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How fluent nonfefe trickles from his tongue!

How fweet the periods, neither faid, nor fung'!
Still break the benches, Henly! with thy ftrain,
While Sherlock, Hare, and Gibson preach in vain.
Oh great Restorer of the good old Stage,
Preacher at once, and Zany of thy age!
Oh worthy thou of Egypt's wife abodes,
A decent priest, where monkeys were the gods!
But fate with Butchers plac'd thy priestly stall,
Meek modern faith to murder, hack, and mawl;

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Reftorer of ancient eloquence. He thought it as lawful to take licence from the King and Parliament at one place, as "another; at Hickes's hall, as at Doctor's commons; fo fet up his Oratory in Newport-market, Butcher-row. There (fays his friend) he had the affurance to form a plan, which no mortal ever thought of; he had fuccess against all oppofition; challenged his adverfaries to fair difputations, and none "would difpute with him; writ, read, and studied twelve hours "a day; compofed three differtations a week on all fubjects; "undertook to teach: in one year what Schools and Univerfities "teach in five; was not terrified by menaces, infults, or fa"tires, but ftill proceeded, matured his bold fcheme, and put "the Church and all that in danger." WELSTED, Narrative in Orat. Tranfa&t. N. 1.

After having ftood fome Profecutions, he turned his rhetoric to buffoonry upon all public and private occurrences. All this paffed in the fame room; where fometimes he broke jests, and fometimes that bread which he called the Primitive Eucharift.This wonderful perfon ftruck Medals, which he difperfed as Tickets to his fubfcribers: The device, a Star rifing to the meridian, with this motto, AD SVMMA; and below, IN VE-NIAM VIAM AVT FACIAM. This man had an hundred pounds a year given him for the fecret service of a weekly-paper of unintelligible nonfenfe, called the Hyp Doctor.

Ver. 204. Sherlock, Hare, Gibson, ] Bishops of Salisbury, Chichester, and London; whofe Sermons and Paftoral Letters did honour to their country as well as ftations.

And bade thee live, to crown Britannia's praife,
In Toland's, Tindal's, and in Woolfton's days.

Yet oh! my fons, a father's words attend :
(So may the fates preferve the ears you lend)
'Tis yours, a Bacon or a Locke to blame,
A Newton's genius, or a Milton's flame:
But oh! with One, immortal One dispense,
The fource of Newton's Light, of Bacon's sense.
Content, each Emanation of his fires

That beams on earth, each Virtue he infpires,

Each Art he prompts, each Charm he can create,
Whate'er he gives, are giv'n for you to hate.

Perfift, by all divine in Man unaw'd,

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But, "Learn, ye DUNCES! not to scorn your God." Thus he, for then a ray of Reason stole

Half thro' the folid darkness of his foul;

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225

Ver. 212. Of Toland and Tindal, fee Book ii. Tho' Woolston was an impious madman, who wrote in a most infolent style against the miracles of the Gospel, in the years 1926, ÚC.

Ver. 213. Yet, oh, my Sons! &c.] The caution against Blafphemy here given by a departed Son of Dulness to his yet exifting brethren, is, as the Poet rightly intimates, not out of tenderness to the ears of others, but their own. And fo we fee that when that danger is removed, on the open eltablishment of the Goddefs in the fourth book, the encourages her fons, and they beg affiftance to pollute the Source of Light itfelf, with the fame virulence they had before done the pureft emanations from it.

Ver. 224. not to fcorn your God] See this fubject pursued in Book iv.

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 224-Learn, ye Dunces! not to fearn your God.]
Difcite juftitiam moniti, & non temnere divos.

Virg.

But foon the cloud return'd-and thus the Sire:
See now what Dulness and her fons admire :
See what the charms, that finite the fimple heart

Not touch'd by Nature, and not reach'd by Art.

