be, on the fide of Truth and "Senfe; but with this difference, that I had their "leave to quit them when they could not fupport me. "But let the question go which way it will, Harry IVth "has always been allowed a great man.' This muft be confeffed a full anfwer; only the question ftill seems to Booth in his cloudy tabernacle fhrin'd On grinning dragons thou fhalt mount the wind. Here shouts all Drury, there all Lincoln's-inn; 270 Contending Theatres our empire raise, And are these wonders, Son, to thee unknown? Unknown to thee? Thefe wonders are thy own. Ver. 268. VARIATIONS. Cibber mounts the wind. After ver. 274. in the former Ed. followed, For works like these let deathlefs Journals tell, "None but thyself can be thy parallel." These Var. None but thyfelf can be thy parallel.] A marvellous line of Theobald; unlefs the Play called the Double Falfehood be (as he would have it believed) Shakespeare's: But whether this line be his or not, he proves Shakespeare to have written as bad, which methinks in an author, for whom he has a Veneration almoft rifing to idolatry, might have been concealed) as for example, "Try what Repentance can: what can it not? "Refides not in the man who does not think, &c." MIST'S JOURN. It is granted they are all of a piece, and no man doubts but herein he is able to imitate Shakespeare. REMARKS. to be, 1. How the doing a thing against one's confcience is an excufe for it? and, 2dly, It will he hard to prove how he got the leave of Truth and Senfe to quit their fervice, unless he can produce a certificate that he ever was in it. |