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One clasp'd in wood, and one in strong cow-hide;
There, sav'd by spice, like mummies, many a year,
Dry bodies of divinity appear:

De Lyra there a dreadful front extends,1
153
And here the groaning shelves Philemon bends.154
Of these, twelve volumes, twelve of ample size,
Redeem'd from tapers and defrauded pies,
Inspir'd he seizes: these an altar raise;
A hecatomb of pure unsullied lays

That altar crowns; a folio common-place
Founds the whole pile, of all his works the base:
Quartos, octavos, shape the lessening pyre,
A twisted birthday ode completes the spire.

Then he Great tamer of all human art!
First in my care, and ever at my heart;
Dulness! whose good old cause I yet defend,
With whom my muse began, with whom shall
end,166

REMARKS.

153 De Lyra] A very voluminous commentator, whose works, in five vast folios, were printed in 1472.

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154 Philemon] Philemon Holland, doctor in physic. He translated so many books, that a man would think he had done nothing else; insomuch that he might be called translator-general of his age. The books alone of his turning into English are sufficient to make a country gentleman a complete library.'

IMITATIONS.

WINSTANLEY.

166 With whom my muse began, with whom shall end] 'A te principium, tibi desinet.'

VIRG. ECL. VIII.

Εκ Διος αρχωμεσθα, και εις Δια λήγετε Μεσαι. THEOC. • Prima dicte mihi, summa dicende Camoena.' HOR.

E'er since Sir Fopling's periwig was praise,167
To the last honours of the Butt and Bays:
O thou! of business the directing soul
To this our head, like bias to the bowl,
Which, as more ponderous, made its aim more true,
Obliquely waddling to the mark in view:
Oh! ever gracious to perplex mankind,
Still spread a healing mist before the mind;
And, lest 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 sure barrier between that and sense;
Or quite unravel all the reasoning thread,
And hang some curious cobweb in its stead!
As, forc'd from wind-guns, lead itself can fly,
And ponderous slugs cut swiftly through the sky;
As clocks to weight their nimble motion owe,
The wheels above urg'd by the load below;
Me emptiness and dulness could inspire,
And were my elasticity and fire.

Some demon stole my pen (forgive th' offence),
And once betray'd me into common sense:
Else all my prose and verse were much the same;
This prose on stilts, that poetry fallen lame.
Did on the stage my fops appear confin'd?

REMARKS.

167 E'er since Sir Fopling's periwig] The first visible cause of the passion of the town for our hero was a fair flaxen fullbottomed periwig, which, he tells us, he wore in his first play of the Fool in Fashion. It attracted, in a particular manner, the friendship of Col. Brett, who purchased it.

My life gave ampler lessons to mankind.
Did the dead letter unsuccessful prove?
The brisk example never fail'd to move.

Yet sure, had heaven decreed to save the state,195
Heaven had decreed these works a longer date.
Could Troy be sav'd by any single hand,197
This gray-goose weapon must have made her stand.
What can I now ? my Fletcher cast aside,
Take up the Bible, once my better guide? 200
Or tread the path by venturous heroes trod,
This box my thunder, this right hand my god? 202

REMARKS.

200 Take up the Bible, once my better guide] When, according to his Father's intention, he had been a clergyman, or (as he thinks himself) a bishop of the Church of England. Hear his own words: At the time that the fate of K. James, the Prince of Orange, and myself, were on the anvil, Providence thought fit to postpone mine 'till theirs were determined. But had my father carried me a month sooner to the University, who knows but that purer fountain might have washed my imperfections into a capacity of writing, instead of Plays and annual Odes, Sermons and Pastoral Letters ?'-Apology for his Life, chap. iii.

IMITATIONS.

195 had Heaven decreed, &c.]

'Me si cœlicolæ voluissent ducere vitam,

Has mihi servassent sedes.' VIRG. EN. II.

197 198 Could Troy be sav'd―This gray-goose weapon]

6

-Si Pergama dextra

Defendi possent, etiam hac defensa fuissent.'

VIRG. EN. II.

202 This box my thunder, this right hand my god]
'Dextra mihi Deus, et telum quod missile libro.'
VIRGIL, of the Gods of Mezentius.

Or chair'd at White's, amidst the doctors sit,203
Teach oaths to gamesters, and to nobles wit?
Or bidd'st thou rather party to embrace ?
(A friend to party thou, and all her race;
'Tis the same rope at different ends they twist;
To Dulness Ridpath is as dear as Mist) 208
Shall I, like Curtius, desperate in my zeal,
O'er head and ears plunge for the commonweal?
Or rob Rome's ancient geese of all their glories,
And cackling save the monarchy of Tories?
Hold-to the minister I more incline;

To serve his cause, O Queen! is serving thine.
And see! thy very Gazetteers give o'er,
E'en Ralph repents, and Henley writes no more.
What then remains? Ourself. Still, still remain 217
Cibberian forehead, and Cibberian brain.

This brazen brightness to the 'squire so dear;
This polish'd hardness that reflects the peer :
This arch absurd, that wit and fool delights,
This mess, toss'd up of Hockley-hole and White's;
Where dukes and butchers join to wreathe my
At once the bear and fiddle of the town. [crown,

REMARKS.

203 doctors] The doctors in this place mean no more than false dice, a cant phrase used amongst gamesters. So the meaning of these four sonorous lines is only this, 'Shall I play fair or foul.'

208 Ridpath-Mist] George Ridpath, author of a Whig paper, called the Flying Post: Nath. Mist, of a Famous Tory journal.

217 What then remains? Ourself] A parody on the famous Moi in Corneille's Media.

O born in sin, and forth in folly brought! Works damn'd, or to be damn'd (your father's fault),

Go, purified by flames ascend the sky,
My better and more Christian progeny!
Unstain'd, untouch'd, and yet in maiden sheets,229
While all your smutty sisters walk the streets.
Ye shall not beg, like gratis-given Bland, 231
Sent with a pass and vagrant through the land;
Nor sail with Ward to ape-and-monkey climes,235
Where vile Mundungus trucks for viler rhymes;

REMARKS.

231 232 -gratis-given Bland,-Sent with a pass] It was a practice so to give the Daily Gazetteer, and ministerial pamphlets (in which this B. was a writer), and to send them post-free to all the towns in the kingdom.

233 with Ward to ape-and-monkey climes] • Edward Ward, a very voluminous poet in Hudibrastic verse, but best known by the London Spy, in prose. He has of late years kept a public house in the city (but in a genteel way), and with his wit, humour, and good liquor (ale), afforded his guests a pleasurable entertainment, especially those of the high-church party.' JACOB, Lives of Poets, vol. ii. p. 225. Great numbers of his works were yearly sold into the Plantations. Ward, in a book called Apollo's Maggot, declared this account to be a great falsity, protesting that his public-house was not in the city, but in Moorfields.

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Jussa mori: quæ sortitus non pertulit ullos,

Nec victoris heri tetigit captiva cubile!

Nos, patria incensa, diversa par æquora vectæ,' &c.

VIRG. EN. III.

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