From thy Boeotia tho' her Pow'r retires, 25 Mourn not, my SWIFT, at ought our Realm acquires. Here pleas'd behold her mighty wings out-spread To hatch a new Saturnian age of Lead. Close to those walls where Folly holds her throne, And laughs to think Monroe would take her down, VER. 29. Close to thofe walls, &c.] In the former Edit. thus, Where wave the tatter'd enfigns of Rag-fair, A yawning ruin hangs and nods in air; Keen hollow winds howl thro' the bleak recefs, Here in one bed two fhiv'ring Sifters lie, The Cave of Poverty and Poetry. Var. Where wave the tattering ensigns of Rag-fair,] Rag-fair is a place near the Tower of London, where old cloaths and frippery are fold. Var. A yawning ruin hangs and nods in air ; Here in one Bed two shiv'ring Sifters lie, Hear upon this place the fore-cited Critic on the Dunciad. Fronte fub adverfa fcopulis pendentibus antrum: Nympharum domus.— May we not fay in like manner : "The Nyniphs must be the "waters and the ftones, or the waters and the ftones must be "the houses of the Nymphs?" Infulfe! The fecond line, Intus aqua, &c. is a parenthesis (as are two lines of our Author. Keen hollow Winds, &c.) and it is the Antrum, and the yawning Ruin, in the line before that parentheses, which are the Domus and the Cave. Let me again, I beseech thee, Reader, prefent thee with another Conjectural Emendation on Virgil's fcopulis pendentibus: He is here defcribing a place, whither the weary Mariners of Æneas repaired to dress their dinner. Feffi- frugesque receptas & tor Where o'er the gates, by his fam'd father's hand, 31 rere parant flammis: What has fcopulis pendentibus here to do? Indeed the aqua dulces and fedilia are fomething; fweet waters to drink, and feats to reft on: the other is furely an error of the Copyifts. Reftore it, without the leaft fcruple, Populis pranden tibus. But for this and a thousand more, expect our Virgil Reftored. REMARKS. VER. 26, Mourn not, my Swift! at ought our realm acquires.] Ironicè iterum. The Politics of England and Ireland were at this time by fome thought to be oppofite, or interfering with each other: Dr Swift, of course, was in the intereft of the latter, our Author of the former. VER. 28. To hatch a new Saturnian age of Lead.] The ancient Golden Age is by Poets ftyled Saturnian, as being under the reign of Saturn: but in the Chemical language Saturn is Lead. She is faid here only to be spreading her wings to hatch this age; which is not produced completely till the fourth book. VER. 31. By his fam'd father's band,] Mr Caius-Gabriel Cibber, father of the Poet-Laureate. The two Statues of the Lunatics over the gates of Bedlam hofpital were done by him, and (as the fon justly fays of them) are no ill monuments of his fame as an Artist. For VER. 33. One Cell there is,] The cell of poor Poetry is here very properly reprefented as a little unindowed Hall in the neighbourhood of the Magnific College of Bedlam; and as the surest Seminary to fupply thofe learned walls with Profeffors. there cannot be a plainer Symptom of Madness than for Men to chufe Poverty and Contempt; to ftarve themselves and offend the public by fcribling, Escape in Monsters, and amaze the Town, when they might have benefited themselves and others in profitable and honeft employments. The Qualities and Productions of the Students of this private Academy are afterwards described in this first book; as are alfo their Adions throughout the Keen, hollow winds howl thro' the bleak recefs, Hence Bards like Proteus long in vain ty'd down, REMARK S. 35 fecond; by which it appears, how near allied Dulness is to Madnefs. This naturally prepares us for the fubject of the third book, where we find them in union, and acting in conjunction to produce the Catastrophe of the fourth; a mad poetical Sibyl leading our Hero through the Regions of Vifion, to animate him in the prefent undertaking, by a view of the past triumphs of Barbarifm over Science. VER. 34. Poverty and Poetry.] I cannot here omit a remark that will greatly endear our Author to every one, who fhall attentively obferve that Humanity and Candour, which every where appears in him towards thofe unhappy objects of the ridicule of all mankind, the bad Poets. He here imputes all fcandalous rhymes, fcurrilous weekly-papers, bafe flatteries, wretched elegies, fongs, and verfes (even from thofe fung at Court to ballads in the streets) not fo much to malice or fervility as to Dulnefs; and not fo much to Dulness as to Neceffity. And thus, at the very commencement of his Satire, makes an apology for all that are to be fatirized. VER. 37, 38. Hence Bards, like Proteus long in vain ty'd down,” Efcape in Monsters, and amaze the town.] Ovid has given us a very orderly account of thefe escapes, Sunt, quibus in plures jus eft