36

Each songster, riddler, every nameless name,
All crowd, who foremost shall be damn'd to fame.
Some strain in rhyme; the Muses, on their racks,
Scream like the winding of ten thousand jacks:
Some free from rhyme or reason, rule or check,
Break Priscian's head, and Pegasus's neck;
Down, down the 'larum, with impetuous whirl,
The Pindars and the Miltons of a Curll.

66

160

'Silence, ye wolves! while Ralph to Cynthia howls, 165 And makes night hideous 37-answer him, ye owls!

"Sense, speech, and measure, living tongues and dead, Let all give way-and Morris may be read.38

Flow, Welsted, flow, like thine inspirer, beer,

Though stale, not ripe; though thin, yet never clear; 170
So sweetly mawkish, and so smoothly dull;
Heady, not strong; o'erflowing, though not full.39

"Ah Dennis!40 Gildon ah! what ill-starr'd rage Divides a friendship long confirm'd by age?

36 In the former ed.

Lo Bond and Foxton, every nameless name.

After ver. 159, in the first edit. followed,

[Ralph was a well-known political writer, patronized by Bubb Dodington, and sometime secretary to Frederick Prince of Wales. See Notes.] 88 See Book ii. [In the first edition it was, "Durgen may be read," a poem against Pope by Ward.]

39 Parody on Denham, "Cooper's Hill:"

"O could I flow like thee, and make thy stream

My great example, as it is my theme:

Though deep, yet clear: though gentle, yet not dull:

Strong without rage; without o'erflowing, full!"

In the first edit. it was "foaming though not full," a happier expression.]

40 The reader who has seen, through the course of these notes, what a constant attendance Mr. Dennis paid our author and all his works, may perhaps wonder he should be mentioned but twice, and so slightly touched, in this poem. But in truth he looked upon him with some esteem, for having (more generously than all the rest) set his name to such writings. He was also a very old man at this time. By his own account of himself in Mr.

Blockheads with reason wicked wits abhor,
But fool with fool is barbarous civil war.

DENNIS.

175

Embrace, embrace, my sons! be foes no more!41
Nor glad vile poets with true critics' gore.

"Behold yon pair, in strict embraces join'd; 42 How like in manners, and how like in mind! Equal in wit, and equally polite,

Shall this a Pasquin, that a grumbler write;
Like are their merits, like rewards they share,
That shines a consul, this commissioner.43

180

Jacob's Lives, he must have been above threescore, and happily lived many years after. So that he was senior to Mr. Durfey, who hitherto of all our poets enjoyed the longest bodily life.

41 Virg. Æneid, vi.

Ne tanta animis assuescite bella,

Neu patriæ validas in viscera vertite vires :

Tuque prior, tu parce-sanguis meus!"

42 Virg. Æneid, iv.

"Illæ autem paribus quas fulgere cernis in armis,
Concordes animæ."

[Thomas Burnet and Colonel Ducket were the pair referred to in the text. See Notes.]

48 Such places were given at this time to such sort of writers.

"But who is he, in closet close y-pent,44
Of sober face, with learned dust besprent ?"
Right well mine eyes arede the myster wight,
On parchment scraps y-fed, and Wormius hight.
To future ages may thy dulness last,

185

As thou preserv'st the dulness of the past!

190

“There, dim in clouds, the poring scholiast mark,

Wits, who, like owls, see only in the dark,
A lumberhouse of books in every head,

For ever reading, never to be read!

"But, where each science lifts its modern type, History her pot, divinity her pipe,

195

While proud philosophy repines to show,
Dishonest sight! his breeches rent below;45

Imbrown'd with native bronze, lo! Henley stands,
Tuning his voice, and balancing his hands.

200

How fluent nonsense trickles from his tongue!
How sweet the periods, neither said nor sung!

Still break the benches, Henley! with thy strain,

While Sherlock, Hare, and Gibson preach in vain.46
Oh great restorer of the good old stage,
Preacher at once, and zany of thy age!
O worthy thou of Egypt's wise abodes,

205

A decent priest, where monkeys were the gods!
But fate with butchers placed thy priestly stall,
Meek modern faith to murder, hack, and maul;
And bade thee live, to crown Britannia's praise,
In Toland's, Tindal's, and in Woolston's days.47

44 Virg. Æneid, vi. questions and answers in this manner, of Numa :

Quis procul ille autem ramis insignis olivæ,

Sacra ferens?-nosco crines, incanaque menta," &c.

