But high above, more solid learning shone, The Claffics of an Age that heard of none;

There Caxton flept with Wynkyn at his fide,

One clafp'd in wood, and one in strong cow-hide; 150 There, fav'd by fpice, like Mummies, many a year, Dry Bodies of Divinity appear:

REMARK S.

from his Betters, or from fome caft fcenes of his Mafter, not entirely contemptible.

VER. 147. more folid learning] Some have objected, that books of this fort fuit not fo well the library of our Bays, which they imagined confifted of Novels, Plays, and obfcene books; but they are to confider, that he furnished his shelves only for ornament, and read these books no more than the Dry bodies of Divinity, which, no doubt, were purchased by his Father when he defigned him for the Gown. See the note on ver. 200.

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VER. 149. Caxton] A Printer in the time of Edw. IV. Rich. III and Hen. VII; Wynkyn de Word, his fucceffor, in that of Hen. VII. and VIII. The former tranflated into profe Virgil's Encis, as a hiftory; of which he fpeaks, in his proeme, in a very fingular manner, as of a book hardly known, "Happen"ed that to my hande cam a lytyl book in frenche, whiche late was tranflated out of latyn by fome noble clerke of fraunce, "whiche booke is named Æneydos (made in latyn by that noble poete and grete clerk Vyrgyle) whiche booke I fawe over and "redde therein, How after the generall deftruccyon of the grete "Troy, Æneas departed berynge his old fader anchiles upon his "sholdres, his lytyl son yolas on his hande, his wife wyth moche "other people followynge, and how he shipped and departed; Iwythe all thy storye of his adventures that he had er he cam "to the atchievement of his conqueft of ytaly, as all alonge fhall "be fnewed in this prefent booke. In whiche booke I had grete playfyr, by caufe of the fayr and honeft termes & wordes in "frenche, whiche I never fawe to fore lyke, ne none fo play fant ne fo well ordred; whiche booke as me femed fholde be moch requyfite to noble men to fee, as wel for the eloquence as the hyftoryes. How wel that many hondred yerys paffed was the "fayd books of Enydos wyth other workes made and lerned "dayly in feolis, efpecyally in ytaly and other places, which hiftorye the fayd Vyrgyle made in mee." Tibbald quotes a

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De Lyra there a dreadful front extends,

And here the groaning fhelves Philemon bends.
Of these twelve volumes, twelve of ampleft fize, 155
Kedeem'd from' tapers and defrauded pies,

Inspir'd he seizes: These an altar raise:

An hecatomb of pure unfully'd lays

That altar crowns: A folio Common-place

Founds the whole pile, of all his works the base: 16ə
Quarto's, octavo's, fhape the lefs'ning pyre:

A twisted Birth-day Ode completes the spire.
Then he Great Tamer of all human art!
First in my care, and ever at my heart ;
Dulness! whofe good old cause I yet defend,

With whom my mufe began, with whom shall end,

VER. 162. A twisted, &c.] in the former Ed.
And last, a little Ajax, tips the Spire,

165

Var. a little Ajax] in duodecimo, tranflated from Sophocles by Tibbald.

REMARK 3.

rare paffage from him in Mift's Journal of March 16. 1728, concerning a firaunge and mervaylloufe beafte called Sagittarye, which he would have Shakespear to mean rather than Teucer the Archer celebrated by Homer.

VER. 153. Nich. de Lyra, or Harpsfield, a very voluminous commentator, whose works, in five valt folios, were printed in 1472.

VER. 154. Philemon Holland Doctor in Phyfic." He tranf"lated fo many books, that a man would think he had done nothing elfe; infomuch that he might be called Tranflator gene"ral of his age. The books alone of his turning into English "are fufficient to make a Country gentleman a compleat Library." WINSTANLY.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 166. With whom my Mufe began, with whom shall end,] A te principium, tibi definet.Virg. Ecl. viii. Εκ Διὸς ἀρχώμεσθα, καὶ εἰς Δία λήγετε Μᾶσαι, Prima dicte mihi, fumma dicende Camœna.

Theoc.
Hor.

E'er fince Sir Fopling's Periwig was Praise,

To the last honours of the Butt and Bays:

O thou! of Bus'nefs the directing foul !