tranfire figuras: Ut tibi, complexi terram maris incola, Proteu; Nunc violentus aper; nunc, quem tegiffe timerent, Anguis eras; modo te faciebant cornua Taurum: Sæpe Lapis poteras. MET. viii. Neither Palæphatus, Phurnutus, nor Heraclides give us any sted-dy light into the mythology of this myfterious fable. If I be not deceived in a part of learning which has fo long exercised my pen, by Proteus muft certainly be meant a hacknied Townfcribler; and by his Transformations, the various difguifes fuch a one affumes, to elude the purfuit of his irreconcileable enemy, the Bailiff. And in this light, doubtless Horace underftood the Fable, where, fpeaking of Proteus, he says, Quum rapies in jus malis ridentem alienis, Hence Miscellanies fpring, the weekly boast Of Curll's chafte prefs, and Lintot's rubric poft ; Hence Journals, Medleys, Merc'ries, MAGAZINES: VER. 41. in the former lines, Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiac Lay, Hence the foft fing fong on Cecilia's Day. 40 VER 42 Alludes to the annual Songs compofed to Mufic on St Cecilia's Feaft. REMARKS. Proteus is reprefented as one bred of the mud and slime of Egypt, the original foil of Arts and Letters: And what is a Town feribler, but a creature made up of the excrements of luxurious Science? By the change then into a Boar, is meant his character of a furious and dirty Party-writer; the Snake fignifies a Libeller; and the Horns of the Bull, the Dilemma's of a Polemical Anfwerer. These are the three great parts he affumes; and when he has completed his circle, he finks back again, as the last change into a Stone denotes, into his natural state of immoveable Stupidity. Hence it is, that the Poet, where speaking at large of all these various Metamorphofes in the fecond Book, defcribes Mother Osborne, the great Antitype of our Proteus, in ver. 312 after all her changes, as at laft quite ftupified to Stone. If I may expect thanks of the learned world for this discovery, I would by no means deprive that excellent Critic of his share who difcovered before me, that in the character of Proteus was defigned Sophiftam, Mogum, Politicum, præfertim rebus omnibus fefe accommodantem Which in English is, A political Writer, a Libeller, and a Difputer, writing indifferently for or against every party in the State, every feet in Religion, and every character in private life. See my Fables of Ovid explained. ABBE BANIER. VER. 40. Curll's chafie prefs and Lintot's rubric poft :] Two Bookfellers, of whom fee Book ii. The former was fined by the Court of King's Bench for publishing obfcene Books; the latter ufually adorned his Shop with titles in red letters. IMITATIONS. Ver. 41, 42. Hence hymning Tyburn's-Hence, &c.] Albanique patres, atque altæ moenia Romæ. Virg. Æn. i. Sepulchral Lies, our holy walls to grace, And New-year Odes, and all the Grub-street race. Four guardian Virtues, round, support her throne: REMARKS, 45 VER. 41. Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiac lines,] It is an ancient English custom for the Malefactors to fing a Pfalm at their Execution at Tyburn; and no lefs cuftomary to print Elegies on their deaths, at the fame time, or before. VER 42. MAGAZINES:] The common name of those upftart collections in profe and verfe; where Dulnefs affumes all the various shapes of folly to draw in and cajole the Rabble. The eruption of every miserable Scribler; the dirty fcum of every ftagnant News-paper; the rags of worn-out Nonfenfe and. Scandal, picked up from every Dunghill; under the title of Effays, Reflections, Queries, Songs, Epigrams, Riddles, &c. equally the difgrace of human Wit, Morality, and Common Senfe. VER. 43. Sepulchral Lies,] Is a juft fatire on the Flatteries and Falihoods admitted to be infcribed on the walls of Churches, in Epitaphs; which occasioned the following Epigram. Friend! in your Epitaphs, I'm griev❜d, So very much is faid: One half will never be believ'd, The Other never read. VER. 44. New-year Odes,] Made by the Poet Laureate for the time being, to be fung at Court on every New-year's-day, the words of which are happily drowned in the voices and inftru, ments. The New-year Odes of the Hero of this work were of a caft diftinguifhed from all that preceded him, and made a confpicuous part of his character as a writer, which doubtless induced our Author to mention them here fo particularly. VER. 45. In clouded Majefty here Dulness fhone;} See this Cloud removed, or rolled back, or gathered up to her head, book iv. verfe 17, 18. It is worth while to compare this description of the Majefty of Dulness in a state of peace and tranquillity, with that more busy scene where the mounts the throne in triumph, IMITATIONS. Ver. 45. In clouded Majefty] the Moon Rifing in clouded Majefty-------- Milton, Book iv. |