210

45 [This passage was different in the early editions, and one good line was banished from the text

"And English music with a dismal score :"]

46 Bishops of Salisbury, Chichester, and London.

[This line underwent various transformations. In the edition of 1729, it stands

"While K- B- W

preach in vain."

In 1735, it was,

"While Kennet, Hare, and Gibson preach in vain."]

47 Thomas Woolston was an impious madman, who wrote in a most insolent style against the Miracles of the Gospel, in the years 1726, &c.

"Yet oh, my sons, a father's words attend:
(So may the fates preserve the ears you lend)
'Tis yours, a Bacon or a Locke to blame,
A Newton's genius, or a Milton's flame:48
But oh! with One, immortal One, dispense,

The source of Newton's light, of Bacon's sense.
Content, each emanation of his fires
That beams on earth, each virtue he inspires,
Each art he prompts, each charm he can create,
Whate'er he gives, are given for you to hate,
Persist, by all divine in man unawed,

215

220

But, Learn, ye dunces, not to scorn your God.'" 49
Thus he, for then a ray of reason stole

225

Half through the solid darkness of his soul;
But soon the cloud return'd-and thus the sire:
"See now, what Dulness and her sons admire!
See what the charms, that smite the simple heart
Not touch'd by Nature, and not reach'd by Art.”
His never-blushing head he turn'd aside,
(Not half so pleased when Goodman prophesied) 50
And look'd, and saw a sable sorcerer rise,51
Swift to whose hand a winged volume flies:
All sudden, Gorgons hiss, and dragons glare,
And ten-horn'd fiends and giants rush to war.
Hell rises, heaven descends, and dance on earth:52
Gods, imps, and monsters, music, rage, and mirth,

48 [In early editions,

"A Newton's genius or a seraph's flame."]

49 "Discite justitiam moniti, et non temnere divos."-Virg.

230

235

50 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 shoulder, and cried, "If he does not make a good actor, I'll be d-d. And (says 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 bosoms than I did in mine."

61 Dr. Faustus, the subject of a set of farces, which lasted in vogue two or three seasons, in which both playhouses strove to outdo each other for some years. All the extravagances in the sixteen lines following were introduced on the stage, and frequented by persons of the first quality in England, to the twentieth and thirtieth time.

52 [This monstrous absurdity was actually represented in Tibbald's Rape of Proserpine.-Warburton.

These absurdities were indeed brought on the stage by Tibbald, but not by

A fire, a jig, a battle, and a ball,

Thence a new world to Nature's laws unknown,

Till one wide conflagration swallows all.

Breaks out refulgent, with a heaven its own:
Another Cynthia her new journey runs,

And other planets circle other suns.53

240

The forests dance, the rivers upward rise,
Whales sport in woods, and dolphins in the skies;
And last, so give the whole creation grace,
Lo! one vast egg produces human race.5

55

Joy fills his soul, joy innocent of thought;

245

54

What power, he cries, what power these wonders wrought? 250
Son, what thou seek'st is in thee! 56 Look, and find
Each monster meets his likeness in thy mind.
Yet would'st thou more? In yonder cloud behold,
Whose sarcenet skirts are edged with flamy gold,
A matchless youth! his nod these worlds controls,
Wings the red lightning, and the thunder rolls.57
Angel of Dulness! sent to scatter round
Her magic charms o'er all unclassic ground:
Yon stars, yon suns, he rears at pleasure higher,
Illumes their light, and sets their flames on fire.

58

255

260

Cibber; who again and again disclaimed and despised them, as may be seen in various passages of his Apology. It is therefore unjust to charge him with favouring and promoting such spectacles; which for a long time he resisted, and was forced, very unwillingly, to gratify by them the depraved appetite of the public: of which he much and loudly complains.—Warton.]

53 "solemque suum, sua sidera nôrunt."-Virg. Æneid, vi.

54 "Delphinum sylvis appingit, fluctibus aprum."-Hor.

55 In another of these farces Harlequin is hatched upon the stage, out of a large egg.

56" Quod petis in te est

Ne te quæsiveris extra."-Pers.

57 Like Salmoneus in Æneid, vi.

"Dum flammas Jovis, et sonitus imitatur Olympi.
nimbos, et non imitabile fulmen,

Aere et cornipedum cursu simularat equorum."

58 Alludes to Mr. Addison's verse, in the praises of Italy:

"Poetic fields encompass me around,

And still I seem to tread on classic ground."

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