To this our head like biafs to the bowl,

170

Which as more pond'rous, made its aim more true,
Obliquely wadling to the mark in view:
O! ever gracious to perplex'd mankind,
Still spread a healing mift before the mind!
And, left we err by Wit's wild dancing light,
Secure us kindly in our native night.
Or, if to Wit a coxcomb make pretence,
Guard the fure barrier between that and Sense;

VER. 177. Or, if to Wit, &c.] In the former Ed.
Ah ftill o'er Britain ftretch that peaceful wand,
Which lulls th' Helvetian and Batavian land:
Where rebel to thy throne if Science rife,
She does but fhew her coward face and dies:
There thy good Scholiafts with unweary'd pains
Make Horace flat, and humble Maro's ftrains :
Here ftudious I unlucky moderns såve,
Nor fleeps one error in its father's grave,
Old puns reftore, loft blunders nicely feek,
And crucify poor Shakespear once a week.
For thee fupplying, in the worst of days,
Notes to dull books, and prologues to dull plays;
Not that my quill to critics was confin'd,
My verfe gave ampler leffons to mankind;
So gravelt precepts may fuccefslefs prove,
But fad examples never fail to move.
As forc'd from wind-guns, &c.

REMARK S.

175

VER. 167. E'er fince Sir Fopling's Periwig] The first visible caufe of the paffion of the Town for our Hero, was a fair flaxen full-bottom'd Periwig, which, he tells us, he wore in his first play VOL. III. P

Or quite unravel all the reas'ning thread,

And hang fome curious cobweb in its stead !

190

Var. Nor fleeps one error-Old puns reftore, loft blunders, &c.] As where he [Tibbald] laboured to prove Shakespear guilty of terrible. Anachronisms, or low Conundrums, which Time had cover'd; and converfant in fuch authors as Caxton and Wynken, rather than in Homer or Chaucer. Nay, fo far had he loft his reverence to this incomparable author, as to lay in print, He deferv'd to be whipt. An Infolence which nothing fure can parallel! but that of Dennis, who can be proved to have declared before company, that Shakespear was a Rafcal. O tempora! O mores! SCRIBL.

Var. And crucify poor Shakespear once a week.] For fome time, once a week or fortnight, he printed in Mift's Journal, a single remark or poor conjecture on fome word or pointing of Shakef pear, either in his own name, or in letters to himself, as from others, without name. Upon these somebody made this Epigram: "Tis gen'rous Tibbald! in thee and thy brothers,

"To help us thus to read the works of others:

"Never for this can just returns be shown;

"

For who will help us e'er to read thy own?

Var. Notes to dull books, and prologues to dull plays ;] As to Cook's Hefiod, where fometimes a note, and fometimes even half a note, are carefully owned by him; And to Moore's Comedy of the Rival Modes, and other authors of the fame rank: Thefe were people who writ about the year 1726.

REMARK S.

"What

of the Fool in fashion. It attracted, in a particular manner, the Friendship of Col. Brett, who wanted to purchase it. "ever contempt (fays he) Philofophers may have for a fine Periwig, my friend, who was not to defpife the world but live "in it, knew very well that fo. material an article of dress upon "the head of a man of sense, if it became him, could never fail "of drawing to him a more partial Regard and Benevolence, "than could poffibly be hoped for in an ill made one. This perhaps, may foften the grave cenfure, which fo youthful a pur"chafe might other wife have laid upon him. In a word, he "made his attack upon this Periwig, as your young fellows generally do upon a lady of pleasure, firft by a few familiar praises "of her perfon, and then a civil inquiry into the price of it; "and we finished our bargain that night over a bottle." See Life, octavo, p. 303. This remarkable Periwig ufually made its

As forc'd from wind-guns, lead itself can fly,
And pond'rous flugs cut swiftly thro' the sky;
As clocks to weight the nimble motion owe,
The wheels above urg'd by the load below:
Me Emptiness and Dulness could inspire,
And were my Elafticity, and Fire.

Some Dæmon ftole my pen (forgive th' offence)
And once betray'd me into common sense :
Elfe all my Profe and Verfe were much the fame :
This, profe on ftilts; that, poetry fall'n lame.
Did on the stage my Fops appear confin'd?
My life gave ampler lessons to mankind.
Did the dead Letter unfüccessful prove?
The brifk Example never fail'd to move.
Yet fure had Heav'n decreed to fave the State,
Heav'n had decreed thefe works a longer date.

185

VER. 195. Yet fure; had Heav'n, &c. In the former Ed.
Had Heav'n decreed fuch works a longer date,

Heav'n had decreed to spare the Grubstreet state.

But fee great Settle to the duft defcend,

And all thy cause and empire at an end!

Could Troy be fav'd, &c.

REMARK S.

190

195

entrance upon the stage in a fedan, brought in by two chairmen, with infinite approbation of the audience.

VER. 178, 179 Guard the fure barrier. Or quite unravel, &c.] For Wit or Reasoning are never greatly hurtful to Dulness but when the first is founded in Truth and the other in Usefulness.

ΙΜΙΤΑΤΙΟ Ν.

VER. 195. Had Heav'n decreed, etc.]
Me fi cœlicolæ voluiffent ducere vitam,
Has mihi fervaffent fedes.

Virg. Æn. ..