I fing. Say you, her Inftruments the Great! REMARK S. Monument in Weftminster Abbey erafed the former wrong reading, and restored the true fpelling on a new piece of old Ægyptian Granite. Nor for this only do they deserve our thanks, but for exhibiting on the fame Monument the fift Specimen of an Edition of an author in Marble; where (as may be feen on comparing the Tomb with the Book) in the space of five lines, two Words and a whole Verse are changed, and it is to be hoped will there ftand, and outlast whatever hath been hitherto done in Paper; as for the future, our learned Sister University (the other eye of England) is taking care to perpetuate a Total new Shakespear, at the Clarendon prefs. BENTL. It is to be noted, that this great Critic alfo has omitted one circumstance; which is, that the Infcription with the Name of Shakspeare was intended to be placed on the Marble Scroll to which he points with his hand; inftead of which it is now placed behind his back, and that Specimen of an Edition is put on the Scroll, which indeed Shakspeare hath great reafon to point at. ANON. Though I have as juft a value for the letter E, as any Grammarian living, and the fame aff. &tion for the Name of this Poem as any Critic for that of his Author; yet it cannot induce me to agree with those who add yet another e to it, and call it the Dunceiade; which being a French and foreign termination, is no way proper to a word entirely English, and vernacular. One e therefore in this cafe is right, and two e's wrong. Yet upon the whole, I fhall follow the Manufeript, and print it without any e at all; moved thereto by Authority (at all times, with Critics, equal, if not fuperior to Reafon.) In which method of proceeding, I can never enough praife my good friend, the exact Mr Thomas Hearne ; who, if any word occur, which to him and all mankind is evidently wrong, yet keeps he it in the Text with due reverence, and only remarks in the Margin fic MS like manner, we fhall not amend this error in the Title itself, but only note it obiter, to evince to the learned that it was not our fault, nor any effect of our ignorance or inattention. SCRIBL. In This poem was written in the year 1726. In the next year an imperfect Edition was published at Dublin, and reprinted at London in twelve; another at Dublin, and another at London in Octavo; and three others in twelves, the fame year. there was no perfect Edition before that of London in quarto; But You by whofe care, in vain decry'd and curst, REMARK S. 5 which was attended with Notes. We are willing to acquaint Pofterity, that this Poem was prefented to King George the second and his Queen by the hands of Sir Robert Walpole, on the 12th of March, 1728-9. SCHOL. VET. It was expressly confeffed in the Preface to the first edition, that this Poem was not published by the Author himself. It was printed originally in a foreign Country. And what foreign Country? Why, one notorious for blunders; where finding blanks only instead of proper names, thefe blunderers filled them up at their pleasure. The very Herb of the Poem hath been mistaken to this hour; so that we are obliged to open our Notes with a discovery who The really was. We learn from a former Editor, that this piece was prefented by the hands of Sir Robert Walpole to King George II. Now the author directly tells us, his hero is the Man -who brings The Smithfield Mufes to the ear of Kings. And it is notorious who was the person on whom this Prince conferred the honour of the Laurel. It appears as plainly from the Apostrophe to the Great in the third verfe, that Tibbald could not be the person, who was never an Author in fashion, or careffed by the Great; whereas this fingle characteristic is fufficient to point out the true Hero; who, above all other Poets of his time, was the Peculiar Delight and Chofen Companion of the Nobility of England; and wrote as he himself tells us, certain of his works at the earnest Desire of Perfons of Quality. Laftly, The fixth verse affords full proof; this Poet being the only one who was univerfally known to have had a Son fo exactly like him, in his poetical, theatrical, political, and moral Capacities, that it could justly be said of him Still Dunce the fecond reigns like Dunce the first. BENTL. IMITATIONS. VER. 6. Alluding to a verfe of Mr Dryden, nɔt in Mac Fleckno (as is faid ignorantly in the Key to the Dunciad, p. 1-) but in his verses to Mr Congreve, And Tom the fecond reigns like Tom the firft. Say, how the Goddess bade Britannia fleep, REMARKS. VER 1. The mighty Mother, and her Son, &c.] The Reader ought here to be cautioned, that the Mother, and not the Son, is the principal Agent of this Poem: The latter of them is only chofen as her Collegue (as was anciently the cuftom in Rome before fome great Expedition) the main action of the Poem being by no means the Coronation of the Laureate, which is performed in the very first book, but the Restoration of the Empire of Dulness in Britain, which is not accomplished till the laft. Ibid.