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His never-blushing head he turn'd afide,

(Not half fo pleas'd when Goodman prophecy'd)
And look'd, and faw a fable Sorc'rer rise,
Swift to whose hand a winged volume flies :
All fudden, Gorgons hifs, and Dragons glare,
And ten horn'd fiends and Giants rush to war.
Hell rifes, Heav'n defcends, and dance on Earth:
Gods, imps, and monsters, mufic, rage, and mirth,
A fire, a jig, a battle, and a ball,

'Till one wide conflagration fwallows all.

Thence a new world to Nature's laws unknown, Breaks out refulgent, with a heav'n its own :

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Ver. 232. (Not half fo pleas'd when Goodman prophesy'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 (fays 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 Sorc'rer] Dr. Fauftus, the fubject of a fet of Farces, which lasted in vogue two or three feafons, in which both Playhouses strove to outdo each other for fome years. All the extravagances 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.

Ver. 237. Hell rises, Heaven descends, and dance on Earth :] This monftrous abfurdity was actually reprefented in Tibbald's Rape of Proferpine.

VOL. III.

Dd

Another Cynthia her new journey runs,

And other planets circle other funs,

The forefts dance, the rivers upward rife,

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Whales fport in woods, and dolphins in the skies;
And last, to give the whole creation grace,

Lo! one vaft Egg produces human race.

Joy fills his foul, joy innocent of thought;

What pow'r, he cries, what pow'r these wonders wrought?

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Son ;
what thou feek'ft is in thee! Look and find
Each monster meets his likeness in thy mind.
Yet would't thou more? In yonder cloud behold,
Whofe farfenet skirts are edg'd with flamy gold,
A matchless Youth! his nod thefe worlds controuls,
Wings the red light'ning, and the thunder rolls. 256

REMARK S.

Ver. 248. Lo! one vaft Egg] In another of these Farces Harlequin is hatch'd upon the ftage, out of a large Egg.

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 244. And other planets]

-folemque fuum, fua fidera norunt —

Virg. Æn. vi.

Ver. 246. Whales sport in woods, and dolphins in the skies ;

Delphinum filvis appingit, flu&ibus aprum.

Ver. 251. Son; what thou feek'ft is in thee !]

Quod petis in te eft-

-Ñe te quafiveris extra.

HOR.

Perf.

Ver. 256. Wings the red lightning, &c.] Like Salmoneus in

En. vi.

Dum flammas Jovis, et fonitus imitatur Olympi.

-nimbos, et non imitabile fulmen,

Ere et cornipedum curfu fimular at equorum.

Angel of Dulness, sent to scatter round

Her magic charms o'er all unclaffic ground:

You ftars, yon funs, he rears at pleasure,

Illumes their light, and sets their flames on fire. 260
Immortal Rich! how calm he fits at eafe

'Mid fnows of paper, and fierce hail of pease;
And proud his Miftrefs' orders to perform,
Rides in the whirlwind, and directs the storm.
But lo! to dark encounter in mid air
New wizards rife; I fee my Cibber there!

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Ver. 261. Immortal Rich!] Mr. John Rich, Master of the Theatre Royal in Covent-garden, was the fift that excelled this way.

Ver. 266. I fee my Cibber there!] The history of the foregoing abfurdities is verified by himself, in these words (Life, chap. xv.) "Then sprung forth that fucceffion of monstrous "medleys that have fo long infifted the stage, which arofe upon "one another alternately at both houses, out-vying each other "in expence He then proceeds to excufe his own part in them, as follows: "If I am asked, why I affented? I have "no better excufe for my error, than to confess I did it against my confcience, and had not virtue enough to starve. Hed "Henry IV. of France a better for changing his Religion? "I was still 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 must be confeffed a full-an

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IMITATIONS.

Ver. 158. o'er all unclassic ground :] Alludes to Mr. Addison's verfe, in the praises of Italy:

Poetic fields encompass me around,

And till I feem to tread on claffic ground.

As ver. 264. is a parody on a noble one of the fame author in The Campaign; and ver. 259, 260, on two fublime verses of Dr. Y.

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