-her Son who brings, &c.] Wonderful is the Stupidity of all the former Critics and Commentators on this work! It breaks forth at the very first line. The author of the Critique prefixed to Sawney, a Poem, p. 5. hath been fo dull as to explain the Man who brings, &c. not of the hero of the piece, but of our Poet himself, as if he vaunted that Kings were to be his readers; an honour, which though this Poem hath had, yet knoweth he how to receive it with more modefty. We remit this Ignorant to the first lines of the Æneid, affuring him that Virgil there speaketh not of himself, but of Eneas: Arma virumque cano, Troja qui primus ab oris Italiam, fato profugus, Lavinaque venit Littora multum ille et terris jactatus et alto, &c. I cite the whole three verfes, that I may by the way offer a Conjectural Emendation, purely my own, upon each: First, oris fhould be read aris, it being, as we fee Æn. ii. 513. from the altar of Jupiter Hercaus that Eneas fled as foon as he faw Priam Alain. In the fecond line I would read flatu for fato, fince it is most clear it was by Winds that he arrived at the shore of Italy. Jactatus, in the third, is furely as improperly applied to terris, as proper to alto, to fay a man is toft on land, is much at one with faying he walks at Jea: Rifum teneatis, amici? Correct it, as I doubt not it ought to be vexatus. SCRIBL. VER. 2. The Smithfield Mufes] Smithfield is the place where Bartholomew Fair was kept, whofe fhews, machines, and dramatical entertainments, formerly agrecable only to the taste of the Rabble, were, by the Hero of this poem, and others of equal genius, brought to the Theatres of Covent-garden, Lincolns-inn-fields, and the Hay-market, to be the reigning plea In eldest time, e'er mortals writ or read, REMARKS. ΙΟ 15 fures of the Court and Town. This happened in the Reigns of K. George I, and II. See Book iii. VER. 4. By Dulness, Jove, and fate :] i. c. by their Judgments, their Interefts, and their Inclinations. VER. 7. Say how the Goddess, &c.] The Poet ventureth to fing the Action of the Goddess: but the Paffion the impreffeth on her illuftrious Votaries, he thinketh can be only told by themselves. SCRIBL. VER. . 12. Daughter of Chaos, &c.] The beauty of this whole Allegory being purely of the poetical kind, we think it not our proper bufinefs, as a Scholiaft, to meddle with it: But leave it (as we fhall in general all fuch) to the reader; remarking only that Chaos (according to Hefiod's toyovia) was the progenitor of all the Gods. SCRIBL. VER. 15. Laborious, heavy, busy, bold, &c.] I wonder the learned Scriblerus has omitted to advertise the Reader, at the opening of this Poem, that Dulness here is not to be taken contractedly for mere Stupidity, but in the enlarged fenfe of the word, for all Slowness of Apprehenfion, Shortness of Sight, or imperfect Sense of things. It includes (as we fee by the Poet's own words) Labour, Industry, and fome degrees of Activity and Boldnefs: a ruling principle not inert, but turning topfy turvy the Understanding, and inducing an Anarchy or confufed State of Mind. This remark ought to be carried along with the Reader throughout the work; and without this caution he will be apt to miftake the importance of many of the Characters, as well as of the Defign of the Poet. Hence it is, that fome have complained he chufes too mean a fubject, and imagined he employs himself, like Domitian, in killing flies; whereas those who have the true key VOL. III. M Still her old Empire to restore she tries, -For, born a Goddess, Dulness never dies. O Thou! whatever title please thine ear, After VER. 22. in the MS. Or in the graver Gown instruct-mankind, Or filent let thy morals tell thy mind. 20 But this was to be understood, as the Poet fays, ironicè, like the -23d Verfe. REMARK S. will find he fports with nobler quarry, and embraces a larger compass; or, (as one faith, on a like occafion) Will fee his Work, like Jacob's ladder, rife. BENTL. Its foot in dirt, its head amid the skies. VER. 16. She rul'd, in native Anarchy, the mind.] The native Anarchy of the mind is that state which precedes the time of Reafon's affuming the rule of the Paffions. But in that state, the ⚫ uncontrolled violence of the Paffions would foon bring things to confufion, were it not for the intervention of DULNESS in this absence of Reafon; who though the cannot regulate them like Reafon, yet blunts and deadens their Vigour, and, indeed, produces fome of the good effects of it: Hence it is that Dulness has often the appearance of Reason. This is the only good the ever did; and the candid Poet is careful to tell it in the very introduction of his Poem. It is to be observed indeed, that this is *fpoken of the univerfal rule of Dulness in ancient days, but we may form an idea of it from her partial Government in lat*ter times. VRR. 17. Still her old Empire to reftore] This Restoration makes the Completion of the Poem. Vide Book iv. VER. 23. Or praise the Court, or magnify Mankind,] Ironicè, alluding to Gulliver's reprefentations of both.-The next line relates to the papers of the Drapier against the currency of Wood's *Copper coin in Ireland, which, upon the great difcontent of the people, his Majefty was graciously pleafed to